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NOLS Cookery Ration Planning
Exploring NOLS system of menu planning for an canoeing expedition across the Boundary Water. This article shows a NOLS plan for a twelve day trip, and discuses how well it worked.
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Tubism Review: Lightweight containers for liquids
I’m always on the lookout for lightweight products that can carry liquids easily without leaking. The gold standard is Nalgene bottles, because they don’t leak. But, they weigh more than I’d like at 0.5 ounces, and they don’t work with food or products you need to squeeze. I was excited when I saw the Tubism resealing zip tubes. At 0.4 ounces for 1.7 fluid ounces, they looked like a good deal. They could carry small amounts of liquids on trips while keeping down the weight. The Tubism tubes are unique because they’re flat instead of round. One end has a zip closure and the other end a squeeze lid. They are…
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8 Lunch Ideas for Your Next Canoe or Kayak Trip
On kayak and canoe trips, I like to carry simple meals that require little prep and take up little room in the portage pack or hatches. Usually that means that I pack one or two types of lunches for a 10-day trip. By day 10 that can get a little old. Recently, I asked online friends for lunch ideas. The responses were varied, some elaborate and some simple. But all were less complicated than those found in a commercial paddling cookbook such as The Back-Country Kitchen: Camp Cooking for Canoeists, Hikers, and Anglers. The ideas were so good that I thought I’d share with the rest of PaddlingLight’s readers. Main…
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Creamy Wild Rice and Chicken over Potatoes
Wild rice and paddling go together. Some of the first canoes were used to harvest wild rice, and if you paddle in Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness chances are you have paddled through a rice field. It not only goes with paddling, but it tastes great. A wild rice soup poured over mashed potatoes fills the stomach and makes a satisfying end to a day of paddling. This recipe is quick, hardy and easy to carry. Creamy Wild Rice and Chicken over Potatoes Recipe (Serves 2) Calories: 425 per personIngredients Boil water. Pour 2/3 cup into a freezer bag with the potato buds, add ghee. Mix. Add rice, bouillon…
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5 Quick and Healthy Breakfasts For Canoeing and Kayaking
On my first paddling and camping trips, I often overlooked making a good breakfast for canoeing and kayak in favor of eating a few quick snacks, like Pop Tarts, and as I paddled I noticed my strength fading quickly. It took me a few trips to figure out my breakfast wasn’t working for me. Although breakfast snacks like instant pastries have over 400 calories per package, they lack any significant fat or protein. Essentially, they’re just empty carbs and eating them in the morning creates high blood-sugar levels, which will eventually crash throwing the body into a battle that’ll will last all day. That’s no way to start a hard…
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How to Use a Padded Food Pack
Updated February 2026 Padded food packs are becoming a popular alternative to traditional Duluth packs and olive barrels for canoe trips. They offer barrel-like protection while conforming better to a canoe and taking up less space. In this guide, I walk through practical, field-tested methods for waterproofing a padded food pack, organizing food efficiently, and using the pack’s insulation and shape to comfortably carry fresh food into the wilderness—especially on multi-day trips. Much of this advice comes from real backcountry cooking and food management on canoe trips, including trips in places like the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Making it Waterproof Opening your food pack to discover that the bag…
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How Much Food Should I Pack
Dear PaddlingLight, As I canoe more, leaving the river of home and enter the BWCA, I must portage. I do not want to carry needless weight. So, I am planning a 6 day trip with lots of portaging, some are 340 rods, some only 8. However, as a soloist, I have determined to double portage, thus a 340-rod portage is really 1020 rods. So it is like this, I get by on minimal food on a timber trek. Although I climb serious hills, I am not carrying a 60-pound pack or a canoe. I am assuming the physical exertion even on a small mile trip is demanding. I am wondering…
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