Super Cat Stove

So anyway, what prompted me to get back on here and post again is that I wanted to share with my loyal readers (ha) my recommendation for trail stoves.  Most of the hiking I do is day hikes - anywhere from two hours to eight hours, depending on the trail and the goal and how much other stuff I have going on (which usually ends up winning out).

I do very much enjoy taking a stove and food along and cooking on the trail - whether it is as simple as a cup of coffee or tea, or making a full breakfast of a veggie omelette (ok, scrambled eggs with sauteed veggies), oatmeal, trail stew, etc. - I love to cook on the trail.  One other thing that factors into this - and those of you who know me long enough know this well enough - is that I am a cheap ass.  Not that I don't appreciate quality, but that I enjoy saving money and when it comes to the outdoors, even making my own gear.

So naturally it came to be that a purchased trail stove would just not be good enough - too expensive, too bulky, too environmentally questionable, etc.  I have been interested for some time now in the idea of making a stove from junk laying around the house, or specifically I should say, the recycling bin.  Anyway - enough with the introduction - let's get on with it.

My latest stove of choice is called the Super Cat Stove.  It is an alcohol stove.  I like the idea of alcohol stoves - fuel is easy to get, I don't have to throw away canisters of fuel like with a propane or white gas stove, I can use grain alcohol if needed which has it's own multi purpose uses (ahem), and it makes for pretty small and portable stoves.  The Super Cat Stove is made from, well - a cat food can.  Yes, you read that correctly.  A 3 ounce Fancy Feast can and a hole punch and you will have yourself about the lightest and possibly cheapest stove you can imagine, but one that works surprisingly well.  I've spent the last few months messing around with a bunch of other designs but I keep coming back to this one.  You just can't beat it for weight (next to nothing), cost (next to nothing) and simplicity.

If you are interested in building one yourself, I recommend doing so - the instructions will be provided at the end of this article because let's be serious - if I give you the link now, you're not coming back.

So how does it perform?  Not half bad... it's not going to perform like a Jetboil of course but did you really think it would?  No, me either.  With the tests I've done, I've been able to boil 24 oz. of water in about 11 minutes with just over an ounce of alcohol, and a cup of water in under 5 minutes.  Not the fastest but certainly not bad.  I can wait 10 minutes for my water to boil, and let's be honest - most times you don't need water at a rolling boil.  Damn hot will do, and this stove will get you there fairly quickly.

I'm not going to go into all the physics and other nonsense about the stove - how it's a pressurized alcohol stove vs. non-pressurized, etc.  Just check it out and if you happen to end up making and/or using one - drop me a line and let me know how you fared.

Here's the link for those of you enterprising enough to try it yourself (don't be scared - it's really not that bad):

http://jwbasecamp.com/Articles/SuperCat/index.html

Till next time, happy hiking!

Welcome Back Blogger

It's funny - there are a bunch of posts on here now where I promise to write more and then I notice almost a year goes by between them. Take this one (September 1) and my last one (September 26 last year). Real life gets in the way I suppose. Anyway, it's about that time of year again where you get your annual bit of insight from the Gentle Outdoorsman. So let's get to it, why don't we...