Many kayakers are also avid campers and backpackers. Of course the activities compliment each other nicely as many of the accessories can be used even if you car camp. Even if you, like me, have also got boats and RVs. My primary camping stove is a venerable Optimus stove-in-a-box which managed to escape the shop fire last February by the simple expedient of being in my drybag here at the lake house. I bought this stove in Paris in 1972 for about $15 (in francs). Back then I had naively assumed that camping equipment made in Europe would be easier to obtain in Europe and so did not buy the stove at REI. As it turned out, European camping was then being overrun by the Camping Gaz craze and that was all the stores in Paris carried. Until I asked at a climbing equipment store on a back street somewhere in Paris. The owner held up 1 finger to wait and disappeared down a dark flight of stairs to the basement. When he reappeared some ten minutes later he had my Optimus new in its box and covered in dust. So I must assume that the stove is at least ten years older than the 37 years it has been in my possession. There is now a plethora of camping stoves available in almost any conceivable configuration from simple pocket-sized camp stoves to the alcohol-powered Trangea. Wind is always a problem when using a camp stove so now some stoves have special attachments to concentrate the heat or have attachments to protect the flames from wind. The Trangea can be self-contained with pots and pans and attachments that all nest together. MSR now has something similar. This morning I discovered that Primus has a very Trangea-like stove. I discovered it by reading one of the blog excerpts presented on www.paddlingplanet.com (where the blog entry I wrote last night is also featured). Paddlingplanet is interesting because if you register your blog it samples your site and whenever anything new is posted it scoops it up and puts that posting onto its own page. So by skimming down through paddlingplanet.com you can either read the comments there or click on the title to go to the blog itself. I did that and went off to seakayakphoto.blogspot.com; attracted by the promise of photos of abandoned villages on isolated Scottish islands and rewarded by now and "then" comparative pictures taken of one of the villages. But in a sidebar to the right there were some links to reviews of equipment and one of them is for the new Primus. The review is an extensive one with photos, weights, alternatives, cooking times, etc. Clearly he had used the cookstove in the wild, so to speak. Here is the link: http://seakayakphoto.blogspot.com/2008/03/primus-etapower-ef-integrated-stove-and.html Very well done and worthwhile kayaking blog. I'm amazed at the number of high-quality blogs on the Internet. And as for www.paddlingplanet.com ... well, it has its own page on my firefox browser now. I have no idea how magazines can compete with this but at least it's going to save a crap-load of trees. Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA www.nwkayaking.net *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Craig said on 26 October 2009 > a plethora of camping stoves available ... one of them is the new Primus Count me an avid fan of the new Primus. I have had one and used nothing else (when camping) for a year. Great bit of kit. I know this sounds suspicious, after Craig's story of Paris, but I also bought my last stove 40 years ago (a Svea, in Montreal) and it still does the job with only a couple of new jets and seals over the many years. However, she-who-must-be-placated became more vocal about the process of spilling fuel onto the rim of the tank, setting fire to it to warm & pressurise the tank and then cracking the valve to start the stove. Wouldn't you just love to write that up for an OSH plan ;-) So, after following the reviews of the new Jetboils and various other company's attempts to get more usable heat out of a gas cylinder, I bought the Primus EtaPower set. I was tempted to go for the multi-fuel version (after all I've got all those old Sigg bottles for the petrol ;-) but they were going to be a long time coming and expensive. So I settled for gas. The thing is unbelievably fast, it's quiet, it can't fall over - whatever you do or even if you kick it - and it's full of nice little ideas. PM me if you're not sure how I feel... I bought the second pot (1.7 L), because we like mash, rice or pasta with our de-hi. This fits inside the standard pot and still allows you to nest the burner, base & pot-grabber inside - so that the whole kit still zips up into its insulated bag (a really nice touch for rice or warmed re-hydration). I can even (when back-packing) carry a really small 100 gm can of gas in there too - but a larger cylinder has to travel separately. Not a big deal in the kayak and the stove sips gas. Primus did 'stumble' on the nesting of the two pots, as the handle on the small pot could chafe the inside (working surface) of the fry-pan (the bigger pot's lid). If that all sounds complicated, just get a small dishtowel ready to pack in with the pots when you first put it together and you'll see what I mean. It's not hard to solve. Other than that, it just works - and very well. Best Regards Paul Hayward, Auckland, New Zealand *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:52 PDT