I saw my coworker Alie’s image of #parkinglotpancakes on Instagram, with snowy Mount Hood as the backdrop, and I instantly knew what I would be doing the following weekend.
I guess you could say my FOMO (fear of missing out) gave me a new MO (modus operandi).
A little background: I am a sleep-in-and-miss-the-ski-resort-traffic kind of snowboarder and mountain fun-haver. I’ve also never tailgated in the parking lot of a ski resort. But seeing and hearing about her experience motivated me to pull my camping gear out of the garage, set my alarm for 5:30 a.m. on a recent Sunday, and give it a go.
Alie and I were heading to Timberline to *beat* the ski resort traffic and see if we could take what she learned from her friends’ breakfast tailgating know-how and make some of our own changes to possibly even improve upon that awesomeness.
For all the negatives of social media and the recent backlash against geotagging locations for fear of loving places to death, it’s refreshing when a post can simply inspire you to explore something new, get outside your comfort zone, and get up earlier to get outside.
The night before, I washed all the cookware and tested the camp stove (still worked…phew!). I also made pancake batter and stored it in an easy-to-pour glass jar. In the morning, I threw the mix plus frozen veggie sausages, real maple syrup and butter in a cooler. (I also threw in some veggie burgers so we could have some #parkinglotpucks for lunch, too.) Alie brought OJ, grapes, chocolate chips for the pancakes, and cheese and buns for the burgers. We would be eating well.
We rolled into the Timberline parking lot around 7:45 a.m. The only souls who had beaten us there were mountaineers heading up Mount Hood on foot. We got an amazing spot, and we had a great view of all the climbers heading up the trail. That might be the closest I’ll ever get to climbing Mount Hood in the winter, but somehow it felt like we were a part of it.
Breakfast sizzled right along according to plan. We brought some repurposed “dipping cups” for the syrup, which kept things from getting too sticky and meant our plates could do double-duty for lunch. It was delicious, and we had a few lookie-loos (including Penny the dog) stop by to see what smelled so good.
I see this #parkinglotpancakes thing working out anytime I want to: a) be the early bird and beat the traffic to the mountain or coast for a parking spot, b) camp without camping, and c) enjoy those crazy breakfast views. All-out al fresco.
For all the negatives of social media and the recent backlash against geotagging locations for fear of loving places to death, it’s refreshing when a post can simply inspire you to explore something new, get outside your comfort zone, and get outside.
The #parkinglotpancakes initiative continues to spread here at KEEN, and it’s been fun to share gear tips and menu ideas with folks in different departments.
I can’t wait to see where breakfast takes us this summer.
