Ranger Review: Mountain House freeze dried meals at Meander Lake
Campground Review
This campground is a magical escape without crowds or any sign of the modern world. You will most likely have the whole place to yourself, with your choice of the three campsites. The boundary waters are one of the few places in the United States that you can go to be without any man-made sounds - no nearby cities, no planes flying above. Just the wildness.
The camping is free. Just park at the dirt road and walk in to the sites. There is one outhouse up by the parking area. Each site comes with a picnic table and fire pit. Make sure to bring your own water, and pack out your trash.
This campground is particularly great for swimming, kayaking, and canoeing in the summer months. The lake is so comfortably warm that in the morning the water is warmer than the air temperature. In July and August there are wild blueberries everywhere - fun to gather them and delicious to eat! For fishing info and a map, refer to this document.
Product Review
As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get to test products to review for some of my camping trips. On this trip, we tested out two meals from Mountain House. (See my review of other meal options in my Horse Flats campground review). On this trip we had the Pasta Primavera and Italian Pepper Steak. These meals are the tastiest camp food - so delicious!
Pros
- super great taste. DELICIOUS. The more recipes I try, the more I am convinced that this brand makes amazing tasting meals
- quick to make. These meals are ready in 10 minutes or less, some are ready as soon as you add water. After a long day of climbing or hiking, or when you're waking up in the morning, it's so nice to have food ready so quickly
- easy to make. Just add water (boiling, usually). This also means that all we need to pack is a Jetboil, which is so much more convenient than packing a stove, pots, cooking oil, ingredients, cutting boards, etc.
- lightweight, and you can choose among packaging options for more compactness
Cons
- there are no vegan options, and very few vegetarian options. The Pasta Primavera is one of the two vegetarian options.
- I find the serving amounts to be unhelpful in their current format, because the calories per serving are so low. For example, with the Italian Pepper Steak, the pouch says "2.5 services", but there are only 180 calories per serving. If this were your sole meal item for dinner, I'd say that's more like 1 serving, especially if you're consuming these meals after a day of vigorous outdoor activity.
All in all, I'd say these meals are awesome for short trips or backcountry camping, when you want to pack minimally. And if you aren't trying to stick to a budget, then these meals are also great for longer trips / car camping if you just want delicious, easy, quick food without having to cook everything yourself