I think we were all impressed by the presentation by Trog at our last meeting (January 26, 2006). Some of the things I took away from the presentation were:His base pack weighs just 11.4 pounds. That is his pack without food, water, and a couple of items of weather-related clothing. In other words, he can pick up his base pack, throw in about two pounds of food and four pounds of water and he can be gone for a couple of days. The bottom line is that his pack doesn’t even weigh 20 pounds.
His two-season sleeping bag weighs just one pound. His tent weighs 22 ounces. I am not sure how he does that—my tent is just 23” high at the peak and it weighs close to 3 pounds.His stove weighs an ounce. OK—if you add the windscreen and basket it weighs maybe four ounces, but it cost him pennies to make because the burner is made out of a couple of soft drink cans and there are no moving parts to break. The can could develop a hole, but there are usually plenty of cans around to make a new stove out of. It turns out there are a large number of such stove plans out there. I have included links to a few. One of the Fallingwater sites has a bunch of links, but they are mostly stale. I would like to say that I made a burner for a stove like Trog’s in just 15 minutes, but it actually takes a bit longer than that because fitting two cans together which are of equal diameter was a bit tough. Once assembled, however, it works fine with 70% alcohol and even better with 91% alcohol. That’s just rubbing alcohol which isn’t dangerous to carry, comes in nice easy-to-carry bottles, and can be used for first aid to boot. I have used Sterno stoves in the past—Sterno is an alcohol product—but this idea works and smells better. Best of all, if you are flying somewhere, you don’t have to worry about packing your stove on the plane and you know that alcohol fuel will be readily available at almost any destination. You can also purchase stove alcohol at any marine supply store or you can use a product called Heet which is available at any automotive store.
He burns just a couple of ounces of fuel a day, about one ounce per meal.
His cook kit is just a titanium pot with lid. That’s it. His eating and food preparation utensils consist of just a spoon. That’s it. Take a look at the OR polycarbonate spoon and test the edge on it. That’s why you don’t need much else.
The key to everything is that stove. Sure it’s simple, but it says so much. I am going to make simple meals on the trail. I am going to make meals that are easy to clean up. I am not going to waste water. I am not going to waste time with food preparation—an ounce of fuel burns 7-9 minutes so cooking will take no more time than that.
He also talked about double, triple, and quadruple uses for everything. You don’t need a bandana, hat, towel, potholder, and washcloth if you buy a really large bandana. Not those little wimply things you get in most stores. Trog had one that must have been 2’ square. Boy Scout neckerchiefs used to be bigger and they were square. Maybe it’s time to reinvent part of our uniform …
He also talked about care of equipment. Take care of your sleeping bag. Protect your equipment. Buy equipment that will hold up, but don’t abuse it so that it doesn’t work when you need it. When your total pack for two days is under 20 pounds, you obviously aren’t carrying much in the way of spares.
Some of what he told us isn’t completely applicable to patrol-style camping, but most of it is. Coleman stoves, for instance, are great for patrols where individual stoves don’t make a lot of sense. You might think that alcohol would be cheaper than white gas, but it isn’t. On the other hand, for those small-group trips into the mountains where all you really want is a hot cup of something and maybe some oatmeal, you can toss the Whisper-Lite stove plus the repair kit plus the fuel bottle and just carry a small alcohol stove and a small bottle of fuel.
Before going any further with alcohol stoves, read this note!
Big safety note: Alcohol burns with a flame that is almost impossible to see in daylight. Don’t play with anything that uses flame. Don’t pour fuel from a large bottle into a stove that is even slightly warm. Don’t put your face anywhere near a stove. And remember that these stoves do develop pressure so be careful. Better yet—let’s do any stove making and experimentation in troop meetings and not at home.
Here are some links to homemade alcohol stoves — or just Google “soda can alcohol stove”:
http://www.pcthiker.com/pages/gear/pepsistove.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soda_can_stove
http://journeytoforever.org/edu_bkpkstove.html
http://art.simon.tripod.com/Stoves/
http://www.backpacking.net/makegear/cat-stove/
http://wings.interfree.it/html/snuffer.html
http://www.readymademag.com/feature_11_gotorch.php
http://trailquest.net/dlgcstovesupws.html
http://marquardts.org/mindspring/can/index.htm
http://wings.interfree.it/html/fallingw.html
-Hank Manz, SM Troop 160
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