Tag Archives: camp food

Catskills Hiking & Trail Pizza – Backpacking with our Dog

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Join Sara, our dog Denali, & I for some Catskills hiking, trail cooking, backpacking, and hammock camping in upstate New York.

For this backpacking trip, we’ll be hiking and camping near Slide Mountain and the East Branch Neversink River in the Catskills, complete with a visit to the summit of Table Mountain and Peekamoose Moose Mountain.  The mileage will be low, but the star of this trip isn’t the trails.  It’s the food.  Good old, classic trail cooking.

What’s on our backpacker’s menu?  Well, Sara had a craving for some trail pizza in the middle of the woods somewhere, and I was up for the challenge.  Were we successful?  You’ll just have to come along and find out.  Either way, it’s bound to be an adventure.  😉

Full GPS data for this, as well as all of my other trips, is available on the Trip Data page.

Trailhead Used:  
Denning Rd Trailhead  N41° 57.924′ W74° 27.144′


Trails Used Day 1, in Order

Pheonicia East Branch Trail
Peekamoose Table Trail
Set up camp after second bridge (the double log one) at N41° 58.474′ W74° 25.734′
Continue up Peekamoose Table Trail towards summit of
Table Mt and Peekamoose Mountain
Lunch / Snack at summit and
Return to camp on the East Branch Neversink River

Day 1 Mileage: 7.8 miles, including summit round trip (about 3 miles each way)
Day 1 Gross Elevation Gain: 2,130′

Trails Used Day 2, in Order

Peekamoose Table Trail
Pheonicia East Branch Trail
Return to vehicle at Denning Rd Trailhead

Day 2 Mileage: 1.8 miles
Day 2 Gross Elevation Gain: 146′

Trip Total Mileage: 9.6 miles
Trip Total Elevation Gain: 2,276


Trail Pizza Ingredients

Boboli Pizza Crust, Individual Size – 2 Pack
Boboli Pizza Sauce Individual Pack (comes in 3 pack box)
Cabot Mozzarella Cheese, Shredded – 8 oz package (2 cups volume)
Hormel Pepperoni, pre-sliced – 6 oz package (enough for 2 pizzas, plus snacking)
Camp Cooking Gear Used for Pizza

Pair of cheap aluminum tongs (from dollar store, or whatever)
Coghlan’s Camp Grill  – rack used to hold pizza
Fozzils Bowlz (used as a plate / prepping dish / cutting board)
Sea-to-Summit Alpha Utensil Set

Sara Goes Hammock Camping …Again! – Hiking & Pancakes in Virginia

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Join Sara and I for some hiking, trail cooking, and backpacking on  a hammock camping trip in Shenandoah National Park.

For this hiking adventure, Sara and I will be revisiting Shenandoah National park for Sara’s second dose of hammock camping out in the wild along with a healthy dose of backcountry cooking and camp food. We did a previous backpacking trip not too far from here in Shenandoah a mere two weeks before, and it went quite well.  It wasn’t, however, exactly the experience that we had set out to do.

You see, for that particular trip, I may have sold it as a rather relaxed excursion.  And depending on your perspective, it very well may have been just that.  But for Sara, who’s most recent backpacking memories prior to that trip were that of a grueling elevation-fest through the White Mountains, it wasn’t quite the reprieve we were looking for.

The required prescription was a high dose of low mileage, potent lounging, and dense pancakes.  Thankfully, the trip seen in this video hit the spot.  Below are some details and trip data for the trip, although there isn’t much of it.  But that’s exactly what we were going for.  Check out my Trip Data Page to get full GPS data for this trip.

Parking:  Meadow Spring Trailhead (Mile 34 on Skyline Drive)
N38° 38.304′ W78° 18.823′

Day 1 Trails Used (in order):
Hazel Mountain Trail
Turn Left on White Rocks Trail
Camp along White Rocks Trail (see my GPS Data for potential campsites on either side of trail)
After setting up camp, take a half mile round trip down to Hazel Falls, for happy hour.

Hazel Falls Day 1 Elevation Profile - Sintax77

Day 1 Stats:
Mileage: 3.2 miles (includes half mile excursion from camp down to Hazel Falls and back)
Gross Elevation Gain: 390′
Gross Elevation Loss: 1,175′

Day 2 Trails Used (in order):
Wake Up, Eat Pancakes (this is important – trip will not work properly without this step!)
White Rocks Trail
Right on Hazel Creek Trail

Hazel Falls Day 2 Elevation Profile - Sintax77

Day 2 Stats:
Mileage: 2.5 miles (not nearly enough to burn off those pancakes, you’re gonna have to go to the gym tomorrow…)
Gross Elevation Gain: 699′
Gross Elevation Loss: 75′

Total Mileage for Trip: 5.7 Miles

Hazel Falls 2 Day Trip Route Overview- Sintax77

Notable Gear Used for Sara:
Dutchware NylonD Hammock with Aluminum Cinch Buckles & Nylon Tree Straps
Hennessy Deluxe Tarp (10′ x 12′ 70D Polyester)
Hammock Gear Burrow 20° Top Quilt
Hammock Gear Incubator 0° Underquilt
Osprey Hornet 46 Backpack (See my Gear List using this pack here)
Thorfire BD04 USB rechargable LED Flashlight
Princeton Tech Byte Headlamp
ThruNight Titanium Keychain LED Flashlight
EMS Knitted Hat

Notable Gear Used for Shawn:
Dream Hammock Darien Ultralight Hammock (see my video on it here)
Hammock Gear Cuben Hex Tarp
Hammock Gear Burrow 40° Top Quilt
Hammock Gear Incubator 40° Underquilt w/ Epsilon 1.5 Multicam Fabric (see my video on it here)
EMS Longtrail 70 Backpack
4Sevens Preon 2 LED Flashlight
Fenix HL21 Headlamp (watch my review video here)
Generic Canister Stove (watch my review video here)
MSR Flex Skillet w/ cheap dollar store utensils for cooking

Notable Backpacking Food for this Trip:
Bisquick Shake ‘n Pour Pancake Mix
Packit Gourmet Dehydrated Maple Syrup and Blueberries
Packit Gourmet Queso Dip with a regular ol’ bag of Tostito’s Scoops (wheat, because we’re obviously healthy and stuff)
Packit Gourmet Texas State Fair Chili (I lost my mind eating this stuff on this winter video, after climbing Mt Washington)