Sure beats Spam and a can of beans.
Nice intro to packing.
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We have people in our group that pack like that and worse. A couple of trips dragging it on low water, getting caught up in trees or you boat just being too overloaded to negotiate that surprise Class II, usually cures it.
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It does not require much space. A 10" aluminum DO weight very light and its carry bag holds all my DO supplies and fits under a canoe seat. If you only bring the other cooking tools you need and pre package ingredients in advance you can get it all into a medium size dry bag.
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Reading all the techniques and preferences reminds me that anything prepared in the outdoor environment is worth the effort. Whether consumed out of a can or part of an elaborate preparation, its hard to imagine a better place to enjoy it than your favorite secluded spot, and your backyard it a great place to practice and hone your skills
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Reading all these posts with much interest. I have done many 4 and 5 day trips and feeding yourself is relatively easy. This May 4 of us are going to Utah for a 10 day trip down the Green River with a takeout on the Colorado just above the first rapids. 10 days is a long time and coolers are only so good. So my planning is entirely different from those 4 and 5 day trips. So far, my planning hasnât happened, I have time, but donât want to caught up short.
To me, half the he fun is the planning and dreaming stages.
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We did 6 days and five nights on the French River in northern Ontario. Not the same length of trip you have done but still fun! We try not to do portages but set up a base camp for day trips of exploring and good paddling where portages are with basically empty canoes. We cook on the open fire as much as possible if there are no fire bans. We carry Recreational Barrel Works canoe barrels for our food stuff. These barrels can use round coolers to help preserve fresh or frozen foods. We have steak dinners with baked potatoes and rehydrated green beans; ham dinners with scalloped potatoes and rehydrated peas; roast beef dinners with instant mashed potatoes and rehydrated corn; stew with rehydrated ground beef and many other rehydrated veggies; pizzas in the reflector oven; chilis; and other desserts made in the Dutch oven.
Since glass bottles and cans are forbidden in the French River Provincial Park, we use dehydrated foods and fresh foods. Everything is packed in canoe packs and if needed, we could portage. But having a base camp and doing day trips means we eat well, and have lots of time for paddling, fishing and exploring. Great fun!
That is a pretty area. Have done several FR trips⌠but they all involved portaging⌠The latest was messy when the Bay was six feet down⌠Everyone had to portage the usual chutes as there was no water. There were powerboaters moored on the inland side and they had boats on the Bay side. Not a portage trail but a rock scramble up and down what should have been Five Fingers Rapids. Then there was the Old Voyageur channel⌠with no water. âŚ
Yes I love supermarket backpacking and dehydrating veggies is so easy. And there are tons of varieties of instant mashed potatos that are actually good on a trip.
Ya had me with that French accent at the beginningâSo I was waiting on that escargot!
Well, Iâm more of the zebra mussels-on-the-half shell and frog legs type myself.
Your special guest with the bald eagle as camp meat anecdote is not too far out there, as old time voyageurs made owl(if not our national symbol)part of the camp cookery palette. Things like beaver, crayfish, porcupine, turtles, etc., weâre also standard fare(at least with potatoes, if not ramen noodles.) When a long dayâs paddling requires substantial calories, nothingâs off the table. No worries about packing light either.
Nice vid, Bon Appetit!
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Hi Andy,
A great paddling trip. The low desert is hotter than most people are used to as in 112 degrees. I would avoid July and August. Fresh food for the first 4-5 days is usually okay. Then you need to go to less perishable food like cans and dehydrated items.
We will be there in mid May. Plan is to get up early, float downstream until about 10:00 AM, make camp and hike around a bit
We did take dehydrated for the end of the trip and fresh for the first two days. I will say that May is glorious on the Green for the cactus flowers. We did not bake⌠We actually got snowed on on Mothers Day.
Take layers plan to be hot and cold⌠The sun is relentless even if its cool so you can burn quick . We use long sleeve shirts and pants.
We did take some canned stuff as those containers are OK. Everything as you know has to go out with you.
September was hot⌠we paddled early and avoided the heat of the afternoon under trees. Until it wasnât hot. And it snowed again the last day.
Get used to peeing in the river. That for me was the biggest adjustment!
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I appreciate all the comments on this thread. There are definitely many ways to do things. My videos are just to give people ideas and yall have definitely given me some more ideas. I hope to do some more actually canoe trip videos soon. I might do the Colorado River (Texas) this weekend if the weather is good. I would also be grateful if yall would subscribe to my youtube channel. Thanks a bunch!
@spiritboat Throw squirrel on that list. Fried squirrel was a common dinner option when I was growing up in East Texas.
Ah yes, the finer delicacy of arboreal toilet-brushed tailed rodentia.
I know a mountain town hillbilly Mom who caused quite a stir locally, when she bought a tray of squirrel to a pot luck PTA meeting. (Alas, poor lady couldnât understand why other attendees present at the time shunned both her and platter.)
In a totally different locale, I once worked with a southern gentleman whoâd recently transferred to New York City from rural Dixie to obtain better pay. One fine morning he came into work and reported heâd been arrested over the previous weekend in urban Brooklynâs Prospect Park.
âWhat for?,â I asked.
âHunting squirrel with a 22.
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We normally used a shotgun. Itâs hard to hit a squirrel in the woods with a 22. The only problem is you often had to pick the BBâs out or they could get stuck in your teeth.
A .22 in an urban park can kill people.
Dumbass nation.
Indeed. One can only imagine if he got the notion to use a shotgun. Aside from the fact that NYC has strict gun laws and the boro of Brooklyn bills itself â4th largest city in Americaâ. (Although I believe Philadelphia has a strong claim as well.)
The clown wasnât in the job too long after that as I recall.
13 days of ocean canoeing and we had fresh veg until day 11 and only ate one dehydrated/freeze dried meal. We also carried 22 litres of water, which is good for about 4 days, but we refill every chance we get. We use a double burner propane stove and never cook over a fire (burning ocean driftwood is very toxic). We never ever ever load past our gunwales!
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