Insulated Food Pack

[scaup]

This is not a canoe question but I thought it better to post it here rather than the regular camping list.

I am looking at getting an insulated food pack for the BW. Looking for feeback from folks that have used them. The pros and the cons.

Thanks

[titelines]

I haven't used a "real" one, like you would see in the publications, but have modified on of our own packs to become insulated. I made my own shell out of cardboard and pink insulation. Fits nicely into the pack and works great.

I love it. I'll put the frozen stuff in there (chicken, steaks, sausage etc.) along with the stuff that needs to be chilled (lettuce etc.) If you're out for more than a couple days, the frozen stuff will be nice and thawed by the time you cook it up, and all the other stuff has been refrigerated very well.

It's more weight than the freeze-dried alternatives, but it's so nice to eat fresh food. And, the pack gets lighter each day.

[Duffman]

I've been on a trip where we used one of the Cooke Custom Sewing insulated food packs. It's not a ton of insulation, so I don't think it would help a ton during the dead heat of summer. But neither would any soft-cooler for that matter.

I did like it though, a fully padded pack would be nice to have. Not only would it keep your food cooler, but it would protect both the stuff inside and outside the pack. The food pack is usually the heaviest pack, so having both a hip belt and shoulder straps are key to easier portaging.

I'll probably pick one up for my next food pack. If one truly wants to keep things cold in one on an extended trip, you would want to pack it using other contents of the food bag as insulators. Keep it out of the sun as much as possible, and maybe go with the lightest color you can deal with. The one we used was a bright yellow, a little bright for me, but I'm sure it kept the food cooler than lets say a dark green or grey pack.

[Powerstroke]

I do have one of theses. It is the hard plastic food box with foam liner and and lid. It did work very well as a cooler pack. It sucks to carry thought because of the hard plastic. We bought the harness for it with backpack straps but the corners of the box would dig into your hips on portages. They do make a soft case for it, but that seems to defeat the purpose.

I did like having fresh food and we had ice in the cooler until the last day of a HOT mid summer trip. In fact that was the best part is we would have ice water at any portage or when we reached camp. It does continue to get lighter as you go, but so does any food pack.

I disliked it for the reasons listed above. I don't think fresh food is worth the extra weight or effort so we no longer use it. I realize my style of BW camping is gonna be different that others, but we prefer to be ultralight so the portaging is easy. We eat very well without having fresh food so its not a negative for me.

If you are interested, definitely look into the soft packs. You can add a cardboard box to add a frame to the pack. That has worked well for protecting bread in our packs. I think if mine was more comfortable I might consider it.

[scaup]

Thanks for the feedback. It looks to me as though most of them have a 1/2" of insulation. I think I should start a thread on menue items cause I gotta tell ya the main reason for going to the insulated back it to increase the variety of foods. I know it will add some weight. Thanks again.......

[caseymcq]

Check out Kondos Outdoors. They make great packs including insulated food packs. They are a little spendy but well worth the money for the quality of their product.