I'm hoping next summer to take an extended no resupply solo trip with my dog to WCPP, something like 17 days or so. Im planning to bring mostly commercially packed meals for dinner and some breakfast. I'm also hoping to be able to fit most of my food into my 30 liter barrel, but even with an Ursack for much of the dog food I know space in my barrel will be tight. (Note- I was going to go this summer but postponed a week before due to the fires, and was in the final steps of packing my food).

I seem to recall some folks posting about repackaging their commercial meals, and I was wondering if it would really save much space? I'd likely have a mix of Mountain House, Camp Chow, Alpinaire, Backpackers Pantry, and Good to Go. Any advice on how best to repackage them? Is it worth the effort?

For group trips we always repackage meals. Gallon Ziplocs, cut out the name and the instructions from the bag. For three guys for nine days, I think we saved over 1lb of packaging and a lot of those bulky/crinkly plastic bags that the meals come in.

As an added bonus, you can use the Ziplocs as resealable trash bags and they work really well for that purpose. We have not brought actual trash bags with us, just a single empty Ziploc to start and then everything else goes in the dinner Ziplocs (after using them of course!). If you are trying to pack food as tight as possible, definitely go with Ziplocs. They are much more flexible than the thick plastic bags that the meals come in.

Before leaving, put a small pinhole in your bag of Mountain House, Camp Chow, etc., high up on the bag but below the resealable seams, and squeeze out the air. Then cover the hole with a piece of tape. With the hole being high you can still add water and cook as normal.

You won't save weight, but you'll save a fair amount of space.

Jaywalker: ".... Is it worth the effort?"

No, it is not worth the effort when you have a 30 liter (and more) opportunity in your canoe. Invest in some triple-portage shoes, put in the work, and live it up!

Yes, I fit seventeen days worth of food in my 30 liter barrel only after repackaging them into Ziplocs and removing the desiccant packet for the first leg of my 30-day trip. If I hadn't, I would not have been able to fit my stove, canister of fuel, 1 liter pot and cozy in the barrel. It also cut out at least 1 lb of weight. It also cuts way down on the trash you have to haul because a Ziploc is tiny compared to the store-bought packaging and desiccant packet. I also did all my rehydrating in a pot and not the bag so I can reuse the Ziploc bags again.

I was going to ask how one rehydrates without the commercial pouch.

I think I might keep the pouches for rehydration, to save the hassle of cleaning the pot. Then again, I don't take long trips and 5-6 freeze dried meal pack pouches don't make a significant weight savings. To me, it wouldn't be worth the hassle, no. But I can see how it would for someone who needs to pack many more meals in to a food barrel.

You can rehydrate in Ziploc bags. Only downside vs. commercial is the bags won't stand upright.

I haven't bothered to repack commercial meals because I've never had to carry 17 enough to make it an issue. However, I have "made my own" meals in Ziplocs with no issues.

My dog always carries his own food and you’ll be surprised how much dog food you can put it in one of these. Another added bonus is that it stops him from running on the portage trails.

You'll want to repackage that much food primarily to reduce bulk, but you'll also save some weight. Most of the stuff I buy is from Hawk Vittles and Outdoor Herbivore, and already comes in fairly minimal packaging similar to Ziplocs.

You can add boiling water to the Hawk Vittles bags, but there is no zip closure. You cannot add boiling water to the packaging the Outdoor Herbivore comes in. Most people seem to have no problem rehydrating in the Ziplocs, but I had one burn a hole and leak everywhere.

You can buy bags with a zip closure that are more robust, gusseted, and designed for rehydrating foods from Pack-it-Gourmet and Outdoor Herbivore. I have had good luck with these. I usually just take the necessary number of bags along and repackage each one as I'm ready to prepare it in the field, but you could do it ahead of time.

If you're going to rehydrate them in the Ziploc type bags, you'll need to put those in a cozy to keep them hot while they rehydrate. You can also do the same with your pot by making a cozy for the pot. That will save you a good bit of fuel over cooking them.

we absolutely repackage grocery store food (mac & cheese, tortellini, cookies, dehydrated milk powder, instant oatmeal with added dried fruit etc etc etc).

We also buy at least some 'camping food' - generally Mt House entrees in the #10 cans , which we portion out and repackage.

Nearly everything we bring gets packaged via food saver - even our daily rations of gorp - we put the gorp in a ziplock, and leave the ziplock unzipped when packaging in the food saver.

this saves a little bit of weight, a TON of space, and a TON of effort packing out our trash.

It really depends on what food you are buying and how is packaged. If you're buying the backpackers type meals the biggest thing you can do is reduce bulk by taking the air out of the bag. If you're going with grocery store type food then yes there is a lot of package waste you can reduce. So much is packaged in a bag and then again in a box, or 6oz of food may be packaged in a 12oz package. Just look at each item and think about the best way to reduce it down. Generally you probably aren't going to reduce a ton of weight you're more looking to reduce wasted space by packing in a lot of air in half filled packages.

If you do reduce bulk be careful though because more room in your barrel is going to entice you to bring more food which will end up increasing your weight.

I use pint size ziplock freezer bags and have had no hot water issues. Pre measured and no cleanup. I rehydrate in cozy or cozy pot with lid.

It is important to choose food that is satisfying, energizing, and the correct quantity when space and weight are a concern. I repack freeze dried meals in the ziplock bags, often they are prepackaged with too much or too little quantity for my need.

SteveF: " My dog always carries his own food and you’ll be surprised how much dog food you can put it in one of these. Another added bonus is that it stops him from running on the portage trails.
"

I've got one of these and love it. Definitely slows him down on the portage, and I like that he has a job. I don't like to load him with much more than 10% of his body weight, but thats about 6 days or so worth of food. My problem is his food still has to go in the barrel or Opsack at the end of the day to prevent it from becoming bear chow!

I'm going to repack from now on. It's the only way of fitting a decent amount of food in the bear vaults.

nofish: "...If you do reduce bulk be careful though because more room in your barrel is going to entice you to bring more food which will end up increasing your weight."

We've never met, Nofish, but you know me so well! That is one key reason I am hoping not to go to a 60 liter barrel (the other is I don't think a 60 would fit as well in my canoe).

Seems like many of you are just going with Ziploc baggies, which I'll do some testing with. I am somewhat worried about durability (especially when packed, unpacked, and repacked in the barrel as I undoubtedly do), but as Tomcat's post shows using freezer vs sandwich bags may do it. That said, have none of you that use Ziploc freezer bags not had trouble with holes being poked by pointy bits of dry pasta or jagged ends of dried meats?

I'm also intrigued by the idea of poking a pin hole in a pouch and resealing. I've got all winter to test things out and evaluate. Thanks for your input, everyone!

Jaywalker-

I was going to suggest you try out some of the options to see which is best for you. You'll definitely want to use freezer bags vs. sandwich bags, although I find the snack size bags are fine for portioning out nuts/trail mix. They'll hold about 4 oz. which makes a nice daily amount.

The BearVault 500 is listed as 700 ci/11.5 liters for comparison and I can get at least 8 days of food in one now. That's 3 days more than I could at first before making changes, so your project should be doable depending on how bulky the dog food is.

boonie: "...The BearVault 500 is listed as 700 ci/11.5 liters for comparison and I can get at least 8 days of food in one now. That's 3 days more than I could at first before making changes, so your project should be doable depending on how bulky the dog food is. "

You went from 5 to 8 days by repackaging? Holy smoke, that's a big change. If I can get even half of that I think I will be ok. The dog food is about 1.1 liters per day, maybe a bit more with all the added running.

Any other ideas or thoughts appreciated. I've got time to mull this over, which is a big part of the offseason fun, isn't it?

Well, I was taking a lot of Mountain House Pro-Pack meals, which are (were) vacuum packed, like little round baseball size rocks. There was a lot of dead air space. You would get a lot more in if they were pea sized, even more if they were sand. You need to eliminate dead air space as well as overly bulky packaging. You want foods and packaging that will conform to fill empty spaces. It also helps to choose foods that take up less space - couscous vs. pasta, cappelini vs. rigatoni, oatmeal vs. corn pops, etc. You also want foods that have a high caloric density, say nuts vs. celery. A snack size bag of nuts is 4 oz. and has 680 calories, primarily because nuts have a high fat content and fat is the most calorically dense food.

So some of it is taking the same food in different packaging, some is taking different food, some is not taking more food than you need. Another example: I no longer take Gatorade - not enough calories for the weight and bulk. I rarely come out any more with more than a couple of snack bags of nuts and a few coffees.

You get the idea - kind of like taking a high fill power down bag vs. a poor quality synthetic, then putting it in a compression sack.

You will pick up some other ideas if you read minnmike's trip report.

I spent several years of trips gradually working mine out for the very purpose you are now contemplating - a long trip.

Another idea: if you need a little more space for the food to start, don't get a 60-liter barrel, just get a BearVault, Ursack, Vittles Vault, dry bag to hang.

Jaywalker-

a couple of threads you might find interesting and useful information:


Solo meal ideas


Alan's 42-day trip

There's also a thread there about the food for his trip in the food forum. He took his dog and there's some info about that also.

Food for 5 day trip, 4 days food in food container plus one lunch and 1 dinner carried separately for first day.

Food for a 5 day trip. Breakfast and dinner for 2 guys each time. Lunch for 1. Only thing missing in the picture is a small bottle of hot sauce and a pack of tortillas that sat on top of everything after it got packed. It all fit's in a BV 500 at 11 liters. My trip partner had his lunches, snacks and dog food in his BV500 and brought back dog food and snacks.

Dehydrated Hashbrowns and sausage for breakfast. Each one has a couple of Via packets in there.

Ground chicken or turkey with sides each night. The two ziplocks with the paper towel are fully of a cheesy broccoli concoction that I dehydrate and add cheese powder to.

Pepperoni or salami and tortillas for lunch.

I usually don't take snacks, but instead eat like a pig early in the evening. I keep my whisky in a nalgene and stash it with the bear vault each night.

All the dehydrated stuff get rehydrated in the freezer bag. In the shoulder seasons, I use my knit stocking cap as the coozy. In warm weather, I use a portion of a padded Fedex/UPS envelope.

All the store bought food, except the salami and pepp bites, got the pinhole treatment to release any air in the packaging.