Death Valley Day #3 (January 4, 2012)

Brutally cold. breakfast sandwiches.

Exciting drive to Ashton Canyon trailhead - dirt road that we almost couldn't find, very bumpy, fun!

Went through "more exciting alternative" entrance to Ashton Canyon with narrows and falls. Tried for 1 h to scale fall at end, Dave almost made it but was foiled by smooth slide along side at top (fall with big boulder/chockstone at top).

Found alternate route to top, Dave almost killed me by inadvertantly knocking over large stone down below. Dave tried to pull up bags, unsuccessful, almost lost thumb.

I climbed up, Dave climbed down, Dave almost killed by getting distracted and falling backward, orange pack broke fall, I tried to pull up one bag, unsuccessful, finally, he carried both bags up.

Broke Rocc's spool of cord in the process.

Hiked up and found Ashton Mine Camp - very cool - amazingly preserved buildings, refrigerator, beds, oven.

Ran into two other hikers - let them take picture of our map, they gave us tips. We found mine - Dave very happy.

Lunch - steak sandwiches.

Disappointed we couldn't explore more around mining area.

Headed back, saw coyotes on drive back!

Dinner - kung pao chicken, hot toddies, extremely hot fire, very warming.

Canyons are melancholy.

Inspired to learn to climb.

Death Valley Day #2

Got up at 4:30 am. woke up to coyotes howling in distance. Had a breakfast scramble with 6 eggs.

Hike up Fall Canyon. Loved the narrows.

Was like a cathedral and Richard Serra sculpture although those are probably trying to approproximate the canyons.

Mabel made it up a tough bypass around a dry waterfall.

Was a real climb by itself.

Had enough daylight to see the Mesquite dunes on the way back.

Paid for showers ($5 per person) at Death Valley Ranch in Furnace creek.
Pasta for dinner. Fire was especially warm.

60 degrees around dinner. Daytime was high 70s but was in the shade in the canyon for most of day. O/n 40s.

Death Valley Day #1

Dave and I spent 1 week camping and hiking in Death Valley. These are our notes and pictures.

Drive in, our car alone for a lot of the drive, otherwise, uneventful

Got in to campground around 11:30 am, the ranger was out to lunch. Saw roadrunner!

Set up camp quickly.
Headed to Badwater, saw the salt flats. Lowest point in the US.

Stopped by Devil's golf course. Salts but not quite flat.

Artist's Drive and palette. Nice to see, fancy road.

Checked out Visitor center and general store. Got the lowdown on Indian Pass, secret picture ranger books.

Had our custumary first night steak dinner. Very chilly. Cold beers not a great idea.

No one around!

Aquagrill

I'd been craving seafood for a while so we headed to Aquagrill for one of those bi-level seafood platters.

 

 They had sea urchin on the menu. It was the freshest-tasting sea urchin we'd ever eaten.

 Aquagrill
210 Spring Street
New York, NY 10012
212.274.0505

A Post-vacation Visit to Bucks County

We headed down to Pennsylvania to drop off the car at Dave's parent's place. On the way we stopped by Trenton Bridge Lobster Pound to pick up a few lobsters. They offered a larger variety of lobster than at Thurstons and they were also used to shipping lobsters to all sorts of places - so it was good that we stopped here for our edible souvenirs.



On our way home we stopped by the L.L. Bean flagship store in Freeport, Maine. It is a very impressive store.



You can buy equipment for any outdoor activity including camping, hunting, and fishing, and they have events and teaching sessions throughout the week. There was even an archery corner of the store where you could try out bows and arrows. We didn't stay long enough to find the famed "brook" area where you can try out fly fishing rods. However, we did pick up an egg carrying case.




We had to throw away a few broken eggs because the carton disintegrated in the cooler. Somebody came up with this simple but brilliant solution!

When we got home we checked on the lobsters to make sure they were still alive. They were.



Here they are packed up in seaweed.

We rustled up three large containers to boil the lobsters although we only ended up needing two. We needed to boil the lobsters for 30 minutes but it took nearly that same amount of time to even bring the water up to boil. We added a lot of salt since we didn't have seawater with us. We ended up fitting three lobsters in one container and one in a container over a gas stove.



They turned out great!



We did a little al fresco dining out on the deck.




I didn't expect our vacation to involve so much lobster, but it was totally worth it!

Car Camping in Maine - Day #9

This was our last full day in Maine. We went hiking up Penobscot and Sargent Mountains (Sargent Mountain being the second highest peak in Acadia National Park; we never did make it up Cadillac Mountain).

David liked this random boulder.



We hung out awhile on the peaks of the two mountains. It was another beautiful day.



After the hike we got another lobster fix at Thurstons. David was very happy.



At home we fried up a mackerel and several pollack.



Dave stuffed them with lemon and fresh oregano, and we had rice-in-a-bag and canned green beans drizzled with Frantoia. The pollack was pretty good but moderately annoying to eat because of the bones. The mackerel was not only easier to eat but very delicious fried. It was really fun eating fish that we knew had been swimming in the ocean just 24 hours ago!

Car Camping in Maine - Day #8

We embarked on a deep sea fishing adventure on the Vagabond!



Dave took a prophylactic dramamine, I packed a lunch of baguette, peach/apricot jam and sharp cheddar (taking inspiration from a popular Saxelby Cheesemonger sandwich), and we were off!

The weather was very misty. My shell didn't do so well at keeping me dry. We stopped by an island with lounging seals.



After about an hour and a half of travel we finally settled down to the business of fishing. Dave and I caught several fish! I had never really caught a fish before in my life. Nor had I ever taken one off the hook by myself. Apparently you have to hold it by the gills and it will open its mouth making the process easier. I'm not doing that at the moment.



The fish keeps flapping its tail as you hold it.



We threw our catches into buckets filled with water. At the end of the trip the captain motored around the sea and brought up multiple lobster traps.







They took out the lobsters, banded their claws, and tossed them into orange baskets; they also returned juveniles and breeding females with eggs back to the ocean, threw out the old bait, attached the new bait, and returned the traps to the ocean.

Dave and I don't really understand how the traps work. I found these two diagrams:




The lobsters climb into the trap to eat the bait but then have to walk through this conical shaped connector to the "parlour" portion of the trap. Why can't the lobsters just back out of the trap and escape after they get the food? Why continue on into the parlour where they will get stuck?

As we pondered these questions, we found out that every person was entitled to one lobster and every family would get a bag of fish! We were lucky enough to get 2 stone crab claws, as well. The crewmembers gutted and scaled all the fish; we asked for ours to be left whole rather than made into fillets. We didn't catch any mackerel but were lucky enough to have a couple in our bag. They were very beautiful.



They made great sashimi and went exceedingly well with sips of Ikkomon soju.



We drove back to Hot Showers and Lobster Pound where they obligingly boiled our lobsters for us in seawater for $2.





It is pretty fun eating lobsters that you've personally seen come out of the ocean. And they were more delicious for it. We learned that a rock (that we borrowed from the firepit) is way more effective than a lobster cracker at breaking through the shell. Overall, it was an amazing day!

Car Camping in Maine - Day #7

Today we went biking around Acadia National Park. There are these nice carriage roads closed to traffic that go around the various mountains of the park. We had lunch at Hadlock Brook waterfall - a baguette with prosciutto, leftover arugula, and a light dousing of Frantoia (Thanks, Mark Bittman!).



We were doing pretty well at finding beautiful lunch spots.



I really learned how to make use of the different gears on the bike. I learned that the lowest gear, the "granny gear", is essential for climbing up hills. There were a lot of nice downhills to balance things out.



Someone almost rode through one of our pictures.



We took a rest by Bubble Pond in the shade of some trees. It was peaceful and idyllic.



We mostly stayed away from Bar Harbor the town, but we couldn't help but stop by a hill overlooking the harbor itself. It was very picturesque. We would have gotten ice cream if we weren't feeling so lazy and nice sitting on the grass.



We stopped by Thurston's for another lobster fix. The lobster salad, which I envisioned as the yummy interior of a lobster roll but perhaps a little more, was a sore disappointment.

I ate all the lobster bits, though.



Dinner was a simple penne dish with tomato, basil, garlic, olive oil, and parmesan cheese.