Re: Selecting a Camping Stove

My new Simmerlite worked out fine on the two 2-night trips I took last week. I took the suggestion made by several of you, and used freeze dried foods, so all I had to do was boil water. Not having to play the "simulated simmer" game (by repeatedly moving the pan to/from the stove) was nice, and the convenience of the freeze dried meals was nice.

As someone mentioned, the MountainHouse 20oz meals aren't bad. They taste reasonable, and provide a reasonable amount of food (though I could have eaten at least half again as much, if not double). I also tried one from Backpackers Pantry - and it was OK too - with larger portions - though slightly less flavorful than those by Mountain House. These meals have really improved over the past 30 years!

One thing I learned is to bring an "odor blocking" bag for packing the residual package though - otherwise, once the food inside has been reconstituted, the packages are very odorous - and made the whole inside of my bear cache smell strong (not something I like to do in bear country). These bags seem to work well (though the seal opens more easily than I'd like). http://www.rei.com/product/758706?vcat=REI_SEARCH

BTW, on the issue of fuel consumption - even sticking to just boiling, and not trying to "simmer", I think my consumption is still much higher than what you all reported. I think you all agreed around 2oz per day is all you use. To boil water for dinner & cleaning on the first night, then for oatmeal & tea & then dinner the second day, then oatmeal & tea the third day, I seemed to use about half of the 20 oz can I carried. I pumped about 20 strokes to pressurize the fuel before each meal.