Canoe camping is a different animal than car camping or r.v. camping or even tent camping at a state park. Your canoe camping menu is largely dictated by two factors. First is the amount of space in your canoe. Second is how heavy you want your food pack(s) to be. A third factor would of course be how long your trip is.
Fresh Food vs Dehydrated Meals
We like to supplement our dehydrated canoe camping menu with fresh food. This brings into play another factor, that of the obvious lack of refrigeration. You can freeze pre-cooked meals or meat like chicken and steak, etc. to use as cooling agents in your food pack. Some people employ the use of dry ice. I freeze par-boiled potatoes, tomato sauce for pasta, brats, hotdogs, chicken, steak, burger, etc. Depending on the time of year you go camping in the Boundary Waters, the temperature will be a big factor on how long your frozen items will take to thaw. Too much frozen food space will obviously add to weight of your pack and the time in which everything thaws. Four meat choices that must be cooked because they all thawed on day two is and example of a bad meal plan.
Yes, this is a pic of my grill at home in the backyard, but all of this can happen at your campsite. Just don’t forget the bbq sauce in the plastic bottle.
Vegetables that last
Veggies like Bell Peppers, corn, broccoli, onion, mushrooms and cheese will last several days in the wilderness without going bad. Oh, you caught me, cheese isn’t a vegetable, but it is a great complement to many dehydrated meals. So are the veggies. If space is a concern, along with weight, you can prep your veggies at home and dehydrate them yourself. The same is true with fruits like pineapple and banana. Or you can just as easily buy already pre-packed dried fruits. Today there are almost an endless amount of blueberries, strawberries, apples, nectarines, peaches, raspberries and more available. Some of these are also economically packaged as freeze dried, and these choice weigh next to nothing.
My family loves stir fry and that can be made easily while camping. Just pack the right spices and the heat.
Breakfast Stir Fry is a great thing too. Plate it up or put it in a tortilla for a breakfast street taco meal. Great ways to fuel up and start your days!
I come from a big line of bread makers and my wife and daughter carry on that tradition. If you love bread, you can splurge with with space in your canoe camping menu pack by bringing a sourdough loaf from home. Open faced grilled beef sandwiches are a great canoe camping menu crowd pleaser for night one or two. If you haven’t guessed, we like to eat well after burning energy by paddling and fishing all day. Also the campfire is a place of comradery and fun where memories are made. Why not enjoy your meals! If you don’t have or enjoy homemade bread bring a bunch of tortillas, you can make street tacos with almost everything.
Plan a few surprises
Dessert on the trail is a must. Gourmet gorp, specialized smores, a real baked chocolate volcano cake or brownies. It won’t matter if anything comes out looking great, it is how it tastes that matters. Bring a roll of aluminum foil. It will do wonders for other meals, like quick melting your quesadillas without burning the tortillas too.
These cinnamon rolls were right off the shelf at the grocery store in the cardboard roll. They came with their own frosting pack and cooked easily in a cooking kit pot with foil. French press coffee and campfire bacon and fresh baked rolls… what a combo!
Fish of Course
If you enjoy catching and frying fish, try taking along some plain yellow mustard. You can use it for your brats or sausages too and rubbing your fish with it before your batter allows for better stick. It also gives the fish a great sweet kick. Pro-Tip: sprinkle in some spice like paprika or black pepper for an added kick to fried fillets.
Choose Great Tasting Canoe Camping Dehydrated Menu Options
We stock a large variety of fantastic dehydrated canoe camping menu options. I will put just a few of those options here in a picture gallery with some links to purchase in our catalog. The best things about these are that we use them ourselves and our clients use many of them on canoe trips. Over the years, our outfitting department has worked hand and hand with our Food Buyer Amy to collaborate and choose the best of the best. Canoe Camping Food HERE!
Of course, you can just pack along all your canoe camping menu items as dehydrated camp foods. Plenty of folks want their meals just to be fuel. They’ve got other activities like covering longer distances and exploring new lakes on their agenda. We get that. Sometimes that is our priority too. When all you have to do is add heat and water, life is easier. Pro Tip: don’t forget the squeezy butter and hot sauce.
Great tasting fry breads and other Cache Lake Options HERE
Don’t forget the Charcuterie Board
You can’t go wrong with prepared meats and cheeses. Accessories with crackers and any fruits and veggies you like!
What do you like to Bring?
Please participate in the ongoing conversation and comment below with your favorites. Pop Tart S’mores? Keebler Cookie Smores? Blueberry cobbler? Give us a shout out and thanks so much for reading. There’s nothing better than enjoying some good meals in the Great Northwoods! Boundary Waters here we come!
I don’t like the high cost of freeze-dried food and the taste is spotty. I go with grocery store bought food. I run two week or one week canoe trips in the Temagami, Algonquin and Quetico canoeing areas. For breakfasts I buy triple smoked slab bacon, Ovaeasy dried egg mix (pricey now), Bob’s Red Mill rolled oats, Bisquick (follow ultimate pancake recipe), Idaho Spuds hashbrowns, Costco maple syrup, Ghirardelli cocoa mix (or Droste’s is killin’), and dried cranberries to sprinkle on the oatmeal. For lunches I take apples and bread for the first few then switch to crackers, PB&J, summer sausage, beef jerky, Country Time lemonade mix, cheese (hearty cheeses that last well), raisin and trail mix packs and Canadian chocolate bars (Burnt Almond, Fruit and Nut and McIntosh Toffee popular). Dinners, frozen steak or chicken first meal with frozen corn. Various soups (Bear Creek good). Spaghetti (DeCecco), sauce made with cans of crushed tomatoes and tomato paste (Cento brand) with a small onion and bag of spices (basil, oregano, parsley, thyme and garlic chips), 1 bottle of red wine (for sauce, cook and crew). Honey Baked Ham (frozen) for second dinner with stuffing (Pepperidge Farm or Stove Top good). Cracker Barrel mac-n-cheese. One meal of Cup-o-Noodles (various flavors) with Zatarain’s black beans and rice (you can add summer sausage to this). Fettuccini Alfredo (Knorr brand is just okay). Any caught fish also. Desserts are International Coffee mix (different flavors), Alpine spiced cider mix, smores, Jello cheesecake and Dr. Oetker chocolate mousse (yes, they kind of work unrefrigerated). I get rid of all the boxes and put food into zip lock bags to save space in the food packs and reduce waste on the trip. We pack out all the cans and plastic waste obviously. On the 2022 trip my nephew brought a 30lb Dutch oven to make corn bread, muffins, apple crisp, brownies, peach cobbler and even a blueberry crisp from the Canadian blueberries we picked (I actually gained weight on that trip, first time ever). Hope some of this might work for others. Heading to Temagami this Summer for a short 6 day canoe trip. Safe travels everyone.