Day Two at Camp: Pie-Iron Breakfast, Cascading Tomatoes, and an E-Bike Ride to Beulah

Friday morning started with exactly the kind of breakfast that makes camp cooking worth the effort.

Yesterday, our fresh tomatoes helped build the base of the Dutch oven chili.

This morning, those same tomatoes changed jobs.

That is the whole point of this cascading camp menu: ingredients keep moving, but the meals do not feel like repeats.

Today, the tomatoes went into bacon, egg, cheddar, and fresh tomato pie-iron melts.

And judging by the finished sandwich, the pie iron did its job.

The bread came out deeply toasted and compressed, with those unmistakable ridges across the top. Cheese and bacon escaped around the edges just enough to remind us that camp cooking is not really about perfect presentation.

It is about whether the cheese melted.

It did.

Friday Morning: Bacon, Egg, Cheddar & Fresh Tomato Pie-Iron Melts

The basic recipe is simple:

• thick slices of bread
• eggs
• bacon
• sharp cheddar
• fresh tomato
• butter
• salt and pepper

We cooked the bacon first, then used the skillet for the eggs.

The eggs were left slightly soft because they were going to cook again once everything went into the pie iron.

Then we buttered the outside of the bread and stacked the inside with cheddar, egg, bacon, and thinly sliced fresh tomato.

Thin tomato slices matter here.

Too much tomato can turn a perfectly good crispy sandwich into something closer to bread pudding.

Nobody came to camp for bread pudding at breakfast.

Once loaded, the sandwich went into the pie iron and over the fire.

Turn.

Check.

Turn again.

Try not to burn it.

Wonder whether the other side of the fire is hotter.

Turn again.

Eventually, out came breakfast.

Crisp bread.

Melted cheese.

Bacon.

Egg.

Fresh tomato.

Exactly what we wanted.

The Pie Iron Has One Rule

The pie iron does not care about presentation.

It cares about melted cheese, crisp bread, and whether you remembered which side of the fire was hotter.

Our sandwich was not perfectly square.

A little cheese escaped.

Some bacon was hanging out the side.

That is probably how you know it worked.

This Morning's Cascade

The real cascade in this breakfast is the tomato.

Thursday night, those tomatoes were cooked down into chili.

Friday morning, they became a fresh layer inside a hot breakfast sandwich.

Later today, they will show up again with the loaded chili baked potatoes.

Then Saturday takes them in another direction entirely.

That is what we wanted from this menu.

Not leftovers.

Ingredients with multiple jobs.

Bacon is beginning its own little cascade too. What we cooked this morning can show up again on the loaded potatoes and later in the weekend.

One cooler.

Several meals.

Very little boredom.

Breakfast Is Only Part One of Friday

Once breakfast is finished, today becomes less about camp cooking and more about getting on the bikes.

We brought the electric bikes specifically because this part of northern Michigan is made for them.

Our Friday plan is to leave from Crystal Lake RV Campground and ride toward Frankfort before connecting with the Betsie Valley Trail.

From there, we will head east toward Beulah.

The rough plan is about an 18- to 20-mile round trip, which gives us plenty of riding without turning Friday into an endurance event of its own.

Nate can save that distinction for Sunday.

Today's E-Bike Route

The basic route looks like this:

Crystal Lake RV Campground → Frankfort waterfront → Betsie Valley Trail → Crystal Lake and Betsie River scenery → Beulah → back to camp

Along the way, we are planning time for the places that make the ride more than just exercise.

The trail gives us stretches through the Betsie River wetlands and views around Crystal Lake.

Once we reach Beulah, the plan includes stopping around Beulah Public Beach and taking some time off the bikes.

Depending on timing, Five Shores Brewing is also on the radar for a lunch or beer stop before heading back.

The Cherry Hut was another stop we had identified in the area, so Friday has plenty of room to turn into one of those rides where the destination keeps changing because something interesting appears ahead.

That is exactly how we like these days.

The Nice Thing About E-Bike Camping

This is why bringing the bikes changes a camping trip.

Without them, breakfast would probably be followed by getting in the vehicle and driving somewhere.

Instead, once the plates are cleaned up, we can leave directly from camp.

The bikes become transportation, sightseeing, and something to do all at once.

Twenty miles sounds like a decent day.

With electric bikes, it becomes much easier to stop, explore, turn around, add a side trip, or sit by the lake without worrying that every extra mile is going to hurt later.

And after last night's chili and cornbread, moving around for a few hours probably is not the worst idea either.

Then We Come Back and Eat the Chili Again — Sort Of

Tonight is where the cascading part of the menu gets more obvious.

We deliberately saved part of Thursday's chili.

But we are not simply reheating bowls of chili.

Instead, it becomes the topping for loaded baked potatoes.

The potatoes will get butter, chili, cheddar, bacon, sour cream, fresh tomato, and green onion.

So Thursday's dinner gets one encore and then it is finished.

That is the rule.

The chili is not following us around until Sunday.

It gets two jobs:

Thursday: chili.
Friday: loaded potato topping.

Then we move on.

Friday Is Shaping Up Pretty Well

The day started with a pie-iron sandwich filled with bacon, egg, cheddar, and tomatoes from the same batch that helped make last night's chili.

Next, the electric bikes come out.

We ride toward Frankfort, get onto the Betsie Valley Trail, follow the scenery toward Beulah, stop when something looks interesting, and eventually make our way back to camp.

Then tonight, the last of the chili gets transformed into something completely different.

That is exactly what we hoped this trip would be.

Good food.

A fire.

Electric bikes.

Northern Michigan.

And a cooler that gets a little emptier every time we figure out a new way to use what is already inside it.