Besides having no noticeable and immediate environmental impact, stoves are much more convenient to cook on than an open fire. They produce instantaneous heat, are not dependent on dry wood for fuel and don't blacken pots or make your food taste smoky.

There are oodles of stoves available and even more in which one can make on their own without much difficulty. The most popular however are commercially made canister models, followed by liquid fueled. Canister stoves are powered by cans of pre-pressurized fuel whereas liquid fueled types rely on the user to pour fuel in to a bottle and physically pressurize it. Both have their advantages and disadvantages.

In need of a multi-fuel liquid stove? MSR has the market by the horns. Take your pick from the classic Whisperlite International to the award winning DragonFly and others.

WARNING: When using any kind of liquid fuel stove, be sure to double or triple zip lock the fuel bottle and pack as far away from the food as possible. Even with no physical leakage, the fumes can permeate into and ruin your food supply. Yes, on one otherwise beautiful evening, we watched fig newtons and various other contaminated food go “poof” in the campfire.

Alternative stoves

Here's my home made Super Cat alcohol stove & fuel of choice. This stove boils 2 cups water in 4.5-5 minutes on one ounce of the 190 proof. Total burn time is 6.5 minutes. Weighs less than an ounce, took 10 minutes to make & cost .79 cents. In the background is my 4 fluid oz fuel bottle (Listerine "sample"). Tip: To keep even the thirstiest of boozers out of your fuel, drop your bottoms at camp & let them see the open bottle touch your naked behind. Specs: 3 oz alum cat food can with 15 holes in top and 10 bottom. How to: Print then tape Super Cat Zen template to can; use push pin to make pilot holes then drill out with 3/16" ø bit (can be done w/ fingers). You're ready to cook!

There are multitudes of wood, tablet and alcohol stoves that can either be purchased commercially or made at home with minimal effort. These stoves vary from being nearly worthless to quite impressive.

Perhaps the most popular of these obscure stoves is the home made alcohol stove. They can be incredibly simple, surprisingly effective and weigh as little as a few grams. Furthermore, they can be made for free, sometimes in a matter of minutes and will burn potable Grain Alcohol such as 190 proof Everclear or Clear Spring (150 doesn't work very well). Of course, these stoves will also burn the less expensive alcohols such as Isopropyl, Denatured and Methyl...but, they contain a host of poisonous chemicals.

The downside to these stoves is that they are not powerful enough for boiling large amounts of water. They work best for simple meals requiring no more than 2 cups of water at a time and for one or two people on shorter trips. To squeeze the most from these little stoves, the use of a windscreen (alumunum foil works well) and pot lid is crucial.

Interested in making an alcohol stove? You're in luck as making these fun little units has become an obsessive hobby for some. As such, these "stovies" have shared considerable information on the Net. The below links will have everything you ever wanted to know. The Zen Stoves site is the most comprehensive.

http://zenstoves.net/
http://jwbasecamp.com/Articles/SuperCat/index.html
http://hikinghq.net/sgt_stove/ion_stove.html
http://wings.interfree.it/html/fallingw.html
http://www.garlington.biz/Ray/YACCS/index.htm

You are doing the environment, your grandkids & pocketbook a favor every time you make something from discarded materials rather than purchasing new. Deconsume. Needless consumption is one of the deeper roots to most of the worlds problems.

Another stove of interest is the home made wood stove made from a coffee can. I find them appealing because like the home made alcohol stoves, these can be made for free by anyone with materials that are normally discarded. While these wouldn’t be the most convenient stoves to use, they would be the lightest for long trips as one does not have to carry fuel. They instead rely on small twigs, which unlike larger wood for campfires, are easy to find under most trees…dry...even after rain. Despite the inconveniences of gathering fuel, tending the fire and the blackened pot, I’m anxious to experiment with one of these.

Here are three styles of coffee can wood stoves:

http://zenstoves.net/Wood.htm
http://www.imrisk.com/woodgas/coffeestove.htm
http://www.backpacking.net/makegear/falk-woodstove/index.html

Utensils

Titanium spork, aluminum foil lid & titanium pot. Very simple, compact & light at 2.5 oz. Note the holes in the spork handle. Am I nutty enough to drill those for weight reduction? Absolutely! But, those holes also serve another purpose: cooling. If the spork is left in the food being cooked, the handle will conduct heat. Hot handle = burned fingers. Holes = air flow = happy fingers.

With all that is available, it’s easy to get carried away with cups, pots, pans, plates, silverware and all the various other gizmos. Really though, all one needs is a spork and a simple pot with aluminum foil for the lid (if it overhangs, it can catch some of the fire's emissions & make your food taste funny). I prefer metal for the spork as it can be passed over a flame to disinfect. For the pot…anything that’s metal works. I have even seen people use large cans with wire handles. The square bottoms aren’t the most efficient in terms of boil time nor are they as easy to clean as a rounded bottom. But, due to the fact they are free and weigh little, cans are attractive. One should be warned though. The downside to using cans is the interior coating, or more specifically, the chemicals used in these coatings, namely, at this time, BPA. BPA leaches in to what ever liquidity substance comes in contact with it. Heat intensifies the leaching and in the case of boiling water or cooking food, you may ingest very high concentrations. The levels of BPA in the lining will likely decline after a certain amount of use, however, to my knowledge, there has been no scientific studies showing the extent of this. For these reasons, I would recommend against the use of a can for a cook pot. Remember too that there may be other chemicals besides BPA that could leach out of a can's lining. BPA is currently the one receiving the most attention in the scientific and legislative worlds. To learn more about BPA, click here.

If you have money burning a hole in your pocket, and have to have "new" and specialized, look no further than Snow Peak titanium. They have the largest selection, lightest and generally, least expenisve titanium cookware out there.

Additionally:

• wrap the spork and all other pointy objects in a pair of socks or other clothing to protect your drybags from punctures
• should you need a knife, use the one on your pfd
• instead of a cup, drink from your water bottle
• if you like hot beverages, consider a multi-purpose metal water bottle like this or drink from the pan
• use your pan as a bowl or eat from the freeze-dried packet

Toiletries & miscellaneous
These things weigh little, take up a minute amount of space and will generally make life a little more pleasant. The following is what I take:

• small vial of baking soda for toothpaste
• toothbrush (w/ half the handle cut off & the remainder filled w/ holes)
• dental flosser/pick
• roll of toilet paper with cardboard insert removed
• towel...if there are hot springs

  Tired of looking for your headlamp in the middle of the night? Wear it around your neck & you'll never forget where you left it.....hopefully. Here's a headlamp necklace made from a $10 keychain light. The band is simply a piece of 1/16" bungee cord. Pull it up around the head & you're ready to go. Inexpensive, simple, light weight & functional.

• lighter
• mini headlamp

I put the toothpaste, toothbrush and flosser in my cook pot along with the stove fuel. The roll of toilet paper goes in the lunch sack where it is easily accessible, the towel in the main drybags, and the lighter and headlamp in a ziplock then in to my PFD pocket.

I don't take soap or scrub pads. Besides not being cordial to the environment, soap isn’t needed and just creates unnecessary weight and bulk. This doesn’t mean you have to eat out of unsanitary pans and smell like a pig. Wet sand is as effective as any thing to wash utensils (a small rock rubbing sand against the pan removes stubbornly stuck food) and if you're compelled, your body can be washed off in the river or, in hot springs if you are lucky enough to have them. If you need a towel, look at the Cascade Designs PackTowl. They are so absorbent, the 1 ½ ounce small version is adequate for effectively drying the entire body.

11.18.11