Preparing a College Style Menu for a 12 Day Bear Canister Trip

I have this trip coming up, in the Sequoia King Canyon National Park. I am planning 10-12 days depending on the miles, over 250km (155 miles). I need to carry a bear canister which is a whopping 41oz (1.16kg) and definitely not conducive to ultra light:

21056109_10100382977679367_5383019676364753892_o — Use #3 for the bear can: Keeps the cat out of the basement…

This bear can has been the bane of my existence lately, see that small grocery bag, some of that also needs to fit in the can along with all my toiletries/smellies. Though the shopping bag powders are huge jars and I only need a fraction of it, it’s still going to be a royal pain in my butt.

To make matters worse, I need to drive to the United States from Canada before boarding a flight and flying to Fresno. So I need to keep everything in it’s original packaging until the night before so I can cross the border appropriately and not look suspicious when my dehydrated potato flakes, fibre powder, protein powder, electrolyte powder all in zip locks show up at the border. Then spend the evening looking like a weird drug dealer portioning out all my ziplock bags in the hotel room of Spokane! I might bring a mallet to powderize everything as a last resort 😛

To make the most of my weight, I decided to channel my inner college student and go back to the days of eating very simply. I can eat and prepare high end gourmet meals like pistachio encrusted frenched rack of lamb with truffle oil mashed potatoes *OR* I can eat ramen every day for a week! Both are fantastic in their completely separate set of ways.

I calculated how many calories I burn a day. I am 5’6 and when I am doing absolutely nothing and channel my inner sloth, I burn a whopping 1600 calories a day, which is basically one slice of chocolate cake. I estimate I will be burning 3000-4000 calories a day, but can stand to lose a couple pounds (a pound is about 3500 calories). I estimated I should bring around 3000 calories a day in food for a 10-12 day trip.

I broke down each of my food choices into calories per ounce/gram. This ruled out a lot of things and kept me choosing higher fat items. Of course we cannot eat a diet purely of fat (my poor digestive system isn’t as strong as college me). So I decided to add in a daily ration of fibre powder to my breakfast to keep everything, in place…

To limit the amount of fuel for the trip, I am going with boil only meals (no cooking). Not included here are packets of different spices for different mashed potato nights (red pepper flakes, parsley, garlic, pepper, onion) and I did buy 3 different kinds of Idahoan mashed potatoes for variety. Also the pepperoni has different kinds including very spicy, honey garlic etc; If I have room I will be carrying some baby bel cheeses as well (will cram them in the night of, if I can).

Everything from this photo will be repackaged into thin ziplocks. I feel guilty with the all the plastic but I need to carry this for 12 days and it all needs to be inside that can.

Day 1 does not have to be in the bear can, I might treat myself to some fresh sandwiches, or splurge on a mountain house meal.

If you would like to see the full calorie break down and the weight, here is my spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kCFPreTrCBBynJ4eCIxIVeICfkl42Qkgse1Tqk9xiSw/

I will do a follow-up post trip to see how much I never want to eat mashed potatos again. Though I have been eating these meals all summer on various weekend excursions and am still enjoying it.

Happy Hiking!

August 25, 2017 1

Update: Gear Review – Blue Desert SmarTube Hydration System – Inline System!

I did a gear review recently for the Blue Desert SmarTube Hydration System, that was very favourable. I decided to go ahead and order a second one to modify for use as my inline system for my upcoming Big SEKI Loop (which I have now dubbed the Big Sexy Loop 🙂 )

I measured the tubing so the portion in the bottle would fit in both my 1L Platypus and my 1L SmartWater bottle (used and recommended because it is super light and the shape fits very nicely in packs, as well as durability), all the way to the bottom. I then left a small amount to go through the bottle cap thread connector, and made my cut there.

The tubing fit easily over my Sawyer Mini, on the “dirty” side, and then I shortened the tube so that the distance from the Sawyer Mini to my mouth was reasonable (it’s a bit too long to start). The mouth piece side of the tube slid easily but firmly over the Sawyer Mini clean side.

The beauty of this set up, is the ease of just grabbing “dirty” water and continuing on. The suction through the Sawyer mini is perfectly fine and sipping water has no issues. Removing the hoses from the Sawyer Mini can be a tad challenging (I use the non sharp side of the knife to pry it down). Fortunately, if you keep your water sources choosy, you shouldn’t need to back flush too often.

I have tried it now on a couple weekend hikes and day hikes with no issues. I will be taking this setup with me on a 10-14 day trip to really test it out.

Happy Hiking!

August 23, 2017 1

Gear Review – Blue Desert SmarTube Hydration System

This past weekend I was able to review the Blue Desert SmarTube Hydration System

This was a relatively inexpensive piece of gear that I think deserves a good review. At only $23 CDN, and available on Amazon Prime, this is an easy way to add a hydration tube to your gear without dealing with a bladder. I really like the fact that it comes with different attachments, a bite valve and a on off switch. It is manufactured in Israel, and seems to be well made and didn’t have a funny taste.

The three different sized lids fit Nalgene bottles, and regular water bottles of different diameters. A very simple setup where each lid ultimately stacks. One thing I wish the kit included was a few inches of velcro material to secure it to your pack. It works with my current ULA Circuit but it would be just a nice little bonus.

Here is what is included:

Suction wasn’t too difficult and I found I stayed much more hydrated. One thing I would like to try in the future is cutting the tube and hooking it up to my sawyer straw, and having it as an in-line filter.

Happy Hiking!

July 24, 2017 1

Review – ZPacks 20F Sleeping Bag

8107010760023923089-account_id=1 — My bag and I basking in the sun in Peru!

I got the ZPack 20F bag after a trip to New Zealand with my Kelty 30 degree synthetic bag. I was cold. I typically travel solo so don’t share a tent, also women tend to sleep colder then guys… especially in a two person tent! I was so done with my sleeping bag and had recently been reading about through hiking and knew there were a lot of good ultra light gear out there.

I ordered my ZPacks 20F bag when living in Seattle, I knew I needed this bag before my hiking trip circuiting the Cordillera Huayhaush mountain range in Peru. I would be at altitude and it would be cooler at night. I emailed them asking if they would be able to send me one before my departure (about 3-4 weeks out). ZPacks replied within the day and said they would definitely be able to, fantastic customer service!

The bag shipped fairly quickly and I was amazed with how tiny it was. The bag is approximately 16 oz. The material is thin but it is easy to get in and out of the ultra light stuff sack it comes with. I am amazed at how tiny it becomes. For multi day hikes, I do not use the stuff sack and just throw my sleep system in the bottom of my pack in a trash liner and let everything just squish it down.

Going from a standard REI/MEC sleeping bag, to an ultra light option was my first ‘taste’ of how awesome some of this gear could be! (Cue sound of cash registers ding ding ding good bye money).

This bag is not your traditional mummy bag. There is no hood portion to the bag and when you tighten the drawstring, it brings it in (for me), around my eyes… but I am shorter at 5’6″. I found at first it was a bit tricky to get used to. In mummy bags I always toss and turn and then wake up with the back of the hear part covering my face and just in general feeling uncomfortable and tangled. I did not feel that way with the ZPacks bag. I would try to sleep with the zipper under me but if it twisted or whatever I was no worse for wear. In the summer I stick my feet in the foot box area of the bag and use it like a quilt. I find I am perfectly toasty.

I do use a liner – ultimately I regret not going with the 10F bag. I think the rating must be for mostly men or folks who don’t sleep as cold as I do. I am considering emailing them to see if I could get more fill added but not sure if it can be done. The added benefit of the liner is for stink management, I hate when sleeping bag’s smell terrible, liners can be washed easily with my regular hiking clothes.

One thing I did procure recently for my upcoming 10-12 day solo circuit hike, was GooseFeet Gear Down balaclava and booties. I am hoping this will solve my heat issues as well make me really happy. I will review both of those in the future as it is mid summer right now.

June 29, 2017 1