# High calories deep bush pack food for BWCA?



## mrmra (Jul 18, 2013)

Hi folks,

Pup (1.25 years) did great on a few 8-mile canoe trips, so we're going deep into the BWCA (Boundary Waters, Minnesota, USA)! 3 days straight in, deep bush. 

Any advice for very high calorie food that'll keep well in a pack? Previously when going on long overnight hikes we've just mixed 1/2 jar of peanut butter with 1/2 kibble (seal the jar and you've got a good plastic container meal), but if anybody has some great recipes, please do advise ...

Although raised in a national forest camp, this'll probably be the longest deep bush adventure we've done (pretty rare to be able to take so many days off from work in a row).

This will also be the first overnight trip where he's using his own pack -- he won't wear it in the canoe, just on portages. We've used it on plenty of day hikes before, so he's used to it. Likes it!

We'll be doing some fishing to supplement, but no shooting. Imagine I'll post some canoe pictures when we come back.

Cheers,
-Matthew-


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## trevor1000 (Sep 20, 2013)

Dehydrated Sweet potato, or for that matter dehydrated anything
Apples or any fruit 
Any jerky (Venison, beef, chicken, turkey…)
It will certainly last more than 3 days, easy to pack, and I know my boy loves it all.
Just a thought.


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## einspänner (Sep 8, 2012)

That sounds like an awesome trip! Minnesotans sure do love their canoes. My Minnesota college had a canoeing class and it was the best stress reliever ever. The dean of students would let students build wood canoes in his workshop. Suffice it to say, I'm just a little jealous! 

I second jerky. Make your own and use it for you or the pup. Dehydrated liver is super rich and irresistible to pooches. 

When camping I've used a mix of Honest Kitchen dehydrated raw and Vital Essentials freeze-dried nibblets. 

Honest Kitchen recommends "Embark" (turkey), "Love" (beef), or "Thrive" (chicken) for highly active dogs. They have 488 calories a cup, 514, and 516, respectively. All good candidates for mixing with kibble, so long as water is plentiful. Considering you'll be paddling through it, it should be. 

Vital Essentials comes in kibble-like nuggets that don't need rehydrating. These aren't as calorie dense as kibble as they're very lightweight/airy. Only 180ish a cup, but I like to use it to boost the meat content of the honest kitchen stuff. 

Take pictures, please!


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

Don't know that I would change my dogs food, maybe just see if they wanted a little extra.


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## Canadian Expy (Feb 27, 2013)

We do backcountry canoe tripping as much as our schedule allows, with our trips consisting of 5+ days in the woods at a time, typically tripping 60+ Km per trip. We are actually heading out this weekend for our second trip of the year. We have a 10 day trip scheduled for the end of August which will be the longest we have done so far. We don't alter our guys diet in any way for these trips, as his lifestyle is already fairly high energy. We always bring some extra kibble and a variety of treats, and will throw him some side snacks (dehydrated foods, suitable human leftovers).

At the end of each day we are the tired ones and Aspen could portage another 10 km easy no matter the difficulty of the portage.

Have a wonderful time!


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## mrmra (Jul 18, 2013)

Thanks folks! We'll keep his regular kibble + peanut butter for calories and bring a bunch of dried liver (as recommended) for those extra vitamins.

Hat tip to the great forum, as usual.

Cheers,
-mra


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