Kitchen Pack-Barrel-Wannigan

[Odyssey]

What do you use and why? What does it look like and how does it function?
I first started with a canvas pack, keeping foodstuffs sealed in various containers and bags. I then moved on to an Army surplus duffle bag with food and gear sealed. Finally I decided on a food barrel, with an accompanying pack for kitchen stove and gear. I'm still experimenting and pondering. Is there a better way, a best way, or another way? What works for you?

 

[Canotrouge]

Ok, what I use now... Big dry bag type pack for every thing that have to stay dry. 60L barrel and a cooler for food. We use an action packer type box for every thing cooking. And a small day pack type bag for the stuff we need to be handy.

Now, what I would like to go towards is, one Frost river old #7 canvas pac, a smaller canvas pac for day stuff. A wanigan for all cooking stuff. A wanigan for food stuff, and a cooler for stuff that have to stay, well, cool....

Like I said in an other thread, we don't portage much in our neck of the wood. the reason I want to go the traditional root, is the stuff will last longer and it can be prepared easier....

 

[Robin]

My outfit is for a solo trip, not sure if it will help.

I like to use my Duluth Day pack when I bring my twig stove. The space savings I get with the twig stove allows me to put my food into two Sealine bags. My small pot with plates nested inside goes in my bigger pack with my cold handle frying pan. As the trip progresses and my food bags looses volume I move the pot and fry pan to the day pack. The day pack has a pouch up front for water and hooch, spatula, folk and spoon. If there is a fire ban I then bring a bigger Duluth Wanderer pack with stove, frying pan and 2 sealine food bags inside. (I usually know beforehand if conditions threaten a fire ban, but I carry the extra pack and stove in the truck just in case).

Here is the Day Pack, which has seen many days use at home, day hikes, work, hunting,fishing,and canoe trips, so I have really gotten my moneys worth from it, unlike blue barrels, which are good for storing cat food or used oil from your car in off season.

Here is the Wanderer Pack when I needed more room because of the Peak 1 stove on a 2 week trip in Woodland Caribou Prov Park. I brought a little more gear on this trip. I feel the Wanderer makes a good 2 person food pack for 10-14 days and a good off season pack.

 

[ppine]

I use a Duluth kitchen pack, but usually bring a small cooler since we sometimes line boats but rarely portage. For trips around a week I usually have an action packer plastic box for dry goods which allows for some elaborate meals.

A friend of mine from Oregon has been elk hunting with friends and family for over 40 years. He says that about 10 years ago their trips evolved into elk camping. Now they go elk resorting with several large wall tents, card tables, cots etc. A canoe makes it possible to be in remote country and still be very comfortable.

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

My experience and preferences are limited, as I want to travel light, compactly and with a minimum of kitchen duties. I travel self-contained and "solo", even when I'm with other paddlers. I never go out for more than a week. I only eat commercial freeze dried meals and low carb nutrition bars.

Therefore, I carry no separate food pack. My entire food supply for a week can fit in a bear-resistant Ursack, which I keep in my Duluth pack. My only utensils are a JetBoil stove, a spork and a plastic bowl (which I could probably ditch). Except for the stove, it all can fit in the Ursack. The food in the Ursack is kept within an odor-proof Opsak. Any foil garbage is kept in a separate Opsak within the Ursack.

I like the Ursack for food storage because it's bear resistant and it collapses into a smaller and smaller flexible volume as the food is consumed. After a couple of days I can fit the JetBoil stove into it.

The Ursack is hung on a tree away from the campsite at night.

My entire kit for a week or less is one Duluth pack, usually my #3 Cruiser Combo, which carries the Ursack (and used to cost 1/3 of what it does now), and one waterproof roll-top backpack for medical and emergency gear, day gear and some of the energy bars.

This shot shows the entire kit packaging: waterproof day pack, Duluth pack, two carbon paddles, PFD, and my bag chair (which is a recent concession to comfort). This isn't a kit for a group or for someone who wants lots of geardoodle.

 

[Canotrouge]

I was looking at the Kitchen pack from Frost river, it look great, I might try to get some thing like that instead of a wanigan for the kitchen stuff...

 

[Philtrum]

Bear Vault for anything that gives off aromas. Everything else goes in small stuff sacks. No special kitchen pack, whether going solo or with one other person.
I hung food bags on my first two BWCA trips. On the next dozen trips I've stashed them, always in a dry-bag type container, following the advice of someone who used to train tracking dogs. When the air gets cooler, scents drop and collect in low places along with the moister, heavier air. So I find hollows in out-of-the-way places, generally along a shoreline where it's less likely my own scent will be tracked by a curious bear or rodent.

 

[redoleary]

For the last several years we've been using a Vittles Vault, actually the Seed Vault (for bird seed) I think it was, the plastic is thinner than the dog food variety. Anyway I made a harness for it so we can hang it. I put shoulder straps on the harness but I've never liked them, and last summer I made a tump system for it. The tump "system" is basically a small (very small) hammock that I put the vault in and the tump attaches to the hammock. This way I could tump the kitchen and easily remove the system and then go tump something else. Not sure if I have any photos of the tump thing, I'm sure I could take some if it requires clarification. But I do have some photos of the harness, even one of it hanging in a tree. The thing we dislike the most of this thing is that no matter what you want, it's on the bottom. The Y strap that goes over the top is for strapping down loose items like tarps or my pfd etc.

 

[Guest]

Looks like a great hanging job! I used to have many frustration putting up bear bags that were of proper height and location. I now use a ursack or ratsack and I'm a happy camper. What ever you use, I highly recomend double plastic bagging the food inside to keep odors from getting out.
Turtle

 

[Iskweo]

We use barrels for the food. Either a 30 or 60 litre depending on how long we will be out. We do have harnesses for them so they are relatively easy to carry. At one point I had a 30 litre strapped to the bottom of a rucksack but that just was tooooooo heavy altogether.

We tend to have to split our loads up into 30-40 pound maximums as we are getting older and cant lug anything heavier.

 

[latremorej]

I have alway used my backpacking pack for the canoe with everything inside in dryBags. I am currently working on a wannigan for the kitchen. I bring along a bark factory and quit cooking bacon in the morning around the same time. I haven't had any bear sightings since. Not sure which one was the factor there but my money is cooking bacon. I use the pre-cooked Oscar myers bacon now I haven't hung anything in a few years.

On to the wannigan, it sure will be nice to cook on something at waist level that also doubles as the whole kitchen. We usually bring along a 10lb table anyways. It's not finished yet but here is a shot in progress

 

[Rippy]

My only utensils are a JetBoil stove, a spork and a plastic bowl

Glenn, please say it isn't so. I guess I should have known you're one of those.

 

[Seeker]

I made a wannagen. It was cheap, and I can sit on it. Most of my trips don't involve extensive portaging. I take it solo if there are short portages, but normally just for tandem trips. I have a canvas pack i use for food/kitchen stuff otherwise.