Hawk - Go with cheesecake. It never fails to hit the spot.

I take a cheap 6-pk promotional cooler. It is nylon and probably Thinsulate. Keep it in the shade covered with a wet towel and it will keep ice 3 - 4 days easy. A Platypus bag filled with water will still have ice in it up to 4 - 5 days in August. The rest of the cooler will probably >50? for the last few days though. Keep the stuff you want the coldest, together in the center. Soda isn't very good even at cool 50? IMO and you can't freeze it.

Other cooler stuff could include; ice, frozen boxes of juice concentrate, milk, cheese spreads, to booze, stove gas from the freezer and bacon, sausage, cheese, first nights meal, squeeze margarine, jelly... from the fridge. I've never used it for a cooler but remember to ventilate the gas if you plan to use dry ice in an air tight container.

Hey, can you freeze hard cheeses without a loss in body and texture? I find spreads that come frozen will mold fairly quickly. So will pre-packaged grated cheese w/o freezing.

I try to keep steak crystal-y as long as possible. After that's gone I can still get a few ice cold drink mixes as the food that's left just needs to be kept cool not cold. That's when a mix of insulation, nighttime temps and evaporative cooling take over. Given the same 50?, I'll take whatever-aid over flat soda anytime.

I don't know if the plastic bottles are legal or not. You can burn them in Ontario. That's not possible in MN. I know Ely, GM area liquor stores say they're "BWCAW Legal." Are they?