October 2014 Archives

In about August 2014, I started planning a fall event in the San Rafael Swell. The plan was to stage at the end of the pavement near Temple Mountain. I posted an invite link on Facebook and invited many to participate.

As the week neared, the weather was looking to be perfect. Mid-70's and full sunshine were forecast for the entire weekend. It was going to be great.

I took that Thurs & Friday off and was on the road by early afternoon on Thursday. Traffic was mild and the trek south/east was uneventful, except for what I noticed on my speedometer. I truck has just clocked 111111 miles. It was an odd sight.

GPS Tracks for the weekend here: TempleMountain-Area.gdb

An interesting history of the mining in the area found here: SanRafaelOralHistoryReport4-16-2012.pdf

Upon arriving at the Temple Mountain area, I found my staging/camping location was already fairly full, but I did manage to carve out an area large enough for my rig and friends.

That Friday, I decided to pre-ride many sections that I thought could be technical. Behind the Reef and Little Wild Horse trails had a few technical rocky sections and I determined that we'd avoid the rock craw on Little Wild Horse.

100 miles ridden on Friday and only two sections that were somewhat technical. I mapped everything out with the GPS, plotted on the BLM / County map and prepared for Saturday's ride.

Saturday, the sky was clear and morning temps in the high 50's. Everyone donned their gear, with one heavy jacket in sight and off we went.

One of the many exciting discoveries had to be an accessible mine near Tomisch Butte. The mine seemed to cover the entire length and width of the mountain. We entered near the chute and would come out on another section of the mountain. Probably not advisable for us to have wandered through given it was a uranium mine..

The recipe is very easy.

Assemble the following:

Bear Creek "Darn Good Chili"

1 small can tomato paste

1 can of Stagg Dynamite Hot Chili

2 pounds stew beef, or slice up your own new york steak (3-4 small steaks works)

2 fresh jalapeno

2 fresh Serrano

Course ground black pepper

Course sea salt

Cayenne pepper

Season the stew meat with cayenne, black pepper and salt. Brown the meat thoroughly (or cook all the way if no slow cooker)

8 cups water into the slow cooker

Add the Bear Creek into the slow cooker

Add the Stagg Chili

Add the Tomato Paste

Stir

Once the meat is browned or cooked, add to the slow cooker.

Cut Jalapeno to size, add

Toss in the Serrano, without cutting

Add pepper, cayenne and salt to taste. I usually like quite a bit of Cayenne pepper

Leave the slow cooker on LOW and allow to cook all day. I usually start mine at 5am and serve by 6pm.

Best served with crackers or corn bread.