Thru Hike Food Preparation?

[Emilymarie61991]

Hey guys, I'm a new member here. I'm currently a section hiker and planning to thru hike in a couple years. My most recent section hike got me thinking a lot about food preparation. I use a regular white fuel camp stove. I guess the problem I see with using that for a thru hike is carrying all that fuel!! I was wondering what you guys did... I'm familiar with alcohol stoves.. never used one. I'm a fan of hot breakfast on cold days and always a hot dinner... .so going without a camp stove isn't an option for me.

So how'd you guys cook your food?.. if you used a camp stove, what did you do about all the extra fuel you had to carry?

[Mountain Mike]

Not much need to carry extra fuel. It's readily available every few days along the trail.

[Emilymarie61991]

Have you use an alcohol stove? If so, Did you find it more convenient?

[Mountain Mike]

Still old school & prefer my MSRs. I like to cook a lot. If you buy one of the trail guides, Awols or ALDHAs you will see how often you can get fuel. Most places by the trail sell it by the ounce. Both White gas & Alcohol. Canisters pretty easy to pick up too.

[Emilymarie61991]

Thank you, I'll look into all that more. I already have a canister for the fuel, so I'm partway there!!

[Rocket Jones]

Alcohol stoves are perfect if you just need to heat water for dehydrated meals and hot drinks. Canister stoves and what you've got are much better for cooking.

Personally, I pack my own meals at home with food I've dehydrated and ingredients from Harmony House (http://www.harmonyhousefoods.com/Backpacking-Kit-18-ZIP-Pouches_p_1866.html). This way I control what goes into the meal. I also use a SuperCat (http://jwbasecamp.com/Articles/SuperCat/index.html) alcohol stove. Dead simple to make and use.

Good online resources include Trailcooking.com, OnePanWonders, Hungry Hammock Hanger and Backpacking Chef. There are others out there too.

[perrymk]

Thank you, I'll look into all that more. I already have a canister for the fuel, so I'm partway there!!

I think by canister reference was being made to stoves like JetBoil and MSR PocketRocket which use a canister of compressed butane/propane mix.

It's good to know that these canisters are readily available.

[jeffmeh]

Few AT thru-hikers use a white gas stove due to the weight. Alcohol, canister (butane/propane), and esbit stoves are much more prevalent.

[bigcranky]

If you can hike for a week, you know everything you need for a thru-hike. It's really just a long string of 5-6 day hikes strung together. Every five or six days you can stop in town, hit the grocery store for some food, hit the pizza place to replenish calories (you can't carry enough in your pack), get more fuel if needed, maybe some other minor items like TP, call home for a chat, and then hit the trail again. No need to carry 6 months of white gas or 6 months of anything else.

That said, white gas stoves are no longer common among long distance hikers. They are great in the winter, but they are kinda heavy for what they do. An alcohol stove is much lighter, easy to make yourself, burns a renewable fuel, and works just as well for 99% of what most hikers eat.

Good luck!

[patman25]

Yep, when I do my next thru hike attempt, I will be using a homemade alcohol stove. It's actually become a hobby to build all the different types I find online just for fun.

[swjohnsey]

You still see folks using Wisperlites on the trail and I am one of 'em. They work great and weigh a little more. My white gas cooking rig weighs about 8 ozs more than my alcohol cooking rig. It takes less gas than alcohol so you can carry less fuel with gas. Cooking with white gas is much quicker. Last year I carried my Whisperlite for the first month when it was pretty cold.

[G-FOURce]

sent you a PM