[pct-l] Fuel Amounts for Pepsi can stove

[hiker at godlikebuthumble.com (Hiker)]

At 04:04 PM 4/17/04, Bill Wilson wrote:
>In the original post I didn't indicate a resupply is 12 
>days,<...snip.....? The turning point is
>about 6 to 8 days which is the PCT resupply time. So in my book it's a
>toss up.  HYOH, but for me when it's a toss up,

Actually 6-7 days is the LONGEST you will go without resupply.The rest of 
the time you will have shorter segments (assuming thru-hiker daily 
distances.) So by your numbers, an alcohol stove will always be a better 
choice for a thru hiker.

>Simmer capability, can cook cakes, bisquits, and foods to make the hike
>enjoyable, not mac n cheese only

I ate all sorts of stuff besides mac n cheese, and all I did was boil 
water. ALL my food was enjoyable (except the corn pasta.) Cakes and 
biscuits were town treats.

Simmering is for weekenders <g>

>You don't need to worry about extra compressed canisters between
>resupply points because THE SPILLPROOF amounts IN the canister will
>easily go 6 days. With alcohol you are gambling on 1 oz versus 2 oz per
>day, so you WILL tend to carry more fuel than you need.

So if you are leaving on a 3 day segment, and you have a full cannister, 
you have to carry more than 6 days of fuel? Sounds like unneeded weight. 
BTW, if you have a partial cannister, how do you tell the remaining fuel? 
If you have a partial cannister and are leaving on a 6 day segment, how do 
you know if you have enough fuel? or do you just carry a spare? My alcohol 
fuel bottle is clear and has graduations on the outside. I ALWAYS leave 
town with the right amount of fuel.

And as far as running out while cooking, that only happened the first few 
times. I got very good at guesstimating how much fuel to load the stove 
with. Best part is the stove is cool and ready to pack very quickly, even 
if I'm just making coffee in the morning - try packing a steel stove 30 
seconds after you are done using it......

And SPILLPROOF is over rated. I had an O-ring fail on a GAZ stove while 
cooking in europe: can you say "blow torch?"

So every stove had its safety problems. The GAZ stove was quite pretty in 
the fading sunset as it free fell down the side of the Petite Dru. My 
partner punted it off the ledge where we were cooking.

I have used cannister stoves extensively, and there are lots of places I'd 
prefer them to an alcohol stove, but a thru hike is not one of them......

HYOH, YMMV