[pct-l] stove choices

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

On Sep 7, 2010, at 12:38 PM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> what do you do when it's raining or storming so badly that you  
> can't leave your tent? From what we've seen and heard, alcohol  
> stoves aren't safe enough to use inside tents.

If it is that bad, I eat cold food. I would not trust any stove  
inside a small tent. I carried only one hot meal for each day, so if  
I wanted to eat breakfast or lunch food at dinner time, it usually  
worked out okay. Switching the meals around never resulted in hardship.

Remember that most people hiking the trail do so between April and  
early October and thus do not experience real winter conditions.  
There may be a little dusting of snow. There may be leftover snow  
from winter to walk over during the day. There may be a rain storm.  
But it's not going to be like what you do in Tahoe in December  
through May or whenever.

When it rained on my hike, I was usually able to find a campsite  
under a tree and I could usually set up my tent without being rained  
on too much and cook my dinner out in the open and sometimes even eat  
it out in the open while watching the rain fall around me.

Also, tarps are good for cooking under if you have a real big one.