The weather man was calling for a day of solid rain, so Brandi and I canceled our trip to
the north country, and opted to hike closer to home.

We ended up tooling around some of the hiking trails in Pine Grove Furnace State Park.

_{The Swamp Trail}

We hiked on the Swamp Trail, the Appalachian Trail, then we got lost and hiked on two trails I can’t find on any maps… They might have been creek beds or goat paths or something.

Anyways, when we finally figured out where we were, It was time to test out my new pot. I also got to test the windscreen I crudely fabricated from the bottom of one of those aluminum foil turkey-roasting pans. This setup still didn’t exactly boil the water! It got close. I had those little tiny bubbles coming up off the bottom, but no roaring boil.

The guys over at backpackinglite have done an embarrassing amount of research into “Stove Windscreen Dynamics and Design” and I’m thinking maybe I should make or buy a windscreen of the type they recommend.

_{Esbit in action}

The stove also leaves greasy funk all over the bottom of your pot, but it wipes off really easily.

_{Greasy Funk}

Despite the stove’s inability to boil water, it got plenty hot enough to reconsitute our freeze-dried lunches. I made Backpacker’s Pantry Kung Pao Chicken. I didn’t much care for it, but it was instrumental in the development of some lovely weapons-grade flatulence, much to the consternation of my hiking companion 🙂