
            Kayak Cookery   Provisioning for a Long Trip 
 
Excerpted from Kayak Cookery  by Linda Daniel 
  
What boggles the mind when confronting the task of provisioning for a long trip is the lack of a mental
picture. How much food are we talking about? How many of us know how much we eat? When trying
to lose weight, I can tell you about how many calories I consume in a day. When penny pinching, I can
tell you how much money I have to spend on food each week. People who shop once a week for the
household groceries have a good idea of how high the grocery cart will be heaped and how many bags
they will carry to the car. But how much food does it take to feed four people for a week, or two people
for a month? Most of us draw a blank. 

Provisioning starts with what you DO know about how much you usually eat for breakfast, lunch, and
dinner. For planning purposes, initially assume you are going to eat the same amount as you do on a
typical day at home. We will do some rounding upward and add extra to accommodate the heartier
appetite most people develop with all of that fresh air and exercise. (Trust me; no one with whom I
have ever travelled has gone hungry, and I have always come back with food to spare.) 

Provisioning also starts with what you like to eat. If you do not like instant oatmeal at home, you are
not going to like it out there. You will eat the oatmeal if that is all there is to eat, but why put yourself
in that position when there is so much to choose from that you DO like? This trip is supposed to be a
pleasant experience; enjoyable food is part of it. 

To avoid last minute hassles and to let food gathering fall comfortably into the rest of the trip
preparations, I allow as much lead time as the duration of the trip. For a two week trip, I start bringing
home the groceries two weeks in advance. Earlier than that, I decide what I want to eat and how much
of it I will need. During the off season doldrums, I like to browse through cookbooks and collect ideas
about good things to take paddling. Ingredients that are foreign to me or combinations that sound a little
strange I would rather sample at home in advance. I make semi-organized master lists of ideas for
things to eat. Then when a trip moves beyond the fantasizing to the planning stage, I take out the lists
and have at hand a wealth of ideas for meals. 

Next, take out a calendar and look at the dates of your trip. On each of those dates, write B, L, and D
(for breakfast, lunch, and dinner). Now consult your itinerary. Let us say that you and your travelling
companions are planning to meet after work Friday, drive to the town where you catch a ferry, stay
there overnight, then board the ferry early the next morning for a two hour ride and several hours' drive
to the put in point. Eating during that time is likely to be a combination of stops at McDonald's, a
leisurely meal in the ferry's cafeteria, and munching in the car. Circle the letter for each meal you will
be buying along the way. If you are going to stop at a farmers' market to buy picnic food just before
lunch, circle that meal, too. In this way, follow your itinerary through the entire trip. When you are done
you will have identified, by circling, each meal for which you will take money instead of food. 

On month long trips in Alaska and on the British Columbia coast, I often have been away from towns
for a couple of weeks. When I get to a town, I am craving tortilla chips, cold beer, and a cheeseburger
with lots of lettuce and tomatoes. I will want to eat nothing but fresh food in town, and take some along
for the next day. Doing so varies the menu so I do not get bored with the travelling provisions. 

Count all of the uncircled numbers you have left. You have just found out how many of each  
breakfasts, lunches, and dinners   you will need to purchase in advance and pack.  If more than one
person will be bringing food, this is the point at which it is most convenient to divide responsibility for
meals. For instance, each person in a group of four might bring the makings of two breakfasts, three
lunches, and two dinners (or whatever combination adds up to the total you have figured you will need).
This is starting to look manageable, right? And this is the point when it gets to be fun. Get out those
lists of good things to eat and see how many of them you can include on this trip. (Of course you can
have something more than once if you like!) I usually include at least two breakfasts and two dinners
that are very quick to fix and a couple of new things we have never tried. The rest are favorite camp
foods that range from "production numbers" to very simple fare. Include plenty of variety. 


How Much Makes a Meal? 
 
Excerpted from  Kayak Cookery  by Linda Daniel 
  
How much food makes a meal? As compared with eating at home, camp meals generally feature larger
servings of fewer things. A typical breakfast might consist of fruit juice, hot cereal with milk, and
coffee. Dinner might be a hearty chicken stew (with plenty of vegetables in with the chicken), hot
biscuits, and cocoa laced with a little brandy. The fewer the courses, the simpler the equipment needed
to cook and eat. To compensate for the absence of side dishes and trimmings, figure that each person
will eat two city size portions. (To feed four people hot cereal, prepare the amount the box says will
serve eight.) And always round upward, taking the larger amount when the number of portions does not
come out right. 

Some people decide in advance what they are going to eat on each day, or assign kitchen duty along
such lines as "Lisa and Tom cook Saturday, then Judy and Lee cook Sunday," etc. That works
especially well when paddlers are sharing the challenge of fixing some fresh foods and some that keep a
long time. Also, there is merit in having one person or team responsible for the menu for a whole day.
That way, there will not be odd gaps or overlaps in the way the meals add up. But when going on an
extended trip, I cannot anticipate what we are going to feel like eating on a certain day. So I just take
food for "x" number of breakfasts and dinners, and decide day by day which of those appeals, or which
will lend itself to preparation at the place we are camped. Some meals can be fixed with just a
backpacker's stove; others want a campfire. Some are more appealing than others on cold or rainy days. 

Armed with the information of how many meals I need to buy and what I might like to eat, I start
grocery shopping and packaging the food. The food I have bought is the food I will carry. That way,
everyone is sharing the burden of carrying food (and has some in the boat in case they are separated
from the rest of the group). 

But what about food you might buy or gather or catch along the way? I wing it at re-provisioning
points, giving little thought in advance to what I will buy. That decision will be dictated by what is
available and what appeals to us at the time. I assume we will eat fresh food for the first twenty four
hours after leaving port, but what it will be I do not know. 

In addition, there will be an element of surprise on those days when we feast on the bounty of sea and
shore. I have never gone on a trip where there was not at least a degree of success fishing and foraging,
so some of the meals I plan are based on that. I take all of the makings for bouillabaisse, figuring we
will find the fish and shellfish ingredients. But I also take a backup meal (something as simple as ramen
type noodle dinners) just in case there is no fish to be found. I have never had to fall back on these extra
meals, but the food often has come in handy for stretching provisions to accommodate dinner guests or
as emergency fare in case we are weathered in and cannot get back for a couple of extra days. The spare
food also lets you satisfy any ravenous appetites that catch you by surprise. 

All of the food does not need to go with you for the entire trip. It makes the boats easier to pack and
keeps food in better shape if you carry what you need for each leg of the trip and pick up a new batch of
provisions at one or two points along the way. This is especially appropriate on trips of more than a
couple of weeks; food that has been traveling that long starts to get pretty tired, and some bags may
start to leak. So how do you cache food along the way? Mail it to yourself. Pack a box of food that will
keep and send it care of the postmaster in a port where you plan to call. Write on the box that you are
traveling in the area and expect to arrive on a particular date. Add "If not claimed by peter date], please
forward to . . . " or "return to sender." 

Audrey Sutherland of Hawaii has used this system extensively in her traveling in remote parts of
Alaska. She always packs some strapping tape in the box. When she picks it up, she takes out the food
and then refills the box with charts and maps with which she is finished, souvenirs she has picked up
along the way, and any gear she no longer needs. Then she tapes up the box and mails it back to her
home address. 

The only trouble I have had with this system has been the delay in clearing customs when things are
sent from the United States into Canada. Customs often takes two weeks or more. In one case, a
package I mailed took nine months to arrive! The way to avoid a delay is to mark the box
"Merchandise" or 'Gift." Better yet, if you are going into Canada to start your trip, mail your boxes of
provisions after you are over the border. 

Finally, there is the question of water. Figure that each person will consume one gallon a day through
drinking and in food. Charts and topographic maps indicate streams and other sources of water, but it is
always wise to check with local authorities to find out if weather or other conditions have dried up the
supply. Assume you can get water in any settlement. In a pinch, you can ask for a little from fish boats
or pleasure craft. But take enough water bags or other containers to keep you in water from point to
point, and minimize your need of it by using sea water for cooking and washing whenever possible. 

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