Today I finished the 7 day process of making Canadian style bacon. Out of the Traeger Pellet smoker at 150 degrees and now on the cooling rack, then into the refrigerator and tomorrow I will break it down into three chunks for future use. Sliced like thick bacon fried or just heated up in the microwave it is ready to eat.
Cooling before a night in the refriferator
We went to Utah to visit my fathers small farm after not having been there for many years and on that trip we included an excursion to Bryce Canyon national park. Below are some of the pictures from with in the park that I really like. In a few short miles the landscape just keeps changing.
Panoramic view across the canyon looking towards the ever poplar Moab Utah area!
Defiant trees cling to life
Amazing how this one pinnacle stood the test of time
A group of Hoodoos
Notice the vegetation on top
Entire rim of this part of the canyon is made up of Hoodoos.
This lone dead tree is on the edge of the canyon standing in defiance to the weather
Hoodoos on a ridge
A fine Balancing act
A friend of mine and a co worker for many years is a motor cycle enthusiast both off road and on road and he was wanting to create a GPS record around the perimeter of Capital Forest. Since I had the jeep we decided to travel the route together in the jeep and record our route which came close to 90 miles of forest roads and took most of a day, but we now both have our own route usable with our GPS devices. We traveled from roughly 200 feet elevation on up to 2600 hundred feet. I learned a lot about a new software and had a great time.
Steve on our first stop and where we had lunch
Log landing with Steve
First break and lunch time at a Landing turned into a primitive camp site with a view
Lunch break in Capital Forest
From the landing across a valley you can see a logging tower where they drag the trees to load on trucks for the trip out!
Logging/ Tree Farming
A bonus view while working our way across a ridge. A view of Summit Lake through the trees.
Summit Lake
Another view of Summit lake, clear cuts and homes.
Another View of Summit Lake
And the result is a GPX route for our future use.
End of the day results
We took a couple rides in the Jeep while in the Klamath falls area, one was to the top of a butte and the other was to Crater lake. Beautiful country and scenery.
The first image is a radio and communications tower on top of a butte at 8022 feet elevation and a long rough 9 miles of switch back road,.Well worth the trip as the views were fantastic.
From the Butte we could see Mount McLaughlin miles away standing 9495 feet tall with a snow covered peak.
Here is some summer time snow left over from winter protected only by some sparse shade.
Next we went to the famous Crater lake and could only do the west side rim as the east side road was under construction for some badly needed repairs. This is a Island in the lake.
This is a wide angle picture of part of Crescent lake that I really like. It was a nice trip and we saw some beautiful landscapes on the way to the lake itself.
Here are a few images from our trip last week to Oregon, Idaho and Utah. The rock is the same rock my dad and I sat on 40 years ago and had Sharon take our picture “Memories”. We traveled over 2550 miles and had a great time met a neighbor of dads while in Beaver all in all a great trip!
Our Jeep on the bench in the sage brush above dads place
AspenTrees higher elevation on the Face of the mountain.
Aspen trees and log fence at the first lake on the “Loop”.
The rock dad and I sat on years ago for Sharon to take our picture.
Dad and I in the 70’s on his small farm in North Creek Utah on a trip with Sharon!
Many years ago on his last farm
The rain has begun the leaves are turning color and fall is here. We enjoy many fall colors here in the PNW and as you drive around the foliage changes and so do the colors.
Fall colors
We took the new Jeep out for a road test in Capitol forest to see how she would do. We aired the tires down to 25 lbs as we were mostly on gravel roads and wanted to have a smother ride.
Here we had reached our goal Capitol Peak just below the radio towers.
We reached the peak just below the radio towers.
Since we were at the top and it was lunch time we parked and had a sandwich and enjoyed the fresh air and views.
This is truly what a tree farm looks like yes clear cuts replanting and harvesting a needed resource and trails for hiking, four wheeling, horse back riding,Trail bikes and really just about any means of transportation you want!
Sadly all fun events end and this is the way back out to one of the main highways and back home. Near the end of this power line right of way is parking and restrooms for those that trailer their four wheeler’s or trail bikes. Maps for this area can be had at the DNR website or any DNR headquarters!
We went to Mount Rainier, Randal, Packwood Morton and surrounding areas on a one day trip. We packed a lunch and ate it in a rest area just out of Packwood. The new Jeep did well and was averaging almost 19 miles per gallon. We only saw one deer and a few birds but the scenery was great as usual with the fall colors just starting. This was a shakedown trip preparing for a longer trip to Beaver Utah and surrounding areas.
Parking lot at a beautiful waterfall!
Mount Rainier hiding in the clouds
Reflection Lake on the east side of Mount Rainier
One of the tunnels on the way to Packwood from the Mount Rainier park.
So I ordered a Trangia gas burner that works in my new Firebox Gen 2 multi fuel stove to try out. I wanted to have a gas burner that was adjustable for cooking things that require low heat and the ability to sear and fry meat in one unit.
Let me say now I am very happy with the burner and the stove. The burner fit properly and the little stove as you will see is very sturdy. I first fried the pork chop in a little butter with a rub my wife makes for spices. I was able to control the heat and did not burn the meat but it was cooked to perfection. I then cut the pork chop up into bite sized pieces and added my home dehydrated vegetables, onions and a couple of jalapeno pepper rings along with four cups of water to make my soup. So below are four images from starting the pork chop to simmering the soup in my camping pot. It made three lunches for me.
The pork chop in the skillet ready for frying
Ready for the fire
The Trangia burner not at full flame but just right to brown and fry the pork chop.
Trangia Gas Burner
The finished pork chop ready to be cut up and added to the Pork Chop Soup. I tasted a piece from the skillet and it was done and not dry, very tasty!!
Pork Chop ready for the soup
And the camping kettle with all of the ingredients simmering away. This was the real test as I could really control the heat to my needs and also I did not have to worry about running out of fuel.
Soup cooking on the Firebox gen 2
The Gen 2 Firebox nano is now capable of using four different kinds of fuel to cook with and boil water to make it safe to drink. One is of course scrap wood and branches, two is an Esbit Alcohol burner, three is fuel tablets and the last but not the least is the Trangia Gas Burner.
Side note: The Trangia gas burner uses the same fuel canisters as my Jet Boil so in essence I have the ability to have two gas burner stoves with the same fuel supply (one container per stove).
Today I tried a theory of mine for using my Jetboil stove and my REI cook set and a cooling rack my wife ordered for me and the final item parchment paper. While I did scorch the paper the bread came out fine and now I will work on a heat diffuser so nothing gets too hot before the bread is done. Added some chopped up dates and walnuts to the batter for flavor. The bread after the bottom was lightly scraped was delicious it would go well with any meal in the back country.
The Batter ready to go
Parchment paper over rack
Main pan ready for the stove
On the burner
Bread baking
Almost done
Bannock is done
Bannock finished