The San Juan Islands

Fishing with Creasy off a small rock in Obstruction Point State Park, WA.


We have been searching for this plant for 1.5 years: Epipactus, a moderately common orchid that has been eluding us for a long time, it may be common, but this is the first time we have ever seen it, and this plant is growing right in our camp site on Orcas Island!! We were lucky to be so far north and catch it blooming this time of year.



Looking over the main land from Oras Island from Mount Constitution, part of the San Juan Islands off WA State.

Hey You Guys!!!!!!

Ruth...baby ruth?1?
This one's for Willie....

Pit Cooking

My newest obsession is cooking things in a hole in the ground. We have successfully produced a fine variety of yard birds in this method and one undercooked still frozen 30 pound buffalo roast that will not be added to my list of successes.

This would make a great way to do up a thanksgiving situation. All you need is a place to dig a hole, some rocks (that are fire worthy -- nothing all full of quartz or river rocks that will explode during heating) and a bird.

Here she is, the yard bird all seasoned up with a Moroccan spice blend with lots of sumac. Make sure to wrap the bird tight in tin foil, shiny side in please, and place her breast down during the cooking to ensure tender white meat.


Cut some branches of apple, alder, birch, whatever tree, shrub or rush you have hand to add to the smoking. We used the red ceder this time.


All this time you have had large rocks baking in a fire, heating them up for hours, now you are ready to remove these stones and find some way to get them into the pit you dug. The pit does not need to be wide, but needs to be about 1.5-2ft deep. This one was even a little deeper. We used the cast iron dutch oven to transport the rocks to the hole. Toss them in there. Lay down half your branches on top of the rocks, if you were able to pre-wet them that would have been good. i just dunked the whole arm load in the stream and layed half the branches down on the rocks, put the bird on top of the branches and covered it with the rest of the branches.



I poured a stock pot full of water over the whole thing and then its time to re-burry it.


We went on a foray and were gone most of the day, probably about 6 hours. When we returned dinner was hot and ready. We had thrown some individually tin foil wrapped beets right in the coals from the rock fire and they were baked to perfection.
The best advice i have for you is to be very careful when you excavate it, don't gouge your shovel through the tin foil. But, please do be prepared for the best tasting, most deliciously tender chicken you have ever tastes.


I don't have a picture of the finished product because i was too busy getting my hands dirty eating it.

Boletus and such

Yesterday we found our first lobster mushrooms, some weird paracitizing bright orange fungus in Cape Perpetua, OR. Here is Neilio with a pair of King Boletes aka Porcini mushrooms.


A family of Admirable Boletes: a lovely lemony flavor.


A hike to a waterfall on the scenic waterfall highway outside Portland.


A New Culinary Sensation: Bolete, Kale and Bacon Guacamole.


Creasy Doggie practicing her new berry picking hobby on the ubiquitous Oregon Blackberries.

Camping never tasted so good....

The main thing i have to report is how well we have been eating and how much money we have been saving by not living any where. we have spend $95 total on lodging so far and we anticipate that to remain the same for the rest of the month -- the road has been good to us, the people kind and the wifi free!

here i am dorking out in the middle of the mt. hood wilderness, it's nice to know you can access your notes, plant pictures, recipes, etc from anywhere; we're a mobile database.


Crissy and Jeff graced us with a 250,000 pound cast iron pot that costs about .70/mile to transport but is really worth it when it comes to cooking over the open flame. 1 canister of fuel later we have cooked up some of the most delicious dishes ever to grace a picnic table or camp chair. The list includes braised pork short ribs, split pea and bacon soup with campsite-made chicken stock, beans from scratch....


local shrimp from the Olympic Penninsula, one of only 3 commercial shrimpers in the area. these are like mini lobsters, creamy, fresh and delicious.



and they make one hell of an Inari-zushi with saguaro seeds.


Oysters on the beach on Orca Island in the San Juans.


Clamming on the beach in Tolmie State Park in WA: all the state parks are free day use here!



We've been trying all the different types of salmons; how different fish tastes when it is fresh, the sockeye here is an entirely different piece of meat than anything i have ever had before. Coho and Kind salmon we bought from the Portland farmer's market, hands down the best market i have ever been to, manageable and with tons of stuff, fresh fruits, veggies and meats and prepared foods. This is Pikes Place Market in Seattle and some of their displays; got the best salmon jerky i have ever had here, a belly strip of the king salmon, oily and delicous filled with that omega-3 lovin'.


King Ranch Cassarole lives on and on and on: this one gave us 6 meals, i almost never want to see another one.

Fish Tacos for Life

This fish is bigger than she is. Andrews in Homer, Alaska with a giant Halibut.

Of Horror Movies and Hoodlums

Keota, Co. The creapiest little "town" : one water tower, two houses.

The family

So many album covers, so little time. The Great Sand Dunes

...just cant wait to get on the road again.. . .

We sailed away from the port of Boulder, our hull slung low in the sea of construction, bikers and tail pipes. We cruised at an easy gait into Wyoming and then veered into uncharted waters. “A sick little ride,” it was in deed Margot, the 130 through a section of the Medicine Bow National Forest. Back up at 12,000 ft we suffered for our freedom in the now infamous Wyoming winds; the doggie ran free, mushrooms and wild flowers were popping, cold mountain streams tricking through every hill-valley. Osha was thriving in the open conifer forest, some in flower, some in seed. Neil found our first Bolete, that we positively identified and then tentatively sampled, well, Neil sampled it and I watched jealously hoping we had done our homework right, but knowing we had and looking forward to later that night when I too could savor the meaty and tender cap and stem. These mushrooms are a cross between a polypore and a gilled mushroom, having the shape of a gilled mushroom with the classic tube surface of a polypore. We have been playing with polypores for the last year being a class a mushroom where the mantra rings, “ all polypores are edible if you can eat them…” and well, we are adept at making a lot of things edible. We think we’re headed into Bolete country at the peak of season and couldn’t be happier about our luck.

What we aren’t so happy about is Idaho. We are traversing the southwest corner of the State and I have to say this place sucks. I am sure there are some very redeeming qualities to this state, but on interstate 84 cutting through factory farms, feed lots and the worst stench to ever fill my nostrils, I am not too impressed.



We snuggled up with out fellow travelers last night in the Jerome, Idaho Wal-Mart parking lot. I saw an old man in his overalls sitting on the stoop of his small RV taking in the evening air. Later as I walked creasy around the parking lot I smelled Campbell’s minestrone soup (an unmistakable childhood smell), I saw him inside with his indigent wife and I saw the plaque on their door: Gene and Muriel Childs. I pictured them living there in the Wal-Mart parking lot, their children and grandchildren pulling into empty parking spaces and knocking on their tin door. I cant say it was overly depressing, the more I see things like this the more I realize they are not isolated cases of life gone askew, its just reality, a reality I hope I never am forced to live. There’s freedom and then there’s desperation and that’s what I feel here in Idaho.

We’re headed toward Oregon, with our eyes on the prize: a nice place to camp where we can unload, reorganize and relax outside of the hubbub. Creasy doggie aka corndog foot has been really good. She hopped right up the first day into her little spot, curled up and slept the whole first day. This exhaustion is owed mostly to a little doggie named Charlie who is like Creasy’s long lost sister. Charlie is a blue healer/terrier mix and they are the same size, have the same tail and confirm my suspicions that Creasy seems part healer as they played for 36 hours and she fell asleep in her little cave in the van.




Life’s Tough On the Trail: Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.

Day 1: Traded tinctures for gasoline, side of bacon, gluten-free flour and buffalo meat. Ready to roll.
Day 2: Timmy got cholera and is sick; lose 2 days.
Day 3: Traded Indians for salmon, supplies low.
Day 4: At Snake River, hire a guide or caulk the wagon and float across?
Day 5: Creasy got bit by a rattlesnake, mom and dad ate corndog foot with salmon jerky to survive.