A No Carb Very Romantic Valentines Day in the North Wooods

. . .but watch out for the methane in the dinner menu!

We had a lovely Valentines day without any fossil fuels. Since we are up at our cabin in the woods this week, and we have a foot of fresh snow, that meant a backcountry ski outing that ended up at the Garnet Hill log house restaurant in the wilderness.

Started out with heart-shaped pancakes cooked on our woodstove,with local maple syrup. Our stove doesnt have a proper cooktop, but an iron skillet resting on the coals gets plenty hot for pancakes. Spent the morning on work related stuff. In the afternoon, we headed out the front door into the woods and cross country skied three miles up to the William Blake Pond trailhead at the ski shop.

We then skied the six mile backcountry loop through William Blake Pond and the Botheration Pond trail, ending with a magical descent through snow-shagged firs to the Old Farm trail. We were a little late for a dinner reservations at the Log House!

We had an elegant dinner at the Log House at the Garnet Hill nordic center – this rustic restaurant and inn in the wilderness, and has been operating since the 1930s. The lodge has changed hands this year, and the new owners, Jim and Francis Rucker, are enthusiastic about restoring the network of ski trails. The kitchen still serves up Jane’s Onion Pies, along with an improved menu.  Robin had the heart shaped ravioli primavera; I decided I had burned enough calories skiing to deserve my once-every-month-or -so serving of beef, so I had the surf and turf — a delicious lobster meat bearnais over a filet of beef.

After dinner, we skied the three miles back down the hill to our cabin in the dark, our way  – and the occasional snowflake – lit by the beams of our headlamps. The cabin had not cooled down too much, and I threw on the heart-shaped log I have been saving for the right romantic evening. We snuggled up together with a movie on the portable player in front of the fire.

All in all, a memorable Valentines outing — and one that was totally free of fossil fuels.  But not free of greenhouse gas impacts – beef has a pretty hefty GHG impact – about 27 pounds of CO2 equivalent per pound of beef.  This is due in large part to the methane emissions of flatulent cattle.  So mbby 8 oz filet was responsible for about 13 pounds of CO2 greenhouse gas equivalent.