Every year, we go on a canoe trip, usually in September. Last year, for the first time since 2001, I missed out; Rob took a spring trip with a guy I'll call "Neighbour Boy", shortly after the ice came off. I don't remember now why I couldn't go then, but I did manage to put enough food together for their meals and also for Seamus, who went along for the trip. Blue and I stayed home and as I recall, had a nice time. But when fall arrived and it was time for our usual trip, I was involved in a medical drug study that was going to earn me some money. I couldn't just drop out, no matter how badly I wanted to. So, last year, I didn't go canoeing. At all.
Rob came home from Temagami with an awesome camera that he found while picking up garbage from the dock.
I attempted to console myself with a trip to Guatemala and Belize, during which we blew most of the drug study money. And we took a lot of pictures.
We dry all our own food for the trip, with the exception of a few things that we buy already dried, like mashed potatoes and onions. Generally, food prep is my department. Rob assembles our gear and makes sure it is ready for the trip. I plan our meals, cook them, dehydrate them, weigh and sort them, assemble "extra" ingredients and condiments, buy snacks, make and dry dog food. We calculate about a pound of dried food per person, per day. The dogs eat a lot. Their appetites seem to double in the woods. Some of their food is meat - we don't take meat for ourselves but I like to take some for them. We usually buy ground beef from the drug-free meat place at the market and dry it raw. Then it gets mixed with a variety of other ingredients, to make their food. They get oatmeal and skim milk and vegetables and supplements. The mix is so superior to kibble that we always notice a positive change in their coats very shortly after we leave. They get glossy and their eyes get brighter. I'd make it for them year round if I wasn't so lazy. Oil cannot be dried so we have to take oil for all of us, separately.
Our longest trip was 18 days. That worked out to almost 60 pounds of dried food. (We generally take a little extra in case some is lost to circumstance.) This year, we're aiming for around 20 days on the water. I have been a slave to the dehydrator for the last couple of weeks. And I got a very late start. Usually I spend the entire month of August more or less chained to the dehydration station.
Today is a turning point. In the beginning, getting ready for a trip of this length is a formidable task. You dehydrate a basket of peaches and end up with a small zip-lock bag that weighs about an ounce. A head of celery fits into the palm of your hand. It seems like you will never be able to dry enough food, no matter how you sweat and toil. But at some point, you see that it's starting to come together. Today, as I bagged some peppers, I realized that we are starting to have enough food for a trip. We aren't there yet, but I can see that we will be.
This trip is shaping up to be bittersweet because my dogs are both aging so rapidly. This could be their last canoe trip. Every time I run my hands over them I find another lump, bump or growth. I worry about their ability to do long hikes; to portage over rocky trails; to swim, if necessary, a long ways. But they, like us, are looking forward to the trip. Ever since we started hauling out the stuff - the food barrel, the dry bags, our sleeping pads - they have become inseparable from the gear.
They stick close to the stuff, as if we might forget to bring them along otherwise.
