Does anyone else look at all their stoves to see which one you will take on a trip?

I am taking my fiance to yosemite for the first time, and for the first trip I am not camping with her, but rather seeing what she thinks of the idea. She is into the outdoors so thats a big plus.

So....to my question. I have all sorts of stoves now, single burners, dual burners, 3 burners etc. We are planning on finding a nice quiet picnic place and cooking our dinners there, and I have gone through my stove collection to see which one will go. LITERALLY even running a few of them just to run them. My garage floor currently has a kampcook LCS 41, Coleman 425's and a 426, Prentiss Wabers no 8...and I cant decide.

Is anyone else crazy like that?

 

Yes. Tougher than what to bring for dinner and which pot to bring.
Duane

 

Yes me ! Canoe and camping trip (base camp) soon. Have three possible stoves out ready to decide which one is coming along. Or possibly two- one for meals and drinks in camp and a small one for coffee stops during the day. Decisions decisions.
This campsite is next to heathland so no fires , I was going to take the Ozpig too but that will have to wait until the next trip.

 

Welcome to the downside of Stove Pox. deciding which stove to use. The struggle is real. For tramping (hiking) I tend to work out what my meals are going to be and then decide on which stove I want to take this time.
Most of my road-trip camping trips are done in my old campervan. It has a gas stove in it so I don't take any others then.

 

My stoves are scattered over three counties, it would take several days to round them all up!

 

Finding a different stove to use is part of the fun.

 

Sounds like you need a gleaming brass stove. The gals like that golden glow.

 

But I can't make coffee aaaannnddd make a steak at the same time with an optimus 96 hahaha

Then do I bring a propane bbq? @Ed Winskill

 

@gnome I have a kampkook LCS-41 cooking Spanish rice right now and thinking about another stove to cook mushrooms and onions for steak

My fiance? She says "bring whatever you like Honey" and I'm saying "I have 20 stoves and a full can of whitegas...don't tell me that" haha

 

@hikerduane I'm bringing jetboils for our backpacks for mountain house food... just for the day hikes... it's madness

 

Bring them all and decide when your getting ready to cook which one to use

 

Except for multi-night bp trips, I bring a couple stoves.
Duane

 

Considering this information, select a stove you know will work perfectly.

….Arch

 

No, you need to bring another one! And then maybe a backup...

 

What @gnome said ^^^^^^
Do you do steak with all the trimmings or a selection of instant pot noodles?

Which one will deliver enough morning coffee the quickest and simplest before your brain wakes up.

Then:
How far are you going to carry it?
How long must the fuel last?
What conditions?
How robust is my hard won finish? Do I need to take brass polish.

I look at the mass of detail that CCS members list here and I had presumed that you all have data bases with an algorithm that will ask all the questions above and a whole lot more. Enter trip details and out pops a choice of two stoves. What else is AI for?

Me?
Camping alone - 0.5L KK and Zylex.
Group camp - 1.7L KK and six cup cafetière (press)
In case I’m in a designated site that doesn’t allow fire or I’m camping wild in dry bracken or close to crop then that’s what the M40 in the back of the car is for.

Of course now I’m here on CCS all that could change if I get infected by whatever you guys have got.

MOST IMPORTANT. Enjoy the trip and send photos.

 

@Pattree Well this will be done with a car, so for this trip no instant noodles haha. From Los Angeles to Yosemite by car is about 4.5 hours of a drive, but it passes through a lot of our agricultural areas so we will be stopping at a lot of roadside fruit and vegetable stands for fresh stuff.

As for the stay I have an air BNB this time because she has never tried tents so I am trying this first, then car camping, then we will see about backpacking/treking

So that being said the car will have a cooler and all the fuel/stoves i would need. Going for cooking dinners at least in picnic areas that allow grilling, campfires, and stoves.

For trails during the day I have a jetboil for stuff like that so thats easy.
The dinners will be whatever ends up sounding good that day as Yosemite has a fair medium sized grocery store as well, so pretty much it can be anything we think of. Since this is her first trip to a national park I want to blow her away with the meal so hence the post about trying to pick the right stove vs taking a stove out that I have never used in a camp.

Oh there are going to be photos for sure!

I guess the basis of the post was me laughing at myself looking at a ton of stoves and knowing that there are plenty of people in the world who only have one stove and thats it...they never say things like "yeah but if I take that one...well its smaller so I cant fit that pan on it, and then there is that one...but its too much stove...I can take one of those coleman 502 stoves...but wait I just got that optimus 8r and would love to see how that works...but it doesnt simmer...hmmm"

 

Yeah when I narrow it down I will cook on it here at the house first...nothing looks worse than getting out there and having all the food and everything ready...picking a wonderful spot with a great view of El Capitan...just to have the stove malfunction hahahaha.

 

……. this term is incomprehensible to us primitives.

erm ………. Sorry if I’ve left sooty thumbprints on this post.
………. and for being O/T

 

@Pattree havent we all had one of those "oh come on now...not now...please dont fail me now" moments haha

 

Yeah - I suppose watching the last drop of meths fall from that fancy Trangia bottle spout and realising that the burner is only half full comes into that category.

Forgive me, it has been well over half a century since I owned a little Optimus pressure stove. Even in the sixties I had a Rechaud alcohol stove without any jets or moving parts.

Will you be taking a Dutch Oven? Making fresh hot buttered rolls to go with the morning coffee. Now THAT is impressive! - well it would impress me. If you are celebrating then a cake has a similar effect.

Camping does not mean compromise!