Cooking
Alcohol Stoves
Homemade alcohol stoves are popular among thru-hikers. With no moving parts, they are simple and reliable. They are also cheap, but do take some time to make. You'll also need a wind-screen and a stand although some designs incorporate them into one element. If you decide to make one, there are several designs to choose from. The cat-stove, one of the earliest alcohol stoves, was designed by Roy Robinson. Another popular design is the Pepsi stove. This combo windscreen/pot-stand is similar to the one I used except that my design used two straight 6” pieces of clothes hanger wire instead of the three pictured.
Making one of these stoves is not hard, but as I said, they take time, and you may not get it to your liking on the first try. If you like the idea, but really don't want to spend the time to make one, you can get pre-made ones on Ebay for about $6.
Craig's Snow Peak GigaPower stove, and my alcohol
“cat-stove,” both worked well for cooking our meals. Mainly, we were just interested in boiling a cup or two of water to reconstitute our dried meals. Hiker stoves typically suffer in windy conditions. Naturally, you'll want to find a sheltered spot to camp and/or cook, but in addition, it's good to have a windscreen for your stove. We each carried a single cooking pot. Craig used a titanium pot and efficiently stored his stove and other cooking gear in it. I used a one liter Teflon-coated aluminum pot, with a home-made foil lid. I carried a small bottle of alcohol and used a small amount in the “cat-stove” to cook my meals.
Canister stoves like the Snow Peak or MSR Pocket Rocket, are fast and convenient, but they are a bit heavier than home-made alcohol stoves. On the other hand, Esbit chemical tablets are the lightest cooking solution of all. One advantage to a canister stove is that you can control the flame from simmer to full-blast. However, for very simple meals flame-control isn't really important. Another advantage is that you can run a canister stove for as long as you need. With an alcohol stove or an Esbit tab, you have a flame for a given amount of time, and then you're done. A little practice though adjusting the amount of alcohol to use, overcomes most of this disadvantage. Shipping fuel is also an issue. It was legal to send properly marked propane-butane canisters through parcel post when we did our hike, but you should check on current restrictions and requirements before you do. The same is true with alcohol, but I'm not sure if there are special requirements for Esbit tabs. Alcohol and propane-butane canisters are available in most trail towns. An automotive product called Heet, available at many gas stations, is basically pure wood alcohol.
Sleeping on the Trail