old macho/new macho

I am not complaining about the week of rain putting the stops to Spring Break 2012 and all that would have entailed; the camping and the creek cooled beers and the swimming and the rope swangin and the cliff jumping and the loafing and the grilling and the flaming paper airplane target practice. To say nothing of the quiet backcountry reached by bicycle.

I am thankful we are finally getting some portion of the refill that is well overdue.

I am going effing bananas sitting around indoors with my roommates' TV shows.


So when there was a break in the front today, my partner and meself went for the gusto. J______ suggested we have some Brown Lunch like we used to, and I assembled the necessaries; lentil soup, chopped kale, a couple sweet red peppers, a bagel, some pistachios, and apple sauce.


When we pulled up at the trailhead I realized I'd forgotten the stove, the fuel, the utensils, and the pot. J declined to turn around and drive home, saying "That's a waste of time." And he was correct, so we just rolled out figuring we could handle ourselves. It was a gentle loop around to the new Stairs.


There we cleared the (soaking wet from a week of rain) leaf litter in a 4' circle. Spanish moss stays dry under the canopy and catches fire like you'd expect. It's also hella smoky. It took constant fiddling and feeding to catch a twig fire given the conditions. I came very close to bagging it, esp. due to so much smoke, but I'm glad we kept at it. Eventually, our wee blaze was down to coals. Old hobos that we are, we put the soup can directly in the embers. We'd scoured the truck for useable items and turned up a couple take-out sporks. We were golden.

Time out for "cooking" allows other pursuits.


A conveniently located and emptied beer can works for braising kale.









Sweet red peppers and pistachios round out the meal. We split the soup into the empty pistachio bag and the soup can and it was good.


Checked out the hammock. A strap gave way immediately(of course?), and I hit the deck. It seems comfortable enough for lounging and napping. We'll bring it on the next overnight and test it further. After all, REI has the 100% satisfaction guarantee. If it doesn't fit the bill, I'm taking it back.

Anyhow.