Planning a camping trip: SKAGIT

The Skagit Valley Provincial Park is in the Cascade Mountains -- close to Hope, B.C.   It extends down to the U.S. border.

In 1905, an Englishman with 5 daughters built a 10-room ranch house in the area, but his project failed due to illness.  There’s not much left of the homestead, but the Whitworth Meadow is supposed to have impressive views of Showatum Mountain.

In 1910, a fake gold rush was started near Shawatum Mountain by two men who “laced” the area with some gold.  They made off with $90,000, and the new town of Steamboat became a ghost town.  

There are a number of trails in the park.  Most sound pretty tough -- even though the Skagit River Trail is listed as an “easy trail . . . 14.5 kilometers long” which takes “4 to 6 hours to hike”.  That’s easy????  I hate to think what the Silverdaisy Trail would be like -- it’s ten km to the summit of Silverdaisy Mountain.    

The Chittenden Meadow Interpretive Trail, however, sounds more my speed -- it’s supposed to involve a leisurely hour of enjoying “wild flowers, prairie grasses and ponderosa pine”.

**************

Planning the meals for a camping trip is tricky because, once the ice in the cooler melts, well . . .  

At the same time, everyone on a camping trip develops a very healthy appetite!

Here’s a good sandwich I made on one of our trips that doesn’t require sandwich meat:

Baguette style buns:  2 for each camper

Smoked gouda

Red onion

2 or 3 fresh tomatoes

Sun-dried tomatoes in oil

Pepper

1.  Thinly slice the cheese, tomatoes, and red onion.

2.  Cut the sun-dried tomatoes into strips.

3.  Slice the buns.

4.  Divide all the fillings between the bottom halves of the buns.

5.  Sprinkle with pepper.

6.  Drizzle with a little of the oil from the sun-dried tomatoes.

7.  Cover with top halves of the buns.

Enjoy!