Gas grills

I like the little portable gas grills that look like a tool box. They use green gas cylinders. I am going to buy one for the drift boat. Perfect for a shore lunch like fresh trout.

YOu don’t really need a heavy and bulky 2 burner Coleman propane “suitcase” to cook a couple of fish. Go to a backpacking gear shop and get a single burner cartridge stove or, better yet, one that runs on napthalene (you fill the tank from a gallon can of Coleman fuel) and a frying pan with a folding handle (or get a small cast iron pan if you are a purist.)

One warning about the ubiquitous Coleman “suitcase” and Peak One stoves (I have owned several of each over my 55 years of car camping and backpacking): the valves in the newer ones are crap and will eventually start to fail. They can start to slip to the “off” position while you are cooking which means you have to hold onto the valve handle until your food is cooked. And they also creep “on”. I left my last Peak One single burner stove with a half empty cartridge in my car overnight while staying with my brother on my way up to Fall camp in the 'Dacks. Next morning I opened the car door to a cloud of propane! Damned good thing nobody was nearby with a lit cigarette. The valve had crept open and filled the car with gas. Even after I aired it out the vehicle smelled like
Chemical Alley" in Louisiana for the rest of the trip and weeks thereafter.

I still use a 50 year old Bleuet GAZ single burner backpacking stove. They stopped making the butane cartridges 20 years ago but I kept it (my first backpacking stove) for sentimental reasons. Then my local indie outfitter shop had a customer bring in gear for consignment last year for their “used” department and the stash included a box of the vintage cartridges he had found in his basement. So I have 6 cartridges now and conserve them for special trips. They are completely sealed (no integrated valve – a piercing valve on the stove unit activates them) so the gas is intact after however many decades these were stored.

I also have, and recommend (if you can find a vintage one in good shape on Ebay or Etsy) the classic Phoebus 725 white gas mountaineering stove from Austria. Comes in a red enameled tin can case and has a built in pump. I used one for years for winter backpacking and mountaineering. The thing is a real blowtorch and tough as nails.

gas “grils”.

I used to have a Weber charcoal kettle grill and loved it. Went to gas and kept having to replace the burners. About 25 years ago I bought a Weber Genesis (which kind of looks like today’s Spirit). I’ve had to replace the enameled grills and “flavorizer bars” (go with stainless steel). They want an outrageous amount of $ for them but they do last forever.