Winter Section Hike with an Ion Stove

[JansportD2]

On Wednesday and Thursday I filled in a missing section in Pennsylvania from US 30 in Caledonia State Park south to PA 16. I made an Ion stove from Sgt. Rock's plans last week and brought it along (Sgt Rock - thanks for the plans). It worked great. I used about 3/4 oz. of denatured ethanol to boil two cups of water for dinner and breakfast. Thursday morning was pretty cold - low 20s - so I primed the stove a bit more. I know that the water temperature was 32 F because I had to filter out the ice for breakfast. I use a wind screen and priming pan made from roof flashing.

I figure that I'll use about 1/2 oz. of fuel to boil 2 cups of much warmer water during my summer section hike. The stove isn't fast, but it's very efficient.

BTW, I spent Wednesday night at Deer Lick Shelters with Lou - aka "Paul with Bunions". Quite a character and a nice person. Truly old school - cooking on an open fire with what looked like a cast iron skillet and hiking in blue jeans. He told me he was heading north and getting off the trail at US 30 for New Years.

I have 18 wedding favor tins left over from last week's stove making. Send me a PM if you need any, and they're yours for the price of postage.

[Papa D]

wow - you met Paul with Bunions - I met up with that guy in NC in a snowstorm - maybe it was around February of this (2011) year -- he was basically living at Rock Gap Shelter -- he had crap for gear and yes, that Iorn Skillet - he made the Annies Mac and Cheese dinner I gave him and boiled water for coffee in the same skillet --rolled his own cigarettes - he said he was a thru-hiker (and knew the trail remarkably well) but I still made him for a yellow blazer and a bull *****ter -- as you say, he was a nice person, I suppose - I think he said he was from PA - makes sense, he had the accent -- I bet he got a bus back to that area and hoboed around and is living out of shelters up there -- I guess he was an "old school" hobo - not really an old school "backpacker" - funny stuff.

[JansportD2]

I have a soft spot for hobos. I spent a few year years in Sacramento as a child in the 60s, and there was a large hobo jungle near the Central Pacific yard in Roseville. My mom made me promise to never go there, so, of course, I hung out there whenever I could. Some of the guys had problems- alcohol, drugs, mental health - but for the most part they were great guys. Paul with Bunions reminds me of them - a nice guy with a lot of stories. He has obviously spent a lot of time on the AT - his knowledge of shelters and such is encyclopedic.

[Papa D]

I feel the same way but I temper my thoughts agains what I see as mis-use of trail shelters by people essentially living in them -- if you spend a couple of nights and keep hiking, even if you move at a snails pace, no, problem but (as PwB did in NC) you take over a shelter with K-Mart blue tarps and all your belongings like it is your home and stay there for days on end, that's a big problem -- it's a problem for hikers (esp. in winter) who expect to be able to get in for a night without crowding a chain smoking homeless dude and it is a larger problem for the AT in general when the general public gets the idea that trail shelters are full of homeless folks -- F.Y.I., I do not have a problem with someone living properly in a TENT on public land this way for long-term stays - I'd rather the shelters be used as intended -- and, I have soft spots too - I did give this guy dinner and coffee.