Keeping Outdoor the Food Cold for a Long Period of Time in a Bug Out Situation or Camping

Keeping outdoor the food cold for a long period of time is a big problem in special in a Bug Out situation.

The ice in cooler in the summer time, more the 2 days will not stay if are not take proper measures such like keeping in the shade, buried in the ground or o cold stream, river, pond, lake, etc.

For this reason, I came with a solution for keeping outdoor my food fresh for a very long period the time and from the results and tests, I got the meat OK for eating after two weeks in day with the temperature range up and over to 80 degrees Fahrenheit. And this solution is to have the cooler buried in the river under a tree shade and sometime when was to hot I used salt too for the meet. All other products, like vegetables and dairy products was OK for me to eat after more the two weeks. Of course, you can add if you have how few plastic bottles with water frozen in inside to the cooler think that will almost double you change to have a piece of meet on the table with out hunting or trapping. I'm using this method for long days of driving on the backcountry road and I had the water frozen in the bottle after 6 days of keeping the coolers in the truck crossing the desert too.

The project its simple and this are the steps that I did after I found a safe location closer the my camp and under shade.

First at all, I believe is better to be gather all the materials that you need, natural or man made for a faster and a organized job and in the end for a finishing touch, you just grab and gather the material what you still need. After that, what is left, was to dig a trench on the bed river, pound few sticks on the edges of the trench and form a link with the rope between sticks on the downstream for extra protection from river currents. Because I had two coolers and the river currents was fast and over night had possibility the river to getting higher, I did a extra work on this project and I build a rock wall to around to the coolers with a point of water entrance and exit about one feet from the wall top. Beside controlling the river currents power, this entrance and exit had roles of keeping the water colder and circulate like in a cooling system. Once all this its done I just drooped the cooler in, tight them up with a rope the handles and cross one bungee cords over the cooler lid and just hook up on the sticks that I pounded special for this at the middle of the length of the cooler. For extra safety for the cooler from the river currents and wildlife I added few boulders on the top too. On the end, I got few local trees branches over the coolers and by lateral by stick them in the river bed for a better shade and camouflage them from curios eyes. Once in a wile, I just refreshed this natural " wall " of vegetation.

For this project you need:


a shovel or you can improvise something for digging on the stream bead a trench to lay the cooler.



few sticks about 3 feet longer ( the length can be different from what I used  just because of the size of cooler will be using or the bed material of the stream, river etc that can be strong or soft ) that will be pounded on the stream bed and in the corners of the trench.


two heavy duty bungee cords ( here the length or number of bungee cords its at you discretion because of the size of the cooler or coolers number that you are using)


few feet of rope for extra safety, in special if the stream or river its fast or can become faster because of different reason, natural or man-made. The rope I used to tie the cooler  handles and also, I used to form a link between the stick. In special on the down stream side.

also, I used few boulders on the top of the cooler for extra weight and keep the cooler safe from wildlife in despite that the bungee cords had been crossing over the lid with enough strength.

other materials that you need are enough rocks and boulders for building a rock wall around to the coolers and along to the trench.  ( The wall will have a enter and a exit point for the water about one feet from the top) and few brunches of local trees for keeping shade and camouflage the location. I used few branches by stick them in the river bed and others on the top.                                Thank you for looking over my project and the vote and I hope this all help to enjoy the outdoor better with a steak, and a cold drink in front to you :)