Fat Bars!

December 19th, 2009

In my continuing search for tasty delights that can be eaten on the trail on ski trips, I decided to revert to a old standby, the “fatbar”.   My last 40 mile day ski was a bit calorie deprived near the end, probibly due to getting sick of trail food.. even fruit pies loose their appear after a while.  Alas, most common treats are pretty much inedible at <0F temps.  Powerbars turn into bricks.  Snickers turn into iron bars of teeth breaking hardness.  Even the best candy bar looses its appeal when you have to suck on it for a extended period to warm it up enough to chew.. so thus the fatbar!  Fatbars are sort of a soft cake like thing that has soo much fat and sugar it never really freezes and is soft and edible at cold temps.  At -30F its fairly hard, but still chewable, rather than jaw breaking hard like lots of other treats. Here is a how to, with my assistants, Molly and Lizzy. First you mix up 2 eggs, 1cup pb, and 1/2 butter:

Next add the cake mix:

Stir and press into the bottom of a 9″by11″ pan:

Next mix up the filling, starting with the ingredients below, and adding whatever comes to mind, though if the goal is winter trip food keep in mind the ingredients should be eatable at cold temps – I would stick with chocolate, coconut, and other high fat foods.  Substituting white chocolate is a good call.

Next pour the filling over the crust, crumble some crust over the top (optional), and then bake.  After 20 minutes or so, remove from the oven and then cool.  

After its cooled, I transfer the fat bars to one quart bags for easy access snack rations.

These snacks are surprisingly tasty, though I was somewhat surprised to learn that the recipe originated in the Mid West as a desert.  I can’t imagine eating  these things while I am not on a trip… so much fat and sugar..

Many thanks to Margret for the recipe!

The Recipe:
Bottom Topping:
1 package of yellow cake mix
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup peanut butter
2 eggs

Filling:
2 cups (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup flaked coconut (optional)
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

In a large mixing bowl, combine the bottom/topping ingredients.  Stir until it becomes a dough that holds together.  Press 2/3 of dough into the bottom of an ungreased 9 X 13 pan.  (Reserve the remaining 1/3 for the top.)  Prepare the filling by melting the chocolate, condensed milk, butter, and salt over a low heat while stirring.  Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla and optional coconut and/or nuts.  Poor over the dough.  Crumble the remaining dough onto the top.  Bake at 350F for 20-25 minutes or until light golden brown.  Cool and cut into bars.  Serves lots of people in town, and only a few hard-working winter adventurers.

Notes:
I substitute white chocolate chips, and add 2x to 3x the amount of coconut, and sometimes use almond extract rather than vanilla.  Yum, yum!

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A Borealis-Lefauve Day Ski

December 14th, 2009

I had plans to do a overnighter at Borealis Lefauve Cabin in the White Moutains NRA last weekend but alas the folks who where coming all bailed due to other commitments. Since I had the cabin, I decided to do a day ski out there instead, with a stop at the cabin to warm up and relax. This turned out to be a wonderful way to spend a Saturday. The Whites were completely empty and I had the trail all to my self. Its always hard to predict how busy the whites are – I would have expected that it would be quite busy, as it was a fairly warm (+10f to -10f depending on how low or high one is ) calm day with clear skies. Perhaps the low snowfall is keeping the snowmachiners home.. In anycase, it was a great ski. The Wickersham Creek Trail is in great shape for skiing, though the snow was pretty abrasive and hard on wax. The normal overflow spots had a fair bit of overflow, fortunately it was the dry and hard. The 40 miles took me about 4 hours going in, and 5 hours going out, alas not particularly fast. I am afraid I am going to have to work a bit on my nutrition on these longer skis, as I was a bit energy deprived for the last couple of miles, but it all worked out and I arrived at the parking lot relatively intact.

Pictures follow, for the photo viewing inclined. We are now in the time of the year where the photos mainly consist of sunrise and sunset photos, due to the fact it is either dark or the sun is rising or setting. Which is all good, but it limits the picture taking a bit.

The sunrise, shortly after I left the parking lot, complete with a early morning raven.

A wee bit of overflow.

The overflow had fantastic ice crystal formations in all kinds of strange shapes.

The thermometer at the Trail Shelter half to the turnaround point said it was a balmy -10f.

Even more overflow.

The final bit of overflow.

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The twins go to Stiles Creek Cabin

December 7th, 2009

On a unnaturally warm Saturday, the family and I headed off to Stiles Creek cabin in the Chena River SRA. Molly and Lizzy got to ride in a sled hauled by the dogs and napped most of the way. It must be strange to go on ski trips by going to sleep as you leave the parking lot and wake up in at your destination..  We loaded up in the parking lot, strapped the girls (and Chicken, Lizzys latest stuffed animal friend) into the sled and took off.

The taking off part took longer than one would expect – getting the twins settled in, three dogs harnessed, and two adults onto skis takes a while, alas.

The Stiles Creek trail has been rerouted in the last year and has lots of switchbacks which slowed things down to a crawl occasionally as the sled tried to cut the switchbacks.  Eventually we made it past the switchbacks and things sped up a lot.

After a two hour nap, the twins woke up and demanded snacks.  Soon they were snacking on granola bars and dried pears while zipping along..  Ahh the luxury! 

Soon we arrived at the cabin, and the twins were taken out of their warm sled compartment and they got to help find wood, get the stove started, and of course more snacking. 

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After snacking came playing outside, even more wood gathering, and finally dinner, followed by more snacking (also known as desert).  We were joined in the cabin by Margaret and Trusten and their daughter Robin.  Robin and Trusten came via snow machine, and Margret via skis.

I had made a trip to this cabin as a day trip several weeks earlier and after a half hour I had the inside of the cabin above 0f, thanks to the plentiful quality of fire retardant wood (green birch and alder burn oh so well) left by the previous visitors.  We had left a plentifully supply of wood that one could actually burn, but to be prepared, I skied down the last hill dragging a nice dry spruce log.

Dinner was a tasty selection of mixed pasta and Parmesan cheese for the younger generation and Indian food and pasta with spicy peanut sause for the adults.  Yum, yum!

 The younger crowd  got endless fun out of the cabins loft.  The stairs were a big hit, as were the glow sticks.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jMeWF3d80Q]
After a night of goofing off and mellowing out, morning came and we had to pack up and head out.  The trail heads up a steep hill right out of the cabin, so we headed off on foot.  Lizzy and Molly were quite the troopers, and made it to the top of the hill unassisted (if you don’t count several rations of grandma’s fruit leather and a granola bar each as assistance).
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Robin and Trusten zipped away on their snowmachine, while we walked up the hill. Robin dropped a kitkat on the way out, which was very nice of her, as I was quite hungry.

Once up the hill the twins hopped into the sled and we zoomed off down the trail.

It was a little too hot for the dogs and they were less than happy going up one of the hills, but otherwise it was a uneventful ride out.

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More fun in the Whites

December 1st, 2009

Marsh, Tom, and I enjoyed a long day ski on Saturday in the whites. Marsh skied out to a little past the Trail Shelter, while Tom and I skied to Moose Creek cabin, skied a cross via  Moose Creek Trail to the Trail Shelter, then back out to mile 28.  We intended to catch up with Marsh and ski back out to the parking lot, but alas we were slower than anticipated, as the Moose Creek trail, although super scenic and very beautiful, was a slow tussock fest.  With a bit more snow Moose Creek trail would be a lot more fun.  It was a fairly enjoyable eight and a half hours of skiing, though not without some excitement.   I had partially ripped one of the bindings off of one of my skis last Monday and had not noticed it until we were around 18 miles in.  After it bit of tightening I made it out, but thinking about one of my skis falling off made the hills a bit more exciting.

The low angle morning sun, just over the Alaskan Range.

The midday sun, peeking though a stand of burned black spruce.

The setting sun, as seen from Moose Creek trail.

Remus and Tom, enjoying the a tussock free section of Moose Creek trail.

A less tussock free section.

The only litter find – a binky! 

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A training day..

November 24th, 2009

On a fine Monday morning Tom and I headed off for a 32 mile day trip, an out-and-back to Moose Creek Cabin in the White Mountains NRA. We are considering doing the White Mountains 100 and thought it would be a good idea to get some longish day ski trips in as training. It was a great day for a long ski – fairly warm and relatively calm by white mountains standards.
The area received a dump of snow the week prior and the trails were much improved.  The first 8 miles or so were quite well beaten down and after that the the trail was a bit narrow for fun skiing on the downhills but otherwise was in great shape. 

The final quarter of a mile or so to moose creek cabin was quite windy – this section of trail crosses a large open field and always provides a fantastic view.

We stopped at Moose Creek cabin for a bite to eat and got a little more excitement that we anticipated.  After we had been at the cabin for 15 minutes or so two snow machiners who had passed us earlier rushed up and joined us in the cabin.  One of the riders had hit a stump while riding in the 12″ of powder and was thrown off his machine, apparently breaking his wrist in the progress.  We helped him wrap up his wrist, gave him some ibuprofen,  and Tom loaned him a much larger mitten so he could keep his enlarged wrist warm..  He turned down my suggestions for splinting his wrist and headed back out to ride back to the mile 28 parking lot one handed.   I expect that was a supremely unpleasant ride out.


Our ski out was, on the other hand, fairly pleasant, but tiring of course.  As Tom put it, “I think I have earned a huge dinner and a nice lie down.”

According to our gps we had a moving average of 4.8 miles per hour and we beat my prevous personal best of 3 and a half hours into Moose Creek cabin, which was quite rewarding and a fantasic first training ski.

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Stiles Creek Trail day ski

November 19th, 2009

On a nippy Monday morning Tom and I set off for a day ski out to Stiles Creek Cabin in the Chena River SRA. It was fairly cold (-20f according to the thermometer at Pleasant Valley Store) but otherwise quite an excellent ski.

The Stiles Creek Trail had undergone some re-routing and we were looking forward to skiing the new sections.  The re-route made for some fantastic skiing.  Before the reroute the trail dropped off the final hill and descended steeply.  The new sections cut back and forth though the old trail and make the steep sections (once described to me by a fairly good skier as “the most terrifying thing I have ever skied”) very ski-able and quite fun.    This was quite a contrast to the original trail which could be quite terrifyingly fast.

Polar and Remus had a wonderful time running around and enjoying the smells.

Once we reached the top we were treated with fantastic views of the nearby ridges.    Once of the nice things about this trail is that it crosses a wide variety of the forest types that the greater Fairbanks area offers – it goes though birch groves, poplar trees, black spruce forest swamp, white spruce stands, and a small section of alpine ridge top.

The trail has a lot of climbing on the way into the cabin but the reward for this is a fair number of fun downhill sections on the way out.

After 8 miles or so we reached Stiles Creek cabin and ducked inside to warm up.  After about 30 minutes we had the cabin above freezing..  Which was enough to start drying off Toms pants.

The rest of the ski out was quite fun and much faster as there is a lot of downhill.
As mentioned earlier, the reroute makes for much more fun skiing. There were two sections on the old trail that were quite unpleasant. On the way in the drop off the ridge to the cabin was pretty hairy – it was steep and the trail was canted downhill which when combined together made for less than fun skiing. On the way out the final drop off the ridge was very steep and fast, with mistakes potentially rewarded by the trunks of large birch trees – this also made for less than fun skiing. Both these issues are fixed with the reroutes – the final decent to the cabin was rerouted with enough switch backs such that it is easily ski-able and the drop off the main ridge on the way out was also rerouted such that it is a lot less steep and with wide enough turns for easy skiing. Hurray! Major kudos to DNR for improving this trail!

More pictures follow, for the photo inclined.

The trail at the its high point.


Afternoon sun.

The sunset as we skied out.  We skied the last couple of miles in the dark, alas.

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