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Oct 1 to Nov 30 is the general rifle hunting season locally (deer, antelope, elk, moose). I'm not as concerned with the bow-hunters and muzzle loaders as they have a shorter range and thus are more likely to see you as a person instead of as dinner. But the rifles in the hands of some idiot (and believe me there are a lot of them out there!) do concern me. A friend of mine was shot in the chest and was hospitalized with collapsed lungs for a few weeks - very lucky to be alive.
Even if you don't hunt (like me), do you ensure your safety by wearing the colours during the season? As a fan of the outdoors and activities of many types, while out hiking even in protected wildlife areas, I normally am wearing my red rain jacket. But in areas of known hunting grounds, I also bring/wear a hi-visibility vest and orange toque.
My motto: I would rather "look a bit silly than to look dead."
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Vargo Triad Alcohol Field Test.
Another Triad review by a Roger Caffin
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/vargo_triad_alcohol_stove_review.html
Experiences (using all the knowledge put to use in Rodger Caffins review)
Having had some success using the Triad Stove under controlled conditions in relatively warm conditions around 20C, a field test was now required. The stove is very simple, very lightweight (it was designed for the ultra lightweight backpacker community) and relatively robust, being manufactured from Titanium. Under controlled conditions the stove was able to boil over 700ml of water with a single fill of about 25-30ml of methylated alcohol. I now decided it was time to test the stove under more typical conditions whilst shore fishing for Cod. Today was moderately cool about 8-10C, with a moderate winds around 25-30 knots gusting to 40-45 knots combined with a little drizzle (later mild rain). So nothing to difficult to cope with especially compared to mountain conditions at this time of year.
The location.
Primus Kettle + Triad Stove + Primus Windshield (modified) etc in the most sheltered spot I could find.
Time for a Brew. I followed the same procedure for setting up the brew kit under controlled conditions, and after spending around 5-10 frustrating minutes of trying to get the thing started (using up most of the gas fuel in my Silva Storm Lighter to preheat the fully fueled Triad) the Triad stove finally looked as if was about to start up. Fuel spillage was a problem due to the wind and the way the triad stove accepts fuel through the very small depression and tiny fuel hole in the centre of the stove. Overall the stove is incredibly fiddly to get going in moderate conditions even with a good wind shield. Pre Fuel temperature is critical and the fuel bottle needs to pre warmed using body heat. I doubt the stove would be of any use in sub zero conditions without using preheating paste to warm the fuel and stove to get it going.
After I finally got the thing going I quickly put the Primus Kettle on the stove and waited and waited, checking occasionally that the stove was still alight. After about five minutes the triad stove went out due to a gust of wind even though the stove was still 2/3s full and the windshield and primus kettle was still in its place. I was now back to square one with the kettle full of tepid warm water.
I gave up after the third attempt with 3/4s of the 125 mls of methylated alcohol fuel being wasted through spillage and the rest being discarded to repack the Triad Stove. I never did get a cup of tea.
This stove is absolutely useless in less than perfectly still warm summer temperatures although the stove can also be used with hexamine fuel tabs. It would be much more sensible to use this fuel with the stove.
If a stove is critical to your survival prospects then stay well away from this piece of junk (though to be fair it does suffer due to the inherently poor performance of alcohol based fuel in cool and windy condition. It reminds me of the Apprentice Sandhurst Twit cooking sausages in France  ) It is even a worse performer than the Zippo Blue Lighter.  I will be sticking to a conventional Butane/Propane Stove.
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Well, this being the one week of the year we can hunt elk, last friday we beat feet to our favorite elk hunting campsite and proceeded to make fire. Funny how the crowd is slowly switching from the wall tent, cot and barrel stove to everyone has new shiny trailers with forced air heaters and queen beds.
Since I had not qualified yet as a state resident, I opted to forego any actual hunting and work on some of my more mundane camping skills. My menu for the 4 days I was to be at camp included such delights as huckleberry pancakes, mountain man breakfast, deer stroganoff(the deer being donated by another hunter in the group), deer stew, chicken asparagus rice casserole, biscuits and gravy, and heaps of eggs and coffee. Apparently my culinary skills haven't waned too hard, for I made enough to have only a serving or so left over after every meal, and most of the hunting group had thirds of everything.
I do have to admit, we let the fire in the barrel stove die out at 3:00 am on Saturday morning. With a clear sky that night, the temps got right down to about 20 degrees, and I had trouble finding the bottom of my sleeping bag so I could stay warm. I am definitely getting averse to using the woods for a privy in the wee hours of the morning under such conditions, so I held my business as long as I could, then booted up and made the quick dash out and back. Since I was not going to bother with hunting, I opted to sleep in as it were until daylight, which was a good two hours after the rest of the gang had to vacate camp to get to their designated ambush sites.
Unfortunately for us, the animals once again eluded our sights. There were a few taken, and even more were poached (we were in a spike only area, and there were a number of branched antler bulls and some cow elk that were shot and left where they lay). The sheriff and the wildlife officers were running all over checking people and we saw a few get cited for having a loaded rifle in their rig while driving, a big no-no. One guy at the bottom of the hill (not from our group) managed to shoot himself in the leg and lost his foot as a result. I sure wish I'd have caught one of them poachers; it would be worth 10 preference points on my next season permit application. Oh well.
This was a much needed trip to the woods. After 5 years on the road, I hadn't really had a chance to do anything even remotely like this, and just being able to sit at the campfire and poke a stick in the embers and sip a beer was mighty fine. Firing up the dutch ovens and making a lot of really good food also felt like putting an old warm glove on a cold day. We had a couple of guys in our group that liked taking a little pack stove with them to heat up some water on location and make some instant soup or coffee or what not while munching on a granola bar. After two days of my cooking, that sort of activity came to an end, as no one had room left for snacking much while on post. We do talk a lot of politics around the campfire, and it's amazing how voices get raised, even when everyone seems to be in general agreement about a topic. We are a passionate people I reckon.
Anyways, we didn't get an animal, which is always a disappointment, but really elk camp I suppose is about a lot more than harvesting big game; it's all about the love, baby.
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I wold like to make a good survival kit to take with me on day
hikes. I do not like pree made kits so if you cold tell me
whats in yours I think that will help thanks.
litlefoot01
See you out on the trail.
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