[philmont] Stove Thougts

Just some random thoughts on the stove thread from my years in the boonies - Philmont included. No particular order.

A stove will break. For our last Philmont trip this was not until our night at Bear Creek - the guys dropped my Whisperlite face down in a very dusty cooking site. Heavy sigh. Used my partner's for the remainder of the trip. TAKE TWO STOVES - EXACTLY THE SAME TYPE.

Pots will spill. I resist the idea of a single 8 quart pot for a crew. We take two 4 quart pots and we do cook on both stoves. We also use turkey bags. This process has saved us a number of times. POTS WILL BE SPILLED.

Stoves need to be stable. I purchased my son a MSR Pocket Rocket stove for his personal camping gear. Nice stove for a single person but honestly I can't see cooking for a crew of 12 on one. Stability would be an issue for a 4 quart pot, let alone an 8 quart pot. I love gadgets, and the Pocket Rocket is a gadget, fine for single or couple use, but not for crews. (All in my own humble opinion, of course! J )

Take enough fuel for the entire trip. It takes fuel to cook. While canisters might be fine, but to depend on their being the right canister for the right stove at the trading post you will be staying at tonight may leave you eating cold, dry food. Actually, I have no problem with the guys learning this lesson, but I have eaten enough cold, dry food in my days I would just as soon take a pass. We take two quart MSR bottles of white gas and two pint bottles to actually attach to the stove. This usually leaves us nearly a quart left at the end of a week trip, but remember FUEL BOTTLES SPILL and having the extra along can prevent the dreaded cold, dry food.

White gas starts, no matter what the temperature. Our coldest campout this past year was in January, -4 degrees. My coldest to date has been -22 degrees. Canister stoves are a real bear at these temps. However, my Whisperlite has never failed, no matter how cold. I prefer to get the guys used to gear that will work, no matter what the conditions.

Just some thoughts. Of course, variety is the spice of life so we also encourage lots of cooking over an open fire, we do use Coleman two burner, white gas camp stoves and I have each scout make a little alcohol stove out of a couple of coke cans. But, for day in - day out performance, it is pretty hard to beat my good old Whisperlite!

One final thought. Our next Philmont trip will be August 2008. Next month we will switch our campouts to "Philmont Mode". All gear will be packed as we will at Philmont. Weights will be watched, base pack not over 25 pounds. Meals will be similar to Philmont with our cooking techniques adjusted accordingly. And, camps will be kept in Philmont fashion - the bear triangle, smellable bags, and hanging of bags where possible (not a lot of bears in Iowa J ). This seems to do a good job for us to get the guys ready so no time is wasted at Philmont getting the guys on the same page.

Is it time to go yet???

Bill Keller

ASM Troop 47

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Received on Wed Apr 4 12:27:09 2007