Faye and Maciek's Adventures in the frosty Canadian North
When WW2 ended, the US military up and left the CANOL road project, leaving behind all sorts of buildings and equipment. Hikers used to camp out in the old buildings, but they are now all boarded up due to asbestos and poor structural integrity after 75 years of abandonment.
How old does garbage have to be before it’s considered an artifact?
On our hike, we got to rehydrate and eat all of the food that we had lovingly dehydrated beforehand. Overall, most of the meals rehydrated pretty well, especially when we left them for a few hours in the food thermos for lunch. In particular, ground beef and corn benefited from longer rehydration times. Here were some of our best meals:
The chili and lentils with couscous were also quite good, but I didn’t take a photo. Here are the “recipes” for the meals I made:
For most meals, I didn’t manage to get the calorie density that I was hoping for following my round of experimentation, so the meals ranged from 3 calories/gram (jambalaya) to 6 calories/gram (sweet potato lentil soup), with most falling in the 4-5 calories/gram range. The split pea soup came in too low on caloric density so I didn’t end up bringing it on the trip.
In addition to all the food prep that we did for our CANOL hike, we also had to assemble and pack all the gear that we would need for the duration of our trip. In addition to food, here’s a photo of everything I carried on the hike:
