Other than for the die-hard traditionalists, the days of cooking over a wood 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 coffee pot to heat up over a fire in the morning, and I don't like cleaning soot off my pot set. There are a number of fine lightweight stoves available which are far more efficient that trying to cool on a fire.

The equipment required for a well-equipped canoeing kitchen depends in some part on how fancy we are getting with our menu. A group that plans to live on dehydrated, pre-packaged meals requires very little in the way of gear. Groups that live for fancy meals may go to the other extreme and carry everything from frying pans to reflector ovens.

Avoid metal cups and plates at all costs - they seem to be scientifically designed to burn the hands and/or laps of anyone attempting to have a hot meal, and once they have finished inflicting second-degree burns, they cool off the remaining food in record time. Plates and bowls should be plastic and mugs should be insulated plastic with a lid.

A middle-of-the-road kitchen gear list for a group of four to six paddlers follows:

• Pot set (one medium and one small)

• Medium sized frying pan

• coffee pot

• Cutlery

• Lifter, can opener and serving spoon

• Aluminum foil

• Plates, bowls and mugs

• Garbage bags

• Dish cloths, scrubber & drying towels

• Small cutting board

• Oven mitts (work gloves are fine)

• Stove and fuel

• Matches and/or butane lighter

• Salt, pepper and spices