Me, Tyler, and Chan enjoying a late-night snow cave meal
(photo by Chandler Blake)

"Entering the backcountry is like crossing into an alien world. The synapses seem to fire differently and the subconscious mind regresses to the primitive instincts it's been craving, revealing new perspectives on life…and food.

Certainly I'm not the only one who sees the irony in our approach to food when we're roughing it as opposed to our home kitchen. If you've done much camping, you know what I'm talking about. Raw nature has a magic ability to transform powdered drink packets into fine beverages and MRE's into feasts fit for kings. What is it that makes Malt-O-Meal and Cup-O-Soup so amazingly delicious in the mountains? What is it about the open air that turns a culinary novice into an Iron Chef?"

Head over to the Transcript Bulletin's website to read the full article.

Labels: BUDS, Transcript Bulletin

New Feature- the Run-Down

I've received several comments from friends and readers about the format of this website. My main goal with this site is to present formal, hopefully professional articles. Yes, it's a blog format written on a Blogger template, but I kind of cringe when people call it a blog. Because I'm a perfectionist, I don't really like to post random musings and half thoughts. Lately I've been torn between the occasional, full article format and a more frequently updated blog-type format. For now I've decided to compromise by adding a weekly update in order to get stuff in when I don't have time to write a full article.

Tooele Transcript Bulletin

Last week's article had to be held for space reasons (dang that Black Friday) but it will run in this Thursday's paper. I will post the teaser as soon as it publishes. The article is more of a humor piece about the crazy foods we eat in the outdoors.

Best. Barbecue. Ever.

On the subject of food, I believe I've found the best barbecue known to mankind. I spent last week in northeast Texas and was tipped off to a little place called Clark's Outpost Barbecue in the blink-and-you-miss-it town of Tioga. It lies just off the highway at the end of a cool old-timey downtown and across from a horse insurance building. I had smoked brisket and homemade smoked sausage. Meadow had the smoked turkey.

This meat will make you cry. And the sides- oh the sides. Deep-fried corn on the cob, coleslaw, jalapeño black-eyed peas, and collard greens to die for. You think you wouldn't like collard greens? Believe me, you'd eat these and beg for more. Why, oh why do we not have more good barbecue places in Utah?

Texas Tales

On a searing August day a few years ago in Middle-of-Nowhere, Texas, I walked up to a farmer cutting hay and asked if I could explore his land. Much of his 300 acre spread is covered by dense forest and near impenetrable thickets that cover a historic segment of Choctaw Creek. The man gave me permission, but said I'd be wiser to come back sometime in the winter when the critters hibernate and the woods are easier to walk through. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, and if I were to surprise a cottonmouth, nobody would be able to find my dead body for days.

Last week I returned to that same farm and met the same farmer, who shuttled me through the woods in his Kawasaki Mule to an old abandoned railroad bridge and a few other beautiful and interesting places. Look for more on this in a series of Texas-related articles I hope to post in January.

Labels: Weekly Run-Down

"I'm not much of a fisherman. It's not that I don't like it- it's just that I'm no good at it. I'm the only guy I know that could get skunked in a stock pond. It must have started with my very first cast as a young boy on Electric Lake. I pinched the line to the rod, flipped the bail, and let 'er rip... only to turn around and see my line whipping round and round my grandpa's neck behind me. He and my dad tried hard to keep straight faces, but I think I've been cursed ever since."

Check the full article out at the Tooele Transcript Bulletin.

Oh, and if you like the column, feel free to drop a line to our editor.

Labels: American West, BUDS, Transcript Bulletin, Trip Reports

SALT MOUNTAIN HIKE PROVES THE JOURNEY IS WORTH
MORE THAN THE DESTINATION

"I scrambled through a rubble slope and scaled a rock face to take in the view. Skull Valley looks much like I imagine Tooele Valley would look without the marks of civilization. In the spring, the valley is blanketed in a lush green. By late summer, it is khaki interspersed with juniper and the occasional groomed field. This wilderness is harsh, and the journals of many an explorer attest to that fact. Yet something about it lures me in and drives me with an uncontrollable urge to keep hiking further and climbing higher."

I'm pleased to announce my first ever published (in print, anyway) work. A few weeks ago I was asked by the Tooele Transcript Bulletin to write a weekly outdoor adventure column. My first offering appeared in today's edition.

I wasn't born in Tooele County, but I got here as soon as I could. It's the second largest county in Utah but still has a very small population, comparatively. With an area of over 7,000 square miles, the county spans at least a dozen mountain ranges, hundreds of canyons, and over 44,000 acres of salt flats. It’s an explorer’s paradise. The Transcript Bulletin is the county's major newspaper, and I hope I can continue to come up with interesting articles for its readers. I'll post teasers here each week after the column is published.

Click here to read today's full article at the Transcript Bulletin's' website.

Labels: American West, Ghost Towns, Transcript Bulletin, Trip Reports