In the clouds and wind for New Year's Day Hike

I continued my tradition of hiking on New Year's Day this year with my daughter, heading back to Mt. Greylock in MA.  The weather was warm, in the low 40's, and windy when we arrived at the Cheshire Harbor trailhead.  We started hiking at 10am and made good time up the familiar trail reaching the summit just before noon.  We were able to bare boot about 3/4 of the way up before putting on the microspikes and continuing.

It was gusty winds and icy at the top and we were in the clouds, so there was no views.  We walked around the beacon and then made our way back to the trees and out of the wind.  Luckily, it was not very cold and the wind didn't bite us. 

We decided to take the Gould trail down and then cut over on a side trail back to the Cheshire Harbor trail to finish.  The Gould trail had snow and ice down to the trail junction so we kept the spikes on until then.  As we made our way back toward Cheshire Harbor we descended in to a deep ravine with a stream to cross.  The sides were steep and we had a few switch backs along the way.  The snow was still thick in spots on the trail and made a tricky descent.  The stream was running high and we had to search a little for a good place to cross, but soon found a spot and were climbing out of the ravine.  Soon we were back on our way out and to the car. 

It was a fun hike and I found the conditions at the top, fun and exhilarating to experience.  We hiked a total of 7 miles in about 4 hours.  We only saw a few other hikers, though the parking lot had a number of cars when we returned.  It felt good to get out and hike as it's been a while.  I'm looking forward to hiking more in 2019 as last year I didn't get out as much as I would have liked.

Stoves

I thought I would try out a new alcohol stove and compare it to the Bud Lite stove I already have, as well as against the canister stoves I have.  I have heard many good things about the Fancy Feast stove and found a DIY version on YouTube. 

I put together this new stove which was pretty easy and wanted to try it out.  The Bud Lite stove I have is also a DIY stove and works well at boiling water.  I did a pretty un-scientific comparison and found the Fancy Feast stove works really well. 

I boiled 2 cups of water in my Imusa pot with cover.  In the alcohol stoves I used 1oz. of denatured alcohol.  

The results were pretty similar.

            Bud Lite stove:            Priming time: 2 min.

                                                 Boiling time: 8 min.

                                                 Total burn time: 8:30 min.

            Fancy Feast stove:       Priming time: 0 min.

                                                 Boiling time: 7:30 min

                                                 Total burn time: 10:30 min.

Both stoves did a nice job but I like the fact that the Fancy Feast stove does not need time to prime.  I was able to place the pot on the stove as soon as it was lit.  The Bud Lite stove needs time to heat up, I need to wait for flames to start out the holes, before placing the pot on.  Both stoves are very light, weighing 1oz for Bud Lite and 0.9oz for Fancy Feast. 

The canister stoves are tried and true, both work well and boil water in almost half the time of the alcohol stoves.  I used a MSR Pocket Rocket and a Primus stove. 

They are easy to set up and light and have the ability to simmer more so then the alcohol stoves.  If you need to do more than boil water, the canister is probably a better choice.  The results for the canister stoves were;

            MSR Pocket Rocket:    Boil time: 4:30 min.

            Primus Stove:               Boil time: 4:15 min.

The canister stoves are heavier which may help with deciding which stove to bring.  The Pocket Rocket weighs in at 3oz. and the Primus is the heaviest at 7.5oz.  I like the flame pattern of the Primus stove, it seems to cover more surface area on the pot then the MSR, but really didn’t seem to make a difference in boil time.  The MSR comes with a hard plastic case while the Primus comes with a draw string bag.

All in all, any of these stoves will do a good job on the trail.  I think it is nice to have options for each trip and to customize my cook kit to the trip I’m going on.  I also enjoy playing around with different gear choices and DIY projects.