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The Tasty Debut of Hungryroot

Trust me, when you’re celebrating Passover and trying to stick to a Passover diet—no wheat, no rice—the options become less and less during the course of the week. That’s why I was delighted to hear about Hungryroot, a vegetarian-based 7 minute meal that made its debut on March 31st. Thinly cut vegetables take the place of pasta noodles and are topped with delicious sauces like Thai sesame or walnut pesto. Our favorites were the Zucchini Noodles with Sweet Basil Gremolata and Sweet Potato Noodles with Creamy Cashew Alfredo. You can add chicken to any dish, but it’s really not necessary. Our son, Jake, not one to love his veggies, downed the zucchini meal in record time. Hungryroot is the brainchild of three partners well known in the culinary world. Ben McKean founded restaurant reservation service Savored, which was acquired by Groupon; his partner Greg Struck founded Long Island Iced Tea brands; and chef Franklin Becker founded The Little Beet and starred in Bravo’s Top Chef Masters in 2013. Cost of each dish is $10 and Hungryroot is now shipping direct to clients in all cites east of the Mississippi. By the end of the year, they’ll be nationwide. 

 

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Spotting Puffins at Machias Seal Island, Maine

Near the mouth of the Bay of Fundy, Machias Seal Island is a tiny unspoiled sanctuary for a number of Maine’s most noted marine bird species. You can visit the island via a charter boat operating out of Cutler or Jonesport, Maine. An hour later you disembark onto a small low-lying island. Hundreds of plump birds whiz over your heads searching the waters for breakfast. Some have hooded black heads that look like Batman’s disguise. These are the razorbill auks. Others have eyes the size of a parrot with beaks dotted red, black, and yellow. This is the bird everyone is excited to see, the Atlantic puffin. 

Weather permitting, you can climb atop the seaweed-slick rocks and see puffins two to three feet away. The eastern part of the island is covered with Arctic terns. The razorbill auks might look like superheroes, but it is the aggressive tern that keeps predators like seagulls away from the eggs of all the island’s birds. Paths lead to four blinds where you can set up shop and watch the puffins return to feed their young. 
 

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Drive the Golden Circle, Iceland

There are two types of travelers to Iceland, ones like me who spend the bulk of their time in Reykjavik taking day trips to see the countryside and others who simply stay in small guesthouses in the more remote areas of the island. Obviously, if you can do the latter, you’ll be treated to a far more authentic experience with majestic vistas of glaciers, volcanoes, and the coastline around every bend. I needed to be in Reykjavik for a travel writers’ conference, but even I had the chance to check out three incredible sites thanks to the daylong Golden Circle tour with Reykjavik Excursions. First stop was Thingvellir (Þingvellir) National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site where the tectonic plates of Europe and North America meet. You walk on a narrow trail dwarfed by the rocky walls. Next stop was the surging waters of the Gulfoss Waterfalls, cascading down the tiers of rock. You take a short hike to the lip of waterfalls, sprayed by the cool water. Last stop was Geysir, Iceland’s version of Yellowstone where hot pools churn and bubble and the Strokkur geyser erupts every 4 to 5 minutes. Coupled with a trip to the Blue Lagoon, a whalewatching/puffin tour, even the opportunity to hike on a glacier, you can get a good taste of Iceland while spending your nights in Reykjavik. 

 
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Bike the 50-Mile Tour de Picayune

Located in southwestern Florida, Picayune Strand State Forest is best known as the place in the 60s where gullible northerners bought 5 acres of choice Florida real estate only to find out it was mostly swampland. Roads were built and subdivisions created, but few people came. Lately, the paved roads have been removed in a massive restoration project to enhance the proper flow of water in the Everglades. So far, it’s been working with indigenous plants and birdlife returning to this vast acreage. This desolate stretch of the Everglades is where my brother and I went mountain biking in early December with our guide, Wes Wilkins, owner of Everglades Edge. We saw no other humans driving or biking as we headed out on dirt roads, surrounded by swamp waters. In their place were snapping turtles, tall wood storks, and alligators sunning on the banks of the streams. An avid biker, Wilkins also chairs the 50-mile Tour de Picayune, which takes place this year on February 4th. Even if you have no desire to race and win the cherished Durrwalker Cup, you can still sign up at Tour de Picayune to bike 50 miles of dirt roads lost in time, while spotting a wide selection of birdlife. 

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3 Great Things to Do On Vermont’s Lake Champlain in Winter

Fish It
If you think ice fishing means dangling a line on some remote pond while extremities turn numb and lips go blue, you’re in for a big surprise. These days, winter anglers can sit in a heated shanty and watch Super Bowl while checking their lines for any nibbles. February and the March are the two best months for hooking landlocked salmon, northern pike, lake trout and bass on Lake Champlain. Rent a shanty from Captain Gill Gagner for $90 a day or he’ll guide you all day for $200, including all fishing gear.

Kite It
Head to Cape Cod in summer and you’ll no doubt find kitesurfers catching air and zipping across the ocean. Now with the help of a good wind, you can glide on iced-over lakes and snow-covered meadows. Called snowkiting, the sport has its annual powwow, Kitestorm, on February 26th and 27th on Lake Champlain. Come with skis or snowboard, boots, and a helmet, and instructors will attach you to a kite and get you started. If you can’t make it to Burlington over those dates, contact Rachael Miller, owner of Stormboarding, for lessons and equipment.

Coast It
Take cross-country skiing and merge it with ice skating and you get the new phenomenon sweeping across the wild rivers and lakes of New England, nordic skating. Equipped with boots that are more comfortable than typical figure or hockey skates, and blades that glide atop the ice much like a speed skater, this Scandinavian craze lets skaters travel great distances at a much faster speed than cross-country skiing. Try the sport in the town of North Hero on Lake Champlain February 6th or at the Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, Vermont, on Sunday mornings in February.
 

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Amman Imman: Water is Life

Today, I’m pleased to introduce my first guest blogger on ActiveTravels, my brother Jim Jermanok. I hope it will be the first of many guest writers!

Five years ago, following graduation from Yale, Ariane Kirtley went to West Africa as a Fulbright Scholar. Her career seemed assured. Almost overnight her life changed. Friends encouraged her to visit the Florida-sized Azawak Valley, the most abandoned region of Niger, the poorest country on Earth. In the Azawak, half the children die before reaching five years old, often of thirst. Ariane thought she’d seen everything in Africa, but she was so devastated by the conditions she found that she decided to dedicate her life to the people of the Azawak, and bring them water from unlimited supplies 600-1000 feet underground, much too deep for conventional wells to reach.
 
Since 2006, Ariane has worked against harrowing odds to save lives in the Azawak, among some of the most defenseless minorities in Africa – a half million Tuareg and Wodaabe nomads who have no water most of the year due to unremitting drought. Ariane set aside career goals and founded her own organization, Amman Imman: Water Is Life, to build permanent borehole wells for these nomads. Working far from civilization in suffocating Saharan heat, facing persistent health risks, Ariane and her team do major infrastructure work normally carried out by governments. In early 2010, persevering under the threat of Al-Qaida terrorists, she finished building her second borehole, the Kijigari “Well of Love.” This follows completion of Tangarwashane borehole in 2007-08. Each borehole serves 25,000 people and animals. 
 
Ariane’s dream is to build fifty such “Oases of Life” to eliminate water scarcity for the half million forsaken people of the Azawak. During this Holiday Season, please think about helping this brave woman save the lives of children and nomads who are on the brink, by donating generously to her 501c3 organization, Amman Imman: Water Is Life. 
 

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Snowshoe to an AMC High Hut in the White Mountains

The Appalachian Mountain Club keeps three of its huts in the Whites in New Hampshire open in winter. For snowshoers who relish a good climb, try the 3.8-mile (one-way) hike from Pinkham Notch to the Carter Notch hut. The 19-mile Brook Trail will bring you to this unique accommodation, situated between the dramatic ridges of Carter Dome and Wildcat “A.” Here, you can spend the night at the AMC’s oldest standing hut, a stone building constructed in 1914, perched just above two glacial lakes. The trail splits at the 1.8-mile mark, veering left to the top of Carter Dome or straight to Carter Notch. As you cross a bridge and continue the ascent to the notch, the northern hardwood forest is soon replaced by a boreal forest of sweet-smelling spruces and firs. The last section of the trail snakes between the ridges and the majestic glacial lakes to the old hut. Inside the cozy walls, you’ve earned your dinner and a night’s sleep on a mattress.

 
An easier hike is the 1.75-mile trail from the campground at Franconia Notch State Park to Lonesome Lake Hut. The trail leads through a sheltered birch, pine, and spruce forest to the shores of this bowl-shaped lake. Savor Franconia’s carved granite and the surrounding 5,000-foot mountains in all their splendor, with rarely a peep heard. All three huts, including the Zealand Falls Hut, are self-serve, so bring winter sleeping bags and food. Rates start at $25 a night for members, $30 for nonmembers.
 

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