There are several things we took that worked out great.
Pre-Trip Preparation
I purchased a food dehydrator – I didn’t spend a lot of money on a dehydrator, but after researching made sure I got one with a fan to circulate the air as the food is drying — it speeds the process and dries the food more evenly. Drying takes a while so this is a project to start well before the start date of the trip, but the dried food was light to pack, rehydrated well, and was a healthy, economical alternative to packaged meals.
To help with drying food I got information from Backpacking chef.com – Chef Glen has dehydrating instructions, recipes for breakfast, supper, dessert, and bark, and cheerfully answers any questions you may send him by email. We even dried ground beef using Chef Glen’s instructions and we able to use it until the end of our two month camping motorcycle trip. Great information.
I would recommend Backpack Gourmet by Linda Frederick Yaffe – great instructions, great suggestions, and great recipes for dishes to dry and pack. Each recipe includes how heavy the finished portion will be to pack.
Cooking on the Trip
I already liked my Jet Boil for my single use, but we used it a lot on this trip. Boil water in the morning for coffee then put a pan on to make oatmeal. Boil water for tea and then boil pasta dishes for dinner. It does have it’s limitations when a skillet is needed (the skillet can be a little small for preparing a big dish). We ended up breaking out JF’s MSR stove when the skillet was needed to prepare a meal. But overall this is an easy to light (even when it’s windy), easy to use, efficient way to heat things up when camping. I was able to find fuel cartridges along the way so I came home with 2 spares.
If you like coffee I would recommend the Bodum Travel Coffee Press -> I wasn’t sure these would even make the packing list (I thought JF might laugh at the idea) but we ended up using them once or twice a day at least. They made wonderful coffee in the morning and tea in the evening. After that they were great drinking glasses to mix an electrolyte drink. An indication of how great they worked — JF asked if he could take one when he headed out after the trip.
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