Hiking is a term loosely used in L.A
Some people feel like the mere idea of walking instead of driving to go to the liquor store down the street is "Hiking" while others will run up and down the Malibu trails without breaking a sweat. I'm somewhere in the middle....
I recently purchased a fun toy called the Gosun Solar oven that first appeared as a Kickstarter campaign, and I decided to finally give it a try after a few weeks of staring at it in the middle of my living-room.
My first impression is that it was a bit heavier than I expected which meant that I was probably never going to take it on longer hikes but it is a great item to have in the trunk of the car when going camping or going on road trips.
I decided to take it to the top of Griffith park where a few tables welcome hikers with a 360 degree view of Los Angeles. I met some friends at the trailhead and we were all surprised by the parking signs along the road that shortened our hiking time since we had to be back before 1pm or our cars would get towed.
After debating if we were going to go hike somewhere else we decided to make it a short day and started heading up the gruesome trail. It's a fairly steep ascent to the top especially with a backpack filled with a solar oven. I was worried about the results of my first experiment with the Gosun since....there was no sun and the manual clearly said that on a cloudy day cooking time is at least an hour. But it did not deter me.
After picking a table and unpacking all my gear I geared up to make some easy but yummy vegan Tacos with previously cut red and yellow peppers, minced garlic, basil, mushrooms, olive oil and seasoning. I had packed too much food to fit in the relatively small tube of the oven and had so little time to cook my meal that I decided to not add the pack of seasoned Jackfruit I brought along. A bit of a disappointment.
After waiting around for about forty minutes and guzzling one beer it was time to wrap up the experiment because I did not want to eat the most expensive Tacos in the world (the price of recovering a towed car in L,A is not cheap). The packed oven made enough filling for three tacos which was a good thing since there were three of us but it was definitely a light lunch. The end result was decent but it could have used another half hour in the sun because the peppers were still quite crunchy.
We packed everything in a rush and raced down the mountain to our cars before enjoying a few more beers at a local tavern to celebrate our short hike.
I can't wait to try it again next and hopefully the sun will join us on our next adventure.
You can get your own Gosun stove on their website: http://www.gosunstove.com/
Looks so yummee!!!
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