High Desert Burritos

I returned to the mainland and spent two days in the city, before departing for another camping trip. A three-day expedition across the Owen's Valley and White Mountains, the trip was both an introduction to California geology, and a social event for my cohort of first year grad students. Our guides, two veteran doctoral students, planned the whole thing really well, and packed all the frills.















The old-school pump-action camping stove was finiky. Plamen cleverly quelled a disconcerting fire lit on the spicket of the canister, by pouring sand onto the outlet. The photo shows the thing functioning normally. Ish.

Whitney organized an assembly line; students chopping veggies, imitation chicken, real chicken, etc. I use the word chopping liberally. There was a lot of slicing, due to a derth of good knives. People did well with plastic and pocket. They packed really well, but it's a good general note to self for future camping trips. You can NEVER have enough knives. Bring as many knives as you have people. I ran into the same problem on my Catalina excursion the previous weekend. I didn't do much for the main meal, but I did augment the beans with my favorite mixture of minced garlic, onion, and bell pepper. Oh, and I added some Corona to the chicken which I think helped a lot. Whitney prepped it in a large stainless fry pan with onions and garlic. It came out great.

The result of all this labor was the perfect high desert burrito. I'm going to love grad school.