Imagine planning the meals for a multi-day whitewater rafting trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. It's going to be 100 degrees during the day, and food has to be kept fresh.



Maybe you aren't going to do any whitewater rafting, but one of these days you might want to pack a cooler full of food for a road trip. Here are some ideas from whitewater rafters.

"Not having access to a big walk-in freezer I used dry ice to freeze a large block of ice at the bottom of my cooler.

I started with block ice, cut in half length wise and pieced together for a layer of ice approx. 3" deep. I then used crushed ice (left over from cutting) to fill in all the gaps. I added some ice cold water to fill in any voids or air pockets. I then placed a 2 lb chunk of dry ice on top and let it sit overnight.

By morning I had a solid chunk of ice about 4" thick that filled the cooler side to side with zero voids or air gaps. This big block of ice lasted for 7+ days in 100 degree heat on my last San Juan trip. Cost of the dry ice was around $20.

Dry ice at -109 degrees F is going to freeze water a heck of a lot faster than the typical house hold freezer temperature of 0 degrees F.

By the way, a power saw (circular or saw's-all) cuts thru ice like butter...

I'm on the 'don't drain' side of the cooler equation, so I wasn't concernced with keeping the drain hole clear. However, as Coloradopaddler suggested the ice melts at the edges first, so I could have drained as needed.
I only drain to prevent water from sloshing or when the ice is finished. On a 7 day trip I might open the drain a bit on day 4 to get the water level below the ice level, then drain completly at day 7 when the ice is gone.

I'm am an admitted cooler nazi. No one goes into my cooler except me, and I don't go into the cooler unless I absolutely have to. Even then I try to minimize the open time and coordinate my access for late in the evening or early mornings. If I'm not cooking that day the cooler stays shut, period.

I also made an insulating jacket for the cooler out of bubble wrap style insulation and duct tape. I figure the reflective surface helps fight the sun and adds about 50% more insulation. Plus the hassle of removing the jacket reduces casual cooler use.

I avoid cooler stew by putting everything in seal-a-meal vacuum seal bags."

Here is information from StupidGuideTricks.com:

"No matter how hard I try to remember to drain my cooler each day I often forget, leaving me sometimes with soggy food items floating at the bottom - yuk! A simple solution is to place a plastic grid in the bottom of the cooler that keeps food up high and dry. The grid material is readily available at most hardware stores.

Or find a “bread delivery rack”, the flat 30” x 30” rigid plastic shelf racks used by delivery folks on wheeled carts at markets. Cut with hand saw to your exact size. And added bonus, it often elevates sensitive produce and fruit out of direct contact with block ice, thus avoiding freezing delicate items.

At the end of a recent river trip our shuttle back took us up over a high pass and down again. At the put-in try as we might we could not open the lid of our cooler. The elevation gain and loss had vacuum sealed it closed tight. No amount of pulling and prying would open it. Then Jim Farris from Seattle hit on the solution. He simply opened the drain plug and released the pressure popping the lid open easily.

Here's some more tricks from a Grand Canyon guide for managing your cooler to preserve ice and keep food cold and safe. "I always have kept a piece of closed cell foam (carefully trimmed for an exact fit) on top of the food, inside the cooler. I also have a piece of rigid plastic (or plexiglass) that sits on top of the ice, to keep food stuff out of any ice melt water; it is cut a little smaller than the inside of the cooler, i.e. doesn't extend all the way to the cooler walls, just far enough to keep stuff from falling into the ice melt water.

And I made a cooler cover of white material (from a dead paco pad) that extends down around the lid, maybe 4" or so. It's lined on the top side with another piece of closed cell foam which I glued in place. On the rear side, the skirt has slits for the straps I use to hold the cooler closed, and hold it in the raft. That way, even if the straps aren't fastened the cover can't blow away in the wind...the straps are threaded through the slits, then fastened to the frame, with the buckles on top of the cooler.

This is the cooler I sit on when I'm rowing, so the foam on top does double duty padding my backside and insulating the cooler at the same time. The 4" skirt extends well below the seam where the lid meets the sides, so it helps keep out splash, and also minimizes air movement into the top of the cooler as well.

While I believe in draining the cooler daily, I keep the drain shut the rest of the time - to minimize air movement into and out of the cooler, and exclude river water (which will melt ice) if I manage to fill the floor of my bucket boat in a big rapid. The drain hole on my (custom made, fiberglass, rehabilitated-former-commercial) cooler is closed with a rubber "cork" that has a piece of parachute cord threaded through it...the other end is tied to the frame, so the stopper can't get lost if it falls out by accident.

Another refinement: I recycled some old tent pole sections into lid supports so 1) don't have to open it all the way to get stuff out; 2) the lid won't crash on my arm if it is windy; and 3) there is less strain on the hinge when I'm digging stuff out. The tent poles sections fit vertically into holes drilled in the lip of the cooler, and are stored inside, on top of the top foam piece."

Albert Adams of Ridgway, Colorado offers this trick: Cook meals in advance for the size of your trip. Put portion sizes into boil-in-bag zip locs or seal- a-meals and freeze them in tupperwear containers. Prior to the trip by 8 hours or so fill your cooler with ice water. Let it sit. Take the plastic encased cubes of food, frozen solid out of the tupperwear. Drain and dry the cooler quickly and put the cubicles of food in, as well as other condiments in order of need,packed tightly. Seal the cooler with duct tape. On the river, open the cooler only enough to get a meal ou t- do not look! What ever you grab is for dinner assuming you cooked well. This way your food is your ice, sealed and no "splooge" water is in the mix. No ice needed. Do not open the cooler unless you need to...better use of space & sanitary.

And Myron Buck, a long time river guide says, "Instead of using block ice, fill gallon-sized milk jugs (the type with screw on lids) with water and freeze. Not only will you keep your food from sitting in water when the ice melts, but you will have jugs or fresh, pure (and cool) water all during the trip. To keep the jugs from all melting at the same time, layer your cooler in thirds: fill it from the bottom with food for the end of the trip plus some jugs of ice, then an ensolite pad that tightly 'caps off' that layer, then another layer of food for the middle of the trip (plus more ice, etc) another ensolite layer, and then the top layer, capped of with yet another ensolite layer. The top layer of ensolite is a fail-safe for those fools who don't know the Sacred Rule of Cooler Management: ONLY the cook goes in the cooler. If some dumbo carelessly leaves the cooler ajar, the ensolite will stave off a disaster."

This makes me want to freeze up the cooler, load the car, and set out on the highway.