I agree about eliminating the monotony of menu items, or at least bringing a couple meals for reserved for “special” occasions, or simply for trying days when I need a justified reward. A little bottle of hot sauce helps break up the monotony with commercially made freeze dried meals, and goes a looong way.
Breakfast monotony bothers me less than dinner monotony, but I add dried fruit to lots of breakfast things, oatmeal, plain grits (not to cheesy grits, those get hot sauce), etc. Also added to peanut butter, chocolate, sometimes just a handful popped in my mouth for quick energy.
I don’t dry my own fruit (or anything else, I know, I probably should), but improve on the largely-raisin & apricot store bought dried fruit mix with more of the stuff I like; dried apple, pineapple, berries, dates. And store the nuts separately so they don’t dampen in the still-kinda-moist fruit; I can mix in the nuts or not as I like.
I love cashews, those themselves are a treat to hold in special reserve. A friend brings habitually brings slabs of high quality dark chocolate. And little containers of pickles. Fortunately he is a sharer; the chocolate is wonderful, but dayum, there is something about a backcountry pickle. . . . .
I’ve never used a second full size food barrel. Like Canoeguitar the no-odor sealed stuff starts off in a small dry bag. Any remainder refills the barrel as time goes on and, once empty, I can use the dry bag for something else.
Almost always a collapsible bucket. In lieu of solar shower I just pour it incrementally over my head to wash and rinse. Also useful for settling water or toting it up to camp to filter, or even sudsy washing clothes if stuff gets beyond wearable grimystanky.
I guess I am naturally greasy headed, and cut my hair very short before long trips, but even so a little bottle of Dr. Bronners or ect can go a long way in feeling renewed. And a little shammie or packtowel.
I bring a bit more repair/replace stuff on a long trip. A ThermaRest repair kit, and an extra filter for the gravity filter bags if in an area hard on filtration. I don’t use a lot of electronics, but know folks who bring a small lightweight solar panel for USB recharging.
A short piece of Ridgerest foam to sit on in cold or wet conditions, even with a chair, and (especially) to put under the Therma-Rest in thorny areas. I’ve endured - thankfully just for the last few days - one trip sleeping on a un-findable slow-leak, un-repairable pad. That sucked, or kinda slowly blew as the case may be. That little piece of Ridgerest saved my ass, or at least my shoulders.
The piece of comfort gear I miss the most when I cannot use it in treeless areas is a small day hammock, a little nylon thing the size of a softball. Like one of these
https://www.rei.com/product/754769/eno- ... st-hammockSet up for reading, napping, quiet, motionless-hanging nature study letting things come to me while listening/watching, or strung under the tarp in the rain. Gawd I miss having a little day hammock when there are no suitable trees.
My biggest challenge on a lengthy trip is reading material. Try as I might I just can’t do a Kindle, so it’s a real book with delightfully tactile pages to turn, and it better be something thick and worth immediately re-reading. Occasionally, if I am in an area of interesting and unfamiliar flora or fauna, I’ll bring a field guide of some sort; I can always read that for stuff I’m seeing, or even not seeing.
At the end of a long trip I appreciate having purposefully left some comforts and rewards set aside in the take out car. A full set of clean clothes and shoes, some “treat” eats and drinks, the maps of where I’m headed next to peruse before I hit the road or other stuff to help ease my re-entry into Syphilization.
I have never done this myself but have seen folks ask an outfitter shuttle pick up to bring a pre-packed personal “treasure” dry bag along with them. Best of those was a guy during a Jetboat retrieval on the Colorado, who paid the outfitter fill a prepared cooler with ice and bring it along in the Jetboat.
The cooler was pre-filled with a selection of beers. Before the jetboat headed upstream, laden with the day’s pick up of weather-beaten (thirsty) passengers, he hauled the cooler up to the bow, opened it to display the contents and announced “Ice cold beer! $10 a bottle! Don’t pay me, add the cost to what you intend to tip the shuttle guys”.
Note the “intend to tip” reminder; tips are a big part of outfitter shuttle bunnies livelihood, at least in the US, and not every culture recognizes tipping as a custom. I had carried some cash in bills for that purpose, but had to dig out the $20 that lives in my PFD pocket to be IPA square.
It was worth every penny. I had two icy cold beverages on the ride up; eh, the first one didn’t last long. And, seated up front, made sure to be the first one getting off the jetboat, demonstrably tipping the shuttle guys appropriately heavy.
I thought that “”Ice down this cooler and bring it” trick was clever as hell, and want to replicate it myself someday. I know that was a REALLY good trip for the jetboat driver and his hardworking boat monkey assistants.