A somewhat delayed post. I was delayed a few days, which spiralled out of control when I spent five days without internet access. Um, tragedy I guess...
As mentioned in the last post, so very long ago, I was contemplating tents and had been thoroughly won over by my introduction to the Hilleberg range. Unfortunately, I'd left the actual purchasing a little late to order from overseas and the full range isn't stocked in Australia. Some browsing of the interwebs discovered Moontrail, a site with reasonably priced express courier postage (really reasonable; that's normally prohibitively expensive) from the US. As an added bonus, their customer loyalty system meant I would be able to get a free Exped Synmat with my chosen tent. Since I needed both, the order was placed to arrive within a week. I went for a dark green tent as opposed to a red, because I hate climbing up from a campsite for the view and having the tents be so obtrusive that they ruin the whole view. Of course, any SAR volunteers reading this are probably wincing now. It's pretty hard for a rescue chopper to locate campsites, and they hate tents with natural colours for that reason. Thus I'm making a bright red groundsheet. If a rescue is required, that simply gets strung over the top of the tent instead of under it.
Food preparation continues, mostly basics this week. I have to start doing some serious cooking as well as drying now, so that there's enough whole meals made ready rather than assorted random ingredients. This week's challenges were kidney beans (alright, that wasn't a challenge but it did hog the drier for a while), guacamole and cheese.
I've concluded that my hopes for devising a way to dehydrate and rehydrate guacamole are best forgotten. There was a result, but it was almost completely inedible. We'll just have to cope without guacamole to accompany the chilli. Cheese though, cheese is another matter. It's heavy and anyone who has taken it walking in summer has probably seen what happens when it stays warm for a day or two. But there's a pasta meal on the rota, for which I'm determined that we will have cheese!
I've managed to produce something like the fake parmesan sprinkles you see in supermarkets, only based on real cheese and tastier. It weighs slightly under half the weight of the fresh cheese and is essentially cheese with its water and oil content removed. The process is slow, very slow, slower than any other dehydrating I've done. It also requires a dish to be put on the rack below. DO NOT LOOK IN THE DISH IF YOU ENJOY CHEESE! The end result is pretty potently flavoured. I've considered the possibility of making cottage cheese using powdered milk and combining this with the dried cheese for use in lunches, but this remains untested (and would use a reasonable amount of fuel).
I mentioned getting a satellite phone a while ago, a GSP1600 that I since discovered is a model far more common than its chargers. The easiest (and by far the cheapest) charger I encountered was one which came with three free sat phones and two extra chargers. It was a lucky find of someone replacing some old gear, and means I now have spare sat phones if anyone feels the need for one. Frankly, I don't need four of them.
I should probably point out here that I'm not being paid by any of the gear companies or shops I mention, in money or gear. So when I mention a name or expound upon a particular piece of gear, it's because I like it rather than because it's my job. That said, if anyone felt like bribing me to write said things by sending me nice free gear, I'd undoubtedly capitulate pretty easily (emphasis is on the nice gear. If anyone decided to bribe me with lame gear, my commentary would degenerate accordingly...).
Tuesday, 30 October 2012
Monday, 15 October 2012
Weekend # 11: It's gear time
The time has come at last to stop browsing reviews, haunting outdoor stores and drooling over descriptions of tents. With just over a month to go, I set about selecting the last few pieces of gear.
- An ongoing issue mentioned a couple of times is the matter of keeping everything charger. I've mentioned this once or twice along the way and actually came to a decision fairly early on but wanted to make sure the solar panel would work with the chosen charger. In the end, I went for a slightly more powerful module than I'd originally planned. The weight difference is negligible and it should still be able to run the charger on cloudy days. It'll be four weeks during a Tasmanian summer so there are at least 50% odds of getting a sunny day, but could we charge everything on that one sunny day? Probably not. A 12W panel is now on its way from the factory in Germany.
- For the sake of comfort, I'm sticking with the Exped sleeping mats. A few years using one of these makes it nigh on impossible to even contemplate returning to the old thermarest, let alone a closed-cell foam slab. This wasn't so much a decision to be made as a procrastination. The advice I had from the start was to get a Downmat 7 or Synmat 7, avoiding the less durable fabric in the UL series mats. While I had heard that this fabric would be up to the job, I've done a trip before with a sleeping mat that had started leaking beyond repair and had no intention of repeating the experiment. The added comfort of not needing to worry about condensation getting into the mat eventually sold me on the Synmat over the Downmat.
- I had been looking seriously at a few tents. Exped actually had a few that had made the contended list, vying against MSR, Macpac, Mountain Hardware and Black Diamond. I had almost come to a decision and was on the verge of placing an order when a discussion with Jess, another of the walkers-to-be, brought me to a crashing halt. She made a single comment in passing, "[I] have been totally sold on Hillebergs... but they aren't sold in Australia ..." that caused me to cast aside half my research in disgust. Somehow, I had read every review, browsed every forum thread and searched through every product catalogue that didn't mention these tents. I gave their site a cursory glance, and threw out all my research in disgust. Three of their tents immediately entered the top five list. They ranked reasonably highly in pricing as well, but weren't the most expensive I was looking at and certainly outstripped the shortlisted models of equivalent price in terms of quality. After a Sierra Designs tent our family used to use, I've had something of a soft spot for geodesic tents, tempered only by their lack of ventilation for summer use. On discovery of a high-quality, reasonably lightweight two-person four-season semi-geodesic tent with good ventilation allowing for summer use, I was sold. Some intensive research followed as I sought fault with the tent of choice, but the only design fault that I came across is that the poles are susceptible to damage in extreme gales. Sounds bad, until you realise that none of the hiking-weight tents you'd want to spend more than a night or two in could withstand those windspeeds unscathed. Also, if you are expecting winds at those speeds, there are a few ways to compensate with the Hilleberg tents so that they can withstand them. Yes, thoroughly sold.
Week #10: Food, food and more food...
Well another week down and physical preparation remained fairly steady. I'm pretty much satisfied with my level of fitness and am simply aiming to maintain it through the next few weeks of continued office work.
Gear-wise, I'm still yet to get the last few pieces but the various options have been narrowed down to one or two. I'll be ordering them shortly, which really just leaves food (and a million other things, but I'm choosing to pretend that I just need to think about food for now).
One of the meals on the rota is spaghetti bolognese. There's not much in the way of pasta on the menu, as it's by far the bulkiest and probably the slowest of the carbs we're going to be having. Instant pasta would take care of the cooking time, but is no less bulky and certainly less tasty. But to provide some variety along the way, there is one spaghetti meal. Since it's my favourite meat, I decided to make a wallaby sauce. The problem is that I've never used wallaby in a dehydrated sauce before and was concerned it would be so lean that it wouldn't rehydrate. It wouldn't do at all to finish one of the many inevitable days of bad weather looking forward to a filling meal, and then find that instead of bolognese sauce we're actually having soup filled with rubber pellets. So I made a small batch to start with, just 12 servings and one spare.
To test how well it can rehydrate with limited fuel consumption (ie. no extended simmering), I rehydrated the spare serve for a lunch by just pouring boiling water onto it. It absorbed about 2.5:1 water by volume and came out notably rubber free. It was a relief, else I'd have wasted a reasonable-sized pot of tasty bolognese on an experiment.
Tried out some dried snacks as well. Although the spiced sweet potato crisps were delicious, they're also far too bulky to be able to take anywhere the quantity required (one handful wasn't nearly enough) so alas they had to be consumed now instead. Fortunately I found a few volunteers to help me work my way through them.
Gear-wise, I'm still yet to get the last few pieces but the various options have been narrowed down to one or two. I'll be ordering them shortly, which really just leaves food (and a million other things, but I'm choosing to pretend that I just need to think about food for now).
 |
| One of the trays of freshly dried wallaby bolognese. |
To test how well it can rehydrate with limited fuel consumption (ie. no extended simmering), I rehydrated the spare serve for a lunch by just pouring boiling water onto it. It absorbed about 2.5:1 water by volume and came out notably rubber free. It was a relief, else I'd have wasted a reasonable-sized pot of tasty bolognese on an experiment.
Tried out some dried snacks as well. Although the spiced sweet potato crisps were delicious, they're also far too bulky to be able to take anywhere the quantity required (one handful wasn't nearly enough) so alas they had to be consumed now instead. Fortunately I found a few volunteers to help me work my way through them.
Saturday, 13 October 2012
Weekend #10: Cathedrals and the boundless energy of youth
Well preparation was put aside for half the weekend, that I could spent time with family (particularly my nephews, who are vying with each other for 1st and 2nd on the international scale of cuteness and one of whom has near-limitless energy).
Walk-wise, Sunday was more productive (although much less cute) in doing a daywalk up Cathedral Rock. I was forced to divest myself of vest, when someone else wanted to try the steep ascent with the extra weight to test her pack-fitness. A few litres of water in my daypack were scant substitute, but I think I'm theoretically still meant to be resting that knee... Pah, details! Some of the walking time was also quite usefully spent discussing more gear and food preparation.
The view from the top was as pretty as it always is, though marred by the approach of the day's promised showers... Grey, featureless blobs had been strewn across the patchwork green, sapping the light from the sun that might otherwise have shone upon the verdant forests. Oh well, the view was worth it regardless of the rain's intervention.
Filled with planning energy, I started a round of dehydration experiments that evening. Lunches are my present focus. Wraps and the old vita-weats are great, but only with sufficient flavouring. Lacking the array of fresh cuisine that I'd normally use, thoughts have turned instead to relishes and dips, particularly to which of these can be stored in dehydrated form for later use. Some ideas on how to preserve some vegetables in fresh form at the food drops (some food is being walked in and left in advance, which will have to survive a few weeks unattended) are being tested on my kitchen bench. We'll see how successful they are when I break the seals in a couple of weeks.
I also started making some flavour-bombs to spice up the blandest of meals (which ours won't be, of course). A previous dehydration experiment demonstrated the brilliance of dried onion. It tastes like concentrated onion rings, despite lacking both the grease and greasy batter. In short, sprinkle some flakes on a meal to give it crunch and added flavour. Dried garlic is apparently similarly useful. I always dry mushrooms and some other veggies. What other flavours can I concentrate and improve with the miracle that is warm air?
Walk-wise, Sunday was more productive (although much less cute) in doing a daywalk up Cathedral Rock. I was forced to divest myself of vest, when someone else wanted to try the steep ascent with the extra weight to test her pack-fitness. A few litres of water in my daypack were scant substitute, but I think I'm theoretically still meant to be resting that knee... Pah, details! Some of the walking time was also quite usefully spent discussing more gear and food preparation.
Filled with planning energy, I started a round of dehydration experiments that evening. Lunches are my present focus. Wraps and the old vita-weats are great, but only with sufficient flavouring. Lacking the array of fresh cuisine that I'd normally use, thoughts have turned instead to relishes and dips, particularly to which of these can be stored in dehydrated form for later use. Some ideas on how to preserve some vegetables in fresh form at the food drops (some food is being walked in and left in advance, which will have to survive a few weeks unattended) are being tested on my kitchen bench. We'll see how successful they are when I break the seals in a couple of weeks.
I also started making some flavour-bombs to spice up the blandest of meals (which ours won't be, of course). A previous dehydration experiment demonstrated the brilliance of dried onion. It tastes like concentrated onion rings, despite lacking both the grease and greasy batter. In short, sprinkle some flakes on a meal to give it crunch and added flavour. Dried garlic is apparently similarly useful. I always dry mushrooms and some other veggies. What other flavours can I concentrate and improve with the miracle that is warm air?
Wednesday, 10 October 2012
Week #9: Gnom gnom gnom...
Again, the week was lacking in adventures and insane exercises (although capoeira did feature a couple of times, as well as some more irish dancing training). What it lacked in those, it made up for with further explorations of gear and notably of food. A menu of sorts was planned out, considered, reconsidered, debated (tell a lie, it was only really considered once and then left as is) and finally settled on. Eight different meals, cycling through every eight days or as we choose to eat them. Everything that can be dehydrated will be dehydrated. Everything that can't be is likely not to appear on the menu.
Each food drop gets its subsequent tasty evening meal and dessert, plus some fancier lunches the next day or two. One of the problems over a walk of this length is that we'll be gone long enough to risk the onset of scurvy. Now vitamin C tablets and supplements are pretty easy to obtain, but I'm not overly fond of using supplements where food can provide. The issue here is that dehydrating any vegetable will rob it of most of its vitamin C content. Note that I wrote "most" rather than "all". So, use a lot of capsicum in some sauces (particularly high in vitamin C) and use lemon as the requisite acidic preservative pre-dehydration and I hope we'll be alright...
"Hope" isn't very reassuring, is it? An idea was proposed that really was so logical that I felt a little silly for not considering it myself. Hang some stockings off the backs of the packs, keep them filled with mung beans, alfalfa, et cetera and dunk them in the odd stream along the way. That way, we get fresh greenery for lunches and non-dehydrated vegetables with their vitamins intact. Coupled with the rest of the planned meals, the vaguely concerning use of "hope" can now be put aside.
Dehydration experiments are required for some of the meals, pushing the boundaries of what can and can't be rehydrated (anything can be dried, but some things refuse to absorb water again afterwards. We learnt early on that minced beef hydrates in minutes while minced white meats turn into balls of rubber). I have no intention of eating instant noodles every day for a month! There shall be courses, different flavours, textures, a variety of colours and where's my wine?
Each food drop gets its subsequent tasty evening meal and dessert, plus some fancier lunches the next day or two. One of the problems over a walk of this length is that we'll be gone long enough to risk the onset of scurvy. Now vitamin C tablets and supplements are pretty easy to obtain, but I'm not overly fond of using supplements where food can provide. The issue here is that dehydrating any vegetable will rob it of most of its vitamin C content. Note that I wrote "most" rather than "all". So, use a lot of capsicum in some sauces (particularly high in vitamin C) and use lemon as the requisite acidic preservative pre-dehydration and I hope we'll be alright...
"Hope" isn't very reassuring, is it? An idea was proposed that really was so logical that I felt a little silly for not considering it myself. Hang some stockings off the backs of the packs, keep them filled with mung beans, alfalfa, et cetera and dunk them in the odd stream along the way. That way, we get fresh greenery for lunches and non-dehydrated vegetables with their vitamins intact. Coupled with the rest of the planned meals, the vaguely concerning use of "hope" can now be put aside.
Dehydration experiments are required for some of the meals, pushing the boundaries of what can and can't be rehydrated (anything can be dried, but some things refuse to absorb water again afterwards. We learnt early on that minced beef hydrates in minutes while minced white meats turn into balls of rubber). I have no intention of eating instant noodles every day for a month! There shall be courses, different flavours, textures, a variety of colours and where's my wine?
Wednesday, 3 October 2012
Weekend #9: A "relaxing" break
Well, under orders not to over-exert myself lest I do horrendous damage to my knee, what could I do for a weekend? There was a contra dance on Saturday night, with a guest contra musician visiting from the US. Ordered not to push myself... Contra dance... Ordered not to push myself... Contra dance...
I'm pretty predictable when it comes to dancing, particularly contra which is a fast-paced dance style with plenty of chances to spin you and your partner silly. Of course I spent most of the evening dancing while loaded down with weights, not the entire evening but enough that my leg told me in no uncertain terms I was to stop being so silly. Saturday was far more restful, devoted to digging, hoeing and weeding. That's relaxing isn't it?
It's been pointed out to me that this blog has featured a distinct lack of adventures of late, that the pace has dropped off a lot. I knew setting the precedent of those first few weeks would be a mistake, but oh well. It's about preparations in general, not just going on adventures. Ideally, it would all be adventures, but then I wouldn't have any time to write the blog now would I? Alright, so I still would have time but I'm using that as an excuse anyway. I'm fairly confident in my fitness at this point, so a lot of the posts are going to start being about less exciting things. Food will probably feature heavily from here on, as well as more discussions of gear. Sorry, but that's what's needed right now.
I'm pretty predictable when it comes to dancing, particularly contra which is a fast-paced dance style with plenty of chances to spin you and your partner silly. Of course I spent most of the evening dancing while loaded down with weights, not the entire evening but enough that my leg told me in no uncertain terms I was to stop being so silly. Saturday was far more restful, devoted to digging, hoeing and weeding. That's relaxing isn't it?
It's been pointed out to me that this blog has featured a distinct lack of adventures of late, that the pace has dropped off a lot. I knew setting the precedent of those first few weeks would be a mistake, but oh well. It's about preparations in general, not just going on adventures. Ideally, it would all be adventures, but then I wouldn't have any time to write the blog now would I? Alright, so I still would have time but I'm using that as an excuse anyway. I'm fairly confident in my fitness at this point, so a lot of the posts are going to start being about less exciting things. Food will probably feature heavily from here on, as well as more discussions of gear. Sorry, but that's what's needed right now.
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