Spice Things Up

I'm into cooking good food, and I don't see any reason for that to stop just because I happen to be in the middle of the woods. But one of the things that I have found a bit of a pain is bringing along a small quantity of spices for a backpacking trip.


The last thing I want to do is load up my backpack with a bunch of heavy, glass spice bottles. So what I sometimes do is pre-measure the herbs and spices for a specific meal and take them in a tiny plastic baggie. But that doesn't allow me to adjust the seasoning at all.


What I really wanted was a way to bring along a selection of herbs and spices in a lightweight, spill-free container. And here's my solution--a multi-compartment pill box!



Pill boxes have small, separate compartments so you can bring along a variety of spices and keep them separate. I had to do a bit of looking around to find ones that seal well on the top. Since pills are quite large, sometimes the makers of plastic pill boxes don't care if their lids leave gaps, but for spice that would mean they'll leak out.


There are two basic configurations for the boxes, so depending on how many spices you want to take you can buy the box that suits your needs.


The most common ones have seven compartments, one for each day of the week. For most people, this is enough for a good, basic spice kit. My suggestions (although everyone has their own favourites) for a seven-spice kit would be: salt, pepper, curry powder, ginger, basil, oregano & garlic powder.


You can also find boxes with four compartments, like the one pictured. They are for medications taken several times per day. In fact, mine came as a set of seven, four-compartment boxes. The whole thing cost me a whopping $2. And you thought camping gear was expensive!


Using several small boxes, I can tailor my spice requirements to the meals I am planning for any given trip rather than taking a basic set of seasonings.


Of course, if you're really hardcore you could pick up a 28-section pill box which is for multiple doses for a whole week. That would give you a full palette of spices to choose from at any time! A bit bulky, but it still wouldn't weigh much.


So that's my advice on spicing up your camping meals. It's all about keeping things light and easy. And since most pill boxes have little flip-up lids I suggest carrying them inside a plastic bag so that they don't accidentally get opened up in your pack and coat everything you own in cayenne pepper!

Tips For Twosomes

Here are some more of the tidbits that didn't make the final cut of my book. Waste not, want not I say!

If you backpack with your partner, you may have noticed that there are certain times when a little teamwork can go a long way. Helping out a partner who is smaller or less experienced opens up more options for taking on challenging trails or tougher conditions. So I've outlined a few tips for some of those more challenging moments--crossing rivers and scrambling up or down rocky slopes. Enjoy.

One of the key moments for teamwork is when you need to ford a river. Crossing fast-flowing water can be very dangerous, but by working together you can combine your strength and stability.

There are two basic methods for a couple to cross a river as a team if the water is higher than knee-deep on either person and/or the current is strong and/or the bottom of the river has a lot of loose rocks.

The first method is to cross facing one another with each person’s hands grasping the other’s forearms. The larger person should be upstream, breaking the current for the smaller person. You should walk sideways across the river, and take turns stepping so that one of you always has two feet on the bottom. Think of it as slow dancing in fifth grade. Awkward and not very cuddly, but at least you’re making contact.

The second method is useful if you’re hiking with poles. You should link arms, and each carry a hiking pole or sturdy branch in your free arm. Face the far bank of the river, and cross using your poles for stability, as a sort of third leg. Again, it’s best if one of you takes a step, then the other, so that one of you is stable at all times. This I like to think of as the ‘boy scout helping an old lady across the road’ method. But I’m not sure the name will catch on.

If there is a big size difference between the two of you, sometimes the crossing is only difficult for the smaller person. If this is the case, the taller partner can help out by making an extra trip. His first trip (sorry, but the law of averages says the guy will probably be the tall one) should be used to cross the river and leave his pack on the far side. Then after returning, he should put on his partner’s pack, and they can do one of the paired methods of crossing described above. This will not only help the smaller person’s balance by taking her pack away, it will also help to keep her gear dry if the river comes up above her hips. The taller person will obviously be carrying the pack higher above the water than the shorter person could. Note that this is not an excuse to wear high heels when you go camping, in case you were considering it. They won’t help your stability any when you’re trying to cross a river.

Climbing up or down steep slopes and boulder hopping are other times when teamwork can be a big help, particularly if you have a big difference in size or experience. It’s easy to forget that if your partner’s legs are shorter than yours, you may be able to make a leap from one rock to another where your partner can’t, or you may be able to step up onto a rock that your partner will have to climb onto using several steps or pulling up with his or her arms. It’s important to stick together over this type of terrain, especially if one of you is inexperienced and may need a bit of help. I’ve been left behind by a group who went somewhere that my short legs just couldn’t reach, and I had to stand there and wait until they realized I was gone and someone came back to help me. Believe me, it was not a nice feeling! It was, on the other hand, a good reminder of why you should keep a whistle somewhere easy to reach.

A larger partner can be helpful when the smaller partner is having difficulty climbing up or down rocks by getting to the next step and having the smaller person hand over (or up or down) their pack. This will enable the smaller person to clamber over the rocks without getting a pack caught or wedged, and it will also help with balance. This is particularly helpful when trying to climb down from a large rock, if a small person has to slide off on his or her bum because it’s too far to step down. The sliding is much easier without a pack on. This was my preferred method of descending the Grand Canyon, and I have the shredded pants to prove it!

Sometimes all that’s needed is literally a helping hand. Reaching down to pull your partner up a big step is an easy way to help without taking the time to take off a pack and have to put it on again after. It’s also sometimes the only thing you can do, if there’s no safe place to put a pack on the ground. Sometimes my partner will be behind me when I’m climbing up a big step, and he’ll just give me a shove upwards. It’s not exactly graceful looking, but it works.

Every once in a while the smaller partner is the one with the advantage. Sometimes a smaller foot can balance on a ledge where a larger foot can’t. Or a smaller hiker can duck under a fallen tree that a taller person has to climb over or walk around. So it’s important to make sure your partner can follow you whether you are the big one or the little one. By keeping an close eye on each other, and working as a team using all of your different strengths and abilities, you can keep each other safe and happy.

But... it was on sale!

There's no two ways about it, good backpacking gear can get pretty pricey. I've always been something of a bargain hunter, so I tend to get sticker shock of the highest degree when I look at quality outdoor clothing. $30 for a pair of socks? I don't think so!

You can imagine my excitement then, when G told me that one of New Zealand's top outdoor clothing brands, Earth Sea Sky, was having a clearance sale over the weekend. He's a big fan of their stuff, and owns a good range of it. I'm more likely to admire it from afar, and wish it didn't cost so much. Then buy something manufactured in China for half the price.

I was surprised at how much stock they actually had at the sale. I was expecting odds and ends, but there was actually a pretty wide range of stuff. And the discounts were significant enough that I didn't just let out a heavy sigh and leave. Instead I dug around to see what they had in my size.

I've been camping with the same rubbery rain jacket for six or seven years. It's waterproof and reasonably light, but it doesn't breathe, so I only put it on if I'm going to get soaked otherwise. So I've kinda been keeping an eye out for a nice, lightweight rain jacket to replace it. But of course the minute I see the $300 price tag for a waterproof breathable, I just put it back on the rack. It may well be worth the price, but I can't seem to convince myself that I need one that badly.

So when I saw them on sale for a mere $199, I had to think long and hard. It's still a lot of money, but significantly less than the regular price. Best of all, they had a pretty "raspberry" coloured one in my size. Not only is it a good colour on me, it also makes me slightly less likely to be accidentally fired on by hunters, and easier for G to find me if I wander off along the wrong trail.

After some debate, G made it clear that I'd be leaving the shop with that jacket, even if he had to buy it for me. So I bit the proverbial bullet and decided to invest in a good piece of outerwear at last. And, well, I just had to pick up a merino wool 3/4 sleeve top while I was at it. In "lipstick" pink. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

So thanks to the folks at Earth Sea Sky for deciding to clear out last year's leftovers. Now I can look legit on the trails - not to mention fabulous in raspberry!

Interview - The Tables are Turned!

After interviewing all kinds of people for my book, it was strange to be interviewed by someone else! But that's what happened last week when my friend Travis, who is part of the on-line writing community "Kiwiwriters" spoke to me about the experience of writing my first book.

You can read the interview here.

I guess it's good practise for all of those media interview I'm hoping to get when the book is released!

Shirt-to-Shirt Showdown

Those of you who have been following my blog will remember that back in December I bought two long-sleeved hiking shirts to give me some much-needed sun protection. But I found I was using just one of them, the pink Nike top. So last weekend I decided to give the Mountain Hardwear shirt a try when we went on a dayhike up Mt. Climie.

Mt. Climie is the most irresistible name you could give a mountain, as far as hikers are concerned. It pretty much stands right up and asks you to climb it! So I had somewhat high expectations as we pulled into the parking lot at Tunnel Gulley Recreation Area.

I have to say that Climie was a let-down. The 'track' to the top was actually a service road, used to reach the radio towers at the summit. So rather than feeling immersed in nature, we were slogging our way up a gravel road, exposed to the full midday sun.

OK, I suppose the midday sun was our own fault. We are admittedly not so good at getting an early start on the weekends. But the day was unusually hot and clear for Wellington, and frankly I'm just not used to those conditions anymore. Within ten minutes of starting up the road we were both sweating buckets. But at least it was a good way to test the shirt!

So how did the shirt do? It performed well on the sun protection side. I had no sign of sunburn even after doing the whole 3-hour hike almost completely in the sun. But it definitely doesn't breathe as well as my Nike top, which is made for runners. Despite mesh panels under the arms, I felt sticky and uncomfortable. On the plus side, once we stopped hiking it dried much faster than the Nike shirt. So I guess it's the winner on the quick-dry front. That makes it a better candidate for multi-day use.

Which shirt is better? Hard to say. They both have their good and bad points, and they both do what I really needed them to do--which was keep me from getting burned by the brutal New Zealand sun! Still, I think I'm more likely to pull the Nike shirt out of my closet for my next hike. Comfort during the hike seems to win out over drying off quickly afterwards. Particularly if we're spending the night in a hut where the sweaty stuff can be hung up to dry overnight.

Holy Taranaki, Batman!

G and I decided to enjoy the Waitangi Day holiday (New Zealand’s national holiday) by climbing the second highest peak on the North Island, Mt. Taranaki, also known as Mt. Egmont. It’s a dormant volcano, and almost a perfect cone shape, like Mt. Fuji in Japan. In fact, when they filmed The Last Samurai they used Taranaki as the stand-in for Mt. Fuji.

We took a couple of extra days off around the holiday, and first did a two-day loop track called the Pouakai Loop. The weather had been warm but cloudy during those two days, at least on the track. Since Taranaki is the first large obstacle encountered by the weather systems coming in from the Tasman Sea, they tend to get caught by the mountain. So even when the rest of the area has clear skies, there’s usually a ring of cloud over Mt. Taranaki.

Needless to say I was thrilled when the morning of our summit climb arrived and the skies were clear blue. Taranaki’s summit is at 2518 metres (that’s about 8260 feet for you non-metric folks), which is no big deal if you’re a mountaineer, but pretty impressive for mere mortals like me. It can be climbed as a day trip, mostly because the visitor centre where the trail begins is already 950 metres up.

It’s a straightforward hike in summer, but definitely not to be taken lightly once the snow and ice arrive. Apparently over 60 people have died on the mountain – although I’m not sure how many of them were summer vs. winter hikers. The fact is, if you were engulfed by cloud, or even worse by a snowstorm, it would be very easy to loose the trail and get into trouble. Once you get above the bushline there’s nothing to guide you but a few wooden poles about a metre high.

After two days of backpacking, I was already feeling a bit weak when we started up. But the first part of the trail is basically a 4X4 road, so it was not difficult, just a long slog uphill. Then the next short section was all laid out with wooden steps. It gets your heart pumping, but again it’s not a big deal. Once the steps end, things get more challenging. There’s a long section of loose scree (scoria) up quite a steep incline. It can be frustrating trying to make any progress up this stuff, sliding back with almost every step. By the time we reached the top of it, my legs felt like rubber.

We stopped for a lunch break when the scree ended and the lava flow began. After a bite, we started scrambling up the rocks. But I soon felt the weakness in my legs returning. It was as if they hadn’t been rested at all. With at least an hour of steep climbing ahead, I was worried about my chances of making it to the top. I made G stop for another rest almost immediately while I had a small meltdown. I find it incredibly frustrating when my body fails me. And frankly, I was a bit scared too. Above us the climb was all over jagged rocks. Below, we’d have to negotiate the loose scree again. The slope was steeper than I was used to.

Down at the bottom, you could easily see the circular border of the park, just like the green circle on the map. It was almost surreal.

I decided to give it one more try. Once I got started again, I was able to keep a slow, steady pace up the rocks. At last we reached the snowy crater at the top of the mountain! It had been a five hour journey to this point, and we still had to make our way back down.
In the end, the whole trip took us just over nine hours. My legs and feet were aching, but I was glad I’d made the effort to keep going up when it would have been much easier to give up. Perhaps one of these days I’ll finally be in good enough shape to do a climb like that without making it into a big drama – but probably not!

You Go Girls!

G just sent me this link to a website for a group of three women who are tramping their way along the entire South Island of New Zealand - the hard way! They're travelling along the Southern Alps mountain range, with some of the most rugged terrain in the country.

Their trip is a fundraiser for Youthline, and I have to doff my wide-brimmed, waterproof hat to them for taking on such a huge journey. 1600 km of crazy New Zealand wilderness. Good luck girls, and may the forces of nature be with you!

http://www.manawahinewalk.com/index.pl?home

Feeling Indecisive? Destination-pickers galore!

In the process of editing my book, more than a few of my brilliant (or so they seemed at the time) ideas have ended up on the proverbial "cutting room floor." While I'm sure that's all for the best, I thought I could salvage a few from the scrap heap and post them here so they don't go to waste!

So here is a recent victim of the edit. My list of the Top 10 Random Ways to Pick Your Next Camping Destination. It's written with US readers in mind, but if you just replace "State" with Province or Region and USA with your own country and they'll work anywhere.

TOP 10 RANDOM WAYS TO PICK YOUR NEXT CAMPING DESTINATION
Can’t decide where to go on your next romantic getaway? Willing to leave it up to chance? Here are some fun ways to let fate decide where you’ll be pitching your tent!

1. Pin the tail on the trail - Stick a detailed trail or topographic map on the wall and put some blue tack on a paper dot. Now one of you puts on a blindfold and sticks the dot on the map. Wherever the dot has landed, go to the closest trail or river.
   
2. Dartboard – Put a map of the USA up in front of a dart board (or cork board) and throw a dart. Your next big trip will be in the state where the dart landed. The worse you are at darts, the more random your choice will be!
   
3. Dropsies – Put a state map on the floor. Hold a penny and stretch your arm out over the map. Drop the penny and visit the park closest to where it lands.
   
4. Alphabetize – Go to the index of a guide book for your area. Pick a trail, park or river starting with “A” for your first trip, and work your way through the alphabet.
   
5. Google it – Do an internet search by typing in the name of your state or region plus “camping”, “backpacking”, or “paddling” and check out the results. The first specific destination that comes up is where you’ll go.
   
6. Spin the bottle – Put a state map on the table and lie a small bottle in the center. Give it a spin and see where the mouth of the bottle is pointing when it stops. Go there!
   
7. Book-a-trip – Buy a good guide book for your state or favorite area. Close your eyes and open it to a random page. Whatever route is described, that’s where you’ll go. (If you’ve already done that page then close your eyes and pick again.)
   
8. Follow the clubbers – Find the website of a local hiking or paddling club. Check out their schedule and see where they were last weekend. Go there this weekend.
   
9. Bingo – Grab a map with alphanumeric grid markings. Without looking at the map, one of you picks a letter and the other picks a number. Find that square on the map and go to the nearest trail to there.
   
10. Chore jar – If you’ve got a list of places you’d like to go but can’t choose one, write each place name on a slip of paper and put all of the slips into a jar. Now close your eyes and reach into the jar. The first one you pull out is where you’re going next. This one is great because you can keep the jar going for years by adding more places.
    

A Woman Who Knows Her Shit

Yesterday I interviewed another writer for my book, How to Make Love in a Tent. The interview was with Kathleen Meyer. You may not know Kathleen's name, but you've probably heard of her book - How to Shit in The Woods. What probably started out as a little, niche title has been so successful that she has released a second edition. Over a million copies are in print in a host of languages.

Who knew that such an odd topic could be so popular? But then again, anyone who has tried to participate in the titular activity can tell you that it certainly helps to have some instruction on the topic before your first attempt!

My interview wasn't really about that though. After all, one book on the subject is quite enough! (Although I do have a section just for women in my book that covers stuff like peeing in the bush and how to deal with your period.) I was more interested in Kathleen's experiences as a river rafting guide in her 30's and her more recent outdoors life with her partner, Patrick.

Kathleen has been lucky enough to finally hook up with a guy who shares her special relationship with nature. The two of them apparently sleep outside on the deck of their barn home most nights. The bed is used only in rainy or very cold weather. How many couples can claim they spend most of their nights under the stars? Even when it snows, they don't retreat indoors. She told me, "I find there’s nothing sweeter than waking up with your barrette iced into your hair, in a blanket of snow. And the intensity of that hot body next to you
is just increased, to wrap yourself around."

I'm sure some of you can think of many things you'd find sweeter than frozen hair in the morning, but I do admire the fact that she can find pleasure in it. I guess it helps when you're somewhere you can brush off the snow and take a hot shower afterwards!

It has certainly been interesting hearing from such a range of people about their outdoor experiences, and their relationships with the wilderness. The way we feel in the wild is as individual as we are, but most of us are just awed by the power, beauty and magnitude of the natural world. It's unfortunate that this amazing world is somewhere most of us only get to visit now and then. It would be even more unfortunate if we got to the point where there was little of it left to visit.

Anyway, I will be diligently weaving some of Kathleen's wisdom into my book. Pretty soon the editing will be done and a year's worth of words will leave my control. It's a bit scary, but I'm looking forward to it too!

A Jumbo Blow To End the Year

On the last weekend in December, G and I decided to finally get out of the house after a week of disappointing holiday weather and go for a trip to Jumbo Hut in the Tararua Mountains.

Saturday was quite nice, cool but mostly sunny with just the odd bit of drizzle. The first few hours of walking were along a flat river valley, on a benched trail with bridges over the streams and rivers. All in all, a pleasant stroll.

The second half of the journey was much more strenuous. Uphill for two and a half hours! (Well, it's only supposed to take two hours, but after a month of not backpacking I'm a little out of shape...) We reached the hut near the mountain ridge just as the rain moved in.


Almost as soon as we were inside, the hut was enveloped by cloud. The rain began pelting down in earnest, and the wind howled across the ridge. Inside, the hut was deserted. Here we were on a weekend, right in the middle of Christmas break, and nobody else was there! (I guess they'd paid more attention to the weather forecast than we did.)

As much as I would have liked to take advantage of our isolation, it was so cold in the hut that night that being naked was just not an option. Instead we were both wearing every layer of clothing we brought, and crawled inside our sleeping bags as soon as dinner was finished. Well, almost. I did spend a bit of time trying to dry out my sweaty bra by holding it over a candle. While this method worked pretty well, and it was hilarious watching the steam rise from my bra, I got a little too close to the flame at one point and scorched my right cup!

The wind roared around us all night, and I was reminded why New Zealanders so often prefer huts to tents in this changeable climate. It was so blustery that I was startled awake a few times, convinced at one point that the wind had sounded exactly like a woman shrieking outside.
By morning things had improved a little. It was still cold and pretty windy, but the rain had all but stopped. Our hike down was cool and cloudy, and by the time we got to the bottom of the hill (after an hour and a half this time!) my legs were feeling pretty wobbly. We plodded on across the flatter part of the trail with as few stops as possible, choosing to wait until we were back on the road to grab lunch.

Both of us suffered from very stiff legs the next day. In fact, it took my quads three days to recover to the point where I was walking normally up and down stairs. It doesn't take long to lose your conditioning! Hopefully the weather will improve now, and we'll be able to get out there more often and keep in shape.

Happy new year everyone!