• Happy International Carrot Day! 🥕

Now to find room for it all

A

Alan Gage

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 12, 2014
Messages
4,551
Reaction score
2,530
Location
NW Iowa
20150812_001 by Alan, on Flickr

6.35lbs peanut butter, 4.6 pounds olive oil, 10lbs. bannock (quick bread mix), 3.85lbs dried hashbrowns, 10 dozen eggs (powdered), 5lbs. Almonds, 8 packets instant oatmeal, 1.75lbs. vegetarian chilli, 8oz. marinara sauce (dehydrated), 1.65lbs. black beans, 1lb. red beans, 2.5lbs. chick peas, 2lbs. quinoa, 2.5lbs. wheat berries, .75lbs green beans (7.6lbs before drying), 1.65lbs corn (4lbs. pre-dehy), 1.1lbs. peas (5lbs pre-dehy), .35lbs carrots (4.5lbs pre-dehy), 1.5lbs. apples (40), 1.2lb. strawberries (14lbs pre-dehy), 2lbs. bananas (33), 3lbs peanut M&Ms, 1lb. lemon drops, and 13.5lbs dogfood.

Not pictured are 1lb Maple syrup, a couple dozen bags of tea, and about 4 pounds of hot chocolate I haven't mixed up yet.

Enough for 40 days? I'll find out soon enough.

Alan
 
In WW2, the Japanese were issued a hand full of Sesame seeds, and a hand full of Sunflower seeds per day. They also received training in wild edibles. It was stated that the Japanese soldier was in better physical condition than the American GI.

It looks like a pretty good mix ! I too would throw in extra M&Ms !

What are you taking for seasonings ?

Are you taking a stick stove of some type ?

Jim
 
tump_lion said:
more m&ms...

(how do you break-it down for the daily menu?)
Click to expand...

More M&Ms might not be a bad idea. Trying to keep the snacks relatively healthy rather than just sugary stuff so lots of dried fruit and 2 pounds of the almonds are coated with cocao powder. I decided I can't carry it all with me without adding a third pack so I'll break down and take a resupply on the way back. Hopefully they can fly the extra food (5 gallon pale with gamma lid) into one of the lakes with an outpost cabin on a regular trip with other customers to save me some money. I've got a little room in that bucket and extra M&Ms would be a nice treat towards the end of the trip.

Breakfast everyday is 3 eggs and hash browns. Each quart zip-lock holds 5 servings of hash browns and 3 dozen eggs respectively.

Lunch everyday is bannock and peanut butter. About 3oz. dry weight bannock, cooked a little under .5oz oil, plus about 2.5oz. peanut butter.

Lunch and breakfast can be interchangeable. Mixing the bannock runny and adding a little egg powder and oil makes good pancakes. It already has whole powdered milk in it.

Dinner will be mix and match. Some of this thrown in with some of that and more bannock as a side for most meals. I've been making meals with these ingredients at home to get an idea of portion size. I measure out by the handful and then measure the weight. Most of the dry ingredients (beans, chilli, grains, peas, and corn) come out to about 1oz. per large handful. Dinners seem to weigh about 6oz plus another couple ounces of bannock. That's more than I'm comfortable eating at home.

This is my first trip where I've had to be so mindful of portion sizes so it will be interesting to see how it works out in the end.

I've got the 60L barrel loaded up with what I hope is 30 days worth of food and it's at 62.5lbs with probably another 3 or 4 pounds to go. Take away the weight of the barrel and pack and that leaves me with 52lbs of food right now and 55+ by the time the few odds and ends are added and another few pounds that will go in my gear pack for the first few days due to lack of room. 58lbs. of food for 30 days would be 1.93lbs. per day. Of course some of that is the weight of the zip-locks and other packaging so round it down to 1.85lbs per day.

The resupply will take place about 10 days travel from my car and should contain a bit over 10 days of food....and soon extra M&Ms.

That dang dog food is the real killer. Very bulky and relatively heavy at 13.5 pounds. Without it I could probably get everything in the 60L barrel with a little spill over into the gear pack for the first few days. But the dog is worth it.

Alan
 
I balked a little at the price but I'm really glad I bought the CCS barrel organizers. Made to fit just about perfectly inside the 60L barrel (can get 30L size too) you can stack three on top of each other. One for breakfast, lunch, and dinner with snacks and dog food stuffed in wherever there's extra room. What I hope is 30 days worth of food for Sadie and I is well organized and fits tidily in the barrel. The handful of items sitting out on top will fit in the gap between the barrel and the bags so still room.

20150812_002 by Alan, on Flickr

This goes in the 5 gallon bucket for resupply later in the trip:

20150812_003 by Alan, on Flickr

Where's Glenn at these days? I know he'd appreciate my blue petroleum pack for the barrel:

20150812_004 by Alan, on Flickr

There's still a little room inside the barrel around the edges and the outside pockets are still empty but total weight is about 70 pounds so I might leave it as-is. Tomorrow I'll start filling the gear pack. It should be relatively light and have plenty of room but if I need overflow storage I can add more to the barrel.

Can't wait to eat some of the weight out of that barrel.

Alan
 
nice -- i bag everything by meal, and then by day in a bag. each day a bag with a number...mostly idiot proof. for longer trips i add things like extra (isobutane) fuel cans and toilet paper, gorp and gatorade at appropriate intervals. i have a 'master' food bag that the staples and extras and the food for the day go in...and yeah -- dogfood. i've tried having it it's own dry-bag, but i find it simpler to metre things out in a ziplock in each day-bag. the dog-food is half the bulk, and he does almost none of the work...
 
Jim Dodd said:
In WW2, the Japanese were issued a hand full of Sesame seeds, and a hand full of Sunflower seeds per day. They also received training in wild edibles. It was stated that the Japanese soldier was in better physical condition than the American GI.
Click to expand...

Was that one handful of shell on or shell off sunflower seeds? Either way I think I'd be looking to defect.

What are you taking for seasonings ?

Are you taking a stick stove of some type ?
Click to expand...

Pretty simple with the seasonings. Salt, sugar, and cinnamon. All the food, including the beans and grains, have been cooked and dehydrated so they'll cook fast. I added seasonings when I cooked them in the first place so they're nearly good to go.

I've got a Little Bug Jr. stick stove that works great with my Trangia alcohol stove. My little cooking pot fits perfectly inside the stick stove for a wind break. I'll try to cook over fire as much as possible but that won't always be possible.

Alan
 
nothing for cold drinks other than a little Gatorade? I'd add a couple of those drink crystal packs for when you get skunky tasting water, I keep a few singles in the bottom of my water bottle container and mix them at 1/2 strength.
I also wonder if you have enough fats, breakfast and lunch look good, but I see little fat in your dinners. Chocolate is a good source for it's weight, maybe add a few chocolate bars for after dinner (I buy the semi sweet baking chocolate and have one square before bed, for that overnight heat boost)
 
Dinners will be cooked with quite a bit of oil for the fat. I'm sure some bittersweet chocolate bars will get snuck in at some point too, they always do. Hot chocolate will be consumed most nights. It's got a good amount of whole milk powder mixed in.

I'm not much for flavored water but a couple HEED packets wouldn't a bad idea, I think I've still got a couple bouncing around the house.

My food weight per day listed a couple posts higher was more than I expected it to be at nearly 2lbs. Then I realized that was including the dog's food as well. Mine will be a little over 1.5lbs/day.

Alan
 
Have you done any estimating / guesstimating on the calorie count of your menu? I'm sure you will burn in excess of 4,000 cal/day, and 1.5 lb / day seems a little light to meet that requirement. On my trips the food - mostly dried, plus nuts, fats etc. - goes around 2 lb/day and I still manage to lose weight. I always think the portion size is too big, but somehow there are never any leftovers.

-wjmc
 
Ok, you all talked me into it. Doubled down on the M&M's, more almonds, more chick peas, more oatmeal, more oil and I added walnuts and raisins. Not quite sure how but I managed to find room for it all. Started to lift the barrel but decided I didn't want to know so just let it be for now.

Over the past couple months I've also been strategically storing fat reserves: Another helping of ice cream? Why yes, I think I will.....

Time to mix up the rest of the hot chocolate, and find a spot for it, and food will be done.

Alan
 
Oh ! Throw in some Sunflower seeds(shelled) Sorry ! I just had to throw that in !

Best wishes !

Jim
 
I'm impressed with your photo. You're looking very well organized, and your food quite healthy as opposed to my lump of loot. I'm prepping for the BWCA. Lots of processed junk to keep my junk food junkies happy and some nice home cooked dehydrated meals to keep me happy. I guess I spend too much time in the rat race and end up dashing about like a mad woman when prepping for a trip. Well done Alan Gage. Where are you tripping? By the way, I use 2 gallon baggies for my "barrel organizers". Yours are nice looking.

 
Mama said:
I'm impressed with your photo. You're looking very well organized, and your food quite healthy as opposed to my lump of loot. I'm prepping for the BWCA. Lots of processed junk to keep my junk food junkies happy and some nice home cooked dehydrated meals to keep me happy. I guess I spend too much time in the rat race and end up dashing about like a mad woman when prepping for a trip. Well done Alan Gage. Where are you tripping? By the way, I use 2 gallon baggies for my "barrel organizers". Yours are nice looking.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I'm normally not this organized or well prepared but figured for a 30+ day trip I should get everything in line. It was a lot of work figuring out what and how much to take. I was paddling in WCPP and Atikaki provincial parks going down and back up the Bloodvein river.

Food proportions were about right on. I hit the water with what I hoped was 30 days worth of food and another 10 days worth to be flown in near the end of the trip, scheduled for 30 days later. I arrived at the resupply location 4 days early and had plenty of most of my food items left. Was running low on bannock, peanut M&M's, almonds, dried fruit, hot chocolate, and dog food. Dog food is the only thing that would have actually run out before 30 days were up but I had enough of my own food that I could have kept her well fed.

Dinners were the one thing I overestimated on. I ate a very healthy portion every night but had lots of extra beans, grains, and vegetables. Didn't use as much oil as I thought I would either.

It wasn't until about 2 1/2 weeks into the trip that I really started to eat 3 meals/day. I just wasn't as hungry earlier in the trip so for either breakfast or lunch I'd usually just snack on some almonds and dried fruit with an M&M chaser. I think my body was having no trouble finding extra fat to burn but after 2 1/2 weeks I started getting hungrier and eating 3 full meals/day. For that reason I had plenty of eggs and hash browns left since they weren't being eaten every day. My peanut butter supply held out very well but I like my bread and kept creeping up the portion sizes of bannock until I realized I was starting to get low. So I dropped back to regular portion of bannock and started to use more peanut butter with it. Such a simple but delicious meal.

After doing a long trip like this it's nice to have a bit of a baseline for my food requirements. I think 1.5-1.6 pounds per day is about right for me, assuming it's healthy and nutrient dense food. I lost 5.5 pounds on the 30 trip (started at 170.5 and ended at 165) and that was weight I needed to lose. I could still stand to drop a few more.

Alan
 
I see I didn't mention it earlier but when I finally weighed the fully loaded barrel it was right at 70 pounds. I probably had another 5-6 pounds of food stashed in my gear pack that got moved to the barrel as it emptied out. So sad to have it not lose any weight for the first week.

Alan
 
Hi Alan - Do you have a 2016 pic and food list out there somewhere that I might have overlooked? I really liked this post and would love to see another. You're my inspiration for better food selection and barrel packing. I still click back to this post from last year from time to time and marvel at your level of preparation and organization.
 
Wow, thanks, I don't think I've ever been called organized before.

Last weekend was spent finalizing food prep and packing for this year's trip: 45 days around the Manitoba/Nunavut border. Food much the same as last year. It was easier this year since I could base it off last year. Some things I'm bringing more of and others less. Instead of planning on eggs and hash browns for breakfast nearly every morning with a little oatmeal thrown in just in case I'm doing oatmeal almost every breakfast with some eggs thrown in for a change of pace every once in a while. No hashbrowns this year; seemed too bulky. Dried mashed potatoes instead.
I also decided to not transfer the peanut butter into the plastic canteens from Rum Runners this year. It's a really nice way to dispense it on the trail but more hassle than I wanted to deal with last weekend.

Ready to start packing:

20160717_001 by Alan, on Flickr

Barrel bags are packed full. Hoping the extra will fit in the dead space left in the barrels. The dead space in the barrel is where I like to keep some snacks, dog food, tooth brush/paste, and toilet paper. Things I just want to reach in and grab without upacking.

20160717_002 by Alan, on Flickr

There was almost room for everything. The nuts and sugar will either go in the gear pack or else outside pockets of the food pack. The nuts are factory sealed in a foil lined bag so should be pretty odor free.

20160717_003 by Alan, on Flickr

A note on those nut bags. The corners of the bag are very sharp so I took a couple minutes to nip them off with a scissors to keep them from poking holes in the zip-locks they're crammed with in the barrel bags.

The 30L barrel weighs 35 pounds and the 60L barrel+pack weighs 75 pounds. I've been taking the 60L barrel out on walks this past week to get my muscles used to it. Usually walk a mile, drop it by the side of the trail, walk another mile or two, and pick it up on the way back for the last mile. So far so good.

Alan, you can ask your dog to carry some of the weight too:

http://www.ruffwear.com/Products/dog_packs

I do this all the time with my pooch. His pack is always full
Click to expand...

I've thought of doing that but decided against it. At 27 pounds there's only so much Sadie can carry and when I weigh that against the hassle of unpacking her pack, attaching it to her, un-attaching it from her, and repacking it again at every portage I decided it would be easier for me to just carry it myself.

Alan
 
Last edited:
I like the barrel organizers. I would add scotch, at least a couple pounds for sure.

Enjoy your trip!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top