Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Beef Jerky

Time is running out before our 2014 NSE trip (this year it's Surf City on the Churchill River near Missinipe, SK) and I still have to pack and get everything ready. On my "To-Do" list is smoking & drying the jerky for our trip. On Sunday I bought 2 round roasts (5 lbs of meat in total?), sliced them up and marinated them in a homemade teryaki sauce with jerky cure. This evening (Tuesday) they will go into the smoker using this smoke schedule from the Bradley Smoker website:

  1. Dry at 140°F without smoke until the meat is dry (~ 1 hour)
  2. Smoke at 160°F for 2-3 hours
  3. Dry at 175°F until done - about 3 hours.
The sauce I used was gleaned and modified from a couple of different websites and spiced up some, but basically went something like this:
  • 1 cup of soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup white wine (since I didn't have any rice wine or whatever was called for)
  • a couple tablespoons of fresh ginger
  • a fair bit of honey to sweeten the mixture to taste - maybe 1/4 cup or more
  • minced garlic
  • onion powder
  • cayenne
  • ground pepper
  • chili flakes
The sauce was heated to dissolve the honey, then cooled in the freezer before use. Just prior to marinating the meat with the sauce, I added an appropriate amount of cure based on the instructions (just shy of 2 tsp).

Rather than finish in the smoker, I pulled the jerky out after smoking and finished in the dehydrator. The smoker doesn't offer very even heat, getting hot along the back above the burner (some folks install a small fan which would be great in this application). Because the meat is thin it is prone to quickly overcooking in some areas along the back and I would have to counter this by frequently rotating the racks and meat. Since it was late (~11 pm), I decided to finish the drying process on the dehydrator, set to 160°F. I connected the dehydrator to a block heater timer so that it would dry for about 3 hours, be off for the rest of the night, then start up again in the morning to finish it off. I find that second drying step is helpful with a lot of foods - the moisture becomes "trapped" inside the dried outer parts, and takes a very long time to dry properly. By giving the food a bit of a break, the moisture moves outward and becomes more even through the product. Then, a short period of drying (~1 hour in this case) finishes off the product and ensures it is sufficiently dry all the way through.

Smoker set up and ready to go.

5 racks of jerky ready to start the drying step.
The finished product the next morning.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Kayak Asshole

This is pretty hilarious. Enjoy! Thanks to the Kayak Yak blog for sharing! http://kayakyak.blogspot.ca/2014/08/kayak-asshole.html

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Inspiration for Rod

NSE member Rod often tells the story of falling a large tree in his back yard much to his neighbour's chagrin. Well, we think Rod will enjoy this precision tree-falling video.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

CRCO Whitewater Festival

Northstar Expeditions had a great meeting in Bryan's back yard last night working on canoe outfitting and discussion various trip issues.

Here is a just-released fun video showing some of the awesomeness of the Churchill River Whitewater Festival. I keep missing it but the event is growing and just as cool as ever. NSE should plan to attend in 2015, maybe we could show those young whitewater punks a thing or two.


Whitewater Festival 2014 from McKinno on Vimeo.
Churchill River Canoe Outfitter's annual whitewater festival. Shot over the Canada Day Long Weekend at Surf City, Staircase Falls, Sluice Falls, The Shelf and Barker Island. A big thanks to CRCO for putting on the festival and to Canoe Kayak Saskatchewan for sending me!

Includes the song "The Walker" by Fitz and the Tantrums

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Hey, I Re-Invented Something...

This one's for Rod, who comes up with something genius at least once a trip. And, unfortunately we have to let him know it's already been done.

http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2013-10-12/



Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Friday, August 9, 2013

The Official Beer of NSE

Might as well stick with the beer theme. Though we've never had it, AC/DC Beer is now the official beer of Northstar Expeditions.


Thursday, August 8, 2013

Where to Go, 2013 Edition

We have 4 days, plus driving up the previous evening. Here are some options I've got rolling around in my brain and that I've been discussing with the group:
  • Option 1.1Upper Sturgeon-Weir River, from Pelican Narrows to Pawistik Lodge on the Hanson Lake Road (Hwy 106). Not very long (50 km), 3 portages around small falls and rapids, sections of swift water. Simple shuttle can probably be arranged via Pawistik Lodge or another area outfitter. I expect typical shield scenery. 
    • Option 1.2: Adding another 50 km to the above, paddling from Jan Lake Lodge to Pelican Narrows. Big water, lots of islands. 
  • Option 2Lower Sturgeon-Weir, from Denare Beach on Amisk Lake to Sturgeon Landing. Paddling off the shield on the lake onto limestone benches of the river with lots of fossils. Starting at Denare Beach, this is 30km of mostly open lake followed by 38 km of river. River is many small rapids with 2 larger rapids that can be portaged if needed. 
  • Option 3McLennan Lake area. Fish, new area. 
  • Option 4Surf City, Corner Rapids. Need I say more?
  • Option 5: Montreal River, Montreal Lake to Hwy 165 Bridge, 66 km. Continuing to Air Ronge brings total distance to 146 km.  Current flows are over 60 cubic m/s; we would want that to drop some, maybe to about 40. Considering this is a spring river, this could be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to run it in September. Never mind that it's been runnable in the fall probably 4 of the last 5 years. 
  • Option 6: Lac LaRonge by kayak. I need more big water kayak camping experience before I go for my Level 3 certification. LaRonge past Nut Point, Wadin Bay, Jay's uncle's cabin or just explore the islands. Head to Hunter Bay. 
Bryan's favourites, in order:
  1. Option 2 Lower S-W
  2. Option 5 Montreal R.
  3. Option 1.1 or 1.2
  4. Option 6 Lac La Ronge
  5. Option 4 Corner Rapids
  6. Option 5 McLennan Lake

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Boh

For some reason I have a hankering to bike past the LBS and pick up a case of Boh.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Camp Coffee

This one's for Rod, who takes his coffee very seriously.

The refrain starting at about 1:43 is especially apt for Rod. I totally agree with him, but you don't wanna mess with a coffee-less Rod.

Kevin Callan put together this video about making camp coffee and is pretty much what we do on our trips, including the Littlebug Sr. stove. The video is pretty good, despite his sense of humour. ;)



Happy birthday, buddy.

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Painting

The service station trade was slow.
The owner sat around,
With sharpened knife and cedar stick.
Piled shavings on the ground.
No modern facilities had they,
The log across the rill
Led to a shack, marked His and Hers
That sat against the hill.
"Where is the ladies restroom, sir?"
The owner leaning back,
Said not a word but whittled on,
And nodded toward the shack.

With quickened step she entered there
But only stayed a minute,
Until she screamed, just like a snake
Or spider might be in it.
With startled look and beet red face
She bounded through the door,
And headed quickly for the car.
Just like three gals before.
She tripped and fell -- got up,
and then In obvious disgust,
Ran to the car, stepped on the gas,
And faded in the dust.
Of course we all desired to know
What made the gals all do
The things they did, and then we found
The whittling owner knew.
A speaking system he'd devised
To make the thing complete,
He tied a speaker on the wall
Beneath the toilet seat.

He'd wait until the gals got set
And then the devilish guy,
Would stop his whittling long enough,
To speak into the mike.
And as she sat, a voice below
Struck terror, fright and fear
"Will you please use the other hole,
We're painting under here"

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Ski to Sea Race, A Goal For 2018?

I learned today about a pretty awesome looking race in Washington, the Ski to Sea Race. It's a relay race involving 7 different sports:
  1. cross country skiing (4 mile loop), 
  2. downhill skiing (2.5 mile loop), 
  3. running (8 miles), 
  4. road cycling (42 miles),
  5. canoeing (18.5 miles),
  6. mountain biking (13 miles) and
  7. sea kayaking (5 miles)
You'll note that I mentioned that the first two events are loops. That should make the downhill ski section pretty interesting! 


I mentioned 2018 in the title because I think it'll take me a while to get into race condition, though Jay should be nearly there since he's an experienced adventure racer and is competing in the Dirty Donkey this summer. 



Maybe our Montreal River/Otter Lake/Churchill River trip from 2009 could be considered our warm-up event (cycling, packing up, paddling, driving, more paddling, for a single day total of 77 self-propelled kilometers, with a hangover).