Ask the old hard core trippers and they'll tell you that those ugly, white buckets just aren't practical. Then they'll go on to tell you what you really need is an ash pack basket to carry your food. They are easy to carry, have a flat lid so you can stack more junk on top during a portage and they look right at home in the canoe or at camp. As an extra, they'll say, you should get the waterproof liner for it too.

Well let me tell you something. If you happen to run across some squaw sitting around the campfire, hammering on a chunk of Black Ash, which of course is now almost as rare as a squaw, then you might have a chance at a pack basket. You see, to properly construct the ash basket, black ash is pounded to separate the annular rings, then split into strips and woven while green. This produces an extremely strong and reasonably lightweight basket. The guys that'll take your money, however, haven't got the time or inclination for that and will sell you a basket made from sawn white ash. Knock one over and sit down hard during a brawl over the last pork chop, and it'll break. I say reject high priced, poor performance gear and look to the landscape for readily available raw materials to make cheap, durable gear. It seems that 5 gallon buckets are the natural raw material of this age.

Inexpensive Dry Bag?
For a cheap alternative to dry bags a 5 gallon bucket can be used for dry storage. A typical joint compound bucket has a water tight cover that will keep your stuff dry. Just one caution though, the covers have been known to pop off if stressed too much so a tie down or good old duct tape adds the extra degree of security. Covers that assure a tighter seal and screw off tops can be purchased at some outdoor stores. A bucket can also double as a seat at the lunch breaks or around the camp fire on overnight trips. Rod Dore 3/99

Donut Shop Buckets
On canoe camping and touring trips it is often useful to have buckets along with waterproof tops. These buckets are useful for carrying things that are sharp, that need to be kept dry, that are odd shaped, that need to be accessed quickly, or that shouldn't be crushed. I use one of these buckets to carry my Coleman lantern, fuel, and tools. I use others for food such as bread, flour, pasta, etc.

These buckets are light weight and when empty can be nested inside each other while paddling. Around camp they have numerous uses such as seats, wash pails, water transport, settling silt out of water before filtering, raising bread dough, keeping food away from small animals, and of course water fights.
Bringing along an extra cover with a large oval hole cut out allows the bucket to serve as a carry-out port-a-potty that is actually quite comfortable and reasonably high. The other cover is not a large item to pack. With a set of identical and interchangeable buckets on the river, as the food supply buckets are emptied, they can be used for the used food.

On the river, the top of a good bucket with an O-ring seal will keep the insides dry. It will stay tight even if there is a fair amount of abuse. There is always the chance that something could pop off the top so it is advisable to pack food inside a plastic bag inside the bucket.

There are several sources of these buckets. As in many cases in life, the best things are free (or used to be.) Many people use "mud" buckets left over from plastering. This are sturdy buckets but are not made of food grade plastic so you should hesitate to use them for contact with food or for handling your drinking water.
Often you can buy these buckets in a hardware store. These are also not food grade. They also have the disadvantage that they are not strong. I've seen them crack many times. The covers don't stay on very well. … And they are expensive.

I think the best source of these buckets are the Donut Shops. Unfortunately as our collective taste for donuts has waned in favor of bagels and other "less fattening" treats, the supply of buckets has also waned. I've become an expert on the buckets thrown out by a nearby donut shop.

I used to be able to get little berry picking buckets that the strawberry icing came in. I used to be able to get the" Stan's Lunch Bucket" sized bucket that had the chocolate icing. I used to be able to get the tall "mud bucket" sized buckets that had the vanilla and chocolate "crème" filling. I can still get the big, but not tall, bucket that had the "honey dipped" glazing. Most of these icings and filling are not being served by all Donut shops so the buckets are no longer available. Check out the next donut shop you are in and note the icings and fillings. If you see some of these exotic flavors, run around back or ask if you can have the empty buckets. Careful. In the summer the yellow jackets hang out in them.

Why bother with all this? Well, the buckets that the donut shops use are heavy duty, food quality, and much more reliable that buckets from any other source. They have numerous household uses such as mop buckets, potting soil, trash buckets, etc. Unfortunately some of the donut shops have figured this out and want to charge for the used buckets. OK, that's fair. You'll find they are much better quality that buckets you can buy elsewhere.

Happy munching. - Tom Todd 2/00