2 instant black coffee's to start the day and then water, Gatorade or tang through the day and then a whiskey sour (whiskey, filtered lake water and a squirt of mio lemonade) to sip on in the evening. Rest days call for more coffee.
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Happy First Sighting of Manatees by Columbus (1493)! 💧🐘
Black coffee in am. And have more than once stayed in camp, rather than moving on, just because of the enjoyment of a good chair, a great coffee, and a need to slow down. Another pot of coffee? Why yes, this is a great spot for slowing down and shaking off the world left behind.
Usually have a good large ice chest with me as I don't have any portaging. Occasional strainers are my only limiters to what I can carry, and most of my favorite paddling places have none. Rarely does the ice chest leave the canoe as I tend to camp waterside, unless base camping when hunting or fishing. This opens up what beverages can come along. Because my normal trips are 2-4 days, ice is always involved. And fresh meats and menu items complete the pleasure.
Gallon orange juice and gallon chocolate milk are always refreshing on shorter trips. I don't worry about the weight that I start a trip with. I can hear the collective groans now regarding taking gallon jugs on a canoe trip. They are not burned, nor left behind.
An empty plastic gallon jug with its cap on makes a great trash receptacle. A 3 or 4" horizontal slit cut on the upper portion, opposite the handle, allows trash to be stuffed in. Easy to hang away from small critters, and bears are not a concern here. Easy to dispose of at the end of a trip, and when the occasional tin or can gets taken along, it is easy to crush the can flat, and pushed in through the slit. The strength of the gallon plastic jug prevents sharp can lids or edges from cutting through.
Usually freeze the orange juice, for both a cold mass, and it also keeps me from chugging a gallon the first day.
Lots of water, either straight, or with some sort of powdered flavor packets.
In warmer seasons, a 10L dromedary bag of unsweetened ice tea, frozen at home, really helps with staying hydrated. Easily dispensed out, and then returned to ice chest.
I freeze at home a second 10L with just water as my main ice retainer. It stays frozen long after the bagged ice has melted out. Never hurts to have cold water available. My filter system can provide all the water needed, but cold is better in the south. And a 10L MSR bag frozen has also helped as a lumbar support in camp on a sore back, and more than once on injuries.
I can go bushcraft minimal if needed, but until those skillsets become last resort, I over pack, over eat, and over enjoy at this stage of my life.
Usually have a good large ice chest with me as I don't have any portaging. Occasional strainers are my only limiters to what I can carry, and most of my favorite paddling places have none. Rarely does the ice chest leave the canoe as I tend to camp waterside, unless base camping when hunting or fishing. This opens up what beverages can come along. Because my normal trips are 2-4 days, ice is always involved. And fresh meats and menu items complete the pleasure.
Gallon orange juice and gallon chocolate milk are always refreshing on shorter trips. I don't worry about the weight that I start a trip with. I can hear the collective groans now regarding taking gallon jugs on a canoe trip. They are not burned, nor left behind.
An empty plastic gallon jug with its cap on makes a great trash receptacle. A 3 or 4" horizontal slit cut on the upper portion, opposite the handle, allows trash to be stuffed in. Easy to hang away from small critters, and bears are not a concern here. Easy to dispose of at the end of a trip, and when the occasional tin or can gets taken along, it is easy to crush the can flat, and pushed in through the slit. The strength of the gallon plastic jug prevents sharp can lids or edges from cutting through.
Usually freeze the orange juice, for both a cold mass, and it also keeps me from chugging a gallon the first day.
Lots of water, either straight, or with some sort of powdered flavor packets.
In warmer seasons, a 10L dromedary bag of unsweetened ice tea, frozen at home, really helps with staying hydrated. Easily dispensed out, and then returned to ice chest.
I freeze at home a second 10L with just water as my main ice retainer. It stays frozen long after the bagged ice has melted out. Never hurts to have cold water available. My filter system can provide all the water needed, but cold is better in the south. And a 10L MSR bag frozen has also helped as a lumbar support in camp on a sore back, and more than once on injuries.
I can go bushcraft minimal if needed, but until those skillsets become last resort, I over pack, over eat, and over enjoy at this stage of my life.
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Interesting stuff Boatstall. Different environs different ways to live large. Thanks.
Kelly Kettle non-filtered water for Cowboy Coffee in the morning. Filtered water during the day, Kelly Kettle non-filtered water for tea at supper, Black Seal Rum straight up, or with Filtered water and an electrolyte drink mix and a Backwoods Cigar, or two.
Filtered water + instant coffee or nothing or orange flavor Emergen-C vitamin drink mix packets.
Coffee in the morning and maybe afternoon too, Tang and water and cocoa in the evening.
If you drink your coffee sweetened, tang instead of water and cocoa instead of unsweetened tea you can add 500 to 600 calories per day to your diet without bringing more food.
If you drink your coffee sweetened, tang instead of water and cocoa instead of unsweetened tea you can add 500 to 600 calories per day to your diet without bringing more food.
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Coffee in the mornings. Then water, sometimes tea in the evening or when its cold / rainy. I have been using those liquid mixes like MIO or Koolaid...they seem to have a better taste for when you just cant manage without something to jazz itup a little.
I think you will drink more if you jazz it up, I do anyway.
"I have been using those liquid mixes like MIO or Koolaid...they seem to have a better taste for when you just cant manage without something to jazz it up a little."
Would adding Koolaid make it, um...cool jazz? Sorry.
Would adding Koolaid make it, um...cool jazz? Sorry.
Just reading this and LMAO! Last week, on 9/12, while sitting in a camp on the upper West Branch of the Penobscot River, watching the full moon rise above the trees, my paddling partner and I started discussing the space program and all the advances that came from it. That got me reminiscing and I brought up my one and only experience with Tang.
When I was a kid, my mom used to drag me along to the grocery store. Whenever we went up the aisle with the Tang in it, I always begged my mom to get a jar for me and she always said "no." I guess all the begging finally wore her down and one day, in a moment of weakness, she finally relented.
The whole drive home I could think of nothing but the jar of Tang sitting in one of the brown paper grocery bags in the back of the station wagon, as I anticipated the scientifically designed flavor bliss I would soon experience! As soon as we got home from the grocery store, I got the Tang out and mixed up a giant glass of it and took my first sip. Instead of the anticipated NASA-approved space-age deliciousness I expected, my only thought was...YUCK, how can astronauts drink this crap??? I absolutely hated it! But I didn't want to tell my mom, so I smiled and choked down the full glass.
I never mixed up another glass of the horrid stuff and that nearly-full jar of Tang sat in our pantry as a testament to my folly for at least another decade, never again to be opened.
Imagine my surprise coming home and logging into Canoetripping.net and finding out that Tang was being discussed while I was on the river. Too funny.
She prided herself on always being right. How would she know any better? My aunt living in Detroit just assumed any ten year old kid in the 60's would be dreaming of some day becoming an astronaut. Why not her Canadian nephew? Well, for one any 10 year old Canadian kid dreams about playing for his favourite hockey team, and for another all the trees I'd climbed up to that point had been plenty tall enough thank you very much, there's no way you'd stuff me in a puffy suit, cram me into a shiny cone atop the world's biggest firecracker to shoot me round the earth and back. So when my aunt gave me a book all about the Mercury and Gemini space missions complete with big colour photographs I must admit I was confused. Space stuff? Am I being punished? What did I do to hafta read about science? Yes, the TV told me some guy named John Glenn drank orange Koolaid (they called Tang) on his rides, but I didn't care. We still had plenty of Koolaid in the fridge. And my Detroit aunt was the only adult to make us kids something she called floats, vanilla ice cream and Orange Crush. Okay, she got some things right.
Many, many, many years went by before I tried Tang. It tasted more orangey than Koolaid and not as sweet as those orange floats. The only reasons I took it on family canoe trips was a) It was powdered and so easily packable, b) It was instantly makeable, and c) It was not an unpleasant flavour. Until we mixed with warm water.
When my father died I found the strength to descend the stairs to the family rec room. I sifted through the old family mementos, wrapped them up and packed them away out of sight of my grieving mother. She'd asked me to make her life a little easier, not having to see knick knacks that would bring back painfully happy memories. How can you edit the past? I scanned the bookshelf for anything that might interest me, and found an old tattered hardcover book all about astronauts, the pages dogeared and worn. I thought "Some kid must've been really fascinated by this." And he was. Hmm. My aunt really was always right.
Many, many, many years went by before I tried Tang. It tasted more orangey than Koolaid and not as sweet as those orange floats. The only reasons I took it on family canoe trips was a) It was powdered and so easily packable, b) It was instantly makeable, and c) It was not an unpleasant flavour. Until we mixed with warm water.
When my father died I found the strength to descend the stairs to the family rec room. I sifted through the old family mementos, wrapped them up and packed them away out of sight of my grieving mother. She'd asked me to make her life a little easier, not having to see knick knacks that would bring back painfully happy memories. How can you edit the past? I scanned the bookshelf for anything that might interest me, and found an old tattered hardcover book all about astronauts, the pages dogeared and worn. I thought "Some kid must've been really fascinated by this." And he was. Hmm. My aunt really was always right.
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Anyone else notice that the flavor of Tang has changed sometime in the last few years? Different sweetener maybe? It was tolerable before, but now - yuck . Mix hot Tang with tea, cinnamon sticks, and cloves, then ya got something. 
Instant black coffee, water, and instant cocoa for me. Our water here in the PNW is always cold.
Instant black coffee, water, and instant cocoa for me. Our water here in the PNW is always cold.
Real, black coffee. Cowboy or Pressed. I have never had an acceptable experience with instant coffee. I have yet to try Starbucks Via.
After that it's water and bourbon. Occasionally Canadian instead of bourbon. I do normally carry a selection of the crystal-light style flavored packets that get the nod when locally-sourced water is intolerable. I will throw in a couple hot cocoa packets during the shoulder seasons and prepare them after the evening meal if the bourbon isn't warming me up enough.
I never had Tang growing up so my first experience with it was a few years ago in Idaho when I was introduced to it as a hot morning beverage and I thought it was great. My opinion might have been influenced by the fact that we only had instant coffee on that trip. Could have been worse; on one trip last year my companion purchased a pound of decaf for the week.
When I do bring beer it's often in a vacuum insulated growler and is consumed the first night. Think about the growler as a half gallon Thermos. I will then fill it every morning with cool water that spent the night hanging in a gravity filter system. In colder weather I'll fill it with hot soup/chili or (booze optional) coffee/cocoa instead.
After that it's water and bourbon. Occasionally Canadian instead of bourbon. I do normally carry a selection of the crystal-light style flavored packets that get the nod when locally-sourced water is intolerable. I will throw in a couple hot cocoa packets during the shoulder seasons and prepare them after the evening meal if the bourbon isn't warming me up enough.
I never had Tang growing up so my first experience with it was a few years ago in Idaho when I was introduced to it as a hot morning beverage and I thought it was great. My opinion might have been influenced by the fact that we only had instant coffee on that trip. Could have been worse; on one trip last year my companion purchased a pound of decaf for the week.
When I do bring beer it's often in a vacuum insulated growler and is consumed the first night. Think about the growler as a half gallon Thermos. I will then fill it every morning with cool water that spent the night hanging in a gravity filter system. In colder weather I'll fill it with hot soup/chili or (booze optional) coffee/cocoa instead.
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I am sold on the taste and simplicity of Via, and just packed the breakfast bag for an upcoming trip to make sure I had enough, and some extra to share. If I remember I’ll try to buy some Floger’s “tea bag” coffees as back up supply, or one of each mixed in my big morning mug.
Instant Coffee test, post 84 on this thread.
http://www.canoetripping.net/forums/forum/gear/camp-kitchen/28385-breakfast-ideas/page6
Absolutely on the hot cocoa packets, And on the bourbon or Canadian, cocoa and whiskey mixed together make for a tasty hot toddy mix to sip around the campfire.
I’m gonna have to try Conk’s True-Lemon as a straight water flavoring. I may be a “super taster” for the chemical flavor of Crystal-light or Miro, and was never a fan of Tang, hot or cold. Haven’t tasted Tang in 30 years and if, as Steve remarked, the taste has gotten worse, that’s a nope.
The horror, the horror. Or not; I would have had a cigar sized Zip-lock of Via stashed in the breakfast bag, enough to last at least me the trip.
Need some cafffine boys? Show me the money; Via is like a buck per 8oz cup, two bucks for a morning-long tumbler full. I am frugal cheap in most things, but Via is worth it. Life is too short to drink bad instant coffee, or cheap beer.
In the hot drinks add a couple packets of instant soup. When I’m cold and hungry and waiting impatiently for a meal to rehydrate a cup of Cream-of-Whatever sure hits the spot. A cup of Knorr instant Asparagus cream soup, or even a Lipton Cream of Chicken works hunger wonders as an appetizer.
It's changed a bit over the years.
30 years ago, it was water during the day and scotch at night. Then, this Scotch scotched scotch. Now, it's decaffeinated tea in the morning (black) and evenings (green) and plain water during the day. I filter water with a gravity filter.
Next trip I may also take some packets of powdered Gatorade, which the kind ranger at Raquette Falls in the Adirondacks gave me a few years ago when he thought I looked dehydrated after 2+ miles of portaging in 90 degree weather.
30 years ago, it was water during the day and scotch at night. Then, this Scotch scotched scotch. Now, it's decaffeinated tea in the morning (black) and evenings (green) and plain water during the day. I filter water with a gravity filter.
Next trip I may also take some packets of powdered Gatorade, which the kind ranger at Raquette Falls in the Adirondacks gave me a few years ago when he thought I looked dehydrated after 2+ miles of portaging in 90 degree weather.
Instant coffee in the morning; plain, filtered water during the day, maybe some tea; straight Canadian Club rye in the evening. I don't try to compare instant to properly brewed coffee - I consider it a completely different drink which helps with the not-so-good taste. Tea is either peppermint for a pick me up, or lemon to relax. A couple of sips of CC rye before supper or relaxing by the fire. I try not to drink too much (and certainly not tea) before bed because I hate getting out of my bag during the night.
My YT [yukon territory] friends admonished me years ago for carrying watered-down 86 proof whiskey when weight is important. They introduced me to Lamb's OP [over-proof] 151 rum. I always have a bottle in my pack for that evening hot buttered rum laced with nutmeg.
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Yeah to Ovaltine (my favorite) I too use a few drops of grape juice in my filtered water bottle. Most of the time just plain old water that is until rum time. Tea is good too ! Oh yeah, I almost forgot the Gatorade or Powerade too. Great for electrolytes.
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