Paddle Meals: Paddling With Polar Bears

December 2004-January 2005

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.
To download a pdf copy of the magazine click here: > DOWNLOAD

by Deb Leach with Carla and Jake Punshon

Drive your kayaks to the beach on top of your Honda 4-wheeler. Climb into your dry suit. Strap the shotgun in its hard plastic case onto the back deck. That’s how we fi rst started paddling in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. Living at almost 63° North, we can only get onto the water between August and October, so we put outrigger racks on our Honda for quick access to Hudson Bay. We haven’t encountered a polar bear while we’ve been camping on the tundra, but taking a Firearm Safety course is as important as Wilderness First Aid when you live 300 miles by air ambulance from the nearest hospital.

As world adventurers, we don’t own a car and our only real estate is in Argentina. We’ve been scuba diving all over the planet and look forward to paddling in Cuba as well as Ellesmere Island (even further north!). Too bad they don’t have kayaks in Antarctica.

Carla’s been involved with Girl Guides for years and loves to fondue on a ‘buddy burner’ which is like a huge candle with a wick—a coil of corrugated cardboard and melted paraffi n in an empty salmon or tuna can. Her home-made power bar was a hit at Guide camp. Jake doesn’t ‘do’ dishes—so he won’t dirty a bowl for oatmeal (thus oatmeal in a mitt).

A few years ago we sent our favorite gorp recipe to a Backpacker contest. We won in one division but they didn’t get the ingredients quite right, so we’re publishing it again here.

OATMEAL IN A MITT

Take your package of instant oatmeal and shake the contents to the top. Fold in the bottom two corners of the package—about an inch. Invert the package. Zip open the top, almost all the way across. (This saves it from blowing away across the tundra). Hold with your mitt or put the bag into your bowl or mug. Pour your boiling water into the package. Stir and enjoy!

PUNSHON POWER BARS

4 cups quick cooking rolled oats (not instant)

2 cups unsweetened coconut

1 cup lightly crushed cornflakes cereal

1 cup chopped dried apricots

1 cup raisins (or double if you don’t have apricots)

2/3 cup sunflower seeds, shelled (or slivered almonds)

½ cup margarine/butter

11 oz can sweetened condensed milk

¼ cup corn syrup

2 Tbsp frozen concentrated orange juice

Combine the fi rst 6 dry ingredients in a bowl. Set aside. Melt margarine/butter in a saucepan. Add milk, syrup, and orange juice. Heat and stir on low until combined. Pour over granola mixture while tossing. Mixture will be quite sticky. Pack fi rmly into a greased 9”x13” pan. Bake at 350 until edges are golden brown about 20-30 minutes. Score while warm. Let cool on wire rack. Cut into bars and wrap individual bars in plastic wrap.

GORP-RI (Backpacker May 2001)

1 part chocolate chips

1 part Mini M&Ms

1 part gummy bears

1 part Rockets

1 part broken Kit Kat bars

1 part Reese’s Pieces

1 part cashews

1 part salted peanuts

1 part raw shelled pumpkin seeds

1 part raisins.

© Debbie Leach started her Arctic adventures in March and is currently working and paddling out of Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, in Canada’s north.