View Full Version : The Reverend Yukon Jack
Where are you now, Reverend?
Last seen by me nobo around the GA-NC border and picking up speed for Maine.
Don't forget when you finish you owe me one of your novel homemade alcohol stoves-a really neat (and very well made) double-wall version made from the bottoms of a Budweiser & Guinness beer cans- for using up most of my duct tape to cover your foot blisters. By now i hope your feet have either toughened up or you took my suggestion and switched to Teva Wraptors.
I have not been able to duplicate yet your stove but i am enjoying drinking the beer to get my test materials for it. I wonder if that was what prompted you to make it in the first place?
When you finish, stop lurking and report in! :D
Toolshed
06-09-2004, 13:19
Highway -
Imagine my surprise to see a note here for Reverend Yukon Jack (or RevYJ as we call him back home.)
I got an email from him June 3rd. He was in Damascus. I am hoping to hike a bit with him when he gets up here in PA.
If you PM me, I 'll send you his e-mail address. He normal sends a progess report to a group of us about 1x/week.
Cheers
Rick
I'll PM you, thanks.
I dont know what he does in his non-hiking life but he had his homemade and the best-made little alcohol stove I have seen. I must have spent an hour trying to memorize how it was built as the sun went down at one of the shelters we shared somewhere. But, cant quite duplicate it. I'll have to wait til he finishes. He said he was a lurker here and I started this thread to try and draw him out when he returns. It looks like he will probably make it, I am glad to see.
Toolshed
06-09-2004, 15:24
HW,
I'll look for your PM. I have made about 30-40 of the double wall Pepsi Can Alcohol stoves and given out to my friends in Rochester and here (I now live in PA) over the past 3-4 years for their various trips. I don't know if the Rev is using one of mine. I had a pepsi can stove workshop earlier this year for the DVAMC and have materials and various stoves left. They are fun to make, but I haven't made any from guinness cans yet.
Guinness was the stove bottom and a Budweiser was the top. The Guinness can is slightly smaller is the apparent reason for it. The Budweiser top had the concave center part removed and numerous tiny jet holes around the outside of the rim. When you put in the alcohol the construction was such that it takes a short time for the liquid to drain over into the inner wall. The reverend waited for that before lighting it. Actually, it is the construction of that inner wall which is driving me nuts. But, I am getting close. My beer consumption has picked up considerably, though, drinking two brands-Guinness which I love and Budweiser which I tolerate for the project :clap
I have also taken part of his combo pot stand/windscreen design and piddled around using some lighter different materials and have one custom made for the .85L Titanium kettle we both use and have the weight down to .035 pounds or 0.56 ounce. Not bad for both stand and windscreen-which stores in the pot.
Toolshed
06-09-2004, 16:30
Hwy,
Same stove.....here is the link with the directions I have used over the years, with the exception that the bottom is, as oyu mentioned, Guinness, (mine are all still pepsi tops and bottoms).
The inner wall measurements are here and will help you build a better inner wall.
http://www.pcthiker.com/pages/gear/pepsiGstoveinstruct.shtml
I never got into the ti craze - I have a vrey light old alum teakettle and use a gatorade bottle for fuel. The other thing I do is make a small Grill from a piece of leftover screening and bend the edges into legs. If I run out of Alcohol or Heet, I can flip the stove over, put the grill into the bottom and burn an esbit tab - The height to the bottom of the pot is perfect.
Cheers
Rick
Mike Drinkuth
06-24-2004, 08:43
I was with him in damascus in early june, funny guy! Just as he was hiking out of "The Place" the church bells were ringing and it was raining and he did a little jig out in the parking lot. We called it "moment of zen". hehe
Seraphim
06-24-2004, 10:20
I am thru hiking, and Rev. is around Daleville, VA right now.
I was with him in damascus in early june, funny guy! Just as he was hiking out of "The Place" the church bells were ringing and it was raining and he did a little jig out in the parking lot. We called it "moment of zen". hehe
Mike Drinkuth:
That certainly sounds like him. Thanks for the info. Having made it that far I am quite confident he will make it to Maine, now! He deserves it.
Toolshed:
Thanks for the above stove link. I have finally finished my first prototype by following those directions and it works! The inventor of that little stove certainly deserves a few accolades. I admit that i had a devil of a time inserting the Pepsico top into the Guinness bottom until I first reversed the Guinness can and pushed the "bottom" of the "bottom of the Guinness" can first into the pepsico top so as to "round out" the edges and perhaps even to stretch it a few microns. I then pulled them apart, reversed the bottom, and they slid in much easier. Once i get one to look a little better I'll test it. :-?
Toolshed
06-24-2004, 10:48
Highway, Glad it worked out. I think you'll enjoy these stoves for years to come.
As for Yukon, I climbed a few Adirondack High peaks with him over the past decade as well as climbing Katahdin with him 1.5 years ago when our mutual friend completed his NE115.
Rev YJ is quite a character. I'll never forgetting racing through dark highways in the adirondacks listening to chanting zamfir-like pan flute music that was native to Kurzakistan (sp?). His excellent impression of Beavis and the famous "Cornhulio" "I need TP for my bunghole" is also welded to the side of my brain.
And least not forget running into the young and tempting Jody At Stewarts in Old Forge (She and her boyfriend were living with her husband, and while she was flirting with us, casually mentioned that hee husband doesn't get along with her boyfriend and wishes he would move out....)
Yes Rev YJ is more suited for chanting and dancing around a fire ring at 3AM than most of us could ever possibly imagine. I am looking forward to hooking up with him when he gets to PA :D
Cheers
Rick
Toolshed
07-17-2004, 20:29
Any Reverend YJ sightings lately?
I changed jobs (and e-mail) and moved to MA from PA and haven't rec'd any emails updates from him......
Here is an E-mail I received from him Wednesday, 07/14/2004. I hope he want mind my sharing it with the forum. I was jokingly cautioning him about being north of the mason-Dixon line after being south of it for so long:
"Actually, I'm way north of the line now, as in home. My brother picked me up yesterday afternoon and is taking me back tomorrow. Just a zero day at home to see my father mostly. He's 84 and probably couldn't make the trip down south so I came here for a surprise visit.
As for my progress, I've reached Duncannon, PA. Harper's Ferry was attained on July 5th, where I took another zero. For my ATC photo I was clutching a can of Guiness."
Gotta go out and buy new boots again, this will be my third pair. Everything else going as well as could be expected, considering chronic dehydration and malnutrition. So it goes................."
An E-mail or so back he reported that he had lost a fair amount of weight but in exchange had now developed calf muscles that ran all the way up the back of his neck.
Maybe someone that has actually seen himwill report in.
Toolshed
07-18-2004, 10:59
Thx highway - another buddy forwarded him my new work email. I enjoy his rants - Especially about the Eric/trial interface 2.0 (new boots).
I was hoping to hook up with him in PA (We live near Wind Gap) but now I'll be about an hour East fo the Berks in MA. I'll try to hook up with him when he gets up there.
Cheers
Rick
The Reverend Yukon Jack should be close to finishing by now.
Has anyone spotted him or know of his whereabouts? :-?
LionKing
09-13-2004, 11:57
Yup,
he came through Glencliff at the Hikers Welcome hostel about a week ago.
Lion King
Toolshed
09-13-2004, 12:01
Hwy,
Just got an email from him on 9/9. YJ is in North Woodstock sucking down at the brewpub. Said he thumbed a ride in to avoid the hurricane coming through over the next day or so.
He jokes that he is all calves, backpack and not much more
His target is still 10/5-10/10.
Ya Gotta love that lifestyle.....
I received the below email from the Reverend:
"Skittles Alert"
The fat kid from Alaska that started in Georgia about the same time we did has been sighted! I was in a hostel in Gorham, NH a few days ago and he pulled in that night. He had made it as far north as NY and then went to Katahdin and headed south. He's slimmed down a lot but is still a big boy. Also, his calves look like they belong on a cartoon character! Anyhow, I'm presently in Andover, ME. Remember Mount Albert in NC? They're all like that here! Still moving slowly and should make Katahdin by the 15th.
Just received this from him:
Northern terminus..................achieved at exactly 12:00 noon on October 13, 2004.