Dry ice question

[C17loadclear]

Hey guys,
I am in the final planning phase for my archery Wyoming trip and am trying to figure out the best way to keep my frozen food frozen..

My original plan was to leave home with dry ice with frozen milk jugs filling up the rest of the cooler(2 days of travel). There will be hamburger, hot dogs, bacon ect in that cooler.

I have a separate cooler for stuff I don’t want frozen so no issues there.

So the question is, is dry ice the best option? I am aware of the safety concerns and have used it for a short term trip but not a long one(this trip is planned for 3 weeks)

Thanks

 

[jpcoll01]

If it is a decent cooler just the frozen water jugs will do for a 2 day trip and many days after assuming you don't leave the cooler open for any amount of time. Sorry, I may have misunderstood. Do you need to keep it frozen for 3 weeks or a couple days? If 3 weeks you will have to replace dry ice but it's doable.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

Dry ice won't last that long. It'll sublimate well before the three week mark...

That being said, its a great way to keep stuff frozen and not have to worry about it getting wet like with normal ice.


The real trick to a trip that long would be if you can restock your dry ice while on the trip. If you could do that, it'll help a ton.



Also, if you're putting it in a cooler, I like to create another cooler inside of it for the dry ice to get it to last longer. I use 2" foam board and build a mini cooler around the ice. Helps extend the life of the ice when you don't need the whole cooler to be -50...


Much easier to work with than wet ice, but difficult to find supply at times. Whereas wet ice is sold in every gas station...

 

[Caseknife]

Dry ice would work good for keeping stuff frozen that you don't need at the start of the trip. The cooler has to be sealed good to keep the dry ice from evaporating. If you can see the vapor leaking out, not sealed good enough. Doesn't work if you are getting into the cooler frequently.

 

[tillicant]

We had a group that would hunt almost every year, got sick of dealing with ice, bought a small honda generator, a used small chest freezer. We de-bone everything during the hunt. Would run the generator at camp during the day, shut off at night. Problems over. Use this now when hunting with the wife. We usually stay somewhere with electric now so just bring a cord.
Ice is used in containers on the way out.
Use dry ice for the ride back.

 

[wytex]

We pack our frozen food inside a smaller Styrofoam cooler inside the big cooler with ice jugs.
Dry ice is all over out here so maybe get some a few days in just to re freeze your ice jugs.
Keep your cooler in the shade and covered at camp.

 

[C17loadclear]

Thanks for the replies.. my hope was to only come to town once for ice during the 3 week trip. I plan on eating stuff as it thaws and then switching over to freeze dried stuff later in the trip. Since I will have 3 days on the first dry ice purchase, I am gonna try and get more dry ice in Saratoga on my way out to the woods if possible. I gave some serious thought to buying a little chest freezer but with no one in camp all day I am concerned my Honda my grow legs while we are hunting

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

Thanks for the replies.. my hope was to only come to town once for ice during the 3 week trip. I plan on eating stuff as it thaws and then switching over to freeze dried stuff later in the trip. Since I will have 3 days on the first dry ice purchase, I am gonna try and get more dry ice in Saratoga on my way out to the woods if possible. I gave some serious thought to buying a little chest freezer but with no one in camp all day I am concerned my Honda my grow legs while we are hunting

I chain my generator to something sturdy. Not going to stop someone who really wants it, but I figure a hardened chain and lock will at least stop bolt cutters from taking your genny.

Until the just cut out the chain from the plastic handle ....

 

[grizzly_]

I hate when somebody runs a generator all day. Just because they're not in camp to hear to it, doesn't mean nobody else is.