Camping Weekend in VT

This past weekend we got a chance to go camping in VT for three whole nights! It was my first time staying in VT, and I was very excited! Since our tent is a very small 2-person backpacking tent, we rented one from EMS for $25! Such a deal! We packed up our car with all sorts of yummy camping food and backpacks and a sense of adventure, and headed off for the Green Mountain State!

As you know, I have a tendency to take pictures of the food that we make, so I made a collage of our camping food attempts.

Breakfast:

• French press coffee (boil enough water for the coffee + oatmeal and you're good to go!)
• Oatmeal (2 servings: 1 c. oats + 1 3/4 c. water, top with brown sugar & cinnamon!) 
• Eggs (this was new to us...and we had them three different ways! I think fried was the tastiest, although hard-boiled was way easier to clean up afterwards!)

Dinners:

• Grilled fish (in foil) & veggies with lemon & fresh herbs
• Hot dogs on a stick + baked beans (or in this case, Hebrew National Knockwurst, since they are plumper for skewering)
• Vegetarian Chili  + baked potatoes with slits for onion slices (consensus: would have been really good if I hadn't cooked them way too long!) 
• our chili recipe: one can kidney beans + one can diced tomatoes + 1 Tbsp. chili powder + 1 Tsp. cumin + 1 green bell pepper, 1/2 red bell pepper, 1 small diced onion, a few cloves of garlic, and  1-2 hot peppers + 1/2 c. corn...saute the onion & garlic, set aside, saute peppers & spices, add the onion/garlic, beans, tomatoes, & corn. Heat until simmering for 10 min.

Desserts:

• S'mores (of course!) except we like to use Resse's pb cups as an extra special treat! 
• Chocolate-chip-stuffed grilled bananas (consensus: YUM!)

On Friday, we decided to challenge ourselves with a hike up to the summit of Camel's Hump, which we kept seeing from the highway and admiring. In Mike's words, "I saw it and I immediately though, 'I want to be on top of that!'" We had looked up some hikes and considered a few "moderate" options, but based on the description of the Camel's Hump hike, we decided to go for it. It was described as a difficult-but-rewarding 5.8 mile loop with scenic vistas approaching  and along the summit.

We braced ourselves for the hike of our lives, and set off!

Along the way we saw some curious sights (caterpillars)

and beautiful views!

At one point, we got our hopes up, thinking that we were nearing the summit...but were sorely disappointed. 

 Later, after climbing the false summit, we came across the real view of the summit...still quite far away!

In this shot that we took from the highway, you can see the ridge that we climbed along, including the false summits (we hiked from right to left in this picture):

Finally, we made it to the top, and the view really was quite spectacular! 360 degrees in all directions, with nothing else up there other than bare rock and you! I couldn't get enough of the layer upon layer of blue hills fading into the distance like waves in the ocean, and the dramatic effect of the clouds! 

Could you ask for a better place to eat a pb&j?

Here's a collage of some of my faves...

After the hike, we cooled off (and cleaned off!) with a dip in the reservoir that our campsite was on, then cooked up some hot dogs and baked beans, paired with Long Trail Double Bag....perfection!

The rest of our trip went something like this: 

Saturday: Explore Burlington (check out all the shops on the pedestrian street, browse the huge farmer's market, gaze out at Lake Champlain), play a round of disc golf, and tour the Ben & Jerry's factory (and sample ice cream, of course!)

Sunday: Take a nature hike/run at our campground (after packing up our campsite), tour & samples at the Long Trail Brewery

Finally, here are our other Vermonty pics to share...