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[pct-l] Go denatured, alcohol that is!

Amongst my jumbled mess of unread emails from the past few months I saw much
talk about the zip stove, and little of the alcohol stoves. I switched from
the MSR international to the Trangia Westwind alcohol stove in south lake
tahoe, less than half the weight and fuel consumption was similar to the MSR.
Best of all it took up less room in the pack, i.e. room for more food! By the
time I got to Oregon, my pack was down to 9.5 lbs, including a tape recorder
(i'm bad with journals). Still a bit heavy, Bob Betz and I made our own stoves
at the Gorge, on the Washington side. Stove, pot stand, bic lighter, pot
scraper, extinguisher, stuff sack and p-51 can opener weighed in at 3 ounces!
The fuel is denatured alcohol, available at hardware stores and pharmacies.
Cost is about 2-4 times more expensive at the pharmacy, however. From Tahoe
north I never needed to carry more than 8 ounces of fuel. If I did it again, I
would definitely carry more through the sierras.
Denatured alcohol is not available in all the towns, probably not even half,
but it's legal to mail and comes in pint containers in most cities.
When on the trail and you can't find it, Isopropyl rubbing alcohol works, too.
It's only 70% alcohol, whereas denatured is 100% alcohol, and therefore hotter
and more efficient. So Iso will work, but dinner will take a little while
longer, especially if melting snow as Ron & Karen were trying to do last
summer in the sierras. They, by the way, used the Trangia for the entire trip,
one teeny stove for two people. That's cutting weight!
Hope this helps!
Pat & Walt, Rice Bros, Andyman and who ever else is still on, give me a buzz,
i've lost most of your addresses, e and snail-:-(
Jeremy Wilson
PCT-97!
are you still out there Craig?
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