We rehydrated in the bags the food came in...alot of use would put those bags inside of a freezer bag, incase of a spill, since the bags were not resealable. Then one of use used a bowl and the other ate out of the bag....Half the trash and half the dishes...We also bought a stove per tent (5 stoves) sounds like a bunch but that is how we roll year round, not everyone is hungry at the same time. Two of the "kid" groups never change fuel canisters....

I just got back from Philmont (July 2010) and was expecting to use the the hydrate-in-pouch method. Our ranger said that the bags had changed and that re-hydrating in the bags would melt the plastic. So while the ranger was with us we hydrated in our disposable tupperware (1.8 L - rectanguar). She made us take along a 8 Liter Aluminum pot for washing the tupperware. What a disappointment.

But once the ranger was gone we tried the new white bags out and they worked fine. We still needed the tupperware for the chuckwagon dinner and we also had about 40-50 1 qt freezer bags. We would split the philmont food between the white philmont bag and a freezer bag and used slightly less water than directed. No clean, no mess, no bears.

We heated the water in 2-2.5L titanum pots and 2 MSR simmerlite stoves and used less that 2 liters of white gas (crew of 8)for the whole trek.

By the time we had the bags ready the water was boiling. We always made a little extra water to rinse the spoons. The tupperware was also used to hold the bags during hydration and made distribution easier but they never really got dirty.

At the base camp we ran into the director of food service and talked at length about ultralight food prep and how the old methods (Alum - Cook kits) need to be elimintaed for lighter processes. We also talked about the lack of meat (protein) and the large volume of the food packs.

We were on Trek 18 in July 2010 and our Ranger tried to tell us that you couldn't use the Mtn House bags for rehydrating. So we were going to rehydrate only in the 1 qt zip locks. Fortunately, I saw a staff person eating out of a white bag at our first camp and asked our Ranger about it. She said the Official policy is that you can't use the white bags for rehydrating - sounded like a liability concern. The good news is that she said she couldn't stop us.

We didn't bring any Philmont issued crew gear except the camp suds. We rehydrated either in the white food bags or in 1 qt zip locks. We waited to split the food after the food was rehydrated since it was difficult to get the spices evenly split.

Additionally, our scouts decided pull food they didn't want to eat (like Gatoraid) from their meals before we left base camp or resupplies. Then we marked their names on the meals. This way we didn't have to carry probars or sun butter that no one would eat.

Crew 701P2
Crew Advisor

Leaving behind the Gatorade is not a good idea. You need the electrolytes when you are working that hard.

I was hit by low salt a couple of summers ago at a camp in west Texas. I was drinking plenty of water, but had headaches and was low on energy. I started salting my food at every meal and was fine after that.

The Probars provide some of that fiber that you need to keep regular on the trail. The Larabars provide the rest.

The sqeezefood was a bother, especially when opened as one-piece trash. I like last year's sliceable cheese food product better. I got better at applying the sunbutter, and found it pretty tasty. It was easier to just squeeze it into your mouth than to apply it to the crackers.

Our crew picked up lots of extra food from swapboxes and ate it all. One evening, they prepared 18 people worth of dinner for 10 people and ate it all.

Note: The freeze-dried corn can be added to nearly any meal. Don't cook it separately, just add it in. Also, refried beans taste OK added to the mac and cheese.

Edited by wunder on 08/04/2010 22:41:50 MDT.

Ty hit one of the biggest things we did during the trek we just completed last week.

We'd get our food at re-supply and sit down right there to sort through all the meals. Each pair of eaters would divide the contents of each meal bag and "swap box" what they didn't want. We saved a tremendous amount of weight by not leaving the commissary with excess food.

Regards,
Greg

While I completely understand the desire to carry less weight... the practice of stripping meals should only be left to an experienced crew. We witnessed an advisor for a VERY young crew strip all of their meals of 'unwanted' items. This was roughly day 3 for them. The youth had little say in what was stripped - a casual/flip question... "do you like this?". I question if by day 6 or 7 if the youth would not have eaten many of the stripped items... the caloric deficit that this advisor was creating was significant and hungry scouts will eat things on the trail that they may not eat at home.
Strip with caution and always have a backup plan.

As Walt mentioned there was plenty of food and gatoraid in the swap boxes. Our boys were an experienced crew that hiked over 90 miles on three shake down hikes prior to Philmont. They made their own decisions on what to keep. Typically, there was a lot of horse trading going on during this process. All in all, no one went hungry.