I debated renaming this newsletter from Underdomesticated to The 70lbs Sack. Still debating it actually…think of the hoodies and hats that could go along with that. Decisions decisions.

But seriously, I went backpacking with Finn this week and my bag weighed a little over 70lbs. I’ll get more into that below, but someone left this comment on my LinkedIn post of all places:

I’m 32 years old, 5’10” tall, and wasn’t miserable. So I’d like to thank this gentleman for publicly calling me “obscenely fit.” Wait until my wife finds out!

A few weeks ago, a few of us went fishing of the coast of Moss Landing, California as a retirement party for my dad. We landed a ton of Rockfish and a few beautiful California Halibut.

This week I made Panne Halibut with (semi)-homemade tartar sauce. Panne is just a fancy french way to say it was coated in breadcrumbs and lightly fried. Spoiler: it was amazing! I think I found the best way to fry fish without making it feel heavy like normal “deep fried” food. The key is only breading one side, and leaving the other side plain. Trust me, it works!

Ingredients:

Coat one side of the fillets in the seasoned flour, then into the eggs, then into the panko. Leave the other side plain. Heat the pan and oil, then add the fillets to the oil. Cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the butter. Baste the top of the fillets for about a minute, leave to let cook until the fillet temp reaches about 130, then flip to sear the other side until temp is where you want it. Remove from pan and rest for 2-3 minutes.

Ingredients for tartar sauce:

The measurements aren’t precise on the sauce on purpose. I like it heavy on the dill, some might not. Add more or less of the ingredients to your bowl until you like the taste!

A few tips for this meal:

The whole family loved this meal. Especially Finn! He thought he was eating fancy fish sticks, and probably ate 5 oz of halibut. It only took about 30 minutes start to finish to make, so I will definitely be making this one again. I’m sure it would work fine with any other white fish from the grocery store if you don’t happen to have any freshly-caught halibut fillets at home!

10/10

I took Finn backpacking for his first ever camping trip, joined by my older brother and his 6 year old daughter. I wish and hope that every dad can experience this with their kids. Few things will make you more proud than watching your 3 year old push through hard climbs and recover from bad falls.

Addressing the 70lbs sack in the room…I don’t currently have very ultra light backpacking gear, so I was forced pack some pretty bulky and heavy items. Obviously you need adequate gear so your trip is safe, but don’t let the lack of the perfect gear stop you!

I only have a 4 person tent currently, and our sleeping bags are pretty bulky. I do have a nice ultralight pad, but had to buy another one that wasn’t so Finn had one too. I also ended up packing a couple down camping blankets and was a little overkill on extra clothes and food. Better safe than sorry, right?

It ended up getting down to about 45F over night, so I was glad I took the blankets. Finn was in a 20F bag, and I was in a 40F bag, but we still both got a little chilly in the middle of the night so it was nice to tuck under another layer without having to get up and put jackets on.

Now to the trip!

I debate whether to tell people about the exact locations that I go to, but I will this time. We started at the Ruth’s Lake trailhead up Mirror Lake Highway coming from Kamas, Utah. The trailhead is at about 10,100 ft of elevation and we camped at about 10,500 ft. We followed the trail about 2.6 miles to a small 8-acre lake called Cutthroat Lake. There are a bunch of lakes along this trail, each with decent primitive campsites that you can choose from if you don’t want to go that far.

Parts of the hike were a little trickier that we intended with little kids, but nothing they couldn’t handle with some hand-holding. There were a few rock scrambles over water that felt a little dicey, but we all managed fine at the end of the day. It took about 2.5 hour to get the 2.6 miles to camp. A lot of snack breaks are key to keeping kids going! Mike and Ikes and gummy bears are Finn’s favorite, so I made up a few baggies to give him along the way.

We got to camp at about 3pm, set up camp, and had dinner. We fried up some spam and mixed it into ramen noodled. For some reason, food that you would never eat at home happens to be the best food for a campout! After eating we fished for a few hours. Fishing was slower than we wished, but my brother and I were trying some new lures and techniques for a while, and that slowed us down.

I ended up catching a good sized tiger trout, and had a bigger one on the line but it came off. These tigers jump like crazy when you hook them, so they’re incredibly fun to fish for! I always throw these back, they’re sterile hybrids of a brown and a brook trout that are stocked in some of these high alpine lakes. They stock them for population control of local trout species so they can grow bigger instead of stunting growth. There’s no law about releasing them, but seems like the right thing to do!

I slept like crap, but Finn loved being in the tent. He woke up at about 1:00 am, and we stepped outside the tent to look at the starts. You forget how clear the sky is when you’re up that high, it was incredible to see the detailed Milky Way! Its the first time Finn has seen that many starts. He’s usually an early-to-bed guy and misses that all summer.

We were all up at about 6:00am the next morning, and we decided to just pack up camp and head home before the sun got too high. The hike home was about the same as the hike in, but about 30 minutes faster headed down hill. Finn fell a few times and got pretty scraped up on some branches and rocks, and I could tell he was low on energy, so I held his hand most of the way back down. Soon, he’ll never want to hold my hand again, so I’ll take advantage while I can!

These are the stats from tracking the hike on Alltrails: 5.1 miles, 3:50 hours, 581 ft of elevation gain.

Finn is hooked on camping now, and we have some fun campouts planned in the next couple months!

8/10, the heavy pack took a few points off here, but I’m currently looking to slowly replace some gear in the coming weeks. Would definitely take the family back to Cutthroat Lake, though!

It was about 95F this last weekend, and after a morning full of chores and running around, we sat down to watch the greatest movie ever made. Treasure Planet. Theres a scene where young Jim watches his dad abandon his family (to the tune of I’m Still Here by John Rzeznik). Earlier in the movie after Jim is in trouble with the police, his mom remarks that he hasn’t been the same since his dad left.

No Duh!

I’m not a psychologist and I don’t have all the stats off the top of my head, but the role of a father in little boys’ and girls’ lives is monumental. I know family relations are complex and imperfect, but imagine if we celebrated fatherhood milestones like we celebrated the latest AI breakthrough or business fundraising rounds.

Dads, get out there with your kids and let them watch you be a man. It’ll change them.

If you read this far, you may notice that this is a long newsletter! It is, and thats the point. Social media has conditioned us to scroll after 2 seconds and see thousands of pieces of content per day. Thats why we’re all addicted and messed up. I figure if the writing here is any good, you’ll read it all. If not, then I need to write better until you do!

For this weeks adventure, Finn and I are going fishing. The water level at Deer Creek State Park has dropped enough that you can walk across land to an island with a big hill and tons of lizards, so Finn and I are getting up super early to hike to the other side of the island to fish. And I’m in a bit of a seafood mood, so I’m making spaghetti alle valgone (pasta with clams) this week!

If you have any fun or crazy food ideas you want me to try to make, send ‘em over! I read every reply and try to reply to them all myself.