TMEJ: Little stove, big cooking

thestovepipekid — Tue, 16 May 2017 05:02:20 +0000

I bought my current camp cook stove for a nice little trip to Upper Lena Lake in the Olympic National Park. It worked wonderfully, minus the self striker that needed some love and attention. Good thing I brought other means of lighting. Be prepared I always say.

This stove weighed in at 10.4 oz on my home scale with the included case, which is a nice blaze orange. I spent an inordinate amount of time searching for a quality wide stove that had a remote locating fuel hose. This keeps everything low and helps prevent tipping. It also allows for the use of a wind barrier, which I don’t presently own

She folds up nice and tidy but it takes some practice getting the hose wrapped just right to slip back in the case. All three legs fold up under the stove and then rotate tight to the base to make it nice and compact.

The level of flame control is superb, especially for a stingy guy like me. I’m a rather thrifty person so I use my fuel sparingly. I’ve run about one 8 oz canister in my three trips. with the dial knob you can run a nice simmer flame or a “roaring” blaze. I usually go for something in the middle.

As mentioned before, when I got into the field and started using the stove it’s built in striker was less than impressive. After spending some time at home bending the mounting bracket I was able to achieve 100% operation. I always bring matches and a lighter for making fires, and it helps as a backup.

I have three trips under my belt with this stove and I will gladly admit it is fantastic. I’ve prepared ramen, dehydrated camp meals, eggs, oatmeal, hot grape nuts, soup, and I’m sure a few more things I can’t even remember. I pack pretty light when I go out, and the stove usually cooks either a hot breakfast or hot dinner.

I bought the stove on amazon, but it is currently unavailable. Thems the breaks kid. “Fire-Maple Fms-105 Portable Camping Stove with Piezo Ignition”

The Marginally Epic Journey

thestovepipekid — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 02:12:16 +0000

This is THE Journey. You know, the one that people plan on doing their whole lives . . .or in my case six months. This trip is actually what affected the creation of this whole website, but that’s a story for another day. Anyway, The Marginally Epic Journey is “marginal” because it’s only taking a small chunk of time from our ordinary lives, which naturally reduces the scope of its “epic” nature. We will be spending eight days crossing the Olympic National Park from West to East, mostly along the Pacific Northwest Trail. At this point there will be four of us participating in this daring adventure. The main players are myself, my father in law “Mr. AMX68” and his son, “The Long Lost M” with his boyfriend “Super B”. If I had written this three months ago when the planning phase began I would have included my brother in law “The Big J” and a soon to be brother in law “The Dark Haired W”. As it stands they’ve both dropped out due to the length of time off needed. “M” and “B” will probably be out as well as the time draws near. In the end it may be just Mr. AMX and me. The journey will still be epic, though we be few.

I’ve placed a few sponsorship requests with equipment companies and will be reviewing items I gather for the trip as I add them to my arsenal.

UPDATE 07/10/17: As predicted Mr. AMX and myself will be the only souls amongst our cadre to wander into the heart of wilderness-ness. Time and other constraints pulled everyone else out. On a high note we both have our itinerary apporoved by the Park and will be in our way early on the morning of our trip. I was only able to secure one product from the many companies I contacted, so I’ve scrubbed the promotional aspect this trip and will try again on future outings. I will continue to review my camping items as I use them.

UPDATE 07/29/17: The Marginally Epic Journey unfortunately came to a premeture end. Mr. AMX and I did enjoy the loop around the 7 lakes basin and along the Sol Duc River for two days of a good twenty five miles. It was some hard hot hiking up some gnarly terrain but well worth it. With our trip cut dramatically short we are hoping to get some fall hiking trips under our belt before we meet winter. I’ll be posting a gear list of what I took, mostly for myself because I don’t have any readers.

hiking – TSPK Outdoors

TMEJ: Little stove, big cooking

The Marginally Epic Journey