This week, I introduced a new page featuring John’s recipes. Click here to see what John has been up to! 

Hello everyone,

The fact that lake Tahoe exists is amazing to me. You are literally driving through the dry Nevada desert and then suddenly it gets a little hilly then mountainy and oh, look, you’re gaining elevation and then BAM! A gorgeous gigantic turquoise-blue lake surrounded by forests and granite mountains.

Lake Tahoe itself is stunning, but John and I didn’t spend much time at the main lake. We spent more time hiking in search of climbing areas. My favourite was our hike up to Eagle lake, where John climbed some of his favourite routes in the area. The climbing there was a tad difficult for me, so I just took in the beautiful scenery and watched John climb.

One thing that is really awesome about Lake Tahoe is that there is free camping all over the place. John had asked around on his last trip and had found some lovely spots for us to stay.

The first night, John was disappointed to see that his favourite camping spot was taken by someone else. But the second night we seemed to luck out as the spot was vacant!

We got out of the truck to brush our teeth at the river when we heard a low growling sound. At first I thought it was a motorcycle, but then we quickly realized it wasn’t mechanical.

“Is that what I think it is?” I asked John.

“Yes, I heard it back at camp too.” John replied.

This large animal had followed us from our campsite to the river, growling a low ominous growl all the way.

We headed back to camp and fell asleep in the truck. I was awoken by the sound of more growling. John is very comfortable around black bears. He has been known to yell at them, throw rocks at them, and other such antics as I cower in the vehicle. But during his numerous bear encounters, he had never heard a bear growl, especially consistently like this guy was. When we heard footsteps in the camp, John yelled really loud out the window of the canopy to try to scare the bear away.

We decided right then that camping in this spot was a bad idea. John figures that the previous campers had fed this bear and that it was protecting the area (or something along those lines.) We decided to leave.

The only problem is that we were camping in the back of the truck and to actually get to the front of the truck, you have to go outside. After some more yelling, careful listening and scanning of the outside with the limited light of a head lamp, John made a break for it, climbed out of the canopy, raised our bike rack, got to the front of the truck and drove away. As for me, I stayed in the safety of the truck bed as we drove down the road. There was no way I was getting out of that vehicle with Growly Bear on the prowl.

Growling bears are not cool. If a bear decided to, it could rip off a truck canopy with one swipe of its paw. You don’t hang around when a bear growls at you.

So we opted not to return to that camping site the next day. We found another lovely free camping spot on the side of a river, and another right at the top of the mountain.

This week’s recipe was created on top of a mountain. Well, I’ll confess it’s not really a recipe, but more of an idea. But boy is it a good one.

We bought Cinnabon’s version of those make-at-home Pilsbury cinnamon buns most of us are familiar with, and we cooked them on the BBQ!

This super easy dessert is the perfect night cap for any camping trip!

So if a pig-headed man tells you that “you can’t bake a cake on the barbecue” he is a liar. Well, at least you can bake cinnamon buns!

Bon appetit,

Julie

Click here to view printable Word version of recipe:
Camping Cinnamon Buns on the BBQ

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Camping BBQ Cinnamon Buns

1 pkg bake-at-home Pilsbury cinnamon buns (John and I found a Cinnabon brand in the USA that’s even better, and we also love our generic brands here in Canada)

Butter

1 pie tin

Tin Foil

DIRECTIONS:

1. Butter the pie tin
2. Place cinnamon buns in star pattern on the bottom of your pie tin.
3. Cover cinnamon buns in tin foil
4. Seriously, just follow the directions on the cinnamon bun package. If you don’t have a thermometer, just put your BBQ on medium and monitor your buns.