Stupid Story Time,
Yesterday at work I was tasked to travel in 25km on a Forest Access Road to check out the extent of a recent washout. I had not planned on going in the bush; but hey, any day in the field is better than a day in the office.
So I travel to the site and the washout was not that bad, one lane of the road was still passable for a pick-up truck. While I was marking the hazard with flagging tape a lady came along in a small car, there was no way she was getting through the washout. She explained that she had come a very long way to get to a camp only a short drive past the washout, so after about a 1/2 an hour of shoveling I got the car through. There was still some hazards and unmarked roads that the lady had to navigate before she found the trail to the camp, so I followed along in my truck to make sure she made it, no problem. Since I was this far in the road I decided to go and check some restricted access gates further in the bush.
The difficulty was that it was now 15:00hrs and I was really hungry because I had not brought a lunch. I figured I would try one of the boil-in-a-pouch meals (think MRE/IMP type) I had in my truck kit, all I needed was a container to boil water in. So I started checking old campsites and boat launch's along the road for a decent sized can. I found lots of pop and beer cans but nothing of a larger size. At 16:30 hrs I finally found a potato can of about 16 oz, that would just do.
It was now raining hard and I did not feel like fighting with a campfire, so I decided to test the Colghin's "Camp Heat" Alcohol Wick type stove
http://www.campingsurvival.com/cocahe.html that was still in my snowmobile winter kit (this is the kit my employer issued me). The first thing I discovered was that the top frame for the stove that holds the pot was missing, therefore I crowded 3 stones around the stove to hold the can. I shoved the aluminized food pouch in the can of lake-water and placed it over the lit stove wick. Then I waited, and waited, and waited; it took at least 20 minutes to get the water even close to a boil. In that time I ate all the rest of the stuff in the food pack (dessert, chocolate bar, crackers, jam packets, everthing ...).
The main meal was "Spicy Turkey Stew" and it was not very hot or good, but hunger is the best appetizer. I then made tea with the water left in my water bottle and headed out of the bush for home.
Lessons learned:
-Keep a better stove in the work truck (I must have 10 at home), and update my winter snowmobile kit.
-Keep at least one pot in the work truck (I have one on the snowmobile).
-If you are going in the field, think ahead and take a proper lunch along.
I did not say it was an exciting story, just one I learned from.
Mike
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