Since I left the Mountain regions of Northern Idaho and Northeastern Oregon, I have been thinking back fondly to my days of packing horses and mules into wild and scenic parts of the West.  i expressed how I missed slinging a load on a pack horse to my uncle who exclaimed “Well heck, I have a pack saddle in  my garage I never use, you might as well have it.” 

This Saturday I received it and gave it a good goin’ through.  It’s a Sawbuck saddle and the leather was in pretty good shape.  After a coat of Neatsfoot oil, it was in better shape.  I couldn’t resist, and caught up my saddle horse, Shorty to see how he would take to being a pack horse.

You can watch the 40 picture plus slide show of Shorty getting his first pack load on Photobucket.com

So now I have another tool in the arsenal for getting out and getting back.  I figure Shorty gives me an additional 150 pound payload.  That means that if I am able to go on foot, shorty could easily pack 50 # of his own feed, 600 feet of electric fence, posts and energizer plus my backpacking camp. If I am successful then he would fill the Meat packing role while I shouldered my pack for the walk out.

Much of this project was spurred on by the discussions that Phillip at the Hog Blog and I have had of late about a “single horse” hunting trip, and whether it was feasible. I hope I can get a chance to try it out on a trip this Fall in the California backcountry. Whaddya say Phil?

As I sat down for dinner with some work collegues a weekend ago, the wife of one of our senior salesmen looked me in the eye, and said “You are that guy who goes hunting alone, aren’t you?”  I sheepishly admitted that I did on occasion go into the wilderness alone, and proceded to get a lecture from her about how I could break a leg where no one could find me.  I admitted that that was always a possibility.  I receive this lecture on a regular basis from members of my family, so I go turtle rather than argue. 

I finally assured her that I would seriously look at a method to get help if I were to run into trouble outside of normal cell phone range.  Satellite phones seem to have spotty reception (although better than Cell service),and they are prohibitively expensive to rent for an extended period.  Personal locator beacons are rather one dimensional, and just as expensive.   I found myself looking at the SPOT Satellite Messenger.

The SPOT Satellite Messenger, the world’s first satellite messenger, uses both the GPS satellite network to determine a customer’s location and the SPOT network to transmit that information to friends, family or an emergency service center. SPOT Inc., a subsidiary of Globalstar, Inc. (NASDAQ:GSAT), provides lifesaving communications technology that allows users to communicate from remote locations around the globe. Thanks to this affordable, cutting-edge personal safety device, the company offers people unmatched peace of mind by allowing customers to notify friends and family of their location and status, and to send for emergency assistance in time of need, completely independent of cellular phone or wireless coverage. For more information on how SPOT, Inc. is helping users live to tell about it™ – from disaster preparedness to outdoor adventure purposes – explore http://www.findmespot.com

So I am actively looking at giving this unit a try.  I’d love to hear feedback from other users.  It would be nice to have an added bit of security to keep my family and friends at ease while I am out in the wilds, ALONE.

My friend Rich Howarth, an avid backcountry archer, has come up with an assortment of freezer bag recipes that he was kind enough to share with us on the Sage Creek Forums. He alerted us to a special on Hamburger Helper which is a good hearty, high calorie, backcountry food. At $1.25 a box it serves a family of four or two ravenous hunters. He did recommend cooking and dehydrating the hamburger and pasta (see part one). Many of these recipes had their genesis from www.freezerbagcooking.com

I’ll let Rich tell about his latest experiments.

I’ve been wearing out my dehydrator lately and working on my recipes. Seems dehydrated lean ground beef or pork is my main ingredient for use in just about all of them. I tried drying canned chicken, doesn’t work all that well. So far I’ve come up with:

Chili Mac - I like my own concoction better than MH (see below)
Spaghetti w/meat sauce - add potato flakes to thicken the sauce
Lasagna - Not really lasagna, but the Hamburger Helper kind. Good though.
Stroganoff - again, my own version. Not as good as MH, but I’ll continue to tinker.
Curry rice w/beef - Rice is easy to dehydrate, use Madras curry, ginger powder, onion, brown sugar cube and other spices. Spicy and yummy.
Dirty rice - Awesome. The powdered gravy mix and fresh ground pepper are magic.
Jerky - I’m buying cheap cuts of roast from Asian grocer who cuts it thin for me. One pre-jerked pound fits nicely in a quart ziplock after drying.

Chili Mac.

(in a Qt freezer bag)
1 cup dehydrated macaroni
1/2 cup dehydrated ground beef
1/3 cup dehydrated kidney beans
1 tbsp dehydrated chopped onion
2 tsp spaghetti sauce powder
4 tsp chili mix powder
pinch of red pepper flakes

Add 2 cups boiled water, stir, set aside 12-15 min.
Came out pretty good I think, but I may tweak it a bit (add tomato paste powder).

OK my mouth is watering now…I know who I want to be camping with during hunting season…

Anyone who is packing into the backcountry, whether on horseback or under a backpack, appreciates quick meals that are quick, compact and light. Not only are you cutting down on weight and bulk, but it increases the amount of time you can spend looking for game, hiking, riding or fishing. The commercial freeze dried foods available through outdoor retailers has certainly fit the bill for many people. For those of us who like to “do-it-ourselves” there is a home version….The Dehydrator!

No longer is it resigned to solely jerky, and fruit. Now with the help of the folks at www.freezerbagcooking.com, we can create unique meals ourselves without shelling out big bucks for prepackaged portions. Important for those of us taking kids out (man they eat a lot!).

The heart of many of these DIY meals is in our pantries and freezers as we speak…Lean Hamburger, and Pasta.

I found the methods below at http://www.freezerbagcooking.com/dehydrating.htm

Pasta:

Dry at 135* for 8-12 hours till brittle hard. Smaller types of pasta dry fastest and recook in bags at a faster rate. Rehydration is equal amounts of water to pasta. As a tip, under cook your pasta by one to two minutes, as it will finish cooking while being rehydrated. In camp use boiling water, and let sit in a cozy for 5-15 minutes.

Hamburger Dehydrating

Dry at 155*

This is a very easy one to do. Buy the leanest hamburger you can get. Cook it 100% done, breaking it up as much as you can , you want it tiny. When done, pour off as much grease as you can. Then rinse the meat in a strainer with hot water. Drain well, blotting with paper towels.
At this point put it on your dehydrator and dry till rock hard. Figure 3-6 hours. Stir every 30 minutes or so.

You want to make sure there is no moisture left. Store in freezer bags. Store this in your freezer till you go backpacking. In camp add equal amounts of boiling water (or cover) and let sit 10 minutes or so, then add to your meals. You can also add the meat directly to your meal-adding the water for the meat at that time. How much will you need? Figure 8 ounces of hamburger per meal before you dehydrate is a good start. This will be around 1/2 cup dried. That will work well for two people, for one person, 1/4 cup is a good amount of dried hamburger.

Next time we will get some recipes from a hard-core backpacking bowhunter using our new found dehydrating skills.