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| Tips & Advice |
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Campsite
Try your best to leave no trace that you were ever there.
- Be sure to make your camp in a pre-established campsite in order to keep the area as natural as possible and prevent damage to unused areas.
- Camp at least 200 feet away from water sources.
- Try to take a different path to the water each time to avoid making a trail to the water.
- Set up your kitchen around an existing fire ring or in the middle of a well used campsite.
Cooking Pots
- This is a great place to store any items that may be crushed in your backpack including fresh vegetables and crackers.
Cooking Techniques
Taking enough fuel to last many days in the wilderness can become heavy. In order to maximize the usefulness of fuel that you take with you, you can follow the following tips:
- Always cook with the lids on your pots. Using the lids will drastically reduce the time it takes to heat food or boil water.
- Heat bread, tortillas or other items that need to be warmed by wrapping them in foil and placing them on top of the lid of a cooking pot of food.
- If making more than one pot of food, wrap the finished dish in a towel to keep it warm while the next dish is cooking.
- If a sauce or side dish is prepared in the frying pan/lid, it can usually be set on top of the pot acting as both a lid and keeping the contents of the frying pan warm.
- Begin to rehydrate dried foods in the afternoon in it’s pouch. Pour filtered water into the pouch, seal and you’ll have plump veggies for your evening meal, with no need to cook.
Making a delicious meal can be very easy, but there are a few tricks to the trade…
- Many backpacking stoves concentrate heat in one location so it’s a good idea to move the pan around occasionally to ensure that your food does not burn.
- Foods cooked in a deep pot need to be stirred often to make sure that the food is heated through consistently.
Bear Country
Be sure to think about the types of foods that you’re packing when going into bear country. Fresh sandwich meat may sound like a great first day lunch, but it will also leave a delicious smell in your backpack that may attract wildlife.
If a bear box is not available at your campsite you can prevent bears from raiding your food stores while you’re sleeping by hanging your food from a tree branch. Bears are exceptionally clever though, so the following tips should be used:
- The branch should be 4-5 inches in diameter
- You should hang your food bag at least 10 feet out from the tree
- The food should be at least 20 feet from the ground
Bears can also be attracted to fragrant cosmetics, sunscreen, bug spray, toothpaste and the clothes that you’ve cooked in. You can place all of these items in the food bag as well.
Pitch your tent at least 200 yards away from your camp kitchen and preferably upwind.
DO NOT ever cook or store food in your tent. Bears will be attracted to the smell and you may get a late night visitor knocking on your door.
Elevation
Camp elevation is an important consideration when planning your menu.
- Water will take longer to boil and food will take longer to cook beginning at 8000 feet. Certain foods, like pastas, don’t do well over 10,000 feet and will not provide a satisfying meal.
- A general rule of thumb is food will take an additional 10% longer for food to cook per 1000 feet. This means that food needing 10 minutes in boiling water at sea level will need 20 minutes at 10,000 feet above sea level.
- Most people experience a diminished appetite when at a higher altitude. For some people this only lasts for the first day, for others it can last for a week or more. While this can be a very difficult situation to pack for, if it is your first time camping at a high elevation, it is something to keep in mind.
- Extra liquids need to be consumed when crossing into a higher elevation. Remember to pack herb teas, tasty drink mixes and soups to encourage campers to stay hydrated.
- If your taking some condiments that you’ve packed yourself, be sure that you do not fill the container all the way to the brim. It’s very likely that these containers will leak when transported to a higher elevation.
- Cakes and breads stick to the pan more easily at higher altitudes so oil or butter your pan well.
Fresh Foods
Although fresh fruits and vegetables are wonderful, fresh veggies weigh 4-10 times as much as the dehydrated version and fruits weigh 3-6 times as much. If you’re going for a short trip though, you can help ensure that your produce stays in the best condition possible by following a few simple steps.
- Do not pre-cut any fresh foods.
- Don’t wash fruits and veggies before packing.
- Do not store in plastic bags. Instead use a brown paper bag so that your fruits and veggies can breath.
- Keep them out of the sun and preferably in a cool location.
- Store softer items, like tomatoes and peaches, inside your cookpots to prevent bruising and crushing.
Leftovers
- Leftover breakfast tacos can be packed to eat later for a quick lunch or just a snack along the trail. Many breakfast meals work well when held over for lunch including couscous, polenta scrapple and biscuits or pancakes smeared with a little peanut butter, just to name a few.
- Often, leftover dinner entrees can be a great quick start the next day. Just about any dinner entrée can make for a tasty breakfast the next morning – especially if you’d like to get an early start.
Miles To Cover
Keep in mind the number of miles that you plan to cover each day.
- On days spent in camp or covering a limited number of miles, it will be fun to begin and end the day with delicious meals that may need a little more time to prepare.
- On ambitious days, you will want to plan for a large breakfast and lunch to fuel your body. Evening meals should be hearty but easy to prepare – you may not want to spend much time preparing dinner after hiking or paddling all day.
Rainy Day Food
Unfortunately, you may experience a day or two of bad weather. Make sure that you carry a small amount of emergency food such as just-add-water soups and no-heat coffee. Cold coffee isn’t ideal in the morning, but it’s better than no coffee at all!
Rehydrating Techniques
Most dehydrated foods can be easily rehydrated by pouring water over the food until covered and allowing to sit for 15-30 minutes or until the food has absorbed the water.
- Boiling water works best to rehydrated food in the shortest period of time.
- If using cold water, you must allow several hours for your food to rehydrate – cold water does not work with all foods.
- When cooking in a pot, be sure to use the lid to trap the heat.
- When rehydrating in the bag, seal bag and, if possible, wrap in a jacket or other clothing to speed rehydration.
- The longer your food rehydrates, the more tender it will be. Food allowed to rehydrate slowly will be more tender than that rehydrated in boiling water.
- Pre-hydrated foods will not need much time over the flame- just enough time to warm it.
- Some foods soak up a lot of water when rehydrating- these foods will cook better if you squeeze out extra water before cooking.
- The water used to rehydrate your food if full of nutrients, so try to use it in your recipe.
Sunset
Depending on the time of year, the sun will set at different times. - During the summer the sun may not set until 8 or 9 o’clock in the evening giving you plenty of time to set up camp, prepare a meal and do the dishes.
- In the fall and winter, the sun may disappear by 5 or 6 o’clock. You may need to stop earlier to compensate for the lack of light or be comfortable cooking by firelight.
Stove Use & Placement
- Set your stove up outside of heavily trafficked areas to reduce the possibility of the stove being knocked over.
- Set your stove on the ground or other flat surface.
- Place in an area that is protected from the wind which will reduce the amount of fuel that you need to use.
- You may want to build a low wall of rocks around three sides of the stove to protect it from the wind but be careful with windscreens. Unless your using a windscreen designed for use with your stove, it is possible to reflect too much heat on your stove which can cause it to overheat or possibly explode.
- Do not cook inside of your tent. In addition to leaving a yummy scent on your tent, which could attract bears, using a stove in an enclosed space could lead to carbon-monoxide poisoning or could catch your tent on fire.
Temperature
Your body isn’t the only thing reacting with the heat of the day – any fresh foods that you’ve brought with you need to be planned for as well. In colder climates fresh cheeses or even meat might do well for a day or two but won’t survive in warmer temperatures.
Washing Dishes
Giardia (a parasite present in many wilderness water sources) cannot live in air so it is not necessary to purify dishwater. It is necessary, however to make sure that dishes are dry before using them.
- Wash dishes in hot water with biodegradable soap and rinse well
- Use either a collapsible sink or your largest pot to wash dishes in
- Wash and rinse dishes 200 feet away from water sources
- Do not ever put any type of soap into a water source
- Dispose of used dishwater well away from camp, as well as water sources
- Be sure to disperse dishwater widely and in a different place each time
Water Availability
If you’re not camping near a water source you should give plenty of consideration to the water needs of your food.
- There are some fantastic water pumps on the market now that will make drinking water from a stream doable. Filtering your water, in addition to boiling it, is always recommended when preparing your food.
- If there are no water sources available and you have to carry your own water, meals requiring minimal water should be selected. Due to the weight of the water, lightweight meals should be used to compensate for this increased weight.
Water Purification
Boiling
- Water should be boiled for 5 minutes to kill any microorganisms
Water Filters
- Water filter are now available with an absolute pore size of 0.2 microns- no bacteria larger than 0.2 microns can pass though. Larger sizes are available but why take chances?
- Water filters should be cleaned and dried regularly.
- You should always carry replacement parts for your filter if you’ll be camping for several days.
- Water filters can get clogged or break so it's a good idea to pack iodine as well.
Iodine
- Iodine can be used to purify water and is available in pills or crystals. It is an effective treatment against giardia, a parasite present in many wilderness water sources but does not kill cryptosporidium.
- Iodine does result in a yellow coloring of the water and a mild change in the taste. This can be corrected with neutralizer tablets.
- Tablets from an old bottle should not be used as the pills begin to oxidize once the bottle has been opened and may no longer be effective.
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