The Love of Wine and Hiking

One of my other passions in life is hiking. I really love going to the White Mountains in New Hampshire. There is nothing like being on a 4000+ foot mountian. This trip that I just finished got me up a few of my most favorite mountians. It was a three day 26 mile trip starting in Lincoln Woods, going up the Bonds (Bond Cliff is my MOST favorite mountian in the Whites!!!), slept the first night at Guyot Campsite, crossing over South Twin over to Gailhead Hut, down to 13 Falls, camped the second night about 200 feet off the trail half way past 13 Falls and the car, and out. This trip helped my realize I am out of shape, and its time to turn that around. The good news is there where no major injuries on this trip, sore knees and joints, stubbed toe and cut myself with my knife opening a peanut butter package for lunch. Now it always surprises my the crap people will eat while hiking mountians. My buddy Tom likes to bring the dehydrated foods that you can find at EMS or REI. Sure the breakfasts are ok for a quick warm meal but dinners can be so much better with a little more effort!! I get made fun of sometimes for being "gourmet" in the woods. I'm not gourmet, I just believe there is no reason not to eat well when you are roughing it. Sure my food may weigh more but as you use it the weight goes down, so you carry more weight when you start and are well rested and by the time you are dead tired and ready to get home your pack weights significantly less. Plus the food I bring leaves far less trash behind.

The first nights meal this trip was the best meal I have ever made in the mountains. I bought a summer salami ( this is a sausage that does not need to be refrigerated), red pepper, broccoli (which I used the second day) and small onions at Whole Foods Market. Tom also had a Louisiana style rice and beans dehydrated meal that he got from REI that we figured would go awesome with salami, pepper and onions. So I boiled the water for the rice, it asked for two and half cups of water that we later figured out was a little to much. After the pot was empty I added a small amount of olive oil. I always bring olive oil with me, its easy: empty an alcohol nip (50 ml bottle) and fill it with oil. So simple and so light weight, I also have a small salt and pepper (I fill the pepper side with Old Bay) shaker. So after the olive oil warmed I added the red pepper and onions a little salt and Old Bay. This usually gets on lookers from other tent sights!! After the pepper and onions has cooked for a minute or two I added half the summer salami cut into small bight size pieces. After it the salami stared to brown on both side I add a small amount of water to steam it all up. By this point the rice was suppose to be finished, but there was still a lot of water left. After a few more minutes I came up with a great idea and just added the rice and extra water to my salami and peppers and made it into a stew. I cooked the water down for about a minute and added more Old Bay. It came out AMAZING!!!! After a 11 mile hike up 4500 feet in the clouds with only a few minutes of views from Bond Cliff this was one meal that really made it all worth it. Warm and savory, with the right amount of spice. Chef Dan strikes again!!!! I am so sorry my battery on the camera died so I couldn't get pictures of this one.

The second nights meal was almost as good. I took the rest of the salami cut it up to bight size pieces, used the small amount of red pepper and onion that I had left and cooked them up the same way as the night before. Right before they were finished cooking I added a good amount of broccoli. I let the broccoli cook for a few minutes and added a cup of water to boil. When it was done boiling I added some couscous took it off the heat, covered it and let it sit for about five minutes. At the end of a long weekend of back packing over mountains this meal hit the spot too!!

Now you didn't think I would go to the White Mountains and not bring wine did you?? Don't be silly. My company started carrying a wine called FLASQ. It's a half bottle of wine packaged in eco-friendly, easy to handle aluminum bottles. This wine is GREAT for back packing in the wilderness!! It weights close to nothing, 100% shatter proof and not bad wine at all. It actually is pretty good. They have two varietals that they make, a Chardonnay from Monterey County and a Merlot from San Luis Obispo County. This is one of those products that if you saw it you would think it wasn't the best quality. After bring two up with me I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the wine. I brought the Merlot and it was really easy drinking. Ripe red berries, blackberries and a little spice. This wine went GREAT with the first nights meal. The next trip I make to the White Mountains I will bring this with me again. Again there is no reason not to have a relaxing evening after a hike with wine and FLASQ makes it easy to do!!