Wilderness Cache

[survivalhike]

I want to bury a small cache close to the route we'll be taking on our hike this March, but I don't know what to include in it. Just in case everyone isn't up to par on my trip (obsession) coming up, it will be about 5 people backpacking 41 miles following a river and making our own trail. We'll do it over 5 days, and carry everything we need. We are shooting for 8-10 miles per day, and camping in between.

I found a Jeep trail that I can access (because I have a Jeep, LOL) where I can bury a cache at about 20 miles past the start of the journey. I still can't for the life of me think of what to put in it. I don't want to just fill it completely with random supplies but I also want it to have something in it that we can all enjoy after backpacking for three days. I was thinking an ice chest with a 30 pack, but I don't know how long that will last in March.

Any ideas?

[U.S.Marine2111]

If you use a Coleman Extreme cooler you might be able to come back to cold beer at the end of 5 days. I took a CE down to Baja on a Jeep expedition for four days and at the end of the trip there was still ice in the chest.

[survivalhike]

I thought about that. I have that same cooler, I just need to see if they sell a slightly smaller model because digging a hole big enough to bury the cooler I have will not exactly be inconspicuous or easy. I'm estimating that we'll arrive at the cache location (which I will add as a waypoint on my GPS) at the end of the second day of hiking, aporx 20 miles in. W're going to be dropped off on Sunday evening, and cover a couple miles as a warmup before spending the night. Monday we'll cover about ten, and tuesday we'll just go as far as the cache, and spend the night there. If I go bury the cache on saturday, that would only be four days. You might be on to something sir...

[U.S.Marine2111]

I have the smallest CE, but it is still fairly large, and you're going to be hard pressed to fit a 30 pack and ice in the small one.

[survivalhike]

I found a bigger cooler that I could hide out there or bury with some food/beer in it. The area is really low traffic so I'm not worried about peole finding a larger item.

[wareagle69]

sothink after 20 miles in the hot desert what would you want to find in your stash, food, water, ice cold beverage?

[Nomad]

I've stored a few cache's with supplies. I use 2 and 5 gallon pails i got from a donut shop, they have sealtite lids so they keep out water and bugs. I store t/paper, matches, wet wipes, bottled water, twine, granola, small flashlight, stuff like that in a small pail. In the larger pail i store an extra sleeping bag, change of clothes, twenty bucks and whatever else i think i might need in a pinch. I paint them olive drab and will hide them in a thicket off trail. You could be 5 feet away and not notice them.

[woodsey]

nomad hit the nail on the head,as far as alcahol,try a bottle of whiskey and carry in some cold sodas with you as you go? woodsey...........

[survivalhike]

I'm leaning toward some cold beer and some sort of meal that would otherwise spoil in our backpacks. I think I might make some BBQ pork or get some steaks from the store. We'll be at the cache spot (If the whole plan doesn't go out the window) around noon on the second day. We should be set up by one in the afternoon, and drinking some cold beer by 5 with plenty of time to sleep off any ill effects from drinking too much beer.

I think my friends will be really surprised. I'm not telling them anything about the cache, I'm just going to dig it up when we get there.

[HOP]

Try buying or making a large block of ice about the size of the inside of your cooler and keep the beer seperate big block wil melt slower and you can chop it down some when you get there and them add the beer. There is time to experement.