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PostPosted: February 26th, 2021, 6:45 pm 
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I'm wondering if anyone has some good ideas for a trip I'm in the initial stages of planning. We'll be going to Missinaibi, but with a motorboat, about 15km away from the campground. The idea is to make a few trips from the campground and bring all the things you need to truly live like royalty in the wilderness for a week or two, You can bring a LOT of crap in a powered boat. We'll probably be going with both a 14' with a 7.5hp engine, and a 16' with a 20hp engine. We're even taking Coleman type air mattresses to sleep on - not the kind for camping, but the kind for an overnight guest in a small house.

One thing I'm really looking forward to is expanding my cooking repertoire, trying some more baking, seeing how good my pizza can get. I'd love some ideas for some more complex recipes I can experiment with and hopefully add to my "real trip" repertoire. Besides that, I think it'll be a great trip to just generally try a few new things, but I'm trying to come up with those new things.

We'll have a couple of tents to sleep in, plus likely a dining tent and an awning to go over the kitchen. I'm even trying to come up with a way to have running hot and cold water if I can engineer it.

Does anyone else have any ideas?

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PostPosted: March 9th, 2021, 5:58 pm 
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I think if you can bring propane over then this a game changer for cooking.

since you can carry weight, bring cast iron pan & dutch oven

depending on what your drink, why not set up your own makeshift tiki bar, and make some cocktails (ice needed)


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PostPosted: March 9th, 2021, 6:12 pm 
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Hah, and just when I thought I wouldn't get a response...

I've considered propane cooking (as in, with a 20lb tank), but I can't see it being that much of a game changer. We can't keep ice for a week, so we therefore can't bring any food that needs to be kept cold - which restricts us to classic tripping food for the most part. It may make baking easier perhaps?

I'm looking at some kind of propane fueled hot water thing, but I'm not happy with what's available on the market currently. If I can use propane both for hot water and cooking I may be able to justify the effort.

This tiki bar idea is interesting... it's not impossible to ask someone back at the campground to keep a bag of ice in their trailer freezer for a few days and do something mid-trip when we whiz by the campground to pick it up on the way back from somewhere. One bag of ice graciously kept frozen by a kind stranger would be enough for a tiki bar, just not enough to keep food cold. Mr. Callan may have some ideas on this ;)

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PostPosted: March 9th, 2021, 6:30 pm 
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Build a decent crapper/thunder box, and if you are planning on staying for a week or so in one spot, maybe bring a gun, or bear bangers anyway. I run trips like this all the time, we have yet to encounter ursine pests, I think because our numbers are usually large, but there is usually food and booze laying around at some point.


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PostPosted: March 9th, 2021, 7:15 pm 
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RHaslam wrote:
Build a decent crapper/thunder box, and if you are planning on staying for a week or so in one spot, maybe bring a gun, or bear bangers anyway. I run trips like this all the time, we have yet to encounter ursine pests, I think because our numbers are usually large, but there is usually food and booze laying around at some point.


This trip is in Missinaibi PP, so the legalities of bringing a even a slingshot are questionable at best. I'm pretty sure the thunderbox will be taken care of for us, but it may be a good idea to bring sufficient gear to fix a broken one. We'll have bear bangers in spades - we've found them to be effective signalling devices and not just wildlife deterrents.

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PostPosted: March 12th, 2021, 12:31 pm 
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On a gear-heavy glamper type paddle-in trips we are fond of bringing group activity games. Base camped, or even wind bound for a day, having a group game to play is a delight.

We usually bring all-terrain bocce, using old croquet balls and a golf ball as the jack (or boccino). Teams of two or three, alternating throws. One team starts the game by drawing a line in the duff and throws or rolls the jack some distance away, and teams alternate turns, each throwing/rolling the croquet ball as close to jack as possible.

We play one point each for closest ball (or balls), play to some set number, 11 or 21 or whatever). The team that won the last point(s) gets to draw the line and throw the Jack next time, so the “losing” team gets the last throw and a chance for control of the jack.

ImagePA040042 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

We have played AT Bocce hundreds of times, from Maine to Florida, including one very long game played, not to a set number of points, but across a mile wide barrier island from bayside to ocean. Barrier islands with wild pony populations can present unusual hazards.

ImageEK_0046 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Playing one cross-island game friend Doug hurled the jack a long ways off, and as we were lining up to throw our croquet balls a pony came out of the wood, sniffed the jack, turned around a deposited a load of pony poop like he had a Norden bombsite on his ass. No one really wanted to “win” that point, although Bart insisted that some more vintage piles of pony poop smelled better than his partner.

ImageEK_0008 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

You don’t need to hurl the Jack a 50 yards away (thanks Doug, my throwing arm hurt for two days), sometimes the short distance throws, using the terrain, slope and obstacles are the most challenging. Loft the jack behind a big log or into a hidden hollow and no one knows who won the point ‘til you walk up and see. I recommend bringing an extra golf ball or two; wood croquet balls float, golf balls do not.

The group “color commentary” during AT bocce is half the fun, there is always a lot of good natured banter and ribbing. Bonus points for the guy who does a convincing English-accent golf commentator impression
“It’s a left to right slope on a tricky dog leg with a hemlock bough in play, and a fallen log precluding a rolling approach. Yes, he’s lofted nicely over the logs and. . . . . oh my goodness. . . . . bounced off a rock and rolled into a water hazard. Bad luck that”

AT bocce is a wonderful canoe camper game with four or more people, and you get to intimately know every slope, hollow, stump and fallen log in the area around camp. Which can be helpful later that night if you are a drinking man.

The other group game, a longtime favorite on Gentleman’s trips, is horse shoes. We use real steel shoes and stakes when gear weight is no object, and there is no one around whom the CLANG-CLANG will bother. For lighter packed trips, or with other folks camped nearby or even across the lake, we now bring plastic shoes and stakes.

Not just “regular” horse shoe games; the most delightfully enjoyed variation is NIGHT Horse Shoes. Rubber band different color glow sticks to the shoes and stakes and let ‘em fly. The visual oddity of a glowstick flying through the dark is trippy, and hilarity always ensues.

ImagePA040063 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

If playing with steel shoes at night I HIGHLY recommend that the non-throwing team stand well clear of the stake on their end; with no soft landing pit, and the occasionally wobbly throw, steel shoes can bounce a good ways off target. Best to set up a goodly distance from the tents.

We have been playing the night version for 30+ years; everyone who has tried it was smitten enough to want to arrange future games.

The steel shoes are more fun, or at least more familiar, but the plastic ones are lighter (the stakes need to be closer together), quieter and less dangerous at night. On a cool night even small glow sticks will last for hours, sometimes into the next night.

I can all but guarantee that, at either game, there will be some “Golden Arm,” deadly accurate thrower amongst the group (freaking Conk, who told me, not untruthfully, that I suck at my own game). And that folks not playing will call dibs as the next challengers.

Finally, and this may be more of a kids-along game, since we have golf balls we sometimes carved wooden putters and played miniature golf.

ImageEK_0014 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Slowly, trickily, building a miniature golf course is as much fun as playing it. Build a couple holes, play ‘em, build a couple more holes, play on. That course on the low water beach evolved, over a subsequent wind bound day, to improved 9 holes, including a spinning windmill of sticks and birchbark.

Hell, you could bring a couple real golf clubs and a few balls and lay out a wilderness links course. Or bring a badminton net and shuttle cocks, maybe using “rackets” from forked sticks and duct tape for a little whackier DIY challenge.

Something follow-up-ish I often ask on suggestion/recommendation threads; if you do bring group games of some sort please let us know the enjoyment results.


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PostPosted: March 12th, 2021, 12:57 pm 
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If you're going to bake with a dutch oven, life is easier with charcoal briquettes. Constant even heat - cake, muffins, lasagna, prime-rib, shortbread, tea biscuits...
You'll figure out how many you need, but always place more on top than on the bottom.

rab


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PostPosted: March 12th, 2021, 6:30 pm 
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Ooh, I like this glow in the dark horseshoes idea!

Bocce ball looks like it would be a blast, too, although I must admit to never having played bocce before. It doesn't look complicated though.

The charcoal idea would work too, except it's sold in 20lb bags. I'd need about 5 pounds I think, and I have no use for it at home. I'm a propane man. Maybe I can get some from a neighbour...

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PostPosted: March 13th, 2021, 3:12 pm 
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PacketFiend wrote:
Ooh, I like this glow in the dark horseshoes idea!

Bocce ball looks like it would be a blast, too, although I must admit to never having played bocce before. It doesn't look complicated though.

The charcoal idea would work too, except it's sold in 20lb bags. I'd need about 5 pounds I think, and I have no use for it at home. I'm a propane man. Maybe I can get some from a neighbour...


All terrain bocce is a pretty simple game, and from my perspective far more strategic in jack toss, and more enjoyable than the groomed bocce court version. We bring the croquet/golf ball set on many trips. Unlike the horseshoes I have not figured out a way to make them lighter weight. Nor figured out how to make them glow in the dark, although that might be trippy as hell.

Night horse shoes? Oh hell yes; we play in the backyard pits at home during parties, and that has become a beloved game.

About the charcoal, and fires. Provided someone knows how to safely use them, maybe bring a chainsaw and splitting axe for processing wood? With motor craft it would be easy enough to putt-putt away from a wood-denuded site and collect a boat load for the few nights.

Maybe bring in some split, dry (local) hardwood for the first night. Doing base camp glamper trips I’ll buy and haul some local split local logs, at least enough to get me comfy warm or coals-cooking that first night.

If you are doing a lot of Dutch oven cooking even the 20lb bag of charcoal briquettes wouldn’t be overkill. Or just buy the 20 bag, divide it in half and leave the remainder back at the launch, available to motor back for just in case.

In cast iron cookery realm we love pie irons on family trips, and bring two for the four of us. Pie iron breakfasts (finger eating hash brown “casing” with sausage, egg, cheese and etc “fillings” to taste), simple pie iron pizzas (Pam spray, white bread or sandwich rounds, pepperoni, cheese and pizza sauce).

Having multiple pie irons inevitably lead to comparison competition.
“This is the perfect pie iron pizza”
“Are you kidding, it’s burned black on one side”
“I wanted it that way dammmit”
“No way, look at this one, perfectly browned on both sides”

The best part of pie iron cookery is the DIY aspect; everyone bakes their own, no single person has to cook, and the “clean up” is minimal to non-existent. And the end results, even over-cooked black on one side, are damn tasty.

Oh my, late night ‘round the campfire pie iron desserts. Seriously, just Google “pie iron desserts” and think - it’s nighttime, you have a heaping bed of coals fire, everyone has their sweet tooth munchies going and you have the surprise dessert makings ready to present from your barrel or cooler.

Pie iron stuff is damn tasty, and requires no head chef; just lay out the makings and each assembles and bakes their own.

Eh, maybe just one more.

ImageIMG022 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Dang, I’ starting to want to come on this trip myself.


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PostPosted: March 13th, 2021, 3:54 pm 
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PacketFiend wrote:
Ooh, I like this glow in the dark horseshoes idea!

Bocce ball looks like it would be a blast, too, although I must admit to never having played bocce before. It doesn't look complicated though.

The charcoal idea would work too, except it's sold in 20lb bags. I'd need about 5 pounds I think, and I have no use for it at home. I'm a propane man. Maybe I can get some from a neighbour...


Bocce is not complicated. We play bocce on the Green River on a canoe trip and this time in Death Valley( not a canoe trip). You can add that you must throw the boccino in a new pose each time you get to throw. Backward is interesting.. And you can add beer to the mix. the loser each time must chug.. Or add your own rules. We had a rule that if your ball went in the water you had to go get it and also chug. Varied terrain evens the playing field so to speak though it may rile the purists.


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PostPosted: March 13th, 2021, 5:14 pm 
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I think I have some pie irons... haven't used them in years now. It sure would be nice to bring them back, now that you mention it. We still argue over whether my Cheez Whiz® and marshmallows abomination is edible or not. I love it and everyone else is too afraid to even try it, but I've been a Cheez Whiz freak since I was 3. This definitely deserves some investigating.

Mike McCrea wrote:
Dang, I’ starting to want to come on this trip myself.


We'll be at the last site on the right before Fairy Point, from the 18th to the 26th of July. Feel free to drop by if you make it up our way around then.

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PostPosted: March 14th, 2021, 9:48 am 
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PacketFiend wrote:
I think I have some pie irons... haven't used them in years now. It sure would be nice to bring them back, now that you mention it.
This definitely deserves some investigating.


We have two pie irons only because my sons won them as 1st and 2nd kid mileage prizes at end of year club “award” ceremonies. Since I was the only selecting and providing the awards it made sense to get them one each. Afterwards my wife suggested we give one pie iron away, “Do we really need two?

Yes, pie irons, plural, is a good thing. Most pie iron recipes only take a few minutes in the coals (not the flames, it’ll burn), but having more than one pie iron leads to the comical competition and commentary. Even with just four of us pie iron cooking having two is much better than one, those two are in constant rotation at mealtime.

There are a lot of pie iron recipes on-line, but we stick to the simpler stuff. Unless folks are awakening at different times pie iron breakfast meals can be challenging; first making a fire and then letting it burn down to establish a bed of cooking coals. Um, if you had extra charcoal. . . . .just sayin’.

Dinners and desserts around the campfire are routinely pie iron time on our family trips. It’s fun for everyone, and the individual “cook” and no-clean-up aspects are wonderful.

Don’t forget the Pam spray, and maybe some butter depending on what delectable pie iron meal you have planned. Save me a pocket pepperoni pizza and a blueberry cobbler.


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