[pct-l] Three Questions/Going Stoveless

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

A friend of mine named Lenny did the same thing. Built a little tiny  
fire for cooking each night. He got really good at it.

What I did was set up my little tiny stove to heat up the water while  
I set up my tent. It was usually boiling before I got all my stuff  
set up for the night. I dropped in the noodles and immediately  
wrapped up my pot in my hat or socks or whatever. Then I did my  
journaling and reading the next day's guide book pages. After 15  
minutes, dinner was ready.

Sometimes I took a break around 5pm and made my dinner. Then I put  
the noodles in the pot and put the pot in a ziplock and wrapped it in  
socks or whatever and put it in my pack. Two hours later, dinner was  
ready and cooked to perfection.

I am with Mendorider on the old Wilderness press guidebooks. I wanted  
to know about the trees and mountains and other natural history  
around me. It would have bugged me not to know some of that stuff.

Diane

On Oct 5, 2011, at 10:00 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> I recently bumped into Blood Bath at the Dinsmores.  He was one of  
> the first
> to make it to Manning this year, and he's a great guy who hardly  
> fits the
> name.  Some of you may remember him for winning the "junk food in a  
> bear can
> contest" at Kick Off, but cutting himself on the bear can and  
> bleeding all
> over the contest.  What a scene.  He got his trail name on the  
> spot.  I went
> over his gear with him when he took a zero, as two thrus in a room  
> with a
> lot of time will do, and he said he cooked his meals almost every  
> evening on
> a very small fire.  He carried a really light alcohol stove and  
> just a small
> amount of alcohol for  inclement weather, but rarely used it.  With  
> all the
> speed and distance he traveled everyday, and he was fast, he loved the
> ritual of finding dry kindling over the last few miles before camp,  
> and then
> just having a little fire and dinner.  That's a bit of civilized  
> pre-bed
> behavior I may try next year in the areas where it would be safe  
> and legal.
>  It surprised me that he had the energy to do it, but he loved it.
>
> Shroomer