the fact that this one packs flat is really nice. i'm gonna look to converting the littlbug into a front feed.

I really like this wood burner  (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links); feeds from the front.

sir -  it might be interesting to take a peak at a white box stove.....it is an all too light alcohol stove and i've carried one for several years to heat the water for my dehydrated meals that (like you) i tuck into a cosy.....well..just a thought.

cheers

db wrote on Apr 4^th, 2013 at 7:10am:


Careful, statements like this eventually get used as quotes at the bottom of PJ's posts.  I couldn't have said it better db.

Ouch Marten! Black fly bite?

On the stick stoves in general, they seem more applicable to LNT hiking where there may or may not be rocks and standing fireplaces but hey, whatever turns your crank.

On the goal sidebar. Goals and expectations are good for group trips so everyone gets about what they expect but for a solo? A solo vacation? Tomorrow is another day to burn daylight. Enjoy what's offered and make the best of it.

Goals, benchmarks and their ilk are left at home on my trips. Timing is everything. I have only myself to please and very few days to do it in.

It is all about how dry and sound your wood is.

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I agree, a "goal" whatever that my be is always worthwhile. I think anyone embarking on their first solo after tripping with others will find out rather quickly how fast time flies and how tired you can get when your carrying the whole load.
I think being 'Lonely" is something you'll find out the first few nights alone. Good to have a bailout plan just incase you really can't stand those little voices in your head.

Certainly can't argue with anything ST has put forth.......

That being said.......and in no way intentionally trying to be argumentative allow me to flesh out my perspective.

If you don't have a "mission", a "purpose" or a "goal" to achieve while going solo I have found (again just my experience) that a trip can quickly devolve into a melancholy and somber affair.

Smell the roses? Absolutely! I often make it a point while solo to stop after finishing a portage for 5 minutes or so and just observe. That is usually about how long it takes before the local residents go back to doing what they typically do. But then it is back on task! And of course writing is a big part of any outdoor endeavor for me. Not unusual to be writing after breakfast or on a slab of rock in the evening while watching my rod.

What I have noticed is if you stay busy.......put in long hard days you are apt to be less (if at all!) lonely. Plus there is a supremely satisfying feeling of accomplishment when all is said and done. As in........Wow, what a trip!

On the other hand........one must not confuse long hard days with hurrying and being in a rush. Therein lies the trap. There is much that can go wrong when speed becomes the taskmaster.

Perhaps I am sorry to have deviated from the discussion about the stove as what Mat has said has much merit and is worthy of thought.........particularly the solo stove being "tippy" (burns from cooking are the #1 injury) and his tip concerning keeping soot from cross contaminating your entire kit.

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I guess that mentality all depends on what your trying to achieve.
IF your trying to challenge yourself and just want to cover as much ground as you can, then that's the way to go. Fast and Light.

But if your trying to learn to stop and smell the roses and to flow with Nature, rather than compete against it, I highly recommend you plan in a few layover days to re-charge/reflect and get out of that "workplace" mentality we operate under most of the rest of the year.

No-one is keeping score, you shouldn't either. Go hard when you feel like it, sit and lounge/read/write, look at the clouds and feel what it's like to be a kid again.

You can always find ways to fill in planned layover days if you can't learn to relax in the moment, but having a hard charging agenda with no margin for error isn't my idea of a vacation, it's just another day at work with a different view.

You read enough trip reports about areas you've been thru but not really "seen" and you soon realize that you've missed the very thing's your trying to find.

"evidently the SOL jetboil does one thing and one thing only......boil water (according to the reviews and info I read) so if your trying to fry some fish maybe you would indeed be SOL"

sorta true, but not quite.  as Jim has pointed out, he fries fish in the JetBoil frying pan.

a very useful accessory for the Jetboil is the pot support and stabilizer kit - with the pot support, you can use any pot or pan on top of the jetboil (losing some of the fuel efficiency gained from the heat flux ring, or whatever its called) - i use a two quart pot on top of my stove for  non-solo trips when I want to boil up more than a liter at a time.  - and the little fold up 3-leg stabilizer makes a fair bit of difference, esp on uneven ground or  a not so flat rock - they would work with any size/brand cannister.  The SOL has the stabilizer included as part of the package - regular JetBoil does not.

  The main reason "cooking" isn't too easy on any cannister stove is the relatively small burner, which concentrates the heat in a small area - i.e hot spots.  The Jetboil pans, with thier heat exchanger rings tend to diffuse that hot spot, ergo, less of an issue using one of thier pans.  You can also buy or make a heat diffuser plate that helps to do the same thing.

I did try to find if anyone had done a real comparison between using a twig fire and a twig stove, but haven't found one yet - did find reviews for the Solo stove - one comment of note did concern stability, you have the same issue as with any narrow base round bottom item, such as a cannister, or even a Peak-1 stove - maybe some type of stabilizer would be good on those as well.  Another comment was about the black residue on bottom of pots, same as you'd get from any wood fire - when I use my little esbit stove, I just wrap a small piece of aluminum foil around the bottom of the pot, which "collects" the residue - if it gets too gunky, I can just change out that piece of foil.