Camping Gear, Kitchen Recommendations: What We Take With Us on Our Family Camping Trips
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In our last installment, we wrote about how important cooking and eating together is for our well being in order to support our video about the process we use to make sure that our family can still eat nutritious, real food even when trying to make camp cooking convenient. In this one offering, we get pretty deep into the camp kitchen gear that we have found works best for us. So, we wanted to be sure to provide links to all of the equipment we mentioned:
GSI Outdoors Escape HS 2L Pot - this is our go-to pot for family camping trips. As we mentioned in the video, it is a bit too heavy for our liking for backpacking trips. But this meets all of our needs for camping trips where we are still doing some hiking in (it’s convenient enough to carry for a day or so despite the weight due to its compactable engineering) and for when we want to do some real cooking. We’ve been really happy with this purchase.
Fozzils Snapfold Bowlz - This is our, “I didn’t know I was missing you my whole life” piece of gear. Now that we have them, they come on every trip where we have more than one mouth to feed. If there is only one person, eat out of the pot; but if we are sharing food, 1.4 ounces for each person is a no-brainer. Add in the incredibly easy packability (put them, unfolded, up against the back panel in your backpack), and these work for every camping and backpacking trip.
Sea to Summit Alpha Light Spoon - Again, this is the lighter and sturdier option of the two aluminum spoon designs from Sea to Summit, and it also comes in a longer option for those who are eating a lot out of freeze dried pouches. This is the lightest spoon I have been able to find on the market (0.3 ounces).
MSR Gravity Filter - Yes, they don’t make the 4 liter option, any more. But they do have the 10 liter option. And, literally today - they day I am writing this - MSR just came out with a 10 liter gravity induced option that also removes viruses, not just bacteria, microplastics, and protozoa. The new 10 liter option is called the MSR Guardian Gravity Water Purifier. If you are still looking for something along the lines of 4 liter capacity, and if you aren’t traveling to locations where you have to concern yourself with hepatitis A, rotavirus and norovirus, then the other - all highly comparable options - we mentioned were the Lifestraw Flex with Gravity Bag and the Platypus Gravity Works.
Repurposed Powerade bottles, HydraPak Stash 1L bottles, and Nalgene Ultralight Wide Mouth bottles - At 1.6 ounces, it is hard to beat the Powerade bottles for their weight efficiency. The HydraPak Stash 1L are the most packable option, in terms of volume - and therefore space in your pack. And the Nalgene Ultralite Wide Mouth, weighing the same as the Stash at 3.75 ounces, are the least packable but the most solid and durable.
Outdoor Research Water Bottle Parka - Another item that they don’t make anymore. But, as we provided in the video, there are similar replacement options that are the right size to fit a standard 1 liter wide mouth bottle. If you are going out in sub-freezing temperatures, it’s hard to keep water bladders from freezing at the hose. So, a water bottle is a more reliable option. However, you still need to insulate them. That’s where the Nalgene 32oz Insulated Bottle Carrier and the Mountain Smith Bottle Holster come in.
Zpacks Large Food Bag - This is a hook-and-loop and roll top sealed bag. While not a dry bag (the kind you can submerge in water), it is made of very light and waterproof dyneema composite fabric, making it naturally waterproof to the extent that it can hold out rain and snow. And dyneema is hard to tear into. Of course, a bear could still do it. But, if you properly hang it from a tree, and if you add in the NyloPro Odor Barrier Bags, you have a lower likelihood of a bear finding the bag in the first place and a lower chance of the bear getting to the bag if they do find it. Again, this isn’t a replacement for a bear canister, as is often required at several National Parks and National Forests, but is a great and popularly used option by thru-hikers. It is by far the lightest bear food safety option I have found, at 2 and 2/3 ounces for both bags used together.