[pct-l] stoves and water filters

[Erik The Black]

I used a MSR Pocket Rocket canister stove on my thru hike. A canister stove
is an excellent choice. They are easy to operate, cook quickly, the flame is
adjustable and you don't need a windscreen.

Fuel canisters are more widely available than you would think. You can find
a list of places where you can usually find canisters here:

http://pctatlas.com/blog/fuel-canister/

There are a few places, such as the Sierra and Washington where canisters
are harder to find, but you can always mail them forward to yourself, or
just carry one of the larger 8 oz canisters.

I was able to get 2-3 weeks out of the large canisters cooking once per day,
and 7+ days out of the smaller 3.5 ounce canisters. Just boil water, add
food, and stick it in a pot cozy to conserve fuel.

Pump water filters suck. 

They are heavy and a pain in the butt to operate. A better alternative is an
inline water filter like the Sawyer inline filter, which weighs only a
couple of ounces. 

In SoCal you will often go through 2 gallons of water per day for drinking
and cooking. That's a lot of pumping to do. With the inline filter you just
fill up your water bladder and go, every time you take a drink the water is
filtered automatically.

The downside of those inline filters is they get clogged after a while.
According to the manufacturer there is supposed to be a way to backwash them
and clean them out, but I never figured that out. After 700 miles drinking
through it was like trying to suck a balloon through a straw.

North of Kennedy Meadows I ditched the filter altogether and used only MSR
Sweetwater drops for water treatment for the rest of the trip.

-Erik The Black
www.pctatlas.com



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Message: 2
Date: Wed, 25 Mar 2009 23:06:13 -0700
From: Bethany Cooper <bethanycooper at gmail.com>
Subject: [pct-l] stoves and water filters
To: pct-l at backcountry.net
Message-ID: <8FCA51E5-6447-4FB8-92EA-10009CDCBA9D at gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes

Hi,

I am replacing my MSR Whisperlite stove and would like suggestions  
from past thru-hikers.  I am thinking of going with a screw-on  
canister stove.  Are the standard butane/propane canisters readily  
available in most resupply towns?  Any other thoughts, pros/cons with  
that style?

I use an MSR Sweetwater filter.  For those who have thru-hiked with  
the same filter, what is your experience with filter life, i.e., how  
many filters did you go through over the course of the entire trail?

Thanks!

Bethany