Coolers
Most days you are not provisioning a week-long trip. You are hauling lunch and a few drinks to a blind, a boat, or the far end of a property, and a 60-quart hard chest is the wrong tool for that. Soft coolers win the day trip because they weigh a fraction as much empty and collapse down once the food is gone.
The Muddy 16-quart soft cooler
The Muddy 16QT Soft Cooler ($129.99) is double-walled insulated in Mossy Oak Bottomland, which matters if it is sitting next to you in a blind rather than on a picnic table.
- Capacity: 12 cans plus ice, or 24 cans with no ice. Plan around the first number, since ice is the whole point.
- Two carry options: top handle for short moves, removable shoulder strap when your hands are full of decoys or a gun.
- Stretch exterior pocket for utensils, a knife, or the snacks you want without opening the lid.
- Packs down when empty, so the ride home does not cost you the same cargo space as the ride out.
Getting more out of a small cooler
Pre-chill it. A soft cooler loaded warm spends its first two hours cooling its own walls instead of your food. Throw a sacrificial bag of ice in the night before, dump it in the morning, then load. Block ice outlasts cubes by a wide margin in a 16-quart body, and filling the empty space with a towel cuts the air the ice has to keep cold. Done right, a small soft cooler holds through a full day sit without opening the lid every hour to check.
Keep the rest of your kit dry with a waterproof dry bag, set up a spot to eat with camp chairs and tables, or browse the full camping lineup.