It was a really good reality check that 'preparing' is a lifestyle, not just something you buy and stick in a closet until "you need it in the day." Because needing it "in the day" happened on the river, and it didn't go so well. Here's DS17's story.
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So my group arrived at the place of embarkation. We had each brought two buckets (those big supply kind you store wheat in), but found out that "two was too many." Everyone had to condense their supplies down to one bucket, and this is where the chaos began.
In the ensuing chaos, I forgot to take my personal Kelly Kettle with me in my 1 remaining bucket. This turned out to be a real problem as you'll see. Fortunately I was smart enough to bring my collapsible Coghlan camp stove and fire tablets which helped. It taught me that the saying "two is one and one is none" is definitely a real thing.
Despite the fact that my mom packed the large Kelly Kettle (green bag), fire sticks, cooking utensils in a self contained, bright orange bucket
we managed to forget the contents of the bucket for the duration of the trip. We brought the bucket, but forgot what was in there, until literally the last day when one of the adults opened the bucket to see "what was in it." We honestly just thought with all the chaos of downsizing that somehow it had gotten left behind (the MIMs were in self contained blue buckets.)
Fortunately because my mom had packed everything in Mylar, we were able to "cook" in the mylar bags. UNfortunately, even though she had used a lot of freeze dried meals, they still required 'heat', or at least hot water, to 'cook' well. So, it was edible, and we're grateful we had them, but unheated water + freeze dried or dehydrated food = just wet food. When we told her, my mom said, "well duh. DS17, you knew that from our living in a tent. That's why we bought the electric kettle back in the day."
We had my emergency fire tablets, and we had two small propane bottles which we managed to make last the week, but it resulted in just "barely warm" water to cook with, as you had to boil the water in a little pot, dump it in to the mylar meal, then wait to boil more water, dump that in, etc etc. Then we had to let it "steep" forever. We made a meal with the Kelly Kettle (and mylar) on the very last day....WOW. As my leader said, "we were able to accomplish in 5 minutes what it took us 1-2 hours to do each meal...and it even tasted like real food !"
Basically, that's the takeaway: you can use "just water" and rehydrate/eat freeze dried meals, but you're going to want hot water and it's going to work better by induction too.
Food issues notwithstanding, I had the opportunity to use new prep items and learn the importance of a lot of them. For example: we got solar 'pillows' last Christmas. They are the best thing ever! My mom was worried about boiled water being cooled down enough to put into a flask or camelback, so she bought me a Berkey sport bottle which worked phenomenally!
We purchased a hammock and mosquito net for this trip. The hammock was awesome, but the mosquito netting was "generic" so it was way too big for the hammock. It worked, just could have been better. I chose to bring a bivvy sack and emergency blanket (those thin silver ones) vs a sleeping bag, which turned out to be a good thing. The bivvy sack would have worked well on its own, but when the wind kicked up at night it was nice to have the emergency blanket as a wind 'barrier.'
I learned there are two absolutes in being prepared (1) check your equipment/supplies three times and (2) two is one, one is none. I also learned that adapting and applying the fruits of the Spirit stated in the Bible are vital in (what could be) an emergency situation, and in our daily lives as well. I camped all week with a boy who didn't speak English and had never done this type of camping before.
Though the language barrier was significant, we were able to find a common avenue through cooperation and succeed where we might ordinarily have failed. We didn't communicate through words per se, but rather by example and action. Surprisingly, this proved to be more efficient than I would have expected. Memories were made, friendships were forged and trust was permanently established.
