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The
Kitchen Kit
Other than for the die-hard traditionalists, the days of
cooking over a camp fire are almost gone. While I enjoy sitting around a
fire in the evening as much as the next person, I am too impatient to wait for a
fire to be made in order to enjoy a hot meal. There are a
number of good lightweight stoves available which are far more efficient that
trying to cook on a fire. In Bowron Lake Provincial Park, paddlers are required to bring a
light weight camp stove and fuel for cooking. Every year it seems that
firewood becomes harder to find, also the firewood can be damp and producing a
good cooking fire can be troublesome. Bring some sort of fire-started. The
wood provided usually comes in large
rounds, so a good axe is also important.
The
equipment required for a well-equipped canoeing kitchen depends in part on how fancy you get with the menu. A group that plans to live
on dehydrated, pre-packaged meals requires very little in the way of gear.
Groups that prefers fancy meals may go to the other extreme and carry everything
from woks to reflector ovens.
Try to avoid metal cups and plates as they can get too hot to handle.
Plastic plates and bowls are much easier to handle and insulated plastic
travel mugs with lids are ideal.
A middle-of-the-road kitchen gear list for a group of four to six paddlers
follows:
 Stacking
Pot Set (3 different sized pots with lids) can be used for cooking as well
as water
containers, mixing bowls, sink for dishes.
Deep lids with handles are good for re-hydrating foods, boiling up some
veggies, or even small frying pans.
Light weight frying pan with
non-stick coating and long handle (wrap the handle with a cloth and secure
with cotton string to help prevent burns).
Coffee pot & perk (or make
boiled coffee in a pot and leave this item at home).
Cutlery - one set per person.
Plastic egg flipper, can opener,
slotted serving spoon, wooden spoon, good sharp hunting knife.
Aluminum foil & zip-lock bags
(for leftovers, food storage, wrapping foods).
Plates, bowls, mugs & small
personal water bottles with top (for paddling) - one set per person.
Garbage bags to carry out what you
bring in.
Dish
cloths, nylon scrubber, drying towels, biodegradable dish soap.
Small roll-able cutting board, (or
use wooden stumps and leave this item at home).
Oven mitts (leather work gloves
work great).
Stove
and fuel.
Matches and/or butane lighter &
fire starter
Collapsible
water jug & small basin for washing up (biggest pot can also be used as
a water basin)
Axe
(big one is better then a hatchet)
Portable
folding saw comes
in very handy
Water
filter or other purification system
.
A handy camp table can be made by turning your canoe over two
log rounds presenting a nice flat bottom. Just don't cook or cut on
your canoe bottom, use a log stump for these.
The First Aid Kit
A well-equipped first aid kit is an
absolute necessity when paddling away from "civilization." We all have
to realize that medical help is ‘not just a phone call away’ while on a back
country canoe trip. Bowron Lake does not have cell phone capabilities, though
sometimes, if the conditions are right, personal cell phones have worked on the
west side of the canoe circuit. Other than 5 Radio Phones strategically placed
around the 116 km lake chain, which connect you to the Park headquarters (not always dependable) and other park users, you are pretty much on your
own. Help can be anywhere from several hours, to a day away. This means that you
should be responsible for two things; one - have a proper first-aid kit; and two
- ensure that there is at least one, and preferably two people in your group
who know how to use it.
Listed here is a typical first aid kit for canoe tripping in
‘semi-wilderness’ areas - in other words, a typical three or four day trip,
often not more than a day away from medical help. The last 2 items are optional
but recommended for trips into more remote areas, or where individual personal
needs may deem them necessary.
|
Item |
Qty
|
Used
For... |
| Alcohol swabs |
6
|
Cleaning
and disinfecting injuries |
| Adhesive tape |
1 roll
|
Closing open wounds and fastening
bandages |
| Gauze
Pads (4" sq.) |
4 |
Wound
dressings |
| Gauze Roll (1" wide &
2" wide) |
1 roll
ea
|
Wound
dressings |
| Elastic (Tensor) bandage |
1
|
Dressing
for strains and sprains |
| Band-Aids |
12 |
Dressings
for small cuts, scrapes and blisters |
| Moleskin or Second Skin |
1
sheet |
Treatment
of blisters |
| Latex examination gloves |
1
pr |
Handling
of victims with open wounds |
| Q-Tips |
6 |
Applying
antiseptic, cleaning wounds |
| Safety
pins |
6 |
Fastening
dressings |
| Thermometer |
1 |
Checking
for fever or hypothermia |
| Scalpel blade or razor blade |
1 |
Cutting |
| Tweezers
- fine point |
1
|
Sliver
removal |
| Small
flashlight |
1 |
For
quick access if required |
| Lighter
or matches |
1 |
For
quick access if required |
| Liquid soap |
1
small vial |
General
cleaning and disinfecting |
| Polysporin or other antibiotic cream |
1
small tube |
Wound
dressing |
| Pain
Killer (Like Tylenol) |
1
small vial |
Pain killer for minor aches |
| Sunscreen (minimum SPF 15) |
1
tube |
Sun
protection |
| Antihistamine
Cream |
1
small
tube |
Treatment
of insect bites, poison ivy, etc. |
| Dental Analgesic (Orabase or Orajel) |
1
small
vial |
Toothaches,
lost fillings, etc |
| Laxative |
1/2
pack
|
To
treat constipation |
| Kaopectate or Imodium |
1
small
vial |
To
treat diarrhea |
| Pepto-Bismol
tablets or
Antacid
Tablets (Tums or Rolaids)
|
1
small
vial |
To
treat upset stomach or heartburn |
| Cough / Cold treatment |
1 small
vial |
To
treat sinus congestion etc. |
|
|
|
| Tylenol with Codeine or other strong
pain killer
|
1
small vial |
Control of pain |
| Prescription
antibiotic |
1 small
vial |
Infection, fever |
Repair Kit
As in all areas of life, Murphy's Law seems to prevail while canoeing.
If
something is going to break, it will never happen when close to civilization.
Instead, the devious piece of gear will wait until
two days and three portages into a trip, then promptly fall apart. The
likelihood of an item breaking is directly proportional to the distance between
you and the tools required to fix it.
That being the case, it is a good idea to bring along a little container
with some odds and ends that will help fix whatever decides to break. A combination of the
items listed below and a bit of ingenuity can keep nearly any piece of
equipment operating.
Don’t be tempted to save weight and leave it at home, even though it
may take years of paddling before you ever need it. It can be a life (or foot)
saver, that one time, and get you out of the bush by canoe instead of hoofing
it. Here's a basic canoeing repair kit.
Equipment List
|
Duct Tape
|
Patch a tent, repair a leaky
canoe....a thousand uses, need I say more?
|
| Assorted Fasteners
|
A baby food jar with an assortment of safety pins, nuts, bolts, screws
and different sized nails. Good for everything from re-nailing up portage signs to re-attaching that
broken canoe seat.
|
| Epoxy Glue & Silicone
|
A
tube each of 5 minute resin and hardener (bonds anything) & water proof
sealer.
|
| Snare Wire
|
A
small roll of brass snare wire is great for temporary fastening of straps, canoe
seats, whatever.
|
| Multi-Tool
|
These ingenious devices have everything from pliers, to
screwdrivers to knife blades and files on them.
|
| Flashlight Accessories
|
A
spare bulb and extra batteries for that flashlight that dies.
|
| Cable Ties
|
These
plastic straps used by electricians to bundle wires and cables are a great
addition. They 'loop'
together and never come undone, and they're made of very strong plastic.
|
| Stove Parts. |
If
a pump or generator dies, it's nice to have a spare. Same thing for that pesky
cap for the tank. A stove isn't much good if you can't pump it up because you dropped
the filler cap in the lake.
|
| Vinyl Patch and Contact Cement
|
Try
and scrounge an old piece of swimming pool liner about 12" square. It can be adhered over a major hole in a canoe with contact cement. Good for
those repairs that are beyond the duct tape stage.
|
| Sharpening Stone
|
For
camp axes and knives.
|
| Parachute Cord or Twine |
For
a multitude of purposes.
|
A Little
Bush Humor
Murphy’s
Law of the Bush.
If anything can go wrong, it will.
If anything just cannot go wrong, it will anyway.
If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause
the most damage will be the first to go wrong.
If you perceive that there are four ways that something can go wrong and take
action to circumvent these four ways, a fifth will
promptly develop.
In nature, nothing is ever right.
Therefore, if everything is going right, something is wrong.
Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
Survival Kit
As with the repair kit, this isn't
something you're going to need very often - hopefully never. ‘Survival kit’
may sound a bit dramatic - it isn't very likely that you're not going to survive
even if you don't carry a kit like this. Unless you stray quite far and get
hopelessly lost, you aren't going to be wandering in the bush for months waiting
for a rescue. On the chain you only have to sit by a lake and wait for the next
canoeist to come along. If it makes
you feel better, call this a "comfort" kit as the contents will make
spending an unforeseen night in the bush a whole lot more comfortable than if
you didn’t have it.
Having a kit like this is particularly important if you are paddling
solo. If you're in a group situation and you get lost gathering firewood, you
can always sit down, yell and resign yourself to the ribbing that you'll receive
when the rest of your party finds you. This isn't an option when you're alone.
You are entirely reliant upon your own skills and resources. If you get lost,
nobody is going to come looking for you until you are late getting home (you did
leave a trip plan with someone, didn't you?)
A lot of the stuff on this list will
already be in your canoe and camp gear, but it is a good idea to have these
things in a separate fanny pack attached to your waist. No one likes to think
about the possibility of losing their gear in the event of a tip-over.... but it
does happen! Also the size and
weight of this little kit doesn't make it too onerous to strap on and carry
while you're day-hiking.
| Item |
Use For...
|
| Good Hunting Knife |
It doesn't have to be a top-of-the-line knife, but it shouldn't be a
piece of junk either. Remember, your survival may depend on this item. At minimum, get a
reasonably good lock-blade knife with a 3" blade |
| Insect Repellent
|
You
may be like me, and not particularly like the idea of slathering yourself with DEET, but if you're lost and besieged by mosquitoes, you'll
probably lose those concerns quickly. Pack a bottle of Muskol or Deep Woods
Off. Our Bowron bugs are
VERY friendly!! |
| Whistle |
A plastic survival whistle saves getting laryngitis as you sit there
yelling for help. The sound of a whistle also carries much further. Prov.
Boating Regulations,
require each canoe to have a whistle on board.
|
| Compass |
Compasses are not really necessary on the Lake Chain, unless you plan on
leaving the lakes for a hike in the bush.
Spend $20 and get an inexpensive
orienteering (protractor) type compass. After being lost or disoriented for a few
hours, it's amazing how a compass can help regain your bearings. (PS a compass works much
better with a good area map). |
| Matches |
One or the most important items in your kit. Pack good wooden matches
tightly sealed in a waterproof container. |
| Candles |
A couple of fat candles will provide a long-lasting source of light, and
can serve as an emergency fire-starter as well. The candles designed to fit in candle
lanterns are great - they last for six to eight hours. |
| Metal Cup (or Tin with lid to store
your kit in) |
You're
going to have a tough time heating up or boiling water unless you have
something to put that water in to heat it.
|
| Purification Tablets |
Don't
have a metal cup to boil water? These will do. |
| First Aid Items |
Just the very basics, a few
Band-Aids, some gauze and a bit of white adhesive tape.
Enough to patch yourself up if you cut yourself while whittling the
time away. |
| Plastic Poncho or
big garbage bag
|
Could make the difference between being fairly dry and sopping wet.
A fluorescent orange poncho or bag can double as a signaling device.
|
| Space Blanket
|
These little reflective sheets take
up no room, and can help to conserve body heat on a chilly night. Can also
be used as a signaling device. |
| Plastic Drop Sheet
|
It
doesn't make the most luxurious shelter, but it can be a whole lot better than
sitting out in a driving rain.
|
| Light-Sticks |
The fluorescent
orange or green kind, makes a great night time signal device and emergency light.
Much easier than a flashlight, its waterproof and needs
no batteries.
|
| Hot Drinks |
Little
pouches of instant coffee, tea bags, bouillon cubes, Cup A Soup, hot chocolate... whatever.
Sitting down and having a hot drink on a chilly
night can provide a great psychological boost. (Got
to have the cup for this!)
|
| Candies or a Power Bar |
Like the hot drinks, mainly to provide a psychological boost. None of us
are going to die of starvation by spending a night or two in the bush, but
it's nice to have a little treat once in a while to keep ones’ spirits up. |
| Snare Wire |
Good
for lashing together lean-to's, fixing broken boots, and maybe even using as
a snare.
|
| Parachute Cord or Twine |
For
a multitude of purposes including rigging shelter. |
| Fish Hooks and Line |
You never know, but even if you
don’t catch anything, at least it takes your mind off your troubles for a while. Hook can also double as a pin for
removing slivers and fishing line is good for all sorts of rigging.
|
| Toilet Paper
|
You know what that’s
for! Wrap in a ziplock to keep dry. Also makes great fire paper.
|
Along with this ‘survival kit’ packed into a fanny pack, I always
carry my canister of bear spray on my hip. Even though I have never had the opportunity to
use it, it just gives me an added sense of security. For more information about
Bears refer to our Bear
Safety page.
Let me
know if you find this Info sheet informative and helpful. I always look forward to
any of your suggestions, ideals and paddling stories.
Copyright © 1999-2005 Sandra Phillips
For More Information Contact:
Bear River Mercantile, Restauant & Resort
PO Box 251 Wells, B.C. Canada, V0K 2R0
Tel: H496699 Wells YP
FAX: none
Internet:
sandy@bowronlake.com
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Bear
River Mercantile Your Bowron Lake Adventure Specialists
