You guys bring up something really obvious that I hadn't even considered...FOOD!

I should really put together something even if it's just some ramen noodles and tea bags to keep in my bag all the time. I've never tried MREs...are they heavy?

That's a lot of the rational behind my cooking gear. I read a good post on a British site last year about carrying a brew up kit. The idea is that if you're turned around, you can relax for a few minutes and make a cup of tea. Stopping to make tea or hot chocolate lets you run through the S.T.O.P. process with out having to admit you're lost to start it. Ever since I've tried to carry some sort of brew kit. From what I currently carry to the bare minimum of an MRE heater and hot beverage bag. The MRE brew kit weighs nearly nothing and fits in a coat pocket.

Both MREs and the Mainstay, etc., survival rations are pretty hefty. The latter are highly concentrated and quite dense.

I have a 3-day ration "bar" (it's actually the size of a large paperback book) in the car bag, and I notice the weight. That's why it's in the car bag. The larger emergency backpack (I guess you could call it a BOB) has two of the same bars in it, as well as several packets of instant soup, ramen noodles, tea bags, and some hard candies. It contains a Swedish surplus mess set, an esbit stove and a dozen tabs.

For day hikes I carry a power bar or two, a packet of instant soup and a couple of teabags in case I get lost, break a leg, etc. I carry a stainless cup on my nalgene bottle, but don't take a stove. Materials to make a fire for cooking are readily at hand wherever I hike.

"...SOS pads..."

Interesting. For cleaning the kit/spoon, or for something else? Seems to me that SOS pads, while they do a great job of cleaning pots and pans, are messy. Do you also carry a zip loc bag to put in in after use, let it air dry, what? Plain old steel wool, or just sand and some rubbing, might be easier in the long run...

I don't like cleaning which is why I keep things minimal (by my standards anyhow) but I keep a couple of wet ones and a half dozen alcohol swabs in the kit just to keep things sanitary...the alcohol prep pads make a decent fire starter if I need a fire and this is all I have handy.

OBG,

I always carry the SOS pads in a ziplock or else I'd have to wash the dry powdered soap out of my messkit before I could use it. Remember what soap residue on eating/cooking equipment does to the human body, oops, gotta RUNNNNNNNNN!!!!

Hacksaw:

One word: CLIFFstove

Designed, creatred, adored, and shamelessly promoted by.....

.....CLIFF (like, who else?)

Cliff, I gotta tell ya. That stove of yours is fantastic! The first time you posted that I remebered that I had an old canteen cup that leaked. I got as far as removing the handle and had to stop for other things. Can I ask how you cut the top/bottom of the cup off?

Wow Cliff that's awesome. I love to see home made solutions to the problems we come up with. I see similarities between your stove and what I've fudged together only I didn't build anything...I just pieced it together ghetto style...I'm lazy like that.

I recently visited Alcatraz and found the replica prison cup I bought at the gift shop fits over my 1L Nalgene bottle perfectly (not unlike a NATO canteen/cup combo). Not wanting to waste my investment I ran a test over the weekend. With the alcohol stove I can boil water in 5 minutes with alcohol left over for later use. I haven't tested with the Esbit style stove yet. In the picture I'm using the Esbit style stove as a wind guard...purely optional but since it's in the kit, why not?


Here's some pictures of the rest of the setup:

Nice cup, but you'd probably find the spacesaver-type from GSI or Olicamp to be more efficient due to their flat bottoms, and they probably hold more. They also go over the bottom of a Nalgene bottle.

Other than that, nice fire/cook bag.