Scott,
Yes, we put all the dehydrate in one bag, then pour the hot water into it. These are usually turkey roasting / oven / freezer bags, we've typically used the 2 and 5 gallon roasting bags. Some also use ziploc or other plastic bags, but I can't speak to their ability to withstand the heat. Several also put the bag with water and dehydrate into a "Cozy" to give it structural support and keep it warm.

The "Frisbee" is literally a frisbee that has a bunch of 3/16" +/- holes in it that is used to drain liquid out that can go into the sump (a pipe into the ground with fine mesh over the top. You strain what you can into the sump, then the rest (your "leftovers or chunks") goes into a 'yum-yum' bag that get packed out to the next trash accepting facility.
Another post here indicated there can be another option on the frisbee, that is using paint strainers (similar to the panty hose mesh). It's lighter and has to be easier to use than the frisbee...

Does that help?

Regards,
MikeB

If any of you are planning on making a cozy for turkey bags, let me know. With a days time I could get you the dimensions on how big to cut your Reflectix. Cozies dance in my brain when I sleep ;-) lol.....

Thanks for the information Mike. It did clarify those items. Does anyone use the Frisbee to play with. We're from So. Calif. so we must all be accomplished Frisbee tossers.

Edited by scottbentz on 05/24/2008 15:00:40 MDT.

Scott,
Several of our Scouts use a frisbee as their bowl, when they are done eating, it is also their entertainment. The frisbee is light weight and packs easy.

Have fun,

Sarah, if you would, please, do list dimensions for a cozy to use with turkey bags. I am planning to make a couple next week.
THANKS!
Phil

Phil, I'll pick up some turkey bags tomorrow and run some numbers on Tuesday :-) I should make a pattern anyways - at some point I'll have someone ask me for one ;-) Have a feeling it will be similar to the cozy dimensions for the "steamer bags".

All,

Our crew used turkey bags last year to "cook" our meals. The easy clean up was well worth the weight of the bags. On boiling water, if your crew brings their own 4 or 6 quart aluminum pots with heavy duty tin foil lids (which I would recommend over the Philmont pots/lids), I would mask off the sides of the pots and spray the bottom of the pots with some black high temp stove paint. The "Black" bottom pots will boil water much faster, conserving fuel and speeding up the food prep process. Also, all stoves should be used with some sort of foil wind screen, even if it is not windy.

Paul

Scott,
They strongly discourage using the sump frisbee to play with. Seems they don't want any extra bits of leftover food to be distributed around the campsite.

We just used an even simpler cooking and cleaning setup on the Philmont trek I took the last two weeks.

We carried 2 JetBoil systems with the 1.5l group pots. We left all the Philmont pots at basecamp.

Each night we'd light up both stoves and 2 minutes later we'd sanitize everyone's bowls and sporks in one of the pots. Then we'd add water to the food packages and let them cook. When they were done, 1/2 the crew would eat out of the packages and 1/2 would eat out of thier bowls. The sanitizing water was then re-used and the cleanup station.

This resulted in ZERO cooking pots to cleanup and only 1/2 of the crews bowls. Very quick and easy. Much simpler than other methods I've read about online.

> Each night we'd light up both stoves and 2 minutes later we'd sanitize everyone's bowls and sporks in one of the pots.

Wouldn't it be better to wash everything after use and before it is packed away - they way we do at home after a meal?

We clean our dishes after the meal, but we still sanitize them in boiling water before each meal.

Kept everyone healthy the entire trip.

> Kept everyone healthy the entire trip.

Interesting. I have never bothered with that in 40 years.

I wonder whether the real effect of the idea of sanitising everything before eating is to make the kids think about washing their hands? We always give our hands a quick rinse before I start cooking dinner.

Our experience in Australia has been that many kids don't bother washing their hands after going to the toilet when out of reach of mother. And that has been the cause of gastro etc.

Cheers

Just got back from Phil on Sunday. The reason for sanitizing the dishes pre meal is to reduce the possibility of contracting Hanta virus, a very nasty, potentially life threatening bug. Very low probability of contracting, but possible. I would agree that hand washing is more important, something we did almost every pre meal.

being that i hike single, guess i've never thought of sanitizing my utensils. just rinse them out and let air dry. after all these years, i have never gotten sick. maybe in a large group, if you are not using your own bowl everytime, i guess it would be a good idea to sanitize....

You have to realize that there are about 25,000 people who go thru Philmont in a season, and they are trying to put policy's and procedures in place with each crew to ensure safety for all, and a clean place to camp in time after time. In order to do this, they use the rangers to get each crew on the way with specific training. Whether or not it is "right", is certainly open to question, however, having no training would no doubt create a big mess in campsites. It seems draconian sometimes, but obviously works, as we had clean campsites, thou worn, and no bear or minibear issues. Keeping 25K people doing the best practices possible is a major task, and I think they do a pretty good job of it.

I can see by those numbers that they have done a great job-
I take 8-10 boys (12-13 year old)out once a month and I've seen how they handle cleanup, person/privacy/troop, you can always tell the "new" kid (always needs the LNT and outdoor code lecture at least twice each trip), no matter how much training I do after watching them, I would never eat with them or use there stuff-
I remember what I was like beck at that age though- I guess I'm lucky to still be alive or maybe I'm immune because I probably carry all the diseases that are out there. I never washed, drank straight from the streams, did minimal cleanup at best and had a great time.
As a younger kid I could never understand why my mom told me to wash my hands "after" I went the bathroom, If anything, I thought I should wash "before" I went! My hands were dirty and my "unit" was about the only clean thing on me. If I didn't wash my hands before I would get that thing dirty too- I thought adults had things totally backwards!
With that in mind I do try and explain the reason for washing after- it helps to have the e-coli in the news to hammer the point home.

I'm working on an update of my article on Philmont and was interested in a couple items.
1. Does anyone have suggestions on replacements for the Philmont Bear bags?

2. Does anyone have suggestions on a canister stove to take as well as how many canisters between resupplies?

Thanks
Doug Prosser
dougprosser@verizon.net

Hi Doug.
1. No experience with a replacement for Philmont bear bags.
2. We very successfully used 2 x MSR Windpro stoves for a crew of 9. We had plenty of stove capacity. We carried 6 canisters (8 oz size) and used most of them. We couldn't track exactly since the boys didn't completely use any canister. We bought 2 extra canisters at our first resupply at Ute Gulch Commissary. We didn't need the extras. We had a second crew of 9 that carried the same kit. It worked well for them too. Their fuel use was about the same.

Phil

Doug,
We used a Windpro and a MSR Dragonfly.
Much preferred the Windpro, the Dragonfly was dirtier and more tempermental.

We took one 8 oz container for the Windpro and resupplied twice.

For the Dragonfly we brought one 12 oz container and resupplied it twice and had extra fuel at the end.

We will take 2 windpros next time. Wanted to take the Bushbuddy but fire ban prevented that.

I'm no help on bearbags, but sure would like some options on the bags and rope.

John

Doug,

On our last trek (this summer), I brought along a couple of bags (about Phil bear bag size) that I made fron $1 a yard light-weight ripstop (from WalMart). They worked well, were lighter than the Phil-bags, and packed much better.

Stoves - we used two Coleman Xtreme stoves. Apparently, they're no longer available :(. We only used 5 of the PowerMax canisters. Bought 7 at base camp and returned 2 (unused) after the trek. Didn't resupply gas - easier for us.

Ed