How many travel with out a stove?

Love campfire cooking
We do most of our cooking over the campfire, but always take a stove along too. In the spring it’s part of the safety plan as getting a hot drink into someone quickly is a good way to restore body warmth should someone dump. In the summer it is insurance against a fire ban.



As far as weight savings go, for a 4 day trip we would come out ahead leaving the hatchet and saw behind and just using the stove, but where’s the fun in that? :slight_smile:

Fire
On long kayaking trips in Southeast Alaska we take a canister and an ultrlight stove in case we need to warm someone up while the fire is starting. We’ve never had to use the canister stove. We use fire for all of our meals and tea. The same for backpacking.



On the rare occasions we are in a national park that forbids fire, we use the stove. Fire is easier, lighter and more predictable than a stove.

stove or fire
The longer the trip the more you need multiple systems. Stoves are handy for quick stops, wet weather, places with little fuel, and fire danger.



Cooking with wood is rewarding most of the time when it is legal.

How bout a wood stove
On pretty much every trip kayak or backpacking I take either my pocket rocket or Esbit and also my Emberlite wood stove. I tend to use my Emberlite more than the others and bring minimal fuel to save weight or space and use them as a backup. Part of the fun of the trip is the hunt for firewood.

Well…
… learning to make decent meals over a pocket rocket with bags of dehydrated food is a challenge in itself. It also teaches preperation and planning by packing the meals and conserving fuel. Since most often I am camping with scouts it is a lot eaiser on everyone if they canoe like they backpack.



Any idiot can burn a hot dog over a fire, it takes a special kind of idiot like me to make red beans and rice with beef or chicken alfredo in 5 min with a pocket rocket. This summers mission, jumbalaya.



Anyway, most of the places we go are national forest, or private where we get permission from the owners and only leave bent grass behind. Best way to get invited back is to treat their stuff better than you treat your own.

Always carry one
I always carry one. They don’t weigh that much so why not. Plus you can’t always find firewood and I hate to take it with.

Some have canoe in stove. Some
have stove-in canoe.

and others…
have a stove in a stove in canoe.

One thing about W&C canoes is, they’ll
burn in a stove, leaving very little residue. Not like those nasty composite boats that leave fiberglass shards to get in your lungs when you haul the ashes.

And Com kayaks do smell
when they burned, my neighbor lost 2 yesterday to his brush burning.

Usually
When I’m with my wife I will sometimes take an alcohol stove. But when I’m by myself I’m stove less. When on the water or backpacking, I prefer this method. And while paddling or walking all day I’d just rather snack. With some snacks every two to three hours I never want a meal.

burn


The vastness of burned out lands stuns. And we are the people who did that.


Often
I’m always looking for ways to simplify the entire trip experience. Leaving the stove behind is one of the ways. A stove is a hindrance at breakfast time, when you want to be paddling in the quiet morning hours. And cooking creates a lot of fuss and mess at suppertime, when you’re tired and just want to sit and enjoy the sunset, and prepare for the next day’s paddle.

A long long time ago…
A long time ago in my youth, before my friends and I could afford a backpack stove, we cooked exclusively by campfire. We camped rain or shine and ate many late meals by punky smoldering fires fueled by wet wood.



Then the wealthiest among us acquired a Coleman single burner liquid gas stove. THAT changed our level of comfort immensly. We only used it for emergencies and that allowed us to only carry a minimal amount of fuel. When it rained or when we arrived at camp late in the darkness of night or simply too exhausted, we would use that gas stove. It was a Godsent.



Today, I cook mostly by liquid gas stove. I appreciate the minimal imprint on my camp. If we desire to stare into a flame, I use a candle.

Pa, dogs are ready…


http://www.americanforests.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Freeway-Complex-Fire.jpg

Nope, lots of places it is not possible
or responsible to have a campfire, and even in parks where I do plan to have a fire in the provided fire ring, a stove is reassuring insurance against unexpected burn bans, lack of firewood, and wet firewood that just won’t light. Lots of great little lightweight stove choices out there, I am fond of my MSR Pocket Rocket, but I also have a little esbit stove, hard to find anything lighter and more compact than that.

Almost always use a stove
Our stove when it is stowed is only about four inches in diameter and an inch thick. The largest part is the cylinder of butane

Fires are for the young people, newbies, and those that only paddle half a day.

After paddling all day, all we want is a nice hot meal, and in the morning just some hot oat meal and a cup of coffee.



Jack L

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the fire
off a candle is so romantic ! Nothing like a roaring candle top off an evening camping in the deep pine forest.

Oh goodness I cannot let this go -
“Fires are for the young people, newbies, and those that only paddle half a day.”



Hogwash.



With all due respect. :slight_smile:

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Agree with Jack
Although I love to sit around a fire, and have many times on group trips or when car camping, I’ve never made a fire when canoe tripping alone, which is what I mainly do.



Jack qualified his comment in the context of “paddling all day.” That’s what I like to do, and I want to spend as little time as possible setting up camp, doing camp chores, hanging around a camp, and breaking down a camp. That includes things like scrounging for wood and tinder, processing wood, tending a fire and putting it out. Some people love to do those things and revel in bushcraft. That’s of no interest to me.



I’ve used nothing but a Jetboil stove and a spork as my “kitchen” for more than 10 years. My preference is maximum time on water, minimum time on land, and avoid as much kitchen and housekeeping work as possible.



Another qualification is that I only trip in warm climes and weather any more, times when fire isn’t needed for warmth.

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