Change of Plans

With the trail run a total bust, Dave and I went back to the campground. When we pulled in, I made Dave stop at the camp office/store. I'd noticed they had a bunch of pamphlets on local activities when we'd checked in, so I ran in a grabbed a bunch.

We headed back to our campsite, had lunch and looked through the information. We found a few things that we knew we'd enjoy. Not far away, in the town of North Adams, was a mini-golf course. And in the same town was Mount Greylock, the highest peak in Massachusetts. And of course I was able to find a couple of ice cream parlors on the little map I picked up in the office.

We ate lunch, jumped back in the Jeep and headed out to North Adams, about a 20 minute drive. Soon we were at The Range. A few families were playing already, but it was a pretty quiet afternoon there. The course was pretty with lots of flowering plants and a couple water features. The holes looked relatively tame, too, so I figured we'd have a quick game on our hands.

We started and per usual, Dave beat me on the first hole. We tied the second. And then the unthinkable. On the third hole, pictured above, I did it. Hole in one! Dave was so defeated. I almost got another one on the fourth hole (it just missed). We tied the front 9, so Dave was starting to feel a little better about himself. And then I did again. On the 10th hole, I got another one! I was officially kicking Dave's butt, since both holes I got one, he got three. But not to be completely embarrassed by his wife, Dave got an ace on the 11th hole. I had the take this picture twice because the first time, Dave was holding the flag backwards.

We were pretty close for the rest of the game, and I think Dave was trying to get into my head. The 18th hole was pretty cute, the only one with a little theme to it. A testament to our proximity to New York State, but still loyalty to Massachusetts. Of course, we both went to the Fenway side.

Ultimately, I beat Dave by three, which is good enough for me. We turned in our clubs and balls, I mildly celebrated and then we headed through town, up to Mount Greylock.

Mount Greylock State Reservation is part of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. With a summit of 3,491 feet, the Scenic Byway to access it was steep to say the least! We made the slow climb up the mountain (it was a paved road, but at least Dave had his Jeep in the woods and his low gears definitely helped on the way down!), eventually reaching the summit. Hiking trails cross all through the area, as well as some ski trails. At the summit is the Veterans' War Memorial Tower (above) and the Bascom Lodge. We went into the Tower and climbed to the top. This is actually the view towards home! The haze and lower clouds limited the view, but on a clear day, supposedly you can see pretty far East. We live pretty close to Mount Wachusett. The lodge was closed for a private event, but we were still able to enjoy the area.

Probably the most interesting thing about coming up to Mount Greylock was the activity going on behind the Tower. We had parked in the back of the lot, so the easier way to get to the actual grounds was to walk around the back of the Tower. As we came through the trees on the path, there was quite a crowd gathered. Turns out, when you're up this high, it's the perfect spot for para-gliding and hang-gliding.
We watched for about 20 minutes as this para-glider tried to take off, but the winds weren't constant or direct enough for her to actually lift into the air. There were at least three other para-gliders and two hang-gliders in line for it that also ended up packing their gear up, but we know that a few of them had gotten off earlier in the day. When Dave and I arrived at The Range (which also has batting cages and a driving range in addition to mini-golf), we saw a guy dressed in the same gear as this woman, pulling on some wires and wrapping up what we thought was a parachute. Turns out, the The Range is perfect landing spot from here. (When we drove back down through, we noticed the wind socks in around the driving range to help the gliders land.)

It was pretty cool to watch these people try, and the patience they need to wait for the right gust. I supposed if I was going to jump off a perfectly good mountain, I too would want the perfect conditions. We'd never seen anything like it before.

After walking around some more, we made our decline back into the town of North Adams. Again, the road was steep, but we made it. We had told the GPS to take us to an ice cream shop in town, so after we came down the Scenic Bypass, it took us back into town a slightly different way. We were on this "country road" and suddenly saw a road sign, intended for trucks: "Use Low Gear, 17% Grade"

I wish I would have taken a picture. After going through the Scenic Bypass, twisting and turning up the mountain, but still steep, we were literally being dropped into the town below. Dave came to the crest of the hill and suddenly it was like being on a roller coaster. I busted out laughing and Dave was totally flabbergasted that climbing a literal mountain was less intimidating than what was now a residential road in this town. The good news was, it took us a lot less time to get back into town than it did when we were going up.

We got to our little ice cream shop and enjoyed an late afternoon treat. Overall, considering our plans were completely altered after spending the entire morning on a defunct 4x4 trail, we had a great day. We got back to camp a little after 5:00 pm and while we were making dinner (yummy calzones!), Dave asked me if I thought the group was off the trail yet. I actually didn't; I had a feeling they didn't have nearly as good a day as we did.

This is a road?

The whole reason Dave and I went camping was so he could take his Jeep off-road...sort of. Technically it is a legal road and in order to drive on it you have to have a registered vehicle, license and all that good stuff. But I should back up.

Dave has what some might call an unhealthy obsession with his Jeep. He's always driven a Jeep and frankly, when the New England snows come through, I'm glad he has the ridiculous vehicle he does with the big knobby tires and full-time four wheel drive. We've successfully navigated where the Toyota Camrys of the world could not, without getting stuck on the side of the highway. Especially memorable is the day that we drove into work on the highway that only had one lane plowed. Bored with the other drivers topping speeds of a whopping 15 miles per hour, Dave said screw it and "plowed" his own lane, driving in the untouched snow, several inches deep, the entire way into Boston. It was quite efficient actually. And I digress...again.


This is Dave's Jeep during an off-road trip a few months ago. He's done a lot of stuff to this vehicle to make it worthy of climbing rocks and such, and yes, it's supposed to be all flexy like that. Lots of stuff that I won't embarrass myself by trying to repeat here. I sort of understand it all, but not enough to feel confident explaining it. I know that it's lifted about 4 inches (try climbing into that in a skirt and heels--I can do it successfully now) and he can disengage the front end. I'm stopping there.

Back to this weekend. Saturday morning we headed out to meet up the group of other off-roaders, mostly Jeep drivers, but some others as well. After a little confusion we finally found them. Sixteen trucks in all were going on this adventure, which is a pretty big group. You always want to go with people so they can help guide you over the obstacles (or pull you out of a hole), but once I saw all those trucks lined up, I knew it was going to be a long day.
At the meet up point, the drivers take air out of their tires and start adjusting their vehicles, such as disconnecting important parts of the axles or rods in the undercarriage so the vehicle will be more flexible to climb over rocks. Much to my chagrin, we ended up at the back of the bus, but in hindsight, this ended up being a good thing. Typically the middle is better, or at least one person behind you, so that you can be pulled in both directions if you're in a tight spot.
After all the vehicles were ready and the group organizer explained the trail to those who hadn't been on it before, we headed out to the starting point. Off-roading is not for people who get motion sick or anything. It's a lot of jostling around and going at weird angles with your truck, waiting for it to topple over, even though it actually is firmly planted on those rocks. The trick is for the driver to know where the obstacle is, how high it will come under the vehicle and whether there is anything important it might hit (read: break) in the undercarriage. The point is not to break your vehicle, or even bang it up really bad (although some of the guys on this trip might disagree), but to test the limits of the modifications you've made to your vehicle and get over the hurdles. And it's not a bad thing if you get stuck to a point that you need help getting out.
Since we were the last to get on the trail ("road," whatever), we had to wait for everyone to negotiate through the rocks before we could really get going. That included watching the guy in front of us almost take off his rear axle.
It's a bad picture, but essentially, instead of putting his tires on top of the rock, he went to straddle it and didn't have the clearance to do it. Dave helped him back up and try it again, this time successfully. About 1/4 mile up the trail is the first obstacle. The last time Dave and I were on this trail was two years ago and the trail was definitely in "better" condition. Rain has washed away some of the rocks and dirt, making it even more challenging, and overuse by off-roaders has really taken it's toll. Currently there are very few roads/trails to off-road on in our area of New England (all of Massachusetts, and most of Southern Vermont and New Hampshire). Therefore, the trails that are available get so much use that they are becoming difficult and potentially dangerous to use. It's a current source of frustration for Dave, who really likes this activity. It actually looks worse in person. You literally will get yourself stuck between a rock and hard place. The hard place being the tree. Like this guy did with his Land Rover.
He was stuck like that for a while and in trying to maneuver back and forth, he ended up breaking of his driver's side taillight and bending the metal a bit on the tree. Eventually, after tying up to two different trees, he was able to pull himself up using his winch. Although in doing so he ended up losing power and possible scraped up some pretty important stuff in the undercarriage (after several other people went through, we found motor oil on the rocks and we thought it might have been his).
Success...if you don't count breaking your car.

The difference between Dave and some of these guys is that he drives his Jeep every day. It's his car. And he cares that is doesn't look like it's been beat to hell. Some of these guys don't care, or they have another vehicle and they'll push a little harder on their off-road vehicle because that's what it's for.
This was a full-size Dodge truck that we thought would either high-center because of his length or lose his bumper completely because he kept crashing it down on the front rock.
He eventually made it through without a tow, but it was a long and painful process. The funny part was after his first attempt and not being able to get through, his girlfriend jumped out, not wanting to be along for the ride any more! (I don't blame her at all.) Robbie, the first other driver we met that morning, ended up getting his little Wrangler stuck pretty good too. He was an admitted new driver (and running tires that weren't really the best) and end up towing himself up.

All in all, we watched as 14 of the other 15 trucks got themselves through the obstacle. The 15th took a go-round because he had lost oil pressure in his beat up '86 Chevy truck on the way from the meet-up point to the trailhead. Dave didn't want to risk it. Watching some of the other vehicles with similar features to his struggle and beat themselves up was too much. He knows how hard he can push his Jeep and what it's limits are, and wasn't afraid to admit that it wasn't equipped to handle this kind of challenge. And while this used to be the most challenging obstacle on the course, who knew what the rest of the trail looked like at this point.

I was definitely pleased to not have the knots in my stomach of wondering if we would make it out of the trail, let alone make it home. And if I'm being honest, it took almost 3 hours for 15 cars to go approximately 1/4 mile. Staying on the trail would have made for the LONGEST. DAY. EVER. And a very cranky Colleen for Dave to take back to camp.

But I was also disappointed for Dave because this is something he really likes to do and was looking forward to the trail run. He decided to call it a day, and felt good about his decision. He told me later that when he got into this activity, he set a threshold for how far he was willing go, in terms of the modifications and height to his vehicle and for the damage he'd be willing to take on and Saturday's trail ride would exceed that threshold. If he ever has the money to do so, he can pick up an old beater Jeep and jack it up even higher, but right now, he's happy to hang up his mud tires, so to speak and come back to this activity at another time.

Camp Cook

Dave and I like to cook. We enjoy making meals at home together and while Dave is pretty handy in the kitchen, I usually end up taking the lead. And although I'd never cooked over a campfire before, I impressed myself when I was able to do so this weekend and make up some pretty yummy meals.

I left the meal planning to Dave since I knew his years of Boy Scout camping experience would prove useful in seeing how far we could test our culinary limits. I mean, the kid cooked full on turkeys in the woods, Thanksgiving-style.

A few years ago, our friends Brandi and Seth got married and had their reception on the lake. Mere and Nick ended up camping at the lake, so after the wedding we hung out at their campsite, next to the fire. Nick pulled out the pie irons and made us all hobo pies. For those of you unfamiliar with these terms, allow me to explain.


This is a pie iron. It's cast iron and seals up tightly around so you can cook your food super fast. The long handle makes sure you don't burn yourself when you take it out of the fire.

A hobo pie is two slices of bread with fruit pie filling sandwiched between. Since the bread is usually a little larger than the pie iron, when you seal the iron, it pinches the bread and when it's cooked, you basically end up with a poor man's version of a Hostess fruit pie.

Anyway, we thought they were really cool and versatile for other foods, so we bought some for a camping trip two years ago. We used them and were happy, but I think we outdid ourselves this weekend.

On the menu for Friday night was Chicken Fajitas.


I had cut up the peppers and onions at home, as well as sliced the chicken into more manageable pieces that would fit inside the irons. I even brought seasoning! A little chili powder and cumin, salt and a lime to squeeze over the cooked yummies.


We ended up sealing the iron that had the peppers and onions so they would cook a little faster. And the chicken got nice a brown on the outside. And since I'd brought extra aluminum foil, I wrapped the tortillas in it and was able to warm them up on the fire too.

As you can see, Dave was very excited to eat.

I too enjoyed my meal. So much so that I forgot to take a picture of the finished product!

Of course, what's camping and a camp fire without Smores? We toasted up some marshmallows and made the traditional Smores. But I had also bought a box of Nature Valley Granola Thins. They're basically a very thin granola bar the same size and shape as 1/2 a graham cracker, with a thin coating of dark chocolate on the bottom. I decided to make a Smore with part graham cracker, part granola thin. It was delicious! All of the chocolate was melty and the nutty crunch of the granola was a different and yummy flavor.

Dave toasted a perfectly gooey marshmallow to make an excellent Smore.

In the morning we just had cereal, bananas and yogurt so that we could hit the road for the Jeep run. And since we knew we'd be on the trail for lunch, we had packed sandwiches and such for lunch that day. So our next culinary excursion was dinner.

I have a recipe for Cheesy Broccoli Pockets, kind of like a calzone, that I make every once and a while. When we were menu planning, Dave asked me if I could make the filling in advance. Easy enough, I was concerned and intrigued if this was going to work on the fire. When we arrived at the campsite and I'd learned the rec center kitchen was going to be open, I was less concerned about going hungry that night.

The filling is made of chopped broccoli, roasted red peppers, mozzarella cheese, Parmesan cheese, salt and oregano. I also put some slices of deli ham inside for a little extra flavor and volume. I used a whole wheat dough that I divided and a little cornmeal to handle the dough.


We plopped them right into the pie irons and figured it would take about 10 minutes per side for the dough to cook. Yeah. We were done in less than 10 minutes total! And they were perfect. The first batch was a little crusty on the outside, but inside the dough was soft and the cheese was perfectly melty. The second batch was pure heaven since we knew to take them off the flames earlier.


Ta-da!

Sunday morning we woke up to some light rain. It wasn't that terrible. We had put all our stuff (and firewood) in the screenhouse before bed, so we were pretty much dry. I actually think most of the "rain" we contended with in the morning was the drops that were left on the trees that kept falling every time the wind blew.

It was just before 8:00 am and we had to check out by 11:00 am, so we figured we had time for breakfast. Dave started a fire and I got out the ingredients.

Pancakes! Yes, I realize it's Bisquick, but I'm still making pancakes in the woods. And turkey sausage. With the fire blazing, we stuck the pie irons over the flames to get them going. Then I shook up the pancake mix and loaded up the irons.

The irons were so hot the sausage started to sizzle as soon as it hit the metal.

This was perfect and so easy. The pancakes actually turned out better than when I make them at home (I have a tendency to burn the first few and the last few--don't know why). The pancakes puffed up right away and the sausage got a nice crispy brown outside.

I can honestly say that for as many stories as I've heard about Dave eating well when camping, I never expected to have such good meals and have them be so easy and quick. I was pleasantly surprised. Just goes to show you that a little preparation and planning can make it easy for you. Maybe I should put this much thought into making dinner at home during the week.

Camping with Mountain Man

This post is essentially a tribute to my husband. And my college girlfriends will definitely giggle.

Our freshman year, our friend Jesse had ended up living in a double room by himself because his roommate dropped out after 3 days or so. As much as Jesse loved that, he couldn't fight with the school when another student was having roommate issues and needed to switch rooms. So it was that Dave became Jesse's roommate and came into our circle of friends.

We all thought Dave was a bit off (ok, we thought he was crazy). Here's this guy who is super into the outdoors, an Eagle scout with his mountain bike hanging off the wall of his dorm room, caving and camping gear strewn around the room and the constant question if he could successfully repel out the 3rd floor window of the building. (The answer is yes, he could. His friends, however, would get caught.) Standard college attire of jeans, t-shirts, flannels and a baseball cap, in addition to the desire to be doing something outside All. The. Time. earned Dave the nickname Mountain Man. And after the first snow in January that year, perfect for sledding down Flagpole Hill, we were convinced that this crazy guy leading us on a hike through the woods in the middle of the night to go sledding was going to kill us. Walking a bit in front of us, he slowly reached into his pocket and turned around at the rest of us, pulling out...a flashlight. Lost in the dark and totally convinced Dave wanted to hurt us than have fun with us, our friend Chris yelled, "Oh my God, he's got a gun."

So yeah, for some reason Dave has always had this reputation of being a crazy guy, but in all honesty, if you were trapped on a deserted island with only a pocket knife, string and a banana, he's the guy you'd want to be with. He's a cross between a Boy Scout and McGuyver--he's always prepared, but if he's not, he can make it work.

As we drove through western Massachusetts on Friday afternoon, Jeep loaded down with camping gear, we enjoyed the beautiful weather and pretty scenery, eventually landing at Shady Pines Campground, which would be our base for the weekend. I was working very hard on having an open mind about this experience and really wanted to have a good time this weekend.

The campground was pretty nice. They have an awful lot of seasonal campers and people who have dumped their trailers and RVs on a lot and stay there the whole summer, so they have a few extra amenities that other campsites often don't. They have a pool, playground, ball field, rec center (with adults only lounge and pool table), and two comfort stations (read: showers). I was pretty pleased. We arrived at our campsite and I helped Dave get things set up.

I probably could have helped more if I hadn't been taking so many pictures, but blogs are better with pictures!

Dave actually did tell me what kind of knot he was making here, but I forget. Besides, it's not like a) I will ever know how to make it; or b) I will even need to make it. That's why I have him.


The spacious interior of our tent. Yes, that's an air mattress. And yes it has a slight leak and was flat by morning, but the majority of the evening was comfortable. And Dave reinflated it in the wee hours of the second morning.


Dave picked up this screenhouse last week. It was great--since he bought it, there were no bugs all weekend! And it made packing up on Sunday morning much easier since we had light rain all morning.


Dave has essentially one role to keep me happy: he must keep me warm. I am a cold chica. I'm always cold. You know why I could crochet a baby blanket in 100 degree July heat? Because I wasn't actually that warm. So after getting the tent set up, priority number one was making a fire.

He's not a pyro, he just plays one in the woods.

The regulars at the campground were pretty friendly. We were across from a seasonal couple with a trailer. They were pretty quiet. In fact the only thing we saw them do was sit by the fire. From pretty early in the morning, until the fires went out at 11:30 pm, they were sitting there, feeding the fire log after log, making themselves a pretty big bonfire at times.

Around the corner from us was another seasonal family. They had two young kids--a girl of about 6 and a little boy of 3 or 4. She had her bike and spent the day riding up and down the road. He had a tricycle, but what he really liked was the John Deer Power Wheels. It was adorable and he went all the way up and down the road over and over again. Mom had to walk behind him and at one point I couldn't seem to get out of his way (no matter which way I went, he was coming right for me!), but it was cute and they were really well behaved.

Because the campground has so many seasonal people and families, they do a lot of theme weekend. This weekend was Easter in August, and they opened up the kitchen at the rec center (burgers, fries, hot dogs and such) on Friday and Saturday nights, showed a movie for the kids on Friday night and organized games on Saturday afternoon, and had a DJ at the rec center on Saturday night. That was actually nice, because it drowned out the crappy music from the three campsites surrounding us.

Overall, we had a pretty good time camping. I was pleased that our campsite was less than 100 yards from the rec center, so I never had to go far to find a bathroom, which was really nice. I can honestly say, I had a better time than expected. We ate really well, and had full days of activities on Saturday and Sunday. I'll update you on the Jeeping and since you know I love to talk about food when I'm away, I'll have a full post on that. I promise you'll be impressed.