camp

[bnsafe]

what do you guys eat as base camp. last year i just ate whatever i could grab quick like a protein bar for supper. usually had a mountain house for a late breakfast. sandwhich stuff for dinner. do yall actually cook when you get back in, or even before you head out.

[easeup]

eat like a king!
it is very hard to hunt effectively if you are not all fueled up and feeling strong.

you name it we have had it in camp. Everyone is all smiles when their belly is full of there favorite stuff.
I surmise what you are looking for is maybe a tip on how to improve the meals....
make what you really like at home, bag it and freeze it in the portions needed for you.
Then in camp all you have to do is heat it up.

[LckyTylr]

Bivy Hunter:

Breakfast - Coffee in Jet Boil. Two Oatmeal Cream Pies

Mid Morning Snack - Nature Valley Oats and Honey granola bar. Peanuts and M&M's.

Lunch - Peanut Butter, Honey and Bacon Sandwich. Sometimes two.

Mid Afternoon Snack - Prepackaged Cheese Stick and some Jerkey

Dinner - Mtn House Meal (anything BUT the Bowtie Pasta - that stuff will eat your spoon and it's gross).

[bnsafe]

ok, i will tell yall something funny, or really stupid, that i did last year. mind you it was my first year elk huntin. we made a basecamp and unloaded more water bottles than the state of colorado had on the shelves (all carried out from mo) and tons of sandwhich stuff. then we bought more after we got out here. we were not goin hungry. so we decide to hike 6 miles in and camp for a couple days. i carried a ton of water bottles in cause i wasnt sure i could find water for my msr which turned out to be a good thing. but, i made a ziplock bag up for about 3 snacks a day, dumb, then i carried in a 3 lb bag of trailmix (really dumb). never touched it cause i wasnt hungry. so we decide to hike out and i decided i wasnt carrying 3 extra lbs of crap so i was gonna throw it out and just bring the bag back. well then i decided i brought it in i was carrying it out, which i did. got back to the truck adn was unloading stuff, grabed the trailmix to take it out of the bag and raisins and nuts went everywhere. a stinkin mouse had chewed a hole in the bottom of the bag and i had to throw it all away after i carried it 12 miles. im old and dumb

[bowhunterty]

We cook pretty good in a base camp. I've had buddies want to come to camp just for the food. One year we had halibut, shrimp, steak, pork chops, chicken. Last year one of the guys brought a smoker and we had smoked pork loin, chicken. We will never go hungry. But backpacking in would be very different.

[FemoralArchery]

At base camp... We've had just about everything but a whole pig roasted in the ground.

We eat like a group of bachelors would at home. When day hunting, or more like morning and evening hunting, from camp we have about 4 meals a day. We get up and have our beverage of choice, and cereal/poptarts/toast/granola bars/bacon sandwich. Then we come back and have a full on breakfast with bacon eggs and potatoes. Then we nap, wash clothes, shoot the target and have a lunch type meal around 3 ish. One guy is partial to chili burgers and chili dogs, so thats a good mid day meal. Go hunt the evening and then come back after dark and have a hot dinner, we often have grouse, since we get quite a few during the season. Occasionally we have some turkey if somebody gets lucky and gets one.

I've never bivy hunted yet, but on all day hunts, I just pack whatever suits me that morning.

[WapitiTalk1]

I enjoyed your trail mix mouse snack story.. ..

For basecamp hunts, the sky is truly the limit. Usually one per person, Coleman Extreme cooler packed solid with various frozen meats and block ice (lasts for close to a week if you keep the coolers out of direct sunlight). Steaks, pork chops, Ernie's precooked lasagna (vacuum sealed to boil at a later date), home made chili (yikes), kielbasas, burger for spaghetti, salmon or steelhead filets, Johnsonville brats, etc. Of course, a small propane powered hibachi grill comes into play for said charred animal flesh. For side dishes.... Tatos and lots of them. We bring several large bags of spuds to dice and fry with what else, onions and seasoning to go with the meat. Cabbage keeps for quite a bit longer than lettuce so diced cabbage salads works well. The bags/boxes of side noodle dishes or rice dishes that come to life with water, margarine, and heat work great also to compliment the meat of the evening. If bivy hunts are planned, trail mix (minus the mice), granola bars, beef jerky chunks, tuna and cracker packets, potted meat sands, P butter and honey sand, P butter and J sands, etc., ingredients are packed. Breakfast is never anything complicated as I'm anxious to get on the trail at O dark thirty... A hot cup of java and a blueberry bagel (bagel's keep a long time also) are the standard before hitting the trail for a day hunt.

[bnsafe]

yall eat like kings out there. i wouldnt leave camp. think im just gonna cook the mouse up for protein and have mouse and trailmix each nite.

[pointysticks]

at base camp..i've been known to get people FATTER!!

i cook everything at home. and freeze it.

pasta meat sauces.
green chili stew
chili
chinese sticky rice
etc.

then i just heat everything and either eat it on a tortilla or rice.

lunch is usually PB and J inside a whole wheat tortilla and copious amounts of fruit..apples oranges celery carrots. helps me stay "regular"

breakfast is usually dinner leftover.

spike camps. i break out the mountain house. which i find offensive to my tastebuds. but oh so light on my back and legs.

[bnsafe]

i didnt think the mountain house were to bad, not good mind ya, but edible

[Indian Summer]

The way I look at it is elk hunting is a celebration of life. Therefore I don't cut any corners when in a base camp. If I'm cooking for others I tend to go over board. Steak night, spaghetti night, pork chops, elk burgers, salmon etc. if I'm alone I'll eat pretty good too but not quite as extravagant. ButI also have Mountain Houses handy at all times for the nights I get in late or am just worn out and hungry but want nothing more than to go to bed. You have to be prepared for that. Also for a quickie I'll have a couple frozen pizzas to toss in the Camp Chef oven. Sometimes even a frozen dinner. I like the swedish meatballs so if Swede was in camp I'd make that one. lol

As for breakfast... I'm lucky if I can force down a half packet of oatmeal. I have to have milk so cereal is always an option too but for the most part I'll maybe have a protien drink or Ensure and have enough in my pack for when I do get hungry which is by 9 am.

I have friends near the coast in New Brunswick where I bear hunt. They laugh at me because I can eat lobster for breakfast lunch and dinner... & I do some days! We make a trip to the market before the hunt and get those and crab legs. At $5 a lobster or cluster of crab what the heck right! I sit there at night and drink Labatt Blue and laugh at them with their Coors Lights. Good times. Last year I came home with 25 lobsters and a pile of crab. One month til I'm back there. I don't know what's better the bear hunting or the all you can eat sea food. Love that stuff!

[WapitiTalk1]

yall eat like kings out there. i wouldnt leave camp. think im just gonna cook the mouse up for protein and have mouse and trailmix each nite.

Make sure you get some Alpine Touch (Montana's Special Spice) to season up that rodent..... he might just be palatable then Oh, and I'd like the grid coordinates for Indian Summer's New Brunswick camp...Now that's some fine chow!

[bnsafe]

me to, i would kill to hunt bear, i admit im jelous

[dapper]

We backpacked in, so in the morning I had three pouches of maple/brown sugar oatmeal, cold.(saving the canister of fuel for the mountain house) Very sweet and sickening especially about the 13th day. That will change this coming fall. For lunch, mountain house. Snacked on protien bars through out the day. For supper it was mountain house.

I don't know if the mountain house was that good or the first place we stopped to eat after getting out just sucked, but I've always been amazed how good the food tastes once I get out from the bush or wilderness. Probably because we go light and our food is bland. The year before we stopped at McDonalds coming out of the bush on a bear hunt and the food was amazing. This year after the 13 days in the wilderness we stopped at a fast food joint (not McDonalds) and the food didn't taste amazing, it just tasted like fast food.