Going Stoveless! Pros & Cons

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Tags: Appalachian Trail,AT,Thru-Hike,AT Thru-Hike,Backpacking,Hiking,Camping,Adventure,Stoveless,Stoveless Backpacking,CDT,PCT,Pacific Crest Trail,PCT Thru-Hike,Hiker Trash,Long Distance Hiking,AZT,Arizona Trail,SnowPeak,LiteMax Stove

Video Transcription

hey guys it's down here today to talk about the pros and cons of ditching your backpacking stove and why I decided to go stove us [Music]

okay so if you've been following along with my recent videos I recently hiked a section of the CDT I decided for that section that I would try something different that I've been wanting to do for a while and that was going Stouffer's next year in 2018 I'll be hiking the PCT doing a full three Reich and that first 700 miles is all mainly desert so the idea of going stove was in that first 700 miles of the desert sounded like a good idea number one is convenience for me I really love to cook I love to cook at home I love a good hot meal whenever I'm on the trail I love to get into a town and eat hot town food but one of the biggest inconveniences for me when I was on the 80 in 2015 and 2016 was coming to camp having to boil water for food and waiting to cook food you know already you have all these camp chores that you have to do blowing up your pad if you do have an inflatable pad setting up your tent getting everything ready for camp relax a little bit set under the stars go to sleep so you can get up and hike the next day so to me the whole idea of going stove was sounded good because it sounded like I didn't have to put as much work in with boiling water and getting dinner ready I could just kind of grab whatever I needed to eat it go to bed and be ready for the next day number two less stuff so obviously if you're going stove us you don't need fuel you don't need a stove you don't need all of those things you need whenever you are cooking and prepping your meals now between my stove setup and a stove was setup there's not a giant weight difference so it wasn't really about weight for me it was about having to deal with less items you know my stove that I carried on the 80 and the AZT is about one point eight ounces it's the Snow Peak light max stove it weighs barely anything it takes up no room but still it was one less thing that I have to worry about when I'm going stove with the other thing is worrying about fuel so when we were on the 80 and 15 and 16 you know a lot of times we would really have to check our fuel consumption and make sure that we could resupply on a fuel canister whenever we could get into a town sometimes we couldn't find fuel canisters and for what I understand on the Continental Divide Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail it's even harder in some sections to find canisters so a lot of times you kind of have to worry about that so the idea of not having to worry about fuel sounded good fuel canisters can also be quite expensive now if you're going out for a weekend backpacking trip it's not so bad but whenever you're doing something like a thru-hike you're boiling water to make coffee in the morning you're making breakfast maybe even needing a hot lunch and then making dinner at night sure you're consuming a lot of fuel and those little canisters can add up and get pretty expensive

number three is no cleanup so obviously whenever you boil water to cook a meal and you're making something like instant mashed potatoes or maybe an or right side you have to clean out your pot you have to take the time after you've eaten to go find a water source get away from the water a little bit clean your pot out and completely dry it and do all that so it was an extra chore but I was really happy to kind of take out of my trail routine it's also more water that you have to use so if you're dry camping and you're not near a water source like on the section of the CDT that I did when you know there were some times where at night there was no water at camp and then during the day where I had to hike 15 miles without seeing any type of water source it's less water that I have to worry about having to make sure that I have at camp and then on the PCT there's a huge section the first seven hundred miles from the beginning all the way to Kennedy Meadows is strictly desert in a lot of very dry sections where at some points you're caring from five to seven liters of water so if I don't have to carry the extra water to cook with and clean with that's a big plus for me it's less stuff that I have to worry about and I can focus more on keeping myself hydrated with the water that I do have and that brings us to number four

which is the main reason I decided to go stove us and that is conserving water again next year in that first 700 miles I'm really worried about water even though I have to a lot of times I don't like carrying a lot of extra water weight I'm a bit of a camel when it comes to hiking I like drinking a lot of water out of water stop and then I usually hike about eight miles out drinking a whole lot of water I typically only drink about a liter and eight miles even in the desert so for me going stove less and meaning that I don't have to carry extra water to cook and clean with lets me carry less weight and not have to worry about having that extra water okay so what are some of the cons of going stove us now for me so far I haven't found a lot of times actually I found way more positives than I found cons at all and it's not for everybody obviously there's some people out there that love having their hot coffee in the morning and I enjoy that as well and people that need a hot meal at night to me it's not that big of an issue I'm out there to hike and I'm out there to enjoy nature so food for me is just calories and however I can get calories is just fine whether it's cold whether it's hot whether it's wet or whether it's dry I just need calories so I can continue my hike the thing that I found is if I really do want a hot meal and it's a cold night I can always make a small campfire and I do still carry my Snow Peak titanium 700 mug that I can always cook over a campfire and boil water if I really need to just to make sure that I have the option if I want a hot meal by doing that I always carry ramen and instant mashed potatoes because you can either eat those cold and cold soak them or you can boil water over a campfire and make that hot so that's a really great option for me I did that a couple of times on that section height of the CDT and I enjoyed it quite a bit now speaking of food what types of food do I eat when going stove las' so it's pretty much the same food that I take when I'd go with the stove I eat audit or Tia's tuna packs different cheeses a lot of different types of bars granola for breakfast I'll typically eat pop-tarts or a pro bar if I can afford them and then for dinners I typically eat a tuna packet with a tortilla or I also carry ramen noodles or instant mashed potatoes so just like I would if I was carrying a stove that way I can either eat them cold by mixing the instant mashed potatoes in cold water or by cold soaking the ramen or just eating it dry and if I really want a hot meal I can always make that fire boil my water and still have it hot coffee in the morning I just carry the Starbucks via a take my water bottle take about half of the water in there add that to it shake it up and I can drink my coffee while I'm breaking down camp I don't have to worry about having a hot beverage cooling off for me to drink it waiting for the water to boil so for me going stove oats has become a huge convenience like I said it's not for everybody for me it's worked out pretty well and from what I understand there are a lot of long-distance hikers that are going that route mainly for the reasons that I just explained it's just more convenient all right so tell me what you guys think if you started going stove us maybe you guys have to have a stove and you have to have hot meals leave me some comments in the comment section below and let me know what you think about going stove us if you haven't got a chance yet go over and check me out on Instagram I'm posting a lot of new photos lately of some of the things know going I have going on throughout the week plus a bunch of pictures from my section hike of the CET so make sure you go check those out if you haven't already go ahead and like or dislike this video subscribe to my channel if you haven't already and as always guys thanks for watching you

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