The story of a weekend of canoe-camping

Menu for a weekend of canoe-camping

(With or without rain)

My menu was designed to be easy to transport and store without a cooler. All we had was a soft insulated sack and waterproof bags. Some of the food and drinking water was frozen before departure to help preserve the food.

There's no drinking water at canoe-camping sites, so you need to carry a good quantity with you. For my part, I brought two four-litre cans filled with water and the necessary supplies to purify it. Here's my technique to purify lake water: fill a can directly from the lake, then transfer it to a saucepan covered with a clean dishcloth to filter out impurities. Boil for ten minutes or so, then leave to cool. Transfer to water bottles and add a chlorine tablet, especially if rain has fallen in the pan during the operation.

Day 1

Arrival at camp in the afternoon

Aperitif: Wine, cheese curds, and crackers while preparing supper.

Supper: Creamy pasta with wild mushrooms. I mixed all the dry ingredients together before leaving. When camping, all I had to do was boil just the right amount of water and pour everything in. This recipe requires no further preparation, is very light, and keeps at room temperature. I took along two cans of tuna for those who wanted to add some to their pasta.

Dessert: A few tasty craft chocolate bars to share.

Day 2

Breakfast: Fruit and nut oatmeal. I modified my recipe a little for the circumstances. I multiplied the recipe by four and, in a reusable airtight bag, I mixed all the dry ingredients (oats, milk powder, brown sugar, cinnamon) except the fruit and nuts. I brought the right amount of water to a boil, poured in the contents of the bag, and cooked the concoction for a few minutes until the oatmeal was nice and creamy. I placed the dried fruit and nuts in the centre of the table and diced an apple and a pear. Everyone topped their bowl of oatmeal to taste.

Lunch: Rice and jerky soup and Couscous salad. Again, at home, I combined all the dry ingredients for each recipe in airtight containers. On site, I boiled the right amount of water for the soup (I multiplied the recipe by four again) and added all the ingredients. When the rice is tender, it's ready. For the salad, I poured the right amount of boiling water directly into the dish containing the dry ingredients. I added oil, lemon juice, and a few diced vegetables: bell peppers, celery, carrots.

Aperitif: Focaccia, crudités, and local beer. Here, I don't have a recipe; it's improvisation time! When I go camping, I always bring one or two dollops of frozen pizza dough. I buy mine at a local pizzeria, but you can get it at the grocery store. It replaces the ice packs in the cooler and, once thawed, becomes the starting point for something succulent. I preheated my two cast-iron skillets by placing them directly on the hot coals. Next, I coated one pan with olive oil, rolled out the pizza dough, and added a drizzle of oil, salt, pepper, and dried herbs over the dough. I placed the pan on the grill over the fire (not too close to the flames) and covered the sizzling focaccia with the other pan upside down to create an oven effect. I placed an ember log on top of this second pan to keep it warm. After about ten minutes, I turned the focaccia over and finished cooking until both sides were golden brown, without putting the second pan back on top. Then I cut the tasty delight into wedges and served them with the rest of the lunchtime vegetables, cut into crudités. Enough to make anybody’s mouth water …even more so in the rain!

Supper: Beef flank steak with baby potatoes and green beans. Again, no recipe. At home, I had marinated and frozen a large flank steak with Dijon mustard, steak spices, and a little oil. The frozen meat helped keep the rest of the food fresh, and it thawed in time for the second supper of the stay. I started by cooking the baby potatoes in the skillet. Halfway through cooking, I added the flank steak, 5-7 minutes on each side without prodding, and when I turned the flank steak over, I added the green beans, which don't need as much cooking. Enjoyed with a good red wine and our leftover chocolate for dessert.

Day 3

Breakfast: Cinnamon buns. Yes, yes, camping buns! Made with a second ball of raw pizza dough. I rolled out the dough on a cutting board, using a water bottle as a rolling pin. To avoid having to take flour with me, I rolled out the dough directly onto a large square of parchment paper. It's not sticky and works like a charm. I topped the dough with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon, then rolled and sliced the whole chunk into rounds and popped them into the cast-iron skillet preheated on the fire. A few minutes later, we were feasting on delicious homemade buns! Just what we needed after a cold, wet night... and before dismantling the camp in torrential rain. 

A few essentials for canoe-camping

(Especially if the forecast is for rain)

It's amazing what you can fit in a canoe. It's very stable, too. So unless you have to do a lot of portaging, which we didn't, you don't have to limit yourself too much. You can carry water, firewood, cooking gear, and other heavy items that you wouldn't normally allow yourself in rustic camping. The key is to make sure that everything fits easily into a canoe. Soft coolers are better than clunky rigid ones, while dry bags beat suitcases and backpacks….hands down!

Waterproof bags. My weekend in the rain would have taken a completely different turn if my clothes had gotten wet. Same thing if we'd capsized, or if our technique hadn't been up to scratch and we'd sprayed our luggage with every paddle stroke.

Tarpaulins, never too many tarpaulins. They saved our weekend! A very large tarp for the communal living area, but also smaller ones to protect the tents and create a fire pit; in this case, you need to put the tarp higher up to prevent it from catching fire.

Rope. To tie down tarpaulins, to perch food supplies in trees away from animals, and to create clotheslines. Since we go deeper into the wild when canoe-camping, animals are less intimidated than in conventional campgrounds, and their visits are more frequent. Don't leave any food accessible and use the bear poles provided by Sépaq.

Garbage bags. Don't leave table scraps lying around or dispose of them in the open. Wrap up all your garbage and put it on the bear pole too.

Biodegradable soap. Even if you use a "nature-friendly" soap, don't pour your dishwater into the lake. It's harmful to the species that live there, and the soap degrades more slowly in water than in the soil. Dig a pit away from the camp and the lake, pour the used water into it, and cover the soggy pit with soil. The soil will filter the water and degrade the soap.

Carabiners. For attaching waterproof bags to the canoe, securing tarpaulins to each other, attaching food bags to bear poles, and a thousand other uses as well.

A back-up burner. When it’s pouring rain and the wind picks up, there's no guarantee that our fire will be strong and stable enough for cooking. A small Pocket Rocket Stove with propane tanks will be essential for cooking and heating water for drinking, washing dishes, and washing up.

A deck of cards and portable games. Especially when it's raining and you're confined under a tarpaulin for long hours. We forgot to bring them!

Nalgene water bottles. Why this brand? Because they're sturdy, hard-wearing and, above all, watertight. You can freeze them with water to serve as an ice pack or pour boiling water directly into them to use as a hot water bottle to insert into your sleeping bag for the night. Not to be done with another water bottle, which risks leaking and soaking everything in the tent!

Plenty of dishcloths. Nothing dries when it rains! You need them to wipe your dishes and hands, and also to filter the lake water.

Two cast-iron pans of the same size. Unbeatable for wood-fired cooking! I also carry a thermal glove for handling pans whose handles get hot in the fire.

There probably won't be a cell phone network where you are. And that, for me, is a big plus. A real disconnect!