[pct-l] re: pot and cup combos

[mardav at charter.net (Marion Davison)]

I offer a different approach to consider, which works very well for two 
people. 
The only pot we carry is a tall aluminum coffee pot, without the 
innards.  It is large enough to heat enough water to rehydrate two 
dinners and make pirate mocha java  for two. 
It is also large enough to hold the average stove ( an MSR or a 
cartridge type stove).
Then each of us carries a plastic cup with a lid (a thin plastic 1 qt 
measuring cup with handle) and a thermos type coffee cup with lid, 12 
oz.  I boil the pot of water, dump dinners into the measuring cup, add 
boiling water to cover, and put on the lid.  Dinner is ready to eat in 
15 minutes, without getting a pot dirty.  The rest of the boiling water 
is combined with instant decaf, hot cocoa and a shot of rum in the 
thermos cup. 
This is a very light weight combo for two people.  You could save 
weight, I suppose, with those " add-boiling water- to this and eat it 
out of the bag" dinners.  You wouldn't have to carry the plastic cup.  
But it could be that the weight of all those bags would exceed the  
weight of the cup on a longer segment of trail.  I pack my dinners in 
ziplok sandwich bags which is about as light as I can get.
I have no experience with cat stoves or alcohol stoves and have no idea 
how long it would take to boil my coffee pot full of water on one of 
those stoves.  With an MSR or cartridge stove it is under 5 minutes.
llamalady