Listen as Scott chats with North Shore Radio host, Mark Abrahamson, about how to keep food cool while you’re camping, whether it’s in your car or on your back as you’re heading into the BWCAW.
Pack & Paddle: How to Keep Food Cold While Camping Transcript
0:00:00.3 Mark: WTIPs feature, Pack & Paddle, with Scott Oeth is up next. Scott is a registered Maine Guide, an Eagle Scout, and Minnesota Master Naturalist. He's an instructor for the Okpik National Cold Weather Leader School. Scott joins us now by phone for the latest Pack & Paddle. Welcome, Scott.
0:00:17.6 Scott Oeth: Hi, Mark.
0:00:20.7 Mark: Keep it cool. Well, the next three, four days up here, we're gonna have some heat and humidity, so let's talk about keeping it cool when we're out in the woods in the Boundary Waters.
0:00:31.4 SO: Yeah, you bet. Keeping food cool is a challenge. The Boundary Waters presents special challenges with wilderness restrictions, you know, cans, bottles, and just the portages to get in there, and so I think for the outdoors person, whether they're in the Boundary Waters, or a whole lot more people recreate in Superior National Forest, or at state forests, state parks or just out on the lake where they have different circumstances, it is a challenge.
0:01:03.1 Mark: What kind of cooler should people be using when they're out in the Boundary Waters? I've tried a variety of different ones and, yeah, I don't know, maybe get through 24 hours or so, that's about all.
0:01:13.9 SO: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, if we're just talking coolers in general, and general outdoors purposes, not specifically Boundary Waters, first off, there is a wide range in effectiveness in coolers. There's also a really wide range in cost. It's kind of interesting, there's been this rise of these super premium, status symbol, lifestyle brand, rotomolded type coolers, and some of those work very well, but they definitely would... Yeah, I would never choose them for the Boundary Waters. They're very heavy, a lot of them, and they're also very expensive. I'd rather spend the money on the food and drinks to put in them [chuckle] than the cooler itself. And if you're camping or you're doing things that are fairly recreated areas, like a state park campground, I'm just concerned. I think they're items of theft. I've heard of some of these real fancy brands being stolen.
0:02:01.4 SO: But there are some things for a cooler design, it does matter. There is differences in insulation. Some of the cheaper ones, the lids are just hollow, they're not even insulated. They'll often have ratings for number of days they keep ice. I'm somewhat suspect of the ratings, but it does seem like it does matter there. Look for the quality of the lid and the latches. Portability, they have handles that you can actually carry. Color, I think is important. White does not absorb as much heat. I definitely like to see a white lid, at least, if not white on the overall cooler. And size. A bigger cooler, you can put more ice in it, you can put more food in it, it has more bulk, retains the cold longer. But they get to be really hard to move, and for a lot of things I'm doing, especially canoe trips, whether in the Boundary areas or out, it helps to have two coolers for a couple of purposes. One is to separate drinks and things where you're in and out of it frequently. Secondly, to keep real cold stuff cold, but also to be able to adjust your trim and to pack better, rather than having one monster ice chest that takes two football linemen to pick up.
0:03:05.2 SO: So there are two types of coolers that I've settled on that work well for me and my types of trips, I think are worth paying a bit more for. Your kind of standard picture of a cooler, there's marine grade ones that are typically white. Those typically have better insulation, they have some UV protection, they're built a little bit better, I like those. And then really fabulous, there's a few people out there making portage packs for canoeists that have insulated foam linings, and those are wonderful, just because of their versatility and the ability to carry them easily.
0:03:38.0 Mark: So it's actually a pack that you carry on your back as part of a backpack?
0:03:42.5 SO: Yeah, exactly, exactly. There's a few people making them. They look a lot like what I think most used to call Duluth Packs. They have thick padded shoulder straps, and they're typically made out of a heavy cord or a nylon, but sewn in is some closed cell foam insulation in the bottom and in the sides and in the top, and so it's a cooler that you can wear like a backpack. Now, there's some brands that make ones that sling over your shoulder that are soft sided. Those are nice, but especially if you're living in Northern Minnesota, if you do Boundary Waters trips, I'd say, "Hey, get the one with the shoulder straps and the hip belt." You can put a lot of food there and you can clip that on and carry it on over portage trails very comfortably, and you can use it anywhere else, as well. In fact, I've even taken them on trips, and the great thing is, I once did a trip in Florida and I loaded up with just my regular camping gear, my tents and stuff like that, I checked it as checked baggage. Once I got there, I opened up, I had a soft sided duffel bag inside of it, I put the camping gear in, and then I loaded it with my ice and food, and I had that as my cooler on my trip.
0:04:41.1 Mark: So are there some things that we can do to maximize the effectiveness of a cooler? Or one thing you mentioned was separating the things that you are going in for frequently from things that you want to stay cool for a number of days.
0:04:58.5 SO: Yes, absolutely. So we talked about the product. I think there's a whole lot that can be done in terms of process of how you manage your cooler, and I spent a lot of years playing beach volleyball, out in the hot sun, 90 some degree days, out there all day. [chuckle] I put a lot of thought and study into this, "How do you keep your stuff cold and keep the ice from melting?" And there's a lot you can do, even with a cheap cooler. I've gone on trips, Mark, where I've flown into places, and I'll go to a thrift store. There's always some coolers laying around, you can buy one for five bucks, and it's what you do with it can make a huge difference. So, first of all, think about using the cooler to keep stuff cold rather than to cool it down. So anything possible that you can pre-freeze, so summer sausage, packaged meats, steaks that are well-wrapped, blocks of cheese, all those things, I try and freeze them first, so that they go in there ice cold and they become part of the ice. Even some of your drinks. If you have orange juice or different juice, freeze those things ahead of time. Ideally, if you can get the cooler cold. I tend to put mine in my basement, on the basement floor where it's dark and cold, so at least it's not sitting in the garage.
0:06:04.2 SO: Coming out at 90 degrees when I put stuff in. That makes a big difference. The ice that you put in there... My favorite technique is what I call ice farming. So I save plastic bottles, juice bottles, sports drink bottles that are the right size, I clean them out, I keep those, I fill them with water ahead of time, I freeze them. That's what I use primarily for my ice source in the coolers. They fit in there perfectly, they keep your food from getting soggy, they stay cold longer than cubes 'cause they're larger bodies of ice, and as they melt, you have nice fresh drinking water to drink, and hey, they're cheap.
0:06:41.8 Mark: And hey, they don't leak too.
0:06:44.2 SO: That's right. That's right.
0:06:44.8 Mark: You just get those bags of ice or a frozen block of ice and you got leakage.
0:06:50.3 SO: That's right, that's right. Yeah. A few other things... Just thinking about heat transfer mechanisms, keep your cooler in the shade. It drives me nuts, I see folks, they set their cooler right there in the sun. You put it under a tree, put it under a tarp. But putting something over your cooler. If you go to a dollar store or the end aisle of a big discount store, you see those reflective Mylar coded bubble wrap auto-windshield deals that you put in the windshield of your car to keep the sun... Those are fantastic, you can pick it up for a dollar or two, and you can wrap that over the top of your cooler, or you can even fold it up and stick it inside of your cooler. That helps block the UV and it fills up that dead air space in the cooler. It makes your ice last twice as long. But if you don't have one of those, the cheap dollar space blanket does the same thing. Or a great trick is take a towel and wet it down, put that over the top of the cooler, then you get that evaporative cooling effect. It helps block the UV, and it cools off the cooler.
0:07:46.5 Mark: And the cooler is not a seat.
0:07:50.1 SO: I'm sorry...
0:07:51.0 Mark: The cooler is not a chair.
0:07:53.3 SO: Oh yes, that's right, that's right. Yeah, and that goes back to the gasket. If you sit on a cooler, it can ruin the seal. The cheap coolers, this is plastic on plastic, they leak air, the better ones have a gasket. On some trips, if I have a cooler that's for food that stays three or four, I'll duck tape that thing shut, I tie it shut 'cause I don't want it to spill open. I'll duct tape it. People know on my trips, there's a certain cooler for drinks, there's other cooler for food. They don't touch the food cooler. Open your coolers very sparingly. [chuckle] If people are constant digging in for refreshments, they're pumping in hot air and letting the cold air out. So yeah, don't sit on it, don't squash it, open it sparingly.
0:08:32.1 Mark: Alright, now I'm gonna throw you a hard ball, Scott. What do you do about bears and coolers?
0:08:39.5 SO: Yeah, that is a tough one. I think it depends where you're at. Okay, if there's bears that are habituated to humans and they see human campers and they think that's a dinner bell sounding, a lot of them know to recognize coolers and they'll look in cars. You hear about like Yosemite and places like that, bears peeling open the sides of minivans [chuckle] because they see a cooler in there. So keep it covered. Which would be my recommendation anyway. When I'm traveling, I don't want my cooler sitting in the back of my truck or van in the sunlight, so I cover it with blankets. I'm often traveling where I have PFDs. Those are wonderful, a thick foam insulation, I cover them up. So you don't want the bears to smell it and you don't want them to see it.
0:09:21.3 Mark: Alright, we are talking with Scott Oeth, and you can follow his adventures at www.bullmoosepatrol.com. Any last words about coolers and their use in the woods? Scott, this has been great.
0:09:36.2 SO: Yeah, maybe just a few things. So specifically for Boundary Waters trips, there are those soft-side cooler backpacks, which I think are excellent, that's the best option. All the tips we talked about, keeping stuff cool, keeping it in the shade, covering it with a wet towel, all those things work in the Boundary Waters. The roll top dry bags can work very well, especially the rubberized ones. You get to camp, you can put your food in there and put that in the lake. I also use those on traveling too. I can put stuff in there and fill them with ice if I have a source of ice and wrap...
0:10:05.9 Mark: Oh, sure.
0:10:06.5 SO: A jacket or towel around the outside to insulate it. You can actually... I've done many trips in Maine and in the Northeast, they're a big fan of the Tumpline, which is this torture device that goes over the top of your head and you strap it around a wooden box or a pack to help carry it. I'm kind of joking, they do work well, but... You could, if you go to base camp Boundary Waters trip. Actually, I've done this in Maine, tumpline a cooler, and I wouldn't recommend it for a portage heavy trip, but... And same thing with [0:10:32.1] ____ packs, if you use a soft-side pack... People used to get those heavy cardboard beer cases or banana boxes, you could line those with foam, the cheap blue foam pads, Mylar and build yourself a cooler that rides inside the pack that you can carry around.
0:10:48.2 Mark: These are all great ideas, and I like the idea of those soft-sided ones 'cause you could actually still get those up in the tree, get those hanging to fight off the bears too.
0:10:57.6 SO: Yeah, yeah, that's right. So they're actually built... The quality ones are built with heavy duty straps on the side. You can even buy pulley attachments, so they're made exactly for that purpose, where you can just place them right up in the tree for bear protection. Blue barrels, those are... Give you some critter protection. They're not bear proof, but they're good for hanging as well, and same techniques I've talked about, you can make foam gaskets for the bottom and top, and they'll keep stuff cool for quite a while if you build in some insulation.
0:11:27.5 Mark: Well, this is all really good information, Scott. I so appreciate talking to you, and I bet you, you have some information about this on your bullmoosepatrol.com website.
0:11:37.3 SO: Yeah, thanks Mark, I appreciate the conversation. I have a lot on Facebook, where we have a pretty good running conversation almost daily with wilderness topics. So Bull Moose Patrol on Facebook, and on the blog, there definitely will be a post where we'll link this audio and I'll write up the tips as well. I'm sure there are some photos on these tips.
0:11:55.4 Mark: Alright, well, thank you very much for talking with us today, Scott. Looking forward to talking to you again.
0:12:00.0 SO: Yeah, this is great. Thanks, Mark.