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Why to pack a thermos on your next trip

It’s early morning, you may or may not have slept well and it’s cold… ever so cold. Scratch that. It’s late morning, you slept really well and you’re late to get back in the canoe to continue the trip. wait, wait… Even better, you’re planning to stop for lunch and it’s pouring rain; Your matches are wet and the anticipation of hot soup is killing you. Yah, that’s more like it. You’re hungry, you don’t want to light a fire or fetch water for your stove, but you want something hot, NOW! What do you do?

If you’re interested in a bit of creature comfort, you should probably think about packing a thermos on your next outdoor adventure. Those wonders of vacuum sealing and insulation that have been around for a LONG time and were in Grandad’s lunch kit are often ignored when making up your gear list, but there’s a reason Grandad packed it.

This could be your ticket to an easy morning at camp and relaxation when the rest of the crew are fiddling with stoves and have gone off to fetch a pail of water.


Sunrise on the Choro Trail. I took a Stanley vacuum food container on the trip to make morning meals easier.

As part of a car camping or canoe trip, day hike, car trip or even just to store a hot lunch, the old classic thermos can do a lot to make your day that much more comfortable. You can do all your water boiling at one time and still enjoy more than 1 hot meal per day.


A few months back I was sent a 20 oz Vacuum Food Jar by Stanley I’ve been experimenting with it since then and thinking of different ways to put something like this to use. It’s certainly not Ultralight gear material at 18 oz weight, but as a luxury addition to your canoe or car camping kit it’s a great little piece of gear that holds a wealth of convenience.

My Stanley vacuum food jar ready for the hot water.

Here’s a few tips or uses for your thermos. While making dinner, boil a couple extra cups and pour them into your thermos for the next morning.  You won’t have to worry about getting water or fiddling with your stove or camp fire in the morning. You can even pack up camp the night before and be ready to go early for that extra 15 minutes of fishing! If the night gets really cold, you’re set for a cup of hot chocolate to warm you up for those extra couple hours until morning! 


For all those DIY cookers and bulk buyers, you can save on waste and disposable junk by using your thermos to rehydrate your meals. Even better, you save on fuel as you just have to boil your water, pour your meal into the thermos, seal it and let it finish cooking there! 

Here are some of the features of my Stanley Vacuum Food Jar:

  • Keeps hot/cold 12 hours. 
  • Wide-mouth opening. 
  • Protective double-wall construction. 
  • Stainless steel. 
  • Rustproof finish. 
  • BPA free
  • Lifetime warranty.
In my experience, the 12 hour rating would be for a full container and probably at about sea level. When I tried it at altitude using 1/4 capacity (10000 feet where water boils at a lower temperature) it had cooled down significantly when I opened it after 12/13 hours. An 8 hour storage time would be a safe bet for keeping your food hot. At 9-10 hours it will be warm, not boiling hot.
The capacity is a big plus on this one. 20 oz is a great size for 2 hungry outdoors adventurers. The wide mouth top is one of my favorite features. I’ve been turned off thermoses in the past by how hard they are to clean out, but Stanley has certainly applied their years of experience to this one.
The Stainless steel also means that there’s no bad taste in the food, no matter how many hours it sits for. 
To top it all off, in the lid there’s a nice foldable spoon. Although it looks a bit short for the depth of the jar, the wide mouth means that you’re not likely to get goop on your hand when you’re digging out the last of your oatmeal or stew.
If you haven’t thought about taking a thermos on the trail or in your canoe, you should definitely look into the options out there and think about the convenience factor of not having to pull your stove out all the time when you need a bit of hot water.
Do you have a Stanley or thermos story or maybe another tip for those who are new to thermoses? We’d love for you to leave a comment below!

About Paul

A guy trying to get away from his desk so that he can fish, hike, play and just plain be in the outdoors.

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