Posh Tip #1: Campfire grate

     A key element of successful posh camping is cooking a great meal. Hot dogs on sticks are for Boy Scout troops – you are an adult. A grate is definitely needed to prepare an extravagant camping meal, especially if you cook in foil as much as I do. However, unless you are at nicer state park, the chances are you will just be building a fire in a rock fire pit. This makes it difficult to get food over strong, even heat, especially for protein. Nothing is worse than a half raw-half cooked piece of fish.

     When my roommate replaced the charred and rusted grate on our 18.5” Weber charcoal grill at the apartment, I turned the old grate into my dedicated car camping grate. It works fantastic. With just a few rocks, I can rest it evenly above the coals and have food roasting comfortably in their own juices. No chance of a meal falling into the fire, foil tearing on an edgy rock or opening a foil packed to discover half cooked disappointment. The best part is, it was bound for the trash so if I forget it, it gets bent, broken or in some other way destroyed, it's not a big deal.

A delicious batch of baked apples made easy.

Destination: Canyon Campground – Eklutna Lake, Chugach State Park

Large, private site perfect for parties.

     Two friends’ birthdays are a day apart so to celebrate they had a “Dirty 30” get-together at Canyon Campground at Eklutna Lake in Chugach State Park – a dozen people, a roaring fire, food, beer, and midnight push-ups. How can you go wrong? It was another incredibly fun car camping experience in another discovered gem within an hour from the city.

     Eklutna Lake is a seven mile long glacier lake 30 miles north of Anchorage and 1000 feet up and 15 miles into the Chugach Range. Despite living so close to it all this time, I had never I visited before this winter when we drove up to watch the northern lights when they were happening this far south. I really liked the place, so much, that this was my third trip this summer. It is close, has good, moderate hikes with great views, is a good kayaking and Dolly Varden fishing lake and even offers a very mellow dirt road/bicycle trail along the coast that runs 15 miles back to Eklutna Glacier. My first summer visit was biking the trail with Campgirl. The last time was hiking Pepper Peak with two buddies and two 24 year old German couch surfer girls I was putting up for a few days. During this hike I was lucky enough to see the herd of sheep that live around Twin Peaks and often roam the hillside.

View from the first bench on Twin Peak Trail

     Still, I hadn’t camped at Eklutna Lake. When I was there previous times, the main campground spots looked pretty close together and there were lots of RVs. Not my scene. But for their party, the girls rented a private campsite – Canyon Campground. I didn’t know this spot existed until this weekend. It is a very large, flat and gravel covered canyon floor, back a gated road, near the entrance of the park (far away from the main campsites) and could hold as many people as you wanted to invite. Due to its large size you can spread your tents out so late at night it is quiet and peaceful.

The Ranger in Canyon Campground

     There are about 8 large, iron ring fire pits and a few even have flip over grates. This came in handy for the foil packet Shake ‘n Bake™ pork chops and the sweet potatoes, onions, and apples with brown sugar Campgirl brought for the trip. There are no amenities directly at the site, but there are dry bathrooms near the regular camping area. It is a bargain too at only $100 for the entire site.

This was as delicious as it looks.

     This particular trip Campgirl and I decided to go geocaching in the morning. My father recently gave me his ancient (1999) handheld GPS unit and I was itching to use it. Geocaching is worldwide GPS orienteering hobby where people hide tiny caches, sometimes with prizes, and post the coordinates online. People then walk around wooded areas with low hanging branches, missing nature’s beauty, focused on a GPS screen risking eyeball impalement and forehead bruises so they can write their name on a little log and hide the cache again. There are about a dozen caches up each the Twin Peaks trail and down the bike road. We headed up Twin Peaks trail, found a couple caches and saw two bears across the valley wandering the hillside. It was a fun time even though we didn’t find the cache in Ghost Car.

My first geocache ever. Photo courtesy of Campgirl.

     To sum up, if you ever want a large, private spot to have a party or get-together, I highly recommend Canyon Campground. It is quiet and has great camping spots. Eklutna Lake offers a lot of different activities so you could easily fill up a whole weekend. Go gather some friends and get out there.

Arctic Lupine was beautiful in late June.

Destination: Clam Gulch

Secluded Beach Camping on the Kenai Peninsula

     This past weekend Campgirl and I drove down the west coast of the Kenai Peninsula to spend two nights at Clam Gulch. As the name implies there are clams in Clam Gulch (razor clams to be exact). Almost the entire western coast of the Kenai Peninsula has clams and it is a pretty popular activity in the summer. Unlike a lot of things in Alaska, clamming doesn’t require a lot of gear. A $30 shovel or a fancier $60 clam gun plus a $5 plastic bucket and you can get yourself some clams. I was excited to give it a try.

      Clam Gulch is a beautiful camping spot. A mile back from Sterling Highway at mile marker 117 is a wide beach staring across the Cook Inlet at the Aleutian Range. This range is home to Redoubt, the active volcano that was blowing smoke when I decided to move to Alaska. Because it’s a gulch, there is a large bluff that helps block weather, so unless you catch a really bad day, the weather stays moderate. There are pay sites and RV spots up top, but it is free to camp on the beach.

Sunset at Clam Gulch.

      An all wheel drive Subaru is all the more car you need as well. Well, unless you don’t put your Ford Ranger in 4 wheel drive, then you can get stuck as I learned. The only downside is that a really high tide can cut you off from the road for a couple hours, which just means a few extra hours around the fire.

This is not a car commercial.

     We got a late start due to some car troubles (a reoccurring theme this trip) so didn’t get in until 10 p.m. Campgirl got to work setting up the tent while I gathered wood and started a fire. Within half an hour a beer was cracked and I set about making dinner. I was excited to use my new recommissioned fire grate. The first night was tin foil halibut with onions, peppers and potatoes. I put it on the grate and an hour later we had delicious steaming halibut. Campgirl and I threw a few more logs on the fires and stayed up late into the night staring at the fire and listening to the waves.

Preparing dinner. Photo courtesy of Campgirl.

     Clam Gulch is an hour north of Homer. I have a new client (Spit Life - pick up a sweet locally designed and printed hoodie when you go down) who I wanted to finally meet face to face so Campgirl and I headed down Saturday morning. She had an order from a friend in Anchorage to pick up the newly designed Salty Dog Saloon hoodie, probably the most popular hoodie in all of Alaska, and picked up an old design on pink camouflage for herself (the girl’s alright sometimes). I meanwhile walked away the proud owner of a brand new Spit Life t-shirt.

Steak with peppers, onions and potatoes.

     We came back early in the afternoon, but digging my truck out of the sand took the wind out of my clamming sails, so I focused on drinking a beer and starting dinner. Saturday night was super posh night and we had tin foil steak with peppers, onions, carrots and potatoes with a couple spoonfuls of cream of mushroom soup to make its own gravy in the packet. (We made a third so we could have steak and eggs in the morning - excellent idea.) We were eating as the party crew of about eight arrived and before long the grate was cooking the sausages and chicken kabobs they brought. After dinner, we cut up some large drift logs and made a bonfire. The rest was a blur of good times drinking beer and having laughs on a beautiful Alaskan night. Clam Gulch – a posh camping must do.

Relaxing on the beach. Photo courtesy of Campgirl.

Welcome!

     Greetings and welcome to my camping blog. I’m a recent transplant to Alaska and in love with the state. Liked it so much I even spent a year in Nome. I really enjoy camping here so I figured I would write a blog about it. Here you’ll be able to read my rantings and stories mixed with tips and ideas I get after I screw something up. Who knows, maybe I’ll get big and get free gear to review.

     You should know I’m not the most hardcore guy. I like hiking, hunting and sleeping outside like all good men, I just don’t do it for much longer than two days at a time. North Face will never make a movie about me.

     Posh is the word I started to use when I’d plan a weekend trip with a bunch of friends. I am a pretty good party thrower, so my camping trips ended up being more like a two day dinner party with hiking or skiing in between courses. It is escapism at its finest – a little work leads to massive rewards. You get to spend a weekend outside without staring at building as sirens blare around you, yet you drove there with your compact truck.

     It is one of my favorite past times - relaxed, low energy camping. It’s to live outside for a weekend – drive up and pitch a tent, hike and look for critters, cook dinner over hot coals and finish the day drinking beer around a campfire with good friends. Posh camping is perfected car camping.

     I’m good at it because I’m a boy-scout over-preparer. I like gear and I like figuring out new ways to make life easier, e.g. I’m efficient. I’m also hell of a cook and really like cooking outside. More importantly, it is just so damn easy to do up here. There are amazing places just a short drive from Anchorage.

    So please enjoy my blog. I hope you pick up a tip for your next trip or at least have a laugh at my expense. Thanks for reading!

Your blog guide staring majestically. Photo courtesy of Campgirl.