Kate's Bellybutton Lint Collection

I used to think blogs were self-indulgent navel gazing, but now I'm not so sure. From a practical standpoint, they're great for keeping up with friends, especially when you're awful about keeping in touch (like me). I know most people could probably care less what I think or do in a given week. For everyone else, this blog's for you! Enjoy my collection of hand-picked navel lint!

April 14, 2009

Steep Ravine Cabins Trip

I spent last weekend at Steep Ravine Cabins in Marin with a group of friends. The cabins are situated on the water at the base of a cliff in the remote area between San Francisco and Stinson beach. Each cabin is equipped with a small wood stove and that's about it, so it's a step up from pitching a tent. The first night we chopped wood for the stoves and sat around talking and enjoying a few drinks in the dark. The next day we split up into small groups to go hiking. I went with Mark, Lisa, Jesse, and Liz on the "hardcore hike", which took us all the way to the top of Mt. Tam. Our elevation gain was about 2500 ft and the hike was over 14 miles round trip. Jesse posted a map on his blog and it was so cool I had to shamelessly copy it below.

It was so much fun catching and eating wild abalone the year before last that I decided to try my hand at harvesting wild mussels on this trip. Jesse and I bought fishing licenses and spent Saturday morning scrambling about the rocks near the water. The animals send down rootlike fibers that allow them to cling to the rocks, so all we had to do was yank them up like tough weeds. After about an hour of work and two rogue waves we returned to camp drenched and bearing at least 10 lbs. of mussels between us. Later that evening we steamed them in some of butter, garlic, and white wine. Yummmmm.

More pictures from the trip can be found here, here, and here.










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4 Comments:

At 2:52 PM, Blogger Unknown said...

heheh, now there's a hiking trip would be cool!


Btw, Hellow from N.C.!

--Jeff
(ps, catch me at jcarlton@zodiacworld.org)

 
At 8:24 PM, Blogger Kate said...

Jeff! What the hell! It's been forever. I'll email you shortly.

 
At 3:58 AM, Blogger shorebreak said...

Cool! I love Mussels! However, beware...you can only eat them during months with an "R"...like Sept-Apr..in the winter only (Sept could be too warm, thus the RED TIDE will poison the mussels and those who eat them..I live on Stinson Beach and it's surprising how few people eat anything from the sea...I guess Whole Foods is more PC than yankin'mollusks off a rock..Good for you!Aren't they delicious?! And I think you can gather 20 lbs per person.Better than a few tiny east coast mussels at yuppie a restaurant,huh?

 
At 3:18 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!

 

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