[at-l] Farina alcohol stove

[Bob Cummings <ellen@clinic.net> (Bob Cummings)]

One of the problems with the advice offered on this forum, is that it tends to
be totally unrelated to the facts of the questioners life, beliefs and
resources.

If you have plenty of money then almost all the advice offered will work.

But if you are on a tight budget (which I suspect is the majority) the advice
strrikes me as mostly nonsense. The ability of a home made alcohol stove to boil
two cups of water in two or four minutes is totally beside the point if you are
on a tight budget.

The food you need to survive on the trail on a tight budget requires 10 or 20
minutes of boiling time -- and not two cups, but three of four cups. You can do
this with an investment of a couple of bucks or so, per meal, with an esbit or
an alcohol stove. Or you can do it with pennies with a white gas stove, or with
almost no fuel investment with a Zip stove.

Yes, the Zip has draw backs, It smokes. It requires planning ahead. It requires
hikers to think. But it is by far the cheapest alternative and, despite
political correctness, the least environmentally harmful choice. If I were
wealthy, and not a liberal or an environmentalist -- if I cared not whether my
existence on this earth leaves a negative impact or not, I would use the most
convenient fuel around., which is probably gas canisters.

Because I'm not these things, I use the Zip stove. It is cheap, and it allows me
to cook the cheapest possible food needed for a long distance hike -- perhaps
even a thru hike -- and it does minimum harm to the environment. There is no
such thing as "leave no trace" but a Zip comes closer than any alternative if
one wants to minimize one's overall trace on this increasingly plundered planet.

Weary