Maine Outdoor Living

Cheesy Potatoes with Sausage and Roasted Red Peppers

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Sat, 08 Aug 2020 11:25:00 +0000

Sometimes you try a recipe that you can tell has great potential, but something is missing. That happened to me with a recipe from Cast Iron Nation - a combination of sausage, potato, and roasted red pepper that looked delicious in the pictures, but the potatoes always seemed to be dry.

The other night, I attacked that problem by combining that recipe with the Cheesy Garlic Scalloped Potatoes recipe. The combination went over well on the first attempt, and I think the result is good enough to share. I hope you agree!

This meal is has a little spiciness that comes from the sausage, but its offset nicely by the creamy cheese sauce and potatoes. Even those with a low tolerance for "heat" should do fine with it.

Ingredients

1/2 lb bulk hot Italian sausage (no casings)
1 large yellow onion
1/2 jar roasted red peppers, cut in strips
1/2 Tub (4 oz) Rondelle garlic and herb cheese spread
1 cup milk
1 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp flour
1.5 lbs potatoes

Equipment

#12 Deep Dish Dutch Oven
Lid Lifter
Shovel
Spoon, knife, cutting board, etc.

Wash and slice potatoes into 1/8 to 1/4 inch slices. (Camping? Do this at home in a food processor and bring them to camp in a sealed plastic dish immersed in water.) Peel and dice the onion, and slice your red peppers.

Light 30 charcoal briquettes or so.

While the briquettes are heating, brown the sausage with the onion on a camp stove or the side burner of a gas grill. Add red peppers after the sausage is well browned and stir until they are mixed in and heated through. Remove and set aside.

Reduce the heat on your burner to low. Melt butter. Add flour and mix. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly. Once the mixture is smooth, add the cheese and stir until the cheese is melted, then add your potatoes along with the sausage, onion and pepper mix and toss until the potatoes are coated.

Bake about 30 minutes over the coals with about 10 briquettes below and 15 or so on top. Adjust your top heat as needed if it is windy. Be careful not to put too much heat below the oven to avoid burning. Stir every 5-7 minutes to avoid burning ingredients on the bottom of the oven.

Dinner is done when the potatoes are tender but not mushy. You might want to add a touch of milk and stir thoroughly if the sauce has thickened too much in the cooking process. Serve promptly.

Serves 4-5

Cheesy Garlic Scalloped Potatoes

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Sun, 06 Aug 2017 13:21:00 +0000

I made this recipe for the first time at a guys' weekend last fall, and the potatoes held up well with some outstanding charbroiled steaks and veggies prepared by the other guys on the trip. Recently I was reminded that I needed to post this recipe when one of the guys mentioned it at a party.

Ingredients

3 Lbs Potatoes
1 Small Yellow Onion
8-9 Oz Container of Rondelle, Alouette or Boursin Cheese
2 c milk (2% or whole milk)
3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tsp salt
Black Pepper

Wash and slice potatoes into 1/8" to 1/4" slices. (I did this at home in a food processor and brought them to our cabin in a Tupperware dish immersed in water.) Peel and finely slice the onion.

In a 12" deep-dish Dutch Oven over a dozen coals, melt butter and stir in flour. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add, milk, and salt. Add 4 more coals and cook until the mixture thickens enough to coat your spoon.

Add cheese and stir until it combines smoothly with the sauce. Then, drain and add potatoes and onions. Mix well. Cover and add about 18 coals to the top of the oven and cook for about 50-60 minutes.

Take care with your heat, as this sauce can break if you heat it too fast. The coal amounts mentioned above were on a cool fall evening in Maine, so you may want to reduce the quantities in warmer weather with calm winds.

These came out really well and all the guys liked them. The leftovers were decent, too.

Avoid Mistakes and Make Tin Foil Dinners that Actually Taste Good

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 14:00:00 +0000

Tin foil dinners are a staple of scout cooking, but far too often they’re made with a lack of imagination and honestly, a total lack of flavor. Making good tin foil dinners was always a focus of my annual Webelos outdoor cooking meeting. We’d invite the parents to come along, and I’ll always remember the shocked expressions of parents who had never had a good meal cooked in aluminum foil.

What goes wrong with tin foil diners? Any one of these things:

Undercooked: Too often the veggies are crunchy and the meat isn’t quite done. This usually happens because we’re either impatient or afraid of the next way to spoil dinner.
Burned: You might think this happens because your meal cooks too long or too hot, but there’s another reason dinner burns – a lack of sufficient liquid in your foil pack.
Greasy: Cooking cheap hamburger in a foil pack can make for a greasy meal, especially if you don’t have enough veggies and other ingredients in your pouch. If all you want is a hamburger, use a grill!
Just plain “blah:” Young scouts especially can be afraid of adding seasonings, but they really can make the difference between a tasty meal and a lousy one.

Individuality is a big part of the appeal of tin foil dinners, so I decided to share some success tips for avoiding these pitfalls, rather than a recipe. I hope they're helpful!

Tin foil dinners cooking on wood coals

Avoiding the Undercooked Tin Foil Dinner

Raw carrots taste good, but raw potatoes are awful and undercooked meat is just plain dangerous. If you do it right, there’s no reason why you need to pull that dinner off the fire before it’s done. Follow these tips in making yours.

Cut veggies and meat small. This is a no brainer. Things that are smaller cook faster. If you’re pre-cutting veggies, consider using the slicing wheel on a food processor to get thin slices of potatoes and carrots that will cook quickly.

Thin, flat foil packets are best. A big ball or banana shaped foil pouch doesn’t cook all that well because you have to push the heat through a thick pile of food and you have less surface area to apply heat to. Lay a generous sheet of foil flat, spread your dinner out on it, and then put another sheet on top, rolling up the edges for a good seal.
Consider pre-cooked meats. Using pre-cooked meats reduces the danger of food poisoning from under-cooked meats. This will also allow you to more safely use poultry and other lean meats in your tin-foil dinner, reducing the fat content. I like to use turkey kielbasa or smoked sausage in foil dinners. They’re pre-cooked, have lots of flavor, and are leaner than their pork and beef based counterparts.
Use sufficient liquids. Liquids in your tin foil dinner pouch make steam, which is more effective than dry heat at cooking the veggies in your foil pouch. Some examples of liquids I’ve used include a couple of tablespoons of undiluted cream of mushroom soup, beef bouillon, barbeque sauce mixed with soy sauce, or a mixture of Worcestershire sauce and catsup. Another way to get liquids into your dinner is to use generous amounts veggies that release a lot of water in the cooking process, like onions.
Cook it long enough. Foil dinners need at least a half hour to cook and often more like 40 minutes, depending upon how well you followed the steps above.

Avoiding the Burned Tin Foil Dinner

Believe it or not, fishing dinner off the fire before its fully cooked is not the best way to ensure you don’t burn it. There are really just three things you need to do to make sure your tin foil dinner doesn’t burn.

Use sufficient liquids. When it comes to food, moist heat doesn’t burn. Dry heat does. Use plenty of a liquid like the ones listed above so dinner doesn’t dry out and burn.
Double-wrap your meal. Using two layers of foil reduces the risk that you'll puncture your pouch and lose all those liquids into the fire.
Turn frequently. You also don’t want any one surface to sit on the heat source for too long at a given time. Doing so might limit the amount of liquid between dinner and the heat source and cause things to burn. Gently turn your dinner with a good set of tongs or mitts every 6-8 minutes.

Avoiding the Greasy Tin Foil Dinner

Foil dinners can be greasy. For those who would rather not eat all that fat at their evening meal, keep these things in mind:

Use leaner meats. If you’re making the classic foil dinner with ground beef, remember that 80 or 85% lean ground beef puts out a lot of fat during the cooking process. Use 90-95% lean ground beef for better results, or switch to one of the precooked sausages or poultry mentioned above.
Keep meat content below 30%. Boys will be boys. Left to their own devices, most will fill their pouch primarily with hamburger and add just a few vegetables if you force the issue. To keep the fat content in check and make the meal healthier you should have twice as much vegetable as meat.

Avoiding the Blah Tin Foil Dinner

Any adult who has tasted Spaghetti-O’s recently knows that most kids tend to like their food bland and won’t be apt to add much seasoning on their own. On the other hand, a little added seasoning can go a long way in making meals taste better. Be sure to put a few things out and encourage them to try them. Here are a few things I like in my foil dinners:

Taco seasoning: Kids who normally wouldn’t put any seasonings in their food will generally use some of this, so it’s a good choice for them. Just remember it has a very high salt content and supervise the use of it.
Garlic powder: Some like it, some don’t. I for one love the stuff on just about everything, especially beef and potatoes, which are mainstays of foil dinners.
Chili powder: If you like a little kick in your meal, a touch of this can add a lot of flavor.
Herbal salt substitutes: There are several mixed seasoning varieties out there marketed as salt substitutes. Most of them work very well adding flavor to a foil dinner.
Salt and pepper: This is the bare minimum seasoning, and you really should make sure they’re included when your scouts put their foil dinners together. Too often, the scouts won’t think of adding them on their own.

Dutch Oven Chicken Cordon Bleu One-Pot Meal

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Sat, 07 Mar 2015 14:00:00 +0000

Dutch ovens are not just for camping. I like to break them out for backyard entertaining here at home, especially in the summer months. When I first prepared this particular meal, it was for that purpose and I haven’t made it camping yet. Our guests raved about it, though, and I expect it will be a staple of our Dutch oven cooking for some time.

Apart from some fancy cutting of the chicken, it’s a pretty straightforward meal. If you are trying this for the first time on a camping trip, I’d recommend doing the cutting work on the chicken in advance, so you have a proper kitchen sink to wash up in between steps.

(Serves 8)

Ingredients

4 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 slices deli ham
4 slices Swiss cheese
1 cup bread crumbs
6-7 medium white potatoes
2 cups peeled cut carrots or short cuts
1 large onion, cut in chunks
2 tbsp EVOO
2 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp black pepper

Equipment

#12 deep-dish Dutch oven
lid lifter
shovel
8 toothpicks
assorted knives and spoons
liner paper (optional)

Prepping the veggies

Wash potatoes and cut into chunks. Peel and cut carrots and onions. Add all of the veggies to the Dutch oven. Add olive oil and garlic and toss until the veggies are coated. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and set aside.


Veggies prepped and ready to go.

Making the Chicken Cordon Bleu

First, butterfly your chicken breasts with a medium-sized knife, then cut them in half, giving you 8 pieces. Cut your ham and cheese slices in half as well. Fold these and stuff them inside the butterfly of the chicken breast portions so that none of the ham or cheese sticks out. Hold the chicken breasts closed with toothpicks.

Next, coat your chicken with bread crumbs. I just spread the crumbs on a plate and press the chicken into the crumbs. You can also put the crumbs and the chicken into a plastic bag and shake them, a couple at a time.

Completed Dutch oven Chicken Cordon Bleu

Cooking your Chicken Cordon Bleu One-Pot Meal

Arrange your completed chicken breast portions on top of the veggies and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. In warm weather with calm winds, that should be roughly 14 coals on top and 10 beneath your oven. If you’re not sure, err on the side of extra top heat.

Test the potatoes and carrots for doneness with a fork. If they’re tender, remove from heat and serve.

Enjoy!

My Son’s First True “Open-Fire” Meal

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 23:25:00 +0000

Last summer my youngest son, who is usually my most enthusiastic helper when cooking indoors or out, told us that he “had never cooked over a campfire” and really wanted to do so.

My first reaction, as you might expect, was “that can’t be,” but when I stopped and thought about it, I had to realize that aside from warming a hot dog on a stick he was probably right.

We’ve cooked dozens of tin-foil dinners and hundreds of meals in my Dutch ovens, but the vast majority of those were cooked using charcoal briquettes. To the extent that I’ve used wood coals from the campfire on my Dutch ovens it’s usually been because it was a windy day and my briquettes burned out before dinner was done.
We’d grilled more times than I could count, but most of the time I used (gasp!) a gas grill.
We’ve used pie irons and sticks to cook things over the open fire, but most of the time these were snacks, not meals.
I’d had tons of experience cooking over the open fire in scouts as a youth, but my boys’ troops cook with a propane stove for nearly every meal, unless I happen to bring my Dutch ovens along.

This was a situation my wife and I decided we had to fix, and so we bought a freestanding grill for my son’s birthday and I resolved to cook a complete meal over the fire with him, using absolutely no gas, no charcoal, and no pots or pans.

Step 1: Build the fire

My son has this one quite well nailed. His fires aren’t so much campfires as they are towering infernos. We have a large enough fire ring that it’s safe, so we let him run with it. Let one of his giant fires of oak cut from our yard burn down for about an hour, and you have a beautiful bed of coals for cooking. If you’re not as brave (or foolhardy) as we are, a more modest log-cabin style fire lay will do the trick, although you may want to start it earlier for optimum heat.

Step 2: Baked potatoes

Wash one nice russet potato per person with water and a stiff brush and wrap them, still wet, in two layers of aluminum foil. Bury these in the coals of your fire.

Baking potatoes partially buried in wood coals.

Step 3: Grilled corn

Remove the outer layers of the husk of each ear of corn, leaving 3-4 of the inner layers. Peel the inner layers back, remove the silk and replace the husks. Then, soak the corn for 10 minutes or so in lightly salted water. Reopen the remaining husk, spread some butter on the corn, close the husks and wrap each ear in a couple of layers of aluminum foil. Place these on the hottest part of the grill, turning occasionally for 15-20 minutes. For the best flavor, you want to caramelize the sugars in the corn, so don’t be afraid of getting them hot!

Corn grilling on the wood fire with baked potatoes in the coals.

Step 4: Steaks

When the corn has been on the grill for 10 minutes or so, move it to a cooler spot on the grill to free up the hot spot. Wet 2 small sticks of split dry oak (the splinters left over from splitting are perfect for this) and set them on the coals for an extra smoky flavor. Then add your favorite cut of steak. We used rib-eyes seasoned with Penzey’s Chicago Steak Seasoning. Depending upon how hot your coals are, about 5 minutes on each side should get a good steak to a medium temp. You’ll want to monitor this closely, because wood heat is unpredictable, and you don’t want to burn dinner.

Finishing up our wood-grilled summer feast!

If you’re not a big fan of steaks, we’ve subsequently done boneless pork ribs pretty effectively this way as well, using our favorite dry BBQ rub on the grill. If you’re going to try cooking chicken, leave the corn on the hottest part of the grill and cook your chicken longer in cooler parts of the grill to avoid burning it and ensure that it cooks thoroughly.

Dinner Time!

Remove the steaks and corn from the grill, then use tongs or a small shovel to remove the potatoes from the coals. Potatoes should be unwrapped from the foil, cut in half, and scooped out of the skins, which are usually pretty black, but the potato inside is deliciously baked. Also, use caution when removing corn husks, which will be very hot and can scald you – use gloves or wet your hands first with cold water and use a knife to cut off the husks, rather than ripping them off.

Enjoy! We liked this meal we did it a couple more times before summer was over. After a really cold, snowy February, I can hardly wait for the snow to melt so we can have it again!

Dutch Oven Mountain Man Breakfast

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Sat, 04 Oct 2014 13:47:00 +0000

The mountain man breakfast is one of those classic Dutch Oven recipes that most camp cooking enthusiasts make at one point or another. We make this pretty often on Boy Scout camping trips, and even some scouts and adults who usually don't care for vegetables will eat every bite of it. We like to serve this with biscuits that we cook in foil over the fire.

Ingredients

1 lb bulk mild pork sausage (no casings)
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 med onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2lbs frozen shredded hash brown potatoes
12 eggs
2 Tbsp water
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
12 oz shredded cheddar cheese

Equipment

#12 deep dish Dutch oven (8 quart)
lid lifter
large metal spoon
bowl and wisk for beating eggs
knife and cutting board
Charcoal (30 briquettes)

Directions

Start at least 30 charcoal briquettes.

While waiting for the briquettes to heat up, I usually start cooking on the camp stove to save time. Place your Dutch oven on the camp stove over medium flame and brown your sausage. Then, add onions, peppers and garlic and saute until the veggies are tender.

Add shredded potatoes. Turn with your spoon a few times until the ingredients are well mixed. Wisk together eggs, water, salt and pepper in a bowl and pour into the Dutch oven with the other ingredients.

At this point, transfer your Dutch oven to the fire. On a warm, calm day use 10 briquettes below and 14 on the lid, reserving the rest. Where there is a breeze or the weather is cooler, increase the number of coals. Cook until the eggs are firm - about 15 min. checking with a fork. At this point your casserole looks like this:

A Dutch Oven Mountain Man Breakfast casserole before cheese is added.

Next, sprinkle shredded cheddar over the top of your casserole, cover and return to the fire, cooking until the cheese is melted. Your finished casserole will look like the photo below. Remove from the heat and serve hot - delicious!

The finished Mountain Man Breakfast.

Cooking Biscuits

Normally, I serve this meal with hot biscuits. I've done this a couple of ways, including Bisquick or Jiffy baking mix prepared to package directions or a large ready-to-cook biscuit like Pillsbury Grands.

Arrange your biscuits on a sheet of aluminum foil. Place another sheet on top of the biscuits and roll the edges to form an envelope. I recommend double-layering the foil to prevent rips and tears. Place your foil package on the Dutch oven lid, coals or even a hot wood stove. Cook 10 mins or so, turning frequently.

Dutch Oven French Toast with Pecans

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Sat, 30 Aug 2014 10:40:00 +0000

I knew it was time to share this Dutch Oven French Toast recipe when my oldest son, who is not a breakfast eater, listed it as one of only two breakfast meals that brings him back for seconds. It makes a delicious "no syrup required" French toast with a pecan praline "topping".

This Dutch oven French toast recipe bakes with a brown sugar and pecan topping underneath. I usually flip this to the top when serving.

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
About 2/3 of a Baguette (French Bread)
8 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon

Cooking Equipment

#12 Dutch oven.
Liner paper
Knife, bowl, wisk and a spatula to serve
Lid lifter, shovel, briquettes

Directions

Before you begin, slice your baguette into 1" slices. This can be done in advance to save time in the morning.

Another time saver I find helpful is to start this meal on the propane camp stove while my briquettes are heating. Light at least 30 charcoal briquettes, then place liner paper in your Dutch oven and move it to the camp stove. Melt the butter, then add brown sugar and pecans and stir thoroughly. Remove from heat. Here's what your oven looks like at this stage:

Wisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla and cinnamon in a bowl. Dip the bread into the egg mixture and flip it over, so that it is saturated with the mixture, and arrange the slices on top of your brown sugar and pecan mixture, packing them in tight until the entire bottom of the oven is covered, like this:

Dutch oven French toast before cooking.

Pour the remaining egg mixture into the Dutch oven and cover. Arrange 10-12 briquettes below the oven and 14-16 above and bake until golden brown - about 30 minutes.

Top briquettes should be arranged around the perimeter of the oven initially to reduce the risk of over-browning. I recommend checking at 20 minutes to make sure things are going well, and possibly spreading briquettes over the whole lid at that time.

To serve, remove the liner paper from the oven and break off 2-4 slice servings with a spatula, flipping them over onto the plate.

Serves 8. For a larger crowd, you can double this recipe in a #14 oven, although you may need to double stack your bread slices.

Dutch Oven Dumplings with Easy Chicken Stew

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Sun, 22 Jun 2014 13:06:00 +0000

You know a recipe is a winner when the kids ask for it. When my oldest son requested this the other day and his very picky younger brother ate every last bit of a large bowl (even the Lima beans), I figured it was time to share this one.

This Dutch oven recipe makes a yummy if simple chicken stew with lots of dumplings on top and will feed 6.

Ingredients

Stew

3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 lb mixed frozen vegetables
2 quarts chicken broth, or 8 bullion cubes and 2 quarts water
2 tsp chopped garlic
1 medium onion, chopped
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup cold water

Dumplings

3 1/3 cups all-purpose baking mix
1 1/3 cup milk
2 tbsp melted butter, cooled
2 tbsp dried parsley flakes

Start your briquettes. While they are heating, mix dumplings according to package directions, add parsley, and set aside. Then, cube your chicken breasts.

Making Your Easy Chicken Stew

Arrange 10-12 briquettes under a #12 deep dish Dutch oven. In the bottom of your Dutch oven, sauté onions and garlic until the onions are tender. Add chicken and brown thoroughly.

Add chicken broth, bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. While the broth is heating, mix cornstarch and cold water in a cup or small dish. Add cornstarch mixture and frozen vegetables.

Put the lid on the Dutch oven with 14 briquettes on top and bring the stew to a brisk, bubbly boil. At this point, a little extra heat below the oven may also be helpful to speed up the cooking process.

Adding your Dutch Oven Dumplings

Once your stew is bubbling vigorously, it's time to spoon your dumplings on top of the stew.

Remove the lid from the Dutch oven and using a pair of serving spoons add dumplings. Use one spoon to scoop a generous amount of batter, then hold the spoon close to the surface of the stew and use the other to scrape the batter onto the stew, floating the spoonful of batter on the surface. Repeat until you've used all the batter. It's OK if there are gaps between dumplings. These will fill in as they cook.

Cover the oven and move your top briquettes to the outer edge of the lid and bake 10-15 minutes, checking periodically to be sure the dumplings don't burn. Dumplings can be checked with a fork for doneness.

Dutch Oven Roast Chicken and Foil Baked Veggies

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Sat, 19 Apr 2014 21:26:00 +0000

It's true that necessity is the mother of invention. I cooked my first full roast chicken in a Dutch Oven a few years back when a friend and organic food enthusiast brought an 8+ pound grass fed roaster on her first ever RV camping trip next door to our seasonal campsite. Lo and behold, the chicken wouldn't fit in her travel trailer's tiny oven, and it was up to me to get the bird cooked.

Fortunately, my maiden effort was successful, and I've added a few improvements in the years since. The recipe and photos below are for the dinner I helped Troop 817 scouts prepare when we were cabin camping at Camp Bomazeen last December. We were feeding a big group and did two birds, but I've reduced the quantities here for more of a family meal.

A pair of Dutch Oven roast chickens on our recent trip to Camp Bomazeen.

Although Dutch Ovens are known for one-pot meals, we cooked the veggies in foil on top of the oven. This approach shortens the time it takes to cook the bird, much like an un-stuffed turkey cooks faster than a stuffed bird. It also reduces the liquid you need in the pot, so you bake rather than steam, giving you a browner skin.

Ingredients:

Chicken

7-8 lb roasting chicken
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground sage
1/2 tsp ground thyme
1/4 tsp pepper
2 large onions

Veggies

6 medium potatoes
2 cups carrots, peeled and cut
1 medium onion
cooking spray
EVOO, or butter or margarine
salt and pepper

Cooking Equipment:

#12 or #14 deep dish Dutch Oven
lid lifter
shovel
aluminum foil
knives, peelers, mits
(optional) Dutch Oven liner paper
paper towels

Starting Your Dutch Oven Roast Chicken

Combine the dry seasonings. For camping trips, I do this beforehand in a snack-size ziploc bag. Remove neck, etc from an 7-8 Lb roasting chicken. Rinse and pat dry with paper towels, then sprinkle the bird inside and out with the seasoning mixture.

Line the Dutch Oven with liner paper for faster clean-up if desired. Cut 2 large onions into thick slices (rings) and use these to line the bottom of the Dutch Oven. They'll add some flavor and moisture and help prevent the bird from sticking to your oven.

Ideally, you want the temp inside the oven to be between 375 and 400. On the windy winter day that we cooked our chickens, that took a lot of charcoal. In the summer, start with the lid diameter plus 2 on bottom and the lid diameter plus 6 on top and see how it goes. Add more if necessary. Bake for 60-90 minutes, until the bird is fully cooked and juices run clear.

We had to get really creative when cooking in the strong winter winds at
Camp Bomazeen, using discarded tent platforms for a windbreak, and
borrowing a few blocks from a fireplace to make a cooking platform.

Cooking Your Veggies

There is ample time after the bird is on to prep your veggies. Spray a generous sheet of aluminum foil with cooking spray, then peel and cut your potatoes and carrots into bite-sized portions (the smaller they are, the faster they cook). Rinse and arrange on the foil. Chop your onion and add to the foil. Drizzle a little EVOO or add a few pats of butter on the veggies, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Spray a second sheet of aluminum foil and use it to cover the veggies, rolling the edges to form a pouch. It's usually a good idea to add a second later of foil outside the first to prevent you from losing half your meal because of a tear.

When your chicken has been going about 45 minutes or so, set your foil pouch on top of the the coals on your Dutch Oven lid. Cook 30-45 minutes, turning frequently. Wisps of steam escaping the corners of your foil pouch and the smell of cooking onions are a good sign that your veggies are nearly done.

Here, the foil pouches containing our veggies are shown
atop the two Dutch Ovens we used to roast chickens.

Finished Meal

Troop 817 gobbled this meal up after a long day of winter camping, so it was definitely a hit. Boys were even seen picking the bones clean after dinner. We also cooked a Dutch Oven apple crisp for dessert, but that's a story for another day's post.

A fellow camper carves the chicken before we served up our meal,
which was a big hit with the boys.

Dutch Oven Chili with Cornbread

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Wed, 05 Feb 2014 22:30:00 +0000

Chili is one of those meals that evokes memories of when I camped as a Boy Scout back in the mid-eighties. Ironically, though, it's not a meal I cook often camping anymore. It seems like most of the Scouts in my son's Boy Scout troop don't care for chili, and only two out of four members in my family enjoy it. As a result, it isn't practical to lug all the ingredients out on a camping trip. I decided to splurge for this past weekend's Super Bowl, however, and made a batch of Dutch Oven chili with cornbread.

Like most chili recipes out there, this one is my own concoction, but some of the elements, like cooking cornbread on top of the chili, were picked up from a fellow Scout leader and Dutch Oven enthusiast.

Cooking equipment for this recipe includes a #12 deep dish Dutch Oven, lid lifter, shovel, charcoal briquettes, mixing bowl and various measuring cups and spoons. Optionally, you may also want to use a camp stove for the early part of the cooking process.

Ingredients:

Chili:

2 large (28 oz.) cans diced tomatoes
1 large (2 lbs) can dark red kidney beans, rinsed
1 small (1 lb.) can black beans, rinsed
1 bottle chili sauce (you'll find this in the condiments section)
1 lb. ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
1 large green pepper, diced
1 cup sliced mushrooms
2 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp Olive Oil (opt.)
1 Tbsp Chili Powder (Additional to taste - I use a lot.)
Cayenne Pepper (If you like more heat.)

Cornbread Topping:

2 boxes Jiffy brand cornbread muffin mix
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk

Starting Your Chili

Brown your ground beef and set aside. This can be done quite well in the bottom of your Dutch Oven, although I usually cook it beforehand in a separate pan and carry the pre-cooked meat to the campsite.

To save on briquettes, I typically start the chili in the Dutch Oven on a gas camp stove or grill side-burner. This may not be necessary if you're cooking on an open fire. In the base of a #12 deep dish Dutch Oven, sauté the onions, garlic, and green pepper in the olive oil until the onions begin to soften. Add mushrooms and sauté a few minutes longer.

Add tomatoes, chili sauce, kidney beans, black beans, salt, and chili pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until bubbly. Here's what it looks like at this point:

Simmer for at least 45 minutes - longer if you'd like a less chunky tomato base. Add cayenne pepper or additional chili powder for your desired heat.

Adding the Cornbread and Finishing the Cooking Process

If you started your chili on the camp stove, be sure to light your briquettes about 45 minutes before dinner should be ready.

While the chili is simmering. Mix the cornbread muffin mix, eggs, and milk in a large mixing bowl. Set aside until you're almost ready for dinner.

Transfer your Dutch Oven to your briquettes, if appropriate. On a warm summer day, I'd use a dozen briquettes below and 12 above. I used quite a bit more on this winter day in the thirties. Your top briquettes should be arranged in a ring around the perimeter of the lid.

Bring the chili to a brisk boil, like the photo below.

For your cornbread to cook properly, the chili must come to a brisk boil.

Once the chili is boiling, use a large spoon to spoon the cornbread batter on top of the chili. Cover and cook, about 15 minutes or until the cornbread cooks through. The end result looks like this:

Completed Dutch Oven Chili with Cornbread on top - delicious!

Let the chili stand a few minutes, then serve. You'll find that this recipe is less sour than most due to the sugars in the muffin mix. Enjoy!

Cabin Camping at Camp Bomazeen

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Mon, 16 Dec 2013 22:00:00 +0000

Recently, I had the opportunity to lead a group of Boy Scouts from Troop 817 on a cabin camping excursion to Camp Bomazeen, a Pine Tree Council camp on Great Pond in Belgrade, ME.

While planning for the trip, I spent a fair amount of time looking online for information about the camp, which I had never been to. Unfortunately, there isn't much information about Camp Bomazeen on either the Pine Tree Council website or elsewhere online, so I thought I would share a bit of what I observed on our trip here.

Camp Bomazeen is on Horse Point Road in Belgrade. It's actually situated between privately owned houses which made for an interesting experience on this trip when one of our non-scouting neighbors had a rather large late-night housewarming party. The camp includes considerable waterfront with terrific views of Great Pond.

A view of the main waterfront at Camp Bomazeen, just out the front door of McCurdy Lodge.

Facilities

McCurdy Lodge

We stayed the weekend in McCurdy Lodge which is one of two cabins on the site equipped with wood stoves for winter camping. I didn't count the bunks, but according to the Council's weekend rental form, this cabin sleeps 28. It includes a large wood stove that was plenty to heat the cabin on the very cold and windy weekend we were there. The cabin also has a fireplace-wood stove conversion that we didn't use.

This large woodstove is the primary hear source in McCurdy Lodge at camp Bomazeen.

You do have to supply your own firewood. There is a latrine behind the cabin with electric lights an separate facilities for males and females. The cabin is also appointed with picnic tables, electric lights and enough outlets for adults to keep their phones charged.

We enjoyed our stay in McCurdy, my only cautions for groups staying here are:

There is no outside fire ring and the fireplace is closed up, which posed some challenges for us doing Dutch Oven cooking and we had to improvise.
There is only one room, which can be problematic if you're trying to adhere to the Guide to Safe Scouting's requirements for separate sleeping accommodations for males and females.

McCurdy Lodge from the North. The latrine is on the far left of the photo.

As I mentioned, the fireplace has been filled up with a plate-style conversion stove (below). Given that the cabin's main stove was plenty to heat the place, I'd have preferred this left open for that open fire feel and a place to cook with the Dutch Ovens out of the wind.

One thing units should be sure to do is create a plaque commemorating their stay. I hadn't planned on this and ended up carving one into a piece of scrap lumber. (Another leader traced my carving with a black Sharpie - see the below photo at top right). It's really fun to see these plaques scattered around the cabin and look for units and scouts that you know.

Pavilion Cabin

Pavilion is the smaller of the two winter cabins. It sleeps 16 and features a walled-off second room to accommodate separate sleeping accommodations for females as required by Guide to Safe Scouting rules. We were originally supposed to be in this cabin but were relocated by the camp ranger because it is marginally further from the road than McCurdy and the camp roads were not in the best shape.

This unit is heated by a single wood stove and has electricity. It's a short walk to the nearest latrine facilities.

Troops like ours that have camped quite a lot at Camp Hinds in Raymond or Camp Nutter in Acton could definitely enjoy the change of scenery at Camp Bomazeen. I only wish that the weather had been less windy when we were there so we could have enjoyed more time out and about. Happy camping!

How to Make a Simple Hobo Stove

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 18:02:00 +0000

It's name may not be politically correct, but "thrifty" scouts will appreciate the hobo stove for its economy. It is made entirely from cast-off materials with simple tools and requires very little fuel to cook simple meals. It's a time-honored cooking technique used by the homeless, hobos, backpackers and in survival situations.

Hobo stoves can be quite elaborate. My simple hobo stove can be made by young scouts as a project a scout meeting.

Materials & Tools

The tools and materials needed are simple:

A puncture-type can opener (see photo)
A hammer
A spike or large nail
An aluminum 3# coffee can or #10 aluminum can.
A small scrap of wire mesh or chicken wire
A vise and a 15-18" 2x4 are helpful as well

Step 1: Create vents at the top and bottom of the hobo stove.

Using the can opener, create several openings around both the closed end and the open end of the can. These will provide both the necessary oxygen supply at the bottom and a "chimney" at the top to allow smoke to escape. More openings are better, so take your time.

Making vent holes in the base of the hobo stove.

Step 2: Create vents along the side walls of the hobo stove.

Put your length of 2x4 in the vise with most of the extra length sticking out on one side. This will be used as a support for your can. Then using the hammer and nail, create extra vent holes in whatever design you like along the sides of the can. These provide some additional airflow as well as an opportunity to decorate your stove.

Using a hammer and nail, punch additional vent holes in the sidewalls
of your hobo stove.

Step 3: Use your wire mesh to create a "grille" for the hobo stove.

Since your cookware will most likely entirely cover the mouth of the can, the grille may not seem as though it is a necessity. On the other hand, it does provide some separation between the can and cookware and an additional route for smoke to escape.

For a grille, fold your wire mesh, chicken wire, or even an old wire coat hanger into a square-ish shape a little larger than the top of the can. This simply rests on the top of the can under the cookware.

This photo shows finished stove, grille, and cookware.

Step 4: Fueling the hobo stove.

The fuel for the hobo stove would make scant kindling for your typical cook-fire. Small twigs, small pieces and/or very small pieces of scrap lumber are all that is needed. This small pile was more than enough to cook a simple meal, and I ended up burning off the rest just to clean up the mess.

Fuel for the hobo stove consists of small scraps and twigs.

Step 5: Final preparation.

If you've never cooked over an open fire before, fair warning! Your cookware gets very black and the soot can be very hard to remove. Applying a little dish detergent to the outside of your cooking pan beforehand and spreading it over the entire surface with your fingers will make a huge difference at clean-up time.

Applying dish detergent to the outside of cookware helps keep soot from
permanently ruining cookware.

Time to cook on your hobo stove!

Kindle a small fire in the can. (I used a single sheet of newspaper as tinder and lit it through one of the vent holes.)

Once the fire is burning well, it's time to cook!

You can cook almost any simple meal on your hobo stove. In this example, I'm frying hot dogs and onions in a little margarine. I've also done baked beans and hot dogs on the hobo stove as well as making boxed rice dishes (such as Rice-a-Roni or Zataran's). You may need to add fuel from time to time. Be careful to handle your grille with a mitt or stick. It can get quite hot!

Hot dogs and onions cooking on a hobo stove.

This is one of those easy and fun projects, like the cardboard box oven, which fascinates scouts for its simplicity and highlights how cooking can be accomplished without fancy, expensive, heavy cooking equipment.

Dutch Oven Kielbasa with "Both Potatoes"

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Sun, 03 Nov 2013 20:24:00 +0000

I got the recipe for this Dutch Oven one-pot meal from the scoutmaster of another local boy scout troop several years ago, and have been making it ever since for both family meals and scouting events. It's quick, easy and popular with both boys and adults for its sweet and savory flavor and cooks up in 40 minutes or so in a #12 deep dish Dutch Oven (8Qt.)

This Dutch Oven recipe featuring low-fat turkey kielbasa is as easy as it gets.

Ingredients

3-4 medium white potatoes.
2 sweet potatoes.
1 large onion, sliced into rings.
1 turkey kielbasa
4 tbsp. margarine
2-3 tbsp. brown sugar
salt and pepper

Directions

There isn't much mystery to this meal, which makes it perfect for the kids to take the lead on. You just peel and slice your potatoes (the thinner they are, the faster they cook), onions, and kielbasa and put them in the oven. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and toss to mix. Then, add the butter in 4 or 5 pats to the top and sprinkle with brown sugar. For an additional veggie, carrots make a great addition to this Dutch Oven one-pot meal.

In 72 degree weather with calm winds, I'd add maybe 12 coals underneath and 16 above (temp of 375 or so) and cook for 40 minutes or until the potatoes and onions are tender,

Serves 6.

Bigger group? Double the ingredients in your #14 deep dish oven.

Two Ways to Hike Rattlesnake Mountain in Raymond

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Sat, 19 Oct 2013 11:55:00 +0000

Rattlesnake Mountain is the most common hike done by hundreds of Boy Scouts camping at Camp William Hinds in Raymond, ME each year. A climb up the mountain can afford some good easy-intermediate hiking and nice views of the surrounding lakes including Panther Pond, Thomas Pond, Crescent Lake and Sebago Lake. It's also a good family day hike that I highly recommend to anyone spending a few days in the Lakes Region.

This year, I climbed Rattlesnake twice with my youngest son and other boys from troop 817. We used two different routes to summit the mountain and climbed at two very different times of year. The two experiences each offered their own unique features, but I thought I'd present them together. Both trails are depicted on the map below, and a detailed description of our excursions follow.

View Maine Outdoor Living Trails and Campgrounds in a larger map

Our April hike followed the route marked in blue, while the fall hike followed the Bri-Mar trail, marked in red.

The Nubble Pond Trail

We first climbed Rattlesnake Mountain in late April, on a cool, sunny spring weekend before any leaves were on the trees. We are at Camp Hinds for a weekend camping trip at which we focus on advancement activities for the Tenderfoot and Second Class ranks. As it happens, a five mile hike is one of the requirements for Second Class.

For our five miler, we started in the parking lot across the street from the Messer Rotary Scout Training Center on Plains Road, and hiked down Plains Road to the trailhead (below). Right away, you notice the snowmobile signs and the sign that indicates the trail is on the property of Kingsley Pines camp.

One of the first things I noticed as I headed down the trail was a small brook to our right, which turned out to be the outlet of Nubble Pond.

Nubble Pond

A little further on, we came to Nubble Pond, which is a beautiful small pond with some very interesting cliff faces along its eastern shore. We got a good view of them as we hiked along the western shore of the pond. And took a short break to enjoy the view at the Northwest corner.

The real climb began. The trail, which is used by snowmobiles in winter, is quite wide and begins gradually at first, getting steeper as you continue up the mountain. At its steepest points, you find yourself grasping trees to help pull yourself up, but nevertheless the hike was manageable for our eleven year olds.

Overlooks

We ended up stopping short of the summit, which is tree-covered anyway and paused to enjoy the view from a granite ledge close to the summit. My photos from here are not the best, but you get a door view of Panther Pond and Thomas Pond from here, as well as a view of Sebago Lake in the distance.

We hiked back to the Training Center along our original route. In all we covered about 4.85 miles - close enough for the boys to have completed their requirements.

The Bri-Mar Trail

In September, we hiked a shorter trail called the Bri-Mar Trail. Whereas the Nubble Pond trail is accessible from the Plains Road, this trail is accessed from further north along Rte. 85. The trailhead is in a hay on your left as you head North, and a sign in the small parking area explains that the land is owned by the Huntress family and the trail is named for Brian and Marlene Huntress, who used to hike there.

Hitting the Trail

After the short walk across the field, you enter the woods, and enjoy a nice walk through the trees before. The trail forks a short distance in, affording you the option of a longer, more gradual slope or a shorted uphill climb. Take your pick, the two trails converge not too far on.

After the trails come back together, you come quite quickly upon an extended steep incline. You gain most of the altitude you're going to climb on this stretch, so take breaks when needed.

As you near the top, things level off almost as suddenly as the incline increased at the bottom. You do encounter a number of downed trees that need to be climbed over, but for this stretch the inclines are modest and down-hills come almost as frequently as up-hills.

Overlook

As you near the top there is a fantastic overlook with wide open views of Crystal Lake, Panther Pond and Thomas Pond. I'm afraid this panorama taken on my iPhone just doesn't do it justice. If what you're looking for in climbing Rattlesnake is a great view, this route definitely offers the best.

We hiked on a bit further until the our routes converged near the location of the overlook we'd visited in the spring. It was actually remarkable to note the difference with the leaves on the trees. We debated splitting up because a few of the boys wanted to hike out on the trail we had used in the spring. Unfortunately, we lacked adequate adult supervision to split into two groups, so we went back the way we came.

In all, this hike was much shorter than the first - a round trip of about 2.5 miles. It made for a great afternoon hike however, and was perfect for the time we had available.

Both trails are great. If you can leave vehicles at each end of the trail and hike the whole thing, I'd definitely try that. If not, the Bri-Mar trail is probably the one I would do first, since it offers the best overall view and is a shade better marked.

Chicken Dutchilladas: Mexican Inspired Camp Cooking

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Tue, 27 Aug 2013 00:33:00 +0000

In addition to being big fans of Dutch Oven cooking, we love Mexican food. This recipe for Chicken Dutchilladas gives us the opportunity to combine the two and enjoy a Mexican inspired meal while camping, beyond the basic quesadilla.

The original recipe was Scouting magazine's grand price winner in a Dutch Oven main dish recipe contest a few years back. Mine uses red enchilada sauce instead of green sauce and reduces the quantity of sour cream. We like the red sauce better and find that the reduced amount of sour cream helps the dish hold together better when cut.

Chicken Dutchilladas (right) and Chocolate Lava Cake near completion.

Ingredients:

3 Boneless skinless chicken breasts, pre-cooked and shredded
1 Large can red enchilada sauce
12 Tortillas (corn or flour)
Cooking spray or vegetable oil
1 Cup sour cream
1 Package dry ranch dressing mix
3 Cups shredded Mexican blend cheese
1/2 Cup black olives, sliced

You'll also need:

#12 Deep dish (8 qt.) Dutch Oven
Oven liners or aluminum foil
Griddle or frying pan
Paper towels

Start by browning the tortillas in cooking spray or oil on the stovetop. A griddle works best because you can do two at a time, and I find the process time consuming otherwise. When you're about halfway through this process, pause to start your briquettes. Then complete the process of browning tortillas.

Next combine your pre-cooked chicken, olives, sour cream, ranch dressing, about 1/3 of the sauce and about 1/3 of the shredded cheese in a bowl and mix.

Put liner papers or tinfoil in the bottom of your Dutch Oven. This will aid removal of the meal from the oven later on and also speed clean up. Wet the bottom of the liner paper with a little red sauce and the layer 3 tortillas with a small amount of red sauce between each. Then spread one layer of the chicken mix, and top with a little cheese. Repeat this process two more times, until the chicken mix is gone. Then top with three more tortillas, remaining sauce and remaining cheese.

Bake in a 350 degree Dutch Oven for 30 minutes or until the meal is hot all the way through and cheese is melted.

Remove from the oven and slice into wedge-shaped servings. Enjoy!

Pie Iron Pizzas are a Fun Way to Get Kids Involved in Outdoor Cooking

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 10:53:00 +0000

An important component of getting children involved in the outdoor cooking process is making it fun. We learned this one at Cub Scout Day Camp a few years back, and we've found it to be a really fun and easy before dinner snack around the campfire even now that the boys are older.

What You'll Need

The ingredients and tools for this one are simple:

A pie iron (or one for each kid if you can)
A tube of ready-made biscuit dough (the smaller variety, not "Grands")
Ragu Pizza Quick or similar pizza sauce
Shredded mozzarella
Your favorite toppings
A spoon
Cooking spray

You'll want to have a good fire going for a while before you start, so that you have a decent bed of coals to cook on. If you can't have a campfire where you are, this works on charcoal briquettes as well.

Step 1. Spray the inside of your pie iron with cooking spray. Open your tube of biscuit dough and flatten 1 of the biscuits, then put it in the pie iron and close.

Step 2. Place your pie iron in the fire on the hot coals. Let cook just a couple of minutes, then turn your pizza crust over to cook the other side. It's usually best to check for donness frequently, because temps on a wood fire can be pretty hot. You'll also find that the first pizza takes longer than later ones, so be careful not to burn your second helping.

Step 3. Add sauce, cheese, and toppings and you're done. Enjoy!

Canoeing the Headwaters of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 13:36:00 +0000

Recently, I had the opportunity to take a 50+ mile canoe trek along the Allagash Wilderness Waterway with 7 Boy Scouts and two other adults.

Since no one on the trek was experienced in planning a lengthy trip such as this one, we decided to go through Maine High Adventure, a wilderness camping program for scouting groups sponsored by the Katahdin Area Council and run out of its base at Grand Lake Matagamon. The base provided most of the required equipment and food, a guide, and help planning the trip. In addition to the Allagash route we chose, the base offers several other treks including the East and West Branches of the Penobscot River, the Aroostook River, and other less traveled routes in the Maine North Woods.

Day 1 Outfitting and Shakedown

We spent our first day at the Maine High Adventure base getting outfitted, planning our trek, and refreshing our canoe skills. We then settled in for the night at one of the base’s “trailbound” campsites, and spent a little time cliff jumping in the evening.

Day 2 Chamberlain Thoroughfare

The next morning we paddled our canoes across Grand Lake Matagamon to start our journey. Upon reaching the landing we loaded our gear into the van for the 3+ hour ride to Chamberlain Thoroughfare. We saw a moose and several deer in the early part of the drive, which involved driving around Baxter State Park to Millinocket. We then used lumbering roads to head into the North Woods: First the Golden Road, and then the Telos Road. Finally, we reached the Chamberlain Ranger Station and had lunch at the landing before making the short paddle to our first campsite.

Originally we had intended to stop at the “Boy Scout” campsite on Chamberlain Thoroughfare. This site, originally constructed exclusively for scout use, is now open to the public. Interestingly, however, it was occupied and we had to relocate to “Thoroughfare” campsite, an adjustment that is apparently common on the Allagash where all sites are first-come, first-served, but it was the only such adjustment we had to make. We spent the afternoon in the water around the site, swimming and fishing.

Day 3 Chamberlain Lake

For our first full paddling day, we had planned an 8 mile paddle northwest along Chamberlain Lake. We set out early in the morning paddling up the rest of the Thoroughfare, and I paused once or twice to take photos of the great views of Katadhin and The Travelers at our backs.

Unfortunately, when we reached the main body of Chamberlain Lake we were met with a strong headwind out of the northwest with gusts of 15-20mph. This slowed our progress. We hugged the shoreline for the first four miles, stopping several times at campsites on the shore and reached Gravel Beach campsite after a few hours, for a snack break.

Upon leaving Gravel Beach, we decided to try paddling into the wind to a point a couple of miles up the lake. A few days later with better balanced crews this might have worked, but unfortunately our stronger crews found themselves stopping frequently to wait for our weaker teams, and eventually we had to turn back toward Gravel Beach, where we set up camp in hopes of better weather to come.

Day 4 Chamberlain Lake to Eagle Lake

The next day was sunnier,but high winds still hampered our progress. This time we hugged Chamberlain's western shore to stay sheltered from the wind and made good progress. We stopped at a pebble beach along the route for a break and saw moose tracks on the beach, then pressed on, easily making our prior day's goal while it was still quite early in the morning.

While we were parked along shore for a brief hydration break, the ranger stopped to chat with us, and we ended up hitching a ride with him across the lake to Lock Dam. We loaded first the packs, then the canoes onto his center console power boat, and he carried us across two canoes at a time.

It's easy to look back and say that we should have made the crossing, but the prior day's experience was fresh in our minds and we had 12 miles to cover that day. It’s important to understand your crew's limitations, and the ranger was pretty clear that he’d rather help us out this way than rescue us if we got into trouble. It's an important lesson for everyone to avoid letting your pride get in the way of a safe and successful trip.

Lock Dam

An interesting feature of Day 4 was our brief visit to Lock Dam. This dam was originally built to reverse the flow of water from Chamberlain Lake, sending lumber south to Bangor’s mills instead of north to Canada. Later, locks were added here to lift lumber from nearby Eagle Lake, but were discontinued after a few years in favor of a mechanical tramway. Almost no sign of the locks are visible today other than the lock keeper’s cabin, which now serves as a ranger’s cabin.

The earthen "Lock Dam" was built to send lumber south.

After a short portage around the dam, we continued on to Eagle Lake for another lengthy paddle, hugging the shoreline. Due to a miscommunication, we missed our intended stop at The Tramway, but made it to Hidden Pine campsite by 5:30 PM, getting us back on schedule with our trek plan.

Hidden Pine is one of the roughest campsites we experienced on the entire trek, offering very little level ground to pitch your tent. If you find yourself in the area, I highly recommend the short additional paddle to Priestly Point, just a few hundred yards further along the trail.

Day 5 Eagle Lake to Churchill Lake

Beginning on this, our third serious paddling day, traveled smaller lakes with markedly calmer winds. The calmer water conditions afforded us more opportunities for viewing wildlife, fishing, and photography than we had experienced before. We saw several eagles in flight and fishing on this day, which were unfortunately too fast moving and too distant to capture with my compact camera.

It's difficult to make out the fishing bald eagle above and to the right of the red canoe.

We made an early stop at Little Eagle campsite to check our maps, and found that the last camper had made quite a mess in the site, leaving beer bottles and the remnants of fireworks, which are illegal in the North Woods, all around the site. Our scouts spent some time cleaning these up before moving on.

We also paused on the shore of Churchill Lake for an attempt at canoe sailing. This process involves using canoe poles (yes, I said poles, see a video of a Maine Guide canoe poling) and ropes, together with our dining fly, to sail four “rafted” canoes. This was the first time on the trip we’d had the wind at our backs, but unfortunately they were inconsistent and gusty, making for poor sailing, and our attempt was short-lived.

Our brief attempt at Canoe Sailing.

We landed at The Jaws campsite quite early in the day. Unlike the prior night, this was one of the best sites we encountered, featuring three distinct campsites, all of which were level and grassy, and a broad sandy beach, where our crew enjoyed a swim and canoe swamping contest. We also had our best moose sighting (a Cow and Calf) since our van ride on day 2.

Day 6 Churchill Lake to Umsaskis Lake

We set off early the next morning for the short paddle from The Jaws to Churchill Dam in order to be at the head of the line to run the rapids on the Allagash River. The water was very calm that morning and we were fairly close to a moose and several loons in the mile or so we had to travel.

A cow moose feeding at Churchill Lake

Scout and Scouter pause to observe wildlife.

The rangers at this site offer a portage service. For $10, they haul your gear past the rapids so that you can run the whitewater without risking damage or loss of your gear. We took advantage of this service, then portaged our canoes and safety gear around the dam. We had about 45 minutes to wait after the dam had been opened for the day, and during the wait, we saw three moose, including a cow and calf swimming across the lake above the dam.

Moose above Churchill Dam.

Moose swimming above Churchill Dam.

When we got the all clear, we pushed off. This stretch of the Allagash has about a mile of class 2 whitewater, followed by another three miles of class 1 whitewater and quick water. In spite of being whitewater novices, we weathered the water without taking an unintended swim. Whitewater paddling is a lot of fun. If you've never tried it I'd encourage you to give it a go on a stretch like this with low to moderate difficulty and long enough to really get a feel for what it's all about. We then picked up our gear at the site of the washed-out Bisonette Bridge, and continued on through calmer waters into the twisty, almost swamp-like area where the Allagash feeds Umsaskis Lake.

Umsaskis itself is small and shallow compared to most of the lakes we traveled over our journey. As a result, we reached our final campsite, Sandy Point, early. Two of this location's three camping areas are grassy and comfortable, although the third feels a bit like a gravel pit. Fortunately, we were the first there and had our pick of sites and time for some much needed downtime before dinner. Although we didn't spot any moose at the site, we did see several jackrabbits, and signs that moose had been in the area.

Day 7 Return to Base

On the final morning, the crew staged a short canoe race between the campsite and the bridge under the Realty Road, then put in at the ranger's station to wait for the van back to the base. This van ride followed logging roads to Ashland, and Route 11 from Ashland to Patten.

We made a short stop in Baxter State Park to cool off at some natural waterslides before getting out at the landing at Grand Lake Matagamon to paddle back to Maine High Adventure on the other side of the lake.

In all, our trek covered 53 miles including our two Matagamon crossings. Some days, we came off the trail exhausted and it seemed like we never had a chance to slow down. Other days were calmer. I think it is those days the boys enjoyed most, because it gave them a chance to make the trip their own.

Our full journey is shown in the map below.

Map of Our Trek

View Maine Outdoor Living Trails and Campgrounds in a larger map

View the South Branch Pond Trail Map

Hiking and Rock-Hounding in Western Maine

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 13:12:00 +0000

Harvard, Tamminen, and Waisanen Quarries

Western Maine is a mineral rich area with rich deposits of amethyst and tourmaline as well as a variety of useful minerals such as mica, feldspar, and quartz. As a result, the area has a number of interesting sites you can visit if you are interested in geology, history, or just a good hike.

One such group or quarries, owned by the Perham family, are in the area in and around Greenwood and West Paris. At one time, the family owned a jewelry store at the corner of routes 26 and 219 in West Paris where you could pick up quarry maps and learn about the area's geology in addition to making a few purchases, but sadly the store has since closed. You can download a pdf copy of the Perhams of West Paris Quarry Map.

We've visited Harvard Quarry, Tamminen Quarry, and Waisanen Quarry several times while camping at Littlefield Beaches Campground. They are relatively easy to find, if a bit off the beaten track. We've tried a few times to locate the Nubble Quarry as well, but have had no success finding the trail head. The Whispering Pines Quarry, while closer to the main road than the others, was further from our base camp, and we've never tried to visit it.

Visiting these quarries is a load of fun for young boys. We've done it as a family outing and later brought Cub Scouts on a day trip here. Bring a bucket, hammer, and safety classes, and perhaps a small shovel, and let them pick through the waste piles. The boys bang away at the rocks and find "treasures" of their own.

Below is a brief description of the three quarries we've visited as well as a few photos. For more information on the quarries and directions on how to find them, download the Perham family quarry map.

Harvard Quarry

This quarry is my favorite of the three that we've visited for the scenic views available at the site and the short hike to get there - a twenty minute climb.

The trail to Harvard Quarry

View from Harvard Quarry

First developed in 1870, and mined by Harvard University in 1917, Harvard Quarry is known for its deposits of purple apatite, green tourmaline and black tourmaline, garnet, beryl, quartz and cookeite. After visiting the quarry a couple of times with our boys we visited the Harvard Museum of Natural History in Cambridge, Massachusetts and seen samples collected at the site. It was nice for the kids to see the connection.

Waisanen Quarry

This quarry is just off the road, just two or three minutes walk on a gradual downhill. It's usually filled with water, but the dump pile is fun for the kids to explore.

Exploring the mine dump at Waisanen Quarry

This quarry was mined for mica and feldspar starting in 1931. Smoky quartz, purple apatite, bertrandite, gem quality tourmaline, and more have been found at the site by Frank Perham beginning in 1961. It lacks the great views available at the Harvard Quarry, but is great for its accessibility and the boys still enjoyed banging away at the rocks with their hammers looking for samples.

Tamminen Quarry

Just a tenth of a mile beyond the Waisanen Quarry, the Tamminen Quarry, this quarry is also very accessible.

Tamminen Quarry was mined commercially for Feldspar beginning in 1930, and is named for the late Nestor Tamminen. It features some really interesting quartz crystals as well as several other minerals.

Make a Cardboard Box Reflector Oven

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 19:49:00 +0000

There's no surer way to impress Cub Scouts with outdoor cooking than to tell them you're going to bake their favorite treat in a cardboard box.

As outdoor cooking methods go this is more stunt than practical, but it does pique the interest of young Webelos and their parents and is actually quite easy to pull off. We usually make the oven in a den meeting, and cook in it the next week as part of our Outdoorsman activity badge. Here's how you can make one:

Cardboard Box Oven Tools and Supplies

One cardboard box - approximately 22" x 15" x 11"
Aluminum foil - Have a full roll on hand, although you may not need it all
A few heavy wire coat hangers
1/4" light-duty staples (for a staple gun) separated from each other
Duct tape
2 disposable aluminum pie plates
A utility knife or heavy scissors (for cutting cardboard)
A pair of heavy wire cutters or lineman's pliers

Making the Oven
1. Start by cutting one of the short flaps on the open end of the box down to 2-3 inches. This will be the top edge of your reflector oven.

The short flap will hold your doors closed.

2.       Cover the inside of the box with layers of foil as follows:

A.     Bend a short piece around the four corners of the side walls, a small amount should also overlap the back wall of the oven. Secure by pushing staples through the foil by hand at an angle.

B.     Stretch long pieces from the outside of the short (top) flap to the outside of the opposite flap, carefully tucking the foil into the corners so that the entire top, back, and bottom of the oven are covered and about 3" of foil are wrapped around to the outside of the oven. Be sure to overlap all pieces and leave no cardboard exposed. Inside, attach by pushing staples though by hand. Outside, secure the ends with duct tape.

C.      Stretch pieces from the outside of one long flap to the other long flap (side to side) being sure to overlap your pieces. Tuck carefully into corners and secure with staples inside and duct tape outside. The entire inside of the box should now be covered in foil.

There should be no exposed cardboard inside the oven.

3. Create a baking shelf about 1/3 of the way down from the top by straightening and cutting wire coat hangers into straight pieces and pushing them through the box from left to right. Use a ruler to ensure that the shelf is the same distance from the top corner on each side and your baking pan is level. Bend the ends of the wires to hold them in place.

4. If the wires sag, you can strengthen the shelf by weaving a couple of additional wires from front to back of the oven through the wires installed in step 3.

The baking rack in the carboard box oven is
made with coat hangers.

5. Place one pie plate upside down at the base of the oven, and the second one right-side up on top of it. This will hold the charcoal briquettes that are used as a heat source.

The lower pan keeps the extreme heat from the briquettes
away from the flammable cardboard box oven floor.

6. Close your long side flaps first, and use the shortened top flap to hold them closed.

Exterior of the completed oven.

You have a completed Cardboard Box Reflector Oven!

Baking in the Cardboard Box Oven

In theory, you should be able to bake just about anything in this oven, with the only constraint being the oven's small size and lightweight construction, which will by no means support a heavy load. I usually opt for simple items that are easy for the scouts to make, like brownies or cornbread from a pre-packaged mix.

You may need to experiment with the heat, but usually I find that 4-6 briquettes preheated until they are mostly white are about right for 350 degrees on a New England summer day. Preheat these outside the oven and then place these in the top pie plate and your baked goods on the rack in a disposable foil pan. A small shovel can be used to transfer preheated coals into the oven.

Rosemary Garlic Roast Chicken

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 02:11:00 +0000

This is one of the first meals I learned to cook in a Dutch oven, and is still one of my favorites. Like many Dutch oven meals, this one is a complete meal in one pot - and it's easy. I got this recipe from a fellow scout leader and his wife, who made it for us several years ago. It's been a perennial favorite of ours ever since.

Ingredients are as follows:

4 split chicken breast halves, skin on
1 stick butter, softened
2 tsp chopped garlic
5 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 med onions, peeled and quartered
5 lg potatoes, skin on, washed and quartered
5 lg carrots, peeled and cut into 2' chunks
Salt and Pepper

Start the briquettes. While they are heating, place potatoes, carrots, and onions in the bottom of a #14 deep dish Dutch oven and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Set aside.

In a bowl, combine butter and garlic. Strip the leaves off two of the sprigs of rosemary and the thyme and mix into the butter garlic mixture. Rub the mixture on the chicken breasts, especially between the skin and the meat. Place the chicken on top of the vegetable. Garnish with remaining three rosemary branches. Cover and bake at 400 degrees for about 45 minutes or until carrots are tender, skins are browned and juice from chicken runs clear.

There will be quite a bit of liquid in the bottom of your oven when the meal is cooked, so you can err on the side of adding more briquettes than you normally would without running the risk of burning anything. There is no need to add any extra liquid.

An Appalachian Trail Day Hike to Piazza Rock

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 12:21:00 +0000

The highlight of our weekend in the Sugarloaf and Rangeley Lakes region was our afternoon day hike on the Appalachian Trail. There are a number of day hikes available as the AT passes through the area; we chose Piazza Rock. Piazza Rock is an unusual overhanging horizontal boulder that's part of a glacial deposit of granite deposited on the slope of Saddleback Mountain. The hike in is approximately 1.8 miles of fairly easy terrain, although it naturally gets quite a bit more vertical - and challenging - for the last quarter mile.

Trailhead

You'll want to park your car at the Maine Appalachian Trail Club's parking lot on Route 4, which 4-5 miles south of Rangeley on the right hand side. Cross Route 4 and head east on the trail. For the most part, you'll be following the main AT trail - a white blaze with a dark colored box around it, only branching off in the last quarter mile on the side trail for Piazza Rock, marked with a blue blaze.

You're greeted almost immediately with the first (and biggest) of several water crossings on the trail. The water here rushes through a channel that appears to have been the site of an old mill wheel.

Appalachian Trail river crossing near Route 4.

Following the Trail

After crossing the river there is quite a steep incline with log stairs which were washed out when we were there. This made for a fairly difficult start, but after this initial rough spot the trail ascends more gradually through the forest. It's shady, and quite a comfortable hike which was welcome on the unusually warm Columbus Weekend that we were there. For the most part, it's an easy walk. There are, however, a number of minor brooks crossing the trail and some rather long muddy, swampy areas which the trail crosses with log bridges.

Log bridges keep your feet dry on the AT.

For the most part, we found that these were in good repair, and we were thankful for this work by the Maine Appalacian Trail Club. These areas do seem to go on forever at times, though, and they stop and re-start a couple of times. The brooks, in most cases, had to be crossed by picking your way across on stones - in some cases this made for some amusing family moments.

The trail crosses a dirt road at a point between two of these log - bridged areas, so it's possible to shorten your hike in if you're more interested in the geological formation itself than the hike. We didn't research this so I don't know the name of the road.

Appalachian Trail Stop-Over

The trail to Piazza Rock splits off from AT about a mile and a half in. You can go in several directions at this point, including Piazza Rock, the peak of Saddleback Mountain and more. One feature of this trail junction that is worthy of a pause to mention is the Piazza Rock campsite - another project maintained by the M.A.T.C. The site features a number of tent platforms that groups can use when hiking along the AT, as well as a lean-to for use by through hikers and most importantly for the day hiker, a clean toilet facility. The site is a few hundred feet past where the Piazza Rock trail splits off, but it's worth pausing to check out, even if you're not in need of its facilities. I'd especially recommend visiting the lean-to and browsing through the site log, where day hikers and through hikers alike have written about their visits to the site. Please be sure to leave the log where you found it, and the site as you found it!

The Piazza Rock campsite lean-to.

Piazza Rock

The final hike in to Piazza Rock gets steeper almost immediately after the side trail breaks off from the AT, but it's a short climb. Yet another brook babbles along the side of the trail here. I indulged in a brief movie of it on my phone:

Piazza Rock itself is something to see. It's a giant slab of granite cantilevered horizontally out from the mountainside. There are even a number of small trees growing on top of it. It's possible to get on top of the stone, but we didn't try for safety reasons with our kids.

Piazza Rock

Like many similar deposits of granite boulders, the area around Piazza Rock features a number of crevices that kids can climb through and explore. My boys had quite a bit of fun in them. Remember though that there are a lot of steep places where you can fall, and keep a close eye on children as they explore.


We had to climb through this crevice to access the top of Piazza Rock.

The boys didn't want to leave, but we hiked back out in the same direction from which we had come. I definitely recommend this hike for families visiting the Rangeley area.

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A Fall Weekend in the Rangely Lakes Area

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 11:23:00 +0000

Over Columbus Day weekend, our family made a visit to the Sugarloaf/Rangely Lakes region of Maine. We stayed for the weekend at my father-in-law's hunting camp, a short distance from Sugarloaf mountain and made a couple of day excursions to enjoy the foliage season and hike the Appalacian Trail.

Dad's camp was a true old fashioned Maine hunting camp: a one-room cabin with gas lights, range and fridge plus a woodstove for heat. More spacious and comfortable than a tent, but still roughing it without the benefits of electicity or running water. It served as an excellent home base for our weekend travels, which extended from Sugarloaf Mountain on Route 27 to Saddleback Mountain on Route 4, about 44 miles away. Much of the weekend was about sightseeing and enjoying the foliage, but we did get in a really nice day hike on the Appalachian Trail to Piazza Rock that will be the subject of my next post. For now, I'd just like to share a few photos we took over the weekend. The area is really beautiful, and offers some great opportunities for skiing, hiking, fishing and camping.

View Maine Outdoor Living Trails and Campgrounds in a larger map

Sugarloaf

We arrived late in the day on Saturday, but set out to explore Sugarloaf Mountain anyway. As it turned out, Columbus Day Weekend is the ski resort's "Homecoming Weekend" when Sugarloafers come back to buy their season passes for the upcoming ski season. This meant that the mountain was very busy, and it took some time to find parking, but it also gave us the opportunity to enjoy a free ride on the Quad. It was a great way to enjoy the mountian views in the late afternoon, when we didn't have time for a hike.

Looking east from the Quad lift at Sugarloaf.

Flagstaff Lake

The next morning we started out on a drive to the Appalachian Trail parking lot on Route 4, where we had a day hike planned to Piazza Rock. We made a few stops along the way to enjoy the scenery and take a few pictures including this one from the western end of Flagstaff Lake.

Rangely Lake

Our next stop was in the town of Rangely, where we stopped for a few minutes in the public park by the boat launch. The park features some great views of Rangely and the lake and has a well maintained boat launch which we're planning to come back to next summer. Signs on the bulletin board near the launch indicate that the lake is overstocked with Landlocked Salmon, and I'm looking forward to landing a few next year.

Our next stop was a scenic overlook on Route 4 with a great view of the lake. I spliced together a couple of shots below to try and capture the panoramic view from this spot:

Panorama of Rangeley Lake from the Scenic Overlook on Route 4

We pressed on about 4 miles from here to the Appalacian Trail parking lot on Route 4 where we stopped briefly for lunch before making the 3.6 mile round trip day hike to Piazza Rock.

Buck's Ledge and Lapham Ledge: Two Family Friendly Hikes in the Western Maine Mountains

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 02:18:00 +0000

We camp frequently at Littlefield Beaches Campground in Greenwood, Maine. In fact, we camped seasonally there for seven summers before selling our trailer last year and going back to tenting. We fell in love with a pair of short hikes near Littlefield Beaches a couple of years ago, and I wanted to share them with you today: Lapham Ledge and Buck's Ledge. Each has beautiful scenic views of the surrounding lakes and countryside and at 1.1 and 1.2 miles one way respectively they are very manageable for a family with children in a morning or afternoon.

The trailhead can be found on Route 26 across the street from its intersection with Mills Road.

View Maine Outdoor Living Trails and Campgrounds in a larger map

For the first half of either hike, you'll be traveling on a logging road reaching an intersection with a snowmobile trail after about 0.6 miles. This tends to be the sunniest, hottest part of the hike in the summer, but in other respects it's an easy walk.

Lapham Ledge

A right turn onto the snowmobile trail brings you up a gradual incline at first through a shady and well groomed trail. The trail naturally gets steeper near the top. When you reach the three overlapping ledges at the top of the trail you'll be treated to some georgeous views of Lake Christopher, Bryant Pond village, and the surrounding countryside.

View of Lake Christopher from Lapham Ledge

Buck's Ledge

The trail to Buck's ledge is another couple of hundred feet along the logging road on the left. The trail here is narrower, more winding, and steeper. I prefer this hike in spite of its larger challenge due to the exceptional views it offers of North, South, and Round Ponds, the Mt. Abram Ski Area, and the surrounding countryside.

View of South Pond (Left) and North Pond (Right) from atop Buck's Ledge
Mt. Abram and Round Pond can be seen in the background.

North Pond from Buck's Ledge

You can pretty easily do both of these hikes in one day if you like. As beautiful as they are, we almost never run into anyone else on the trails or at the summit. It makes for a nice quiet outdoor experience, right off a main road. Enjoy your hike!

If you're planning to go, download a printable Lapham Ledge and Bucks Ledge Trail Map.

One of My Favorite Webelos Den Meetings

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 10:09:00 +0000

Not surprisingly, my favorite Webelos activity pin to teach is Outdoorsman. I try to work on this one in warm weather meetings, and have now done it once in May/June and now, this year, in September.

Outdoorsman Activity Pin

Although Outdoorsman is all about camping and camping skills, it is possible to complete the pin without actually camping out. Even though several of the boys in our den attend camping trips, I try to make a point of completing the pin in the context of weekly meetings for those who don't. It takes three or four meetings to do the Outdoorsman right.

One of those meetings is a double-length meeting we hold in the back yard. Each boy makes their own tin foil dinner, and we cook them on charcoal briquettes in our back yard fire pit. In order to expose the boys to some other interesting outdoor cooking methods, I also prepare something in the Dutch oven (Rolls This Year) and in a Cardboard Box Reflector Oven (Brownies this year.) We make the Cardboard box oven at an earlier meeting, which is a fun activity. Parents and other family members come and cook their own meals as well. When I did this for my oldest, we also used hobo stoves, but I skipped that this year because honestly they are a bit tippy and dangerous.

While dinner is cooking, the boys worked with their den chief to pitch a tent using the required taut line hitch and two half hitches knots, and planned a skit to perform at a campfire. I quickly set a log cabin fire lay, and we sat down to eat. I'm happy to say everything came out very well and most everyone enjoyed their meal. You could certainly tell who preferred not to have their meat and veggies touch each other, though!

When dinner is done, we have a few minutes by the campfire to watch the boys skit which, being boy devised and led with only a few minutes planning, turned out to be one of the more chaotic moments of the evening. I wound up the meeting by talking about what we had done and learned by the fire with the boys, while signing off on three requirements we've completed that night in their books.

All this takes about two hours. More than our usual meetings, but the time goes by pretty quickly and everyone enjoys themselves. Me included.

Dutch Oven Rolls Are Easy and Amaze Other Campers

noreply@blogger.com (Trevor Jones) — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 11:35:00 +0000

Everyone loves fresh baked bread, and no one expects to have it hot out of the oven while camping. As a result, these are always a big hit. As long as you have a little time, these large, light, fluffy rolls are easily produced on a warm summer day. Like our Dutch oven pizza, we make this one with ready-made dough, so there's no mixing bowls, spoons or measured ingredients involved.

Line a #12 deep dish Dutch oven with liner paper (or greased aluminum foil if you don't have liner paper), and cut two (thawed) loaves of frozen bread dough into 16 equally sized rolls. Arrange these at the bottom of the oven, cover lightly with a clean towel or paper towel, put the lid on your oven and place them in the sun for a couple of hours to rise. They should rise to about 1/2 to 2/3 of the depth of the oven. This step does require warm weather, so don't try these on a cloudy cold day, when the rolls won't rise well.

When you're ready to bake, remove the towel covering the rolls and replace the lid. Spread 10 briquettes evenly below the oven and place 14 around the perimeter on top. Bake for about 25 minutes, checking periodically to make sure you are not burning them. You may need to add additional top heat near the end to brown the rolls. Just make sure to arrange around the outside edge to avoid burning them.

The resulting rolls will fill the oven to the top and be very light and fluffy. Serve with butter, olive oil, or just as they are. Enjoy!