NOT Brokeback Mountain

Sure Twinkie-on-a-Stick sounds like a scene from Brokeback Mountain, but this post is about campfire cooking.

I was checking out some recipes over at the Pop-Up Portal and was stopped dead in my tracks by a post about campfire-roasted Twinkies. I wasn't impressed by the deep fried Twinkies at the County Fair, but the idea of a warm sponge cake with marshmallowie cream filling sounds pretty good. Maybe with some chocolate or raspberry syrup for the full diabetic coma. We'll give it a shot on the next trip.

Hey You! Lookout!

This weekend I finished the classroom portion of my Fire Lookout training. I'll complete eight hours of in-tower training and then I'll be ready to fly solo as a Fire Lookout Host at Strawberry Peak.

According to their website, "Majestic views, solitude, quiet, heroic vigilance—the seven fire lookouts of the San Bernardino National Forest capture a romantic part of California’s past. In the 1970s, when new fire spotting technology made them obsolete, they fell into disrepair. Today, through the help of the National Forest Association, the lookouts once again serve the forest. More than 300 Fire Lookout Hosts give more than 9,000 hours each year from May through October to educate visitors about the history of the lookouts, the ecology of the forest, spot fires, and keep the lookouts a vibrant part of the forest."

While the towers aren't staffed at night, the views, as you might imagine, are incredible. This is the view towards our house from Strawberry Peak. As a Host, I'll be able to spend the night in the lookout, though solo, since only trained Hosts can stay. The public can rent Morton Peak lookout for an overnight stay.

Serrano Spring

We celebrated our first year with the Caboose with a trip to Serrano on the North Shore of Big Bear lake. We had a full moon and lows in the twenties, but as cold as it was, the only snow in our site could've barely filled the campfire ring.

Sherry loves having a full hook up, and we took full advantage of the opportunity to display our colorful porch lights. These were also helpful during the late night walks to the bathroom.

It seems that many of our camping photos look alike, so I was playing around with the long exposure settings on the camera, and came up with some different shots. The full moon was a four-second exposure, then the lights plus Sherry by the fire were each two second exposures. Having said all our shots look alike, we still had to have the cliché photo of the three of us at the campfire (two-second exposure).