This project will review Rivers' coffee cookware from the perspective of a solo hiker.
This time, we will be reporting on the practice of solo hiking meals using mugs on a tent site, and finally the hiking and coffee chairs in the deepest part of the Izu Peninsula.
table of contents
- Day 1: A simple and exquisite solo camping (hike) meal made with "Ultra Light Hiker Mug"
- Day 2: Go to the Izu Mountain Ridge trail, where the best part of hiking, and meet the big beech
- Izu Peninsula Geopark has formed a unique natural environment among the Japanese archipelago.
- Visit the Izu Mountain Ridge trail, which is packed with the joy of hiking, and visit the big beech.
- Enjoy coffee while snuggling with the large beech - Coffee dripper Cave Reversible & Dripper Holder Pond F -
- "STUNSCAPE" web magazine focusing on people who are on adventures
Day 1: A simple and exquisite solo camping (hike) meal made with "Ultra Light Hiker Mug"
Tent site at night. It was time for solo hiking meals that I had been secretly looking forward to.
In Solo Hike, many people end up eating just by simply putting back the luggage in hot water, but I can't help but think that it's a waste. As a result, he is an incredible UL hiker who cannot dramatically reduce the weight.
What I think about when I walk alone during the day is that I usually talk about dinner that day. This may be because during my time at Wangel, I was used to unnecessarily carrying a large kowel and cooking rice every day. Of course, it's not in any case, but you'll want to eat something that you can cook and arrange yourself, even if it's simple.
A simple "Sierra cup rice" that can be cooked even with a small cooker will satisfy your desire to cook and lighten your own desire to eat. On this trip, I tried out whether you can make a satisfying meal even on a solo basis using the slightly larger "Ultra Light Hiker Mug M," which was released following the "Ultra Light Hiker Mug S," which is perfect as a coffee cup, and how much it can be used as a cooker.
First of all, this "Ultra Light Hiker Mug" looks like a light and sturdy titanium cup, weighing only 34g for S size (44g for M size). The familiar matte finish makes your sex appealing to ownership.
It is wider than a mug and has a deeper shape than a Sierra cup, and is convenient for drinking or cooking a bit, regardless of whether it was intended during the development stage. The soft roundness of the bottom is unusual for a titanium cup, and it gives it a very cute feel.
The handle is a type with the bottom part open for stacking purposes. It is certainly convenient because this allows you to stack cups together. However, this handle is a bit inconvenient in that it cannot be folded and that it cannot be determined in a typical Sierra Cup style, such as "hooking it over the carabiner" onto the backpack. In the first place, I don't like to hang the cup outside so I don't really bother me, but I think this is a point that people who care about it should be concerned about.
The capacity and size are S sizes, 180ml, and this is a size that is completely focused on a cup of coffee. On the other hand, the newly released M size is 320ml. It's not too big or too small, but to make it easy to imagine, if you apply it with the usual ready-made products from mountain foods, it's large enough to cook one freeze-dried meal without any problems, but it's a slightly smaller size (330ml of hot water is the guideline) to make ramen that is exactly as large as you want with a cup ramen refill.
But don't worry, the M-size mug is just big enough to fit an OD can gas cartridge (size 110). Even UL hikers who are strict about packing would be understandable for now.
Chicken vermicelli soup
Now that you know the appearance and size, let's start cooking. First, try making a soup that's a little more filling. Put an appropriate amount of water in a cup, add a can of yakitori (salt) and vermicelli, and bring to a boil. Season with salt and add green onions and chili peppers, and that's what you'll see. A splendid chicken vermicelli soup is ready in 5 minutes. You can add whatever taste you like!
As in this recipe, the key to solo camping (haiku) rice is to be made from ingredients that are easy to carry, and the key is to make it all the way through simmering and boiling without the need for fine cooking.
Olive tomato pasta
Next time, try something a little more elaborate. Add the black olives, macaroni and garlic chips and cook over the heat. After boiling for about 2 minutes, add the nicely cut cherry tomatoes and tomato paste, and continue to squeeze the macaroni back until the water is moderately blown away. Finally, if possible, season with olive oil, salt and pepper, and after cooking in just a few ingredients and a Sierra cup for a few minutes, I ended up making olive tomato pasta.
Incidentally, if you heat the gas stove over high heat with a thin titanium cup like this mug not covered in water, the heat will be concentrated in one place, which may cause deformation or discoloration. In such cases, it is a good idea to use a stainless steel mesh underlay called a burner pad, as shown in the photo below. It spreads the flame over a wide area and converts it into soft heat, making it easy to cook even ingredients that don't have as much heat as aluminum, such as titanium.
Garlic Pork Pork Pot
To be honest, I wasn't really expecting much at first to get to a 320ml mug, but by this point I was already completely enjoying the cooking.
Next is the long-awaited main dish. It's called "garlic pig pot". This is because raw pork belly is used, so there may be limited situations where you can make it, but it is meaningful in terms of exploring the limits of cooking. However, as before, just cut, add and simmer.
As long as it contains pork belly and garlic chips, all other ingredients are inspirational and ok. This time I added some shimeji mushrooms and green onions. The taste is delicious on its own, so it's delicious. You can change the seasoning of Chinese soup, miso, soy sauce, etc. to your liking.
Miso Ramen Soup Zanpo
Finally, I made another tick-down recipe for solo hike rice, the rospberry porridge. The materials are only shown below, and there is no need to use a knife. Of course, if you divide seasonings and ingredients into pieces as much as you need and carry them around, it will become even more compact depending on your ingenuity.
Add miso, chicken soup, garlic chips, and beef tallow to the hot water and heat it. When the beef tallow starts to boil and the rice balls begin to melt, enter it.
All you have to do is add the ingredients and simmer them in the same way as the normal procedure to make roasted porridge. I couldn't add this time, but if there were raw eggs it would be a terrifyingly luxurious miso ramen soup, rospillar.
The Ultra Light Hiker Mug combines lightness that is suitable for authentic solo hiking, ease of eating and drinking, and a high-quality design, and the addition of the M size means that you can not only drink coffee, but also cook it satisfactory even in the midst of a truncated finish. This depth of flavor is not found in ultra-light cookers, which are popular among mountaineers, is especially recommended for hikers who value individuality.
Day 2: Go to the Izu Mountain Ridge trail, where the best part of hiking, and meet the big beech
The day after enjoying an unexpectedly luxurious dinner as a solo hike meal, the theme is to walk along the Izu Mountain Ridge walk to meet the "big beech," an estimated 500-year-old tree standing in a virgin forest.
The Izu Mountain Ridge trail, which runs through a ridge of approximately 43km in the Nishi Amagi area, from Amagi Pass, located on the navel of the Izu Peninsula, to Shuzenji Niji no Sato, is a long route that offers a rich hiking experience, with many pass and peaks, with deep native forests, open grasslands, and spectacular views of Fuji. This is a course I would definitely like to try through hiking, but I'll do that for the next time. This time, due to the fact that I was entering the mountain in my own car, I had no choice but to thrust Amagi Pass and Nekoshidake.
Izu Peninsula Geopark has formed a unique natural environment among the Japanese archipelago.
Why does the Izu Peninsula exude such fresh charm? It is said that it is geologically distinctive, which is very different from other parts of Honshu.
Of the three plates that make up Honshu, the Eurasian Plate, the North American Plate, and the Philippine Sea Plate, the Izu Peninsula is the only one in Honshu that is located on the Philippine Sea Plate.
About 20 million years ago, the Izu Peninsula was a group of undersea volcanoes several hundred kilometers south of Japan. Volcanic activity created an island, moving north along with the plate, and eventually collided with Honshu. It is said that about 600,000 years ago, it finally became the shape of a peninsula that it is today.
Even after the peninsula, eruptions continued everywhere on land until about 200,000 years ago, creating large volcanoes that shaped the skeleton of today's Izu, such as Mt. Amagi and Mt. Daruma. The underground activities continue to take place today, and the plate movement continues to push the land of Izu into Honshu. These high altitudes have brought much rain, growing native forests such as beech, leeks, syrup, rhododendrons, and endemic species that grow only here.
This geological specificity of double and triple layers forms a unique natural environment even in Japan. The Izu Peninsula is being promoted as one of the "World Geoparks" that has been recognized as a type of natural park that contains geologically important, valuable, or beautiful geological heritage as defined by UNESCO. Programs for protection, education and regional promotion are being promoted.
I can't believe such precious nature was enshrined right next to the metropolitan city of Tokyo. I still don't know Japan at all. I have to walk more.
Visit the Izu Mountain Ridge trail, which is packed with the joy of hiking, and visit the big beech.
Unlike yesterday's Hacho Ike area course, this route has extremely poor access, and as I expected, there was almost no sign of people there, and it was a quiet and wonderful atmosphere. The greener greener than yesterday, and as soon as I started walking, huge, dignified trees began to appear all over the place. The quiet hike, wrapped in the forest, is not overstated, but gives the feeling that you've traveled back in time to hundreds of thousands of years ago.
The giant beech trees are also wonderful, but the large-grown forest of Asebi, which can be seen from the head to Mt. Nekoshi, is also impressive. The countless branches that spread out, winding, give off a mysterious and shady atmosphere, as if you've wandered into the world of Western fairy tales. As you would expect, the deepest part of the Izu Peninsula Geopark shows us a much fresher and diverse nature that is far more than we imagined.
On this day, we were forced to turn back to Mt. Nekoshi, and we could see the distance of Suruga Bay and Mt. Fuji. The varied, natural entertainment stimulates the senses. This trail is irresistible for both forest fetishes and view fetishes, which is one of the reasons why we can recommend it to anyone.
Enjoy coffee while snuggling with the large beech - Coffee dripper Cave Reversible & Dripper Holder Pond F -
As I wrote earlier, my destination on this day was not a mountain pass or a summit. It is a giant beech tree that is located near the head of the hand. I don't know the exact location, and since the card wasn't dropped, I wasn't worried that I might pass by, but to put it simply, I didn't have to worry about that.
I've passed dozens of giant beech trees so far, but the beech is a special one. The thickness of the trunk, the way the branches bulge out, and the thick moss that were stuck together, gave off an overwhelming presence that was so obvious that it was just as soon as I saw it.
I finally met a large beech. The surroundings are open as if under pressure from the aura of this tree, and it seems like they will be able to chair them well. I immediately rented a place that didn't get in the way and started preparing the coffee chairs I wanted.
Today's coffee was brewed using a combination of Rivers' other coffee extraction system, the Coffee Dripper Cave Reversible & Dripper Holder Pond F.
The "Coffee Dripper Cave Reversible" is a lightweight dripper for enjoying carefully selected paper drip outdoors. It is made of soft silicone, so it goes without saying that it is easy to pack. The slightly acute angle of the cone at 50° is said to be the calculated angle so that the coffee beans are firmly entangled with the hot water when brewing. Acute angles are advantageous in terms of stability.
This is not the only thing that comes to taste. As the name "reversible" suggests, this dripper has a different "rib (convexness engraved on the inside)" on the back and on the front, allowing you to choose the extraction level according to your own preferences.
The role of ribs is to create a gap between the filter paper and the dripper body and control the flow of hot water. Thicker ribs create more gaps and slower extraction speed (longer extraction time). This will emphasize the bitterness even with the same brewing method, allowing for extraction with a reduced sourness.
On the other hand, in a pattern in which a large number of thinner, long and short ribs are arranged, the extraction speed is faster than the former, and as a result, the extraction time is shorter. In this case, it is easier to make coffee that is refreshing and less bitter.
In fact, this was the first time I've learned how ribs work. In fact, people who are so particular about brewing their food every day are probably quite a coffee enthusiasts. To be honest, I don't really know if this makes a clear difference in taste.
However, it is true that in the world of professional baristas, it is common practice to adjust the taste by controlling the extraction speed, and as a coffee lover, it is certainly a joy to be happy with the fact that anyone can make the brewing method, which is essential to creating a taste that suits their taste (if they don't get too particular, they don't have to worry about either).
The only drawback I would like to point out is that due to the nature of silicone, it is prone to dust adhering. There are places in the mountains where dust, dirt, and dewy leaves are a lot, and wet cloths are difficult to use, so it was a bit of a concern due to hygiene that it was impossible to remove all the garbage.
In any case, this lightweight, compact dripper is gentle on those who want to focus on taste, and the ultra-lightweight, compact folding dripper holder "Dripper Holder Pond F" go great together, and there are hardly any complaints in the sense that you can enjoy authentic coffee in the mountains.
If I were to enjoy just one cup of coffee, assuming it's going to be used in solo hikes, I would bring the Micro Coffee Dripper 2 with me, and if I had to brew more than two cups I would bring the Cave & Pond F with me.
As I sip my coffee in peace on the banks of a large beech, time stopped and I was filled with indescribable happiness. At the same time, even thoughts of small stories, such as slight differences in taste, such as bitterness and sourness, can even spurt up.
It feels strange as if I am blending into a quiet, tense winter forest, as if I exist as a part of a large earth. Perhaps if I had passed as usual, I would have never made this discovery. It's not a bad idea to go further and sit still in the size of nature, which humans can't measure.
Reference: Hasuike Yoko's "Easy Sierra Cup Recipe" Yamato Keiko Publishing
"STUNSCAPE" web magazine focusing on people who are on adventures
STUNSCAPE, which develops an in-house outdoor and lifestyle brand that balances functionality and design at a high level, including the "Rivers" introduced this time, offers a web magazine focused on adventurers, with the theme of travel and outdoor activities.
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