For packing, food items are basically separated into three categories; breakfast, paddling food and evening camp food. I first pack the breakfast foods which consist of either instant hot cereals or Instant Carnation breakfast. For the cereals I chose oatmeal and grits, alternating between the 2. I add nuts, dried fruit, brown sugar and dry milk to 2 packages, making one serving. One serving goes into a quart ziplock bag (freezer version) and I eat out of that. For the Carnation Instant breakfast, I add 1/3 cup of dry milk and a heaping teaspoon of instant expresso and store it in a small baggy that is sealed with a Seal a Meal. Along with the instant breakfast I eat a granola bar. All told, these breakfasts are about 400-500 calories each.
Packing the paddling food is easier since it consists almost entirely of energy bars and Gatorade powder. But I also bring "lunch" foods that consist of tortillas, peanut butter and honey, and packaged pre-made tuna salad (the kind that comes in its own sealed package). One tortilla serves as sandwich bread for the peanut butter or the tuna. I like Clif bars for paddling; they are very dense with calories, easy to chew even when cold, they have sufficient carbohydrate with protein and alittle fat, they hold up quite well and they come in wide variety of flavors. I also packaged some trail mix, extra dried fruit including dates and some energy bars I found in the bulk section of Whole Foods. I also carry turkey jerky for that salty taste I crave while paddling. All the breakfast and paddling foods are placed into one of the food buckets.
For the dinners, I package the foods according to each evening's meal and label the gallon bags containing the meals accordingly. Some of the dinners will consist of foods that are frozen or chilled and contained in a cooler. One of the meals will be pasta with spaghetti sauce made with Boca Burger grounds. The pasta will be precooked and kept chilled and the sauce will be frozen. These will be stored in freezer bags. Precooking the pasta will minimize water useage. Also in the cooler will be two veggie burgers, tomato, onion, cheese slices and frozen lentil soup stored in a gallon freezer bag. All the cooler foods will be consumed by the fourth night. The cooler will also serve as a storage place for water which will be frozen at the beginning of the trip. To keep critters out, the cooler is sealed with a bungee cord.
All the other dinner food items are packaged as one meal. For instance, for the first night's meal, we will have veggie burgers with cheese, tomato, onion and condiments and macaroni and cheese. For dessert, we have homemade biscottis. I placed the biscottis in a bag and sealed it with the Seal a Meal. Then, I placed the packaged macaroni and cheese, a bag of dry milk, burger condiments (restaurant packages), and biscottis all into one freezer bag. All meals are packaged so that every item needed can be located in one place. Odds and ends such as garlic or olive oil are always onhand inside the food bucket.
There are a few other food and beverage items packaged as well. We have several instant soups and hot chocolate packages, coffee and tea packages, extra dry milk, Emergenc C packages and some homemade oatmeal cookies.
We also have a few cans of veggies and a boxed soup coming along with us and I've wrapped them up in plastic bags inside a trash bag to avoid getting rusted and making a mess. For one meal, we will open up a can of black beans and a can of yuca to go with our cooked rice. For other meals, we add some mixed veggies and beets. Other than the cans and cooler foods, all food items are packaged in freezer bags and stored in two sealed buckets, as shown below. Each bucket is lined with a trash bag and I place a spare bag at the bottom. I seal the trash bag with a hair tie by twisting the top part of the bag several times, bending the twisted portion and then wrapping it with the hair tie until it is very tight. These buckets are not waterproof but they are air tight and light enough that they can float, even with the food items inside.
In addition to the cooler and two food buckets, we carry a collapsible cooler that we call the "food cube". It doesn't contain food or frozen water, but it contains all other matters related to eating and cooking and a few additional items as well. Below is a photo of the food cube and all the items that are stored inside it.
A long rope is attached to the collapsible bucket so that we can more easily gather up water from the chickee. The repair-tools container is a quart-size Nalgene bottle. It contains things such as patch kit, epoxy, super glue, various nuts and screws, pliers, duct tape (wrapped around the outside of the bottle) and a few other assorted items.
The camp stove is a Trangia alcohol stove. The fuel is denatured alcohol and for this trip we are carrying about 1 1/2 quarts of it. One of the containers we use for the fuel is a hydrogen peroxide bottle with a water bottle cap attached. The other container is an old Gatorade bottle. Below are photos showing the stove and all the pieces (including 2 pots and 2 bowls) that come with it and how it is put together for easy storage. The blue cup is a measuring cup.
After the food and clothes are packed, I get the water containers filled. In my boat, I will be carrying a 7-gal hard-sided container. Additional water will be in my 2 water bottles that I access during paddling. I'll have close to 8 gallons on board at the start of the trip. I'll talk more about water and will describe how the items are stored in the boat for the next entry.
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