The Roar of a Small Backpacking Stove!

   Back in 1980 I would wake up in the morning, often to the roar of small backpacking stoves. Other hikers always got up earlier than I did, and they would fire up their stoves to cook breakfast. When I say "stove" it doesn't mean something very heavy. My stove probably weighed less than two pounds. I would sit up, often still in my sleeping bag (because it's chilly in the mountains in the early morning). I would take a few scraps of paper and light them with a match. I would hold the stove over this small flame to heat up the bottom. This was called "priming" the stove. The fuel would expand enough to where a small amount would come out into a special indentation in the stove. After the paper burned out, I was able to light that small amount of fuel and it would heat the stove up enough to where it sprang to life.

   First I would heat some water and fix my first cup of tea (Plantation Mint tea with lots of sugar). Then I would heat more water and fix two packs of instant oatmeal (twice as much as what a normal person would eat). I would add some powdered milk, raisins, and honey. Once the oatmeal was ready, I heated up another batch of water for more tea. After one or two more cups of tea, I turned off the stove. It's amazing how loud a small backpacking stove is. The silence was "deafening"! 

   After breakfast, I would gradually climb out of my sleeping bag and start packing up my gear. I would scrub out my cooking pot, wiping it dry with a bandana. The bandana would be tied to the back of my pack in order to dry in the sun. I would usually fill up my canteens and then hit the trail. Breakfast had a lot of calories, but I was burning a lot of calories too! By this point I was almost done with Virginia. I knew that I would be in a new State soon. My right foot was still sore from where I bruised it in Waynesboro, but I kept moving forward.

   2011 update:  This morning I weighed in at 177.0 pounds! The "big salad" strategy along with jogging is helping to trim off these pounds! My daughter made me some blueberry pancakes with fresh blueberries this morning - yum!