[at-l] Hogwash

[icw39@ncfreedom.net (Clark Wright)]

Let's be a bit more precise [and even-tempered] re this important
issue.  I have hiked and camped for 35 years; I often have "cooked in a
tent" in the broader sense of that phrase . . . when I am cold, wet and
the weather sucks, I often cook with my body inside my tent, in a
sleeping bag, but my head and arms extending out into a partially open
vestibule, where the stove is sitting on wet ground as far from the tent
itself as possible.  I also have cooked "inside" a tarp, with the stove
under the highest point, with good ventilation.  I've never had a
mishap, and I ALWAYS make sure of three things - good ventilation; my
sleeping bag and tent doors not zipped up (so I can get out FAST, and
everything else burnable far away from the stove . . . 

Having said the above, I do not specifically recommend it - but [like
premarital sex] there is something to be said for passing on precautions
to others when there is a high liklihood that some of them will be
engaging in the potentially dangerous activity.  White gas is extremely
dangerous; alcohol is very hard to see while burning; the various
canister stoves also can explode or leak . . . you just gotta weigh the
risks, the situation, and your abilities, and at least run thru your
mind what might go wrong, and what your reaction/escape plan is . . .
One thing that always gave me comfort is the fact that my primary
backpacking tents usually have doors at both ends, so I have an escape
route totally away from the stove that is out in the vestibule at one
end of the tent.  Having a tent with doors [and vestibules] at both ends
is not a bad idea for two people backpacking, but that is a "too heavy"
luxury for most lightweight AT hiking . . . but a tarp works well there!
:)

Hope this info is of some value to somebody! :)

Thru-Thinker

Raphael Bustin wrote:
> 
> At 03:37 PM 7/3/2002 -0700, Sloetoe wrote:
> 
> >Hogwash. In all my years outdoors, up
> >and down the East Coast, on Lake Superior in winter,
> >blah-blah-blah, observing THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS of hikers AND
> >CAMPERS, I can count the number of times I have observed persons
> >cooking inside their tents ON ONE HAND. STOP repeating what you
> >know NOTHING about.
> 
> I'm not quite sure what you're saying, Sloetoe, but I for one
> would not be encouraging the practice of cooking inside tents.
> 
> You *might* get away with it, but why tempt fate?
> 
> I can think of a bunch of things that could go wrong, short of
> a fire, that could still be seriously bad news.
> 
> My suggestion... carry an assortment of both hot and cold
> food.  There may be nights when you'll have to make do
> without cooking.
> 
> Anyway, re: tent fires, there's a kinda funny story told by
> Jon Krakauer (Into Thin Air, Into Thin Ice, Eiger Dreams) of
> his solo trek to climb the Thumb in Alaska.
> 
> Only it wasn't a camp stove that burned down the tent, it was
> a joint.  And he was camped on a glacier at the time.
> 
> rafe b.
> aka terrapin
> 
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