camp: forest bathing continued and korean bbq

Last Saturday, I mentioned that I got to spend an early afternoon forest bathing among the big trees in Calaveras. We spent a couple hours at the state park some miles down from Dawn's cabin on just a 1.5 mile trail to preview the largest trees in the North Grove.        

 

There's a bench that leans back and supports your head, so you can just look up and marvel at their height from thousands of years of rainfall, sunlight, photosynthesizing and growing.

 

Lightning strikes have burned some trees and turned them into hollows (I bet mushroom foraging is phenomenal after a rain), but some trees were skeletal from having being exploited and sent on global tours to be viewed and fascinated at over their giant sizes.

  

There are 26 markers on this North Grove main trail which you can follow along with a paper brochure to read some history of the trees.

 

One tree that was carved out in the bottom to be viewed and photographed extensively because a car could fit inside its hollow was struck by lightning, and you could now walk inside the length of the fallen log. 

I mourned its former majesty. I then marveled at the beauty of the Pacific dogwoods.

Even though we spent most of the afternoon at Calaveras Big Trees State Park, I asked Dawn and Cecilia if we could go to Quyle Kilns. Oh my. We were there for a good 2 hours because I got into conversation with the 70-year-old owner, Pam, who was inebriated and so very charming on a deep dive tour and history of her clay business.                      

I didn't take a lot of pictures of the studio or its gallery clay works. I guess I didn't want to be appropriating other artists' ideas. I did think the sea glass Christmas tree was rather cool, and here's a book Pam said I should study and keep learning from.

 

I admired these busts of former pets.

I felt awful that I kept Cecilia and Olivia and Dawn at Quyle Kilns for so long. I started grilling right away when we returned to cabin because we had skipped lunch. I found the cast iron grill pan in the kitchen and this time had the bottom vent open so the coals could get hotter. 

While I was grilling and sipping wine, Cecilia was decanting all the jars of banchan into bowls and setting the table. Dawn had said her grandmother bought these plates at a garage sale, saying their decoration looked to her just like their family cabin.

Bean sprouts--Cecilia's favorite--and homemade spicy kimchi, which surprised me with its fermented taste. Can't believe I made kimchi.

Cecilia said the white kimchi from Jagalchi paled in comparison to my spicy homemade red kimchi. I also cooked her least favorite vegetable, bok choi as a banchan, but at least Dawn liked it.

The Japanese eggplant banchan needed to have been steamed longer and could be more sauced, but I was in a hurry. And thankfully, Dawn took on japchae duty, which was my favorite.

And once again, Costco's bulgogi knocks it out of the park.

Why marinade rib eye beef on your own when the prepared versions at Costco are so delicious?

The next morning we cleaned and closed the cabin and loaded the dogs into the car. Olivia looked cozy.

I managed to coax Effie out from under the bed and out the door with homemade turkey treats while Licorice looked happy as can be in the front seat.

I hope I wasn't too annoying and that Dawn invites us again because I'd really like to enter the state park at its opposite entrance, which is only a mile away from Dawn's cabin and has a 2.5 loop to view even taller sequoia trees in the less visited South Grove.

camp: mountain cabin getaway

Past the age of 55, I no longer wish to back country or even car camp. A tent is just too darn untenable when you're a senior citizen even if I don't need a hair dryer or cosmetics at my age. I now need appliances like CPAP, and sunblock is the only thing I apply on my face. Whereas on a honeymoon car camping trip in the Pacific Northwest at the age of 20, I brought tent and stove and a cooler full of hamburger patties and hot dogs and ate godawful unhealthy meals, I'm driving only a few hours or less from home here in God's country of California and shopping my membership warehouse and local markets for foodie fixes of gourmet goodies and farm-to-table produce. 

No car camping or pitching a tent, but driving to the deep East Bay of tech towns like Livermore, San Ramon and Tracy and then a stretch of Highway 5 through Stockton and east on Highway 4 through Copperopolis, the entry point into Calaveras County and then Angels Camp and Murphys and upward. On this past weekend, I went away with a couple neighbors and their dogs, one of whom has a family cabin in Arnold, a town in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada, where Dawn assured us there's a grill on the deck.

The ladies were amenable to weekend meals of Korean bbq, Vietnamese street food, and an American diner lunch. As ever, I made lists...and brought bulgogi and japchae from Costco, homemade kimchi, white kimchi, and many types of banchan: cucumber, bean sprouts, Japanese eggplant that I made the morning before the trip.        

I also remembered to pack the gochuchang for said Korean feast as well as hoisin sauce, Kewpie mayo, French pate in a can, my new copper grilling grate, a Ziploc bag of marinated lemongrass pork shoulder, a jar of do chua or pickled daikon and carrots, a cucumber, jalapenos, green onions because I was also making banh mi sandwiches for supper on our first night. For the road, I used the rest of the Pickle butter, ham, and Trader Joe's baguette to make sandwiches. And I also packed ground beef, cheddar cheese, a pack of brioche buns, a jar of my Pickled Jalapenos, red onion, and spring greens for a lunch before we left.

Here was the view from the cabin's deck.

Our first meal was to utilize the French baguettes that Cecilia had baked into Vietnamese sandwiches, and I was excited to use my brand new copper grill grate that I had bought from Jagalchi. I sipped a beer as I readied the charcoal grill and watched the sunset through the trees.                               

My new grill worked great. No turning over little pieces of meat and making my hands sore from squeezing tongs. I gifted a large vase, a bud vase, and cocktail/coffee cups to Dawn and Cecilia, which she filled with flowering deer brush.

The next morning, Cecilia and Dawn got up early and walked the dogs up the mountain. I tried to sleep in but instead read before a breakfast of hash browns, English muffins, country sausage, bacon and eggs before heading into town for Dawn to buy handmade soap from a local at the post office while Cecilia and I were excited to window shop at the Ace Hardware--that store is the best for buying souvenirs. I found cool t-shirts for me and Patrick, admired the Lodge cast iron cookware and this cute mug.                      

It's made in China, but still cute enough that I wanna copy it. 

I was excited that the cabin is so close to giant sequoias. Dawn drove us to do some forest bathing in the North Grove of the Calaveras Big Trees State Park. Cecilia had brought her dog, Olivia, who unfortunately couldn't go on to the main trail and so she took in the forest from the fire lane and walked the campgrounds.            

 

For scale, I took a long shot of a fallen tree and stump.

And took the stairs myself to stand atop the tree stump and just look up.

 

Others obviously did the same.

And this fallen tree while stunningly pretty was so sad to me.

I told Dawn that I like to imagine much of this old growth forest just covering the state of California, pumping all of its oxygen into the world.