Supercat Alcohol Stove

So I've made my own Supercat backpacking stove!

I had been reading a lot about home-made stoves on the internet, from things like soda can stoves, penny stoves, etc. But it all seemed really complicated to me. One day I stumbled upon a website about a stove made from an aluminum can called the Super Cat, and read up.

Turns out, it's super easy to make and get working. All you need is a can of food, a hole puncher, and some de-natured alcohol. You take the can of food, empty it out and clean it, measure out holes, and punch them out. Use some pliers and maybe a file to clean things up.

Check this out:

http://zenstoves.net/Stoves.htm

Also:

http://jasonklass.webs.com/

So I finally got it working, and it worked almost too well! It cooked eggs in no time, and boiled in about 5 minutes too. There was plenty of fuel with one thing of alcohol (a "thing" being the amount of alcohol in the can from the bottom to just below the holes).

So here's the video I made of me using the stove for the first time. Enjoy!

Cool videos, and some thoughts.

So for way too long, I feel I've been living vicariously through internet pictures and videos and blogs (like this one) about camping, adventure, and nature. I recently stumbled upon (using stumbleupon.com) this link: http://perpetualweekend.com/wordpress/?p=333

I read through this, and my god, what an epic adventure that must have been. If you go to the home page, there are more trips talked about. Man, the part about that trip that would scare me is walking across those glaciers. But I long for the mountains and the valleys.

One of my friends, Ben, recently went to Montana, and hiked around in Glacier National Park. It makes me wonder why I'm here at the computer, and not in the Sierras.

I mean, look at that. I would go off that trail and, treading lightly, explore that entire freaking valley. I'd love to just set up a tent out there behind some trees and camp. To live that simple, rugged life, just for a week or so.

Seriously, what am I doing? What is everybody doing, not being out there just living the life? Why do I work at a restaurant as a retail person? Why do we concern ourselves with trying to earn so much money, going to great lengths, sacrificing our own (and often times others') well being to do so? Why, when no money is needed for the greatest riches that earth provides?

Insanity...

As I write this blog, I know that I have to go to work later today, and to a dentist's appointment. But even just looking at pictures of nature calms my soul and gives me hope. It's as if those pictures tell me, one day, I will be out there again. One day, I'll be the one hiking through fields and up mountains. That is the life I long for. One with a connection to nature, including my fellow people.

Well, anyway, I've been doing some reading. I actually finished Sand County Almanac pretty quickly, though I didn't read it with as much attention to detail as I did Walden, or the last book I read. But I still got a lot of goodness from its pages. I dog-eared many pages for future reference.

I loved when Leopold talked about the high-tech gear, and how it's only good in a balanced amount. He talks about the difference between using a modern gun to hunt and using a trailer or something to go camping.

One great thing Leopold talks about his how people often try to justify protecting the environment in economic terms. For example, scientists said we had to conserve endangered animals, because without them the food chain would be thrown off and we ourselves would be at risk.

This is not unlike today, where our primary motive in environmentalism is to prevent global warming so that coastal cities don't become flooded, crops don't die, etc. etc. It's like how the oil spill primarily brought up ideas of how the fishing and tourist industries were potentially ruined.

People know something is wrong when they see trash or black oil in our otherwise pristine forests and seas, but it seems too many are motivated to even consider environmentalism purely for economic reasons.

I am now reading a new book, Last Child in the Woods, by Richard Louv (a great book so far, by the way). He had a fantastic point: "Today, kids are aware of the global threats to the environment - but their physical contact, their intimacy with nature, is fading."

This is so true. I see so many in the urban setting of my campus concerned about animal rights, environmentalism, etc., but it seems that not nearly enough of them have experienced nature. Everyone in an organization I am in at college, for example, is concerned about the environment and global warming. But when I bring up the idea of backpacking for a week, they seem to cringe at the idea of not bathing for that long.

But this is exactly what people MUST do! People need to recondition themselves away from all these creature comforts of our consumerist society. Take your shoes off! Dig your toes into the mud! Feel your sweat evaporate in the summer breeze! Cover your hands in bark as you climb up a tree, and drink and eat when your throat is dry and your stomach empty.

It's only then people will learn to live simply, as Thoreau so advocated a century and a half ago. You see, when one is immersed in nature, they realize that there is NO economic value to life whatsoever. There is only life.

That is one of the primary reasons I love backpack camping so much. Because it lets me live that simple lifestyle, if not just for a temporary while. The riches nature offers to my life via its streams and lakes and mountains and trees are far greater than any riches offered by coins and paper bills.

The views I get atop a mountain peak or amidst a valley field are more high-definition and more enticing than any nature documentary on Blu-ray. Even BBC's Earth documentaries (which I love).

I wish I could stop living vicariously so often. I wish it were easier for me to just travel to wilderness, but there are so few wild areas close to where I live. Hocking Hills is the best place that is nearby. But true wilderness is at least a 6 hour drive away in any direction.

Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to get a backpacking trip in before summer's end, or at least go to San Fransisco for the Power to the Peaceful festival!

Below I've posted two videos: One I took during a heavy thunderstorm. I stood butt naked on my porch and watched as the rain fell and the lightning lit up the entire face of the earth, like a flickering sun. I edited together the best footage of the lightning. Beautiful.

I also took a video of one beautiful summer evening, just at dusk. The porch was illuminated in a magical, ethereal orange glow, and the sky was absolutely beautiful. More so than it appears on camera. Enjoy!

Hocking Hills

Just some days after my trip to Hueston Woods, Thomas and I went down to Hocking Hills State Park. As always, it was a fantastic trip.

We drove down to the park and started getting lost. We stopped at some place called the Rock House that we had never been to before. It was beautiful. We hiked along a trail in the forest and arrived at a large, natural rock structure that seemed like an alternate version of those pueblos at Mesa Verde.

It felt so great to be back in this kind of landscape; to be climbing around on all the rocks and such. I remember at first I was running down the trail (and off of it), climbing rocks and sidling against bluffs. It felt like I was so light and free!

On the actual Rock House structure, there were three large window-like openings on the side, and at the end of the Rock House was a cliff sprinkled with boulders.

Well, I observed this cliff and decided that I could climb down it. On the left you'll see a picture, with that large dark cave on the top being my starting point. I had to make my way down those boulders (I'd say it was 3-5 stories high total). At one point, I had to drop down from one rock to a ledge below it, but my feet wouldn't touch the ledge till I let go, so it felt like a leap of faith.

Then came the best part: The rock slide. That distinct slope in the picture was where I slid down, Bear Grylls-style. It was thrilling! I was going so fast, and when my feet hit the bottom, I was exhilarated.

Thomas was being quite the naysayer, but it was an experience that was absolutely worth it. He was actually talking to someone we met who apparently told him of a person that climbed down a similar cliff and died.

Well, I knew what I was doing.

Anyway, after thoroughly exploring the area, we drove up to the lodge and got some delicious buffet food ($5 a plate if you only have one; 8+ if you get more). Our waitress told us that the place I had been at was the Rock Slide, and she had gone on it as a kid (despite now being a little more protective of her own).

Top: My plate

Bottom: Thomas's

So Dericious...

After eating, we drove to Old Man's Cave and parked there (that's the place we always parked in the past). We started hiking all over, and this time we were going all the way to Cedar Falls.

We saw lots of cool land formations, plants, and animals on the way there. We followed a Blue Heron for a while.

When we finally got to Cedar Falls, it was beautiful. Many people stood around it, gazing at the rock formations. I loved the trickling water and the growing vegetation that sprouted from the rocks.

This was my first time seeing Cedar Falls in person; last time, we had turned around on the trail before reaching it.

The waterfall was trickling, and the shallow pool of water was calling to me. As if by divine command, all the people there cleared out just as I stepped into the pool. I kicked off my shoes and socks and opened up my shirt, and waded around quite a bit, feeling the slippery rock or soft sand below me.

With each step, the sand would cloud up in lazy wisps. I walked up to a rock and sat on it for a bit meditatively. I also walked over to the waterfall and felt its cooling drops drizzle on my head.

I took many slow motion videos of the waterfall and the sand. I think more people need to experience nature in this intimate of a fashion. People need to let their bare feet touch the rocks and dirt and moss, and let the cool waters fall onto their heads.

It was so fun to get down and dirty with nature like that. To literally let my feet sink into the mud.

Well, on the hike back, Thomas and I ran out of water, and we became extremely thirsty. I started developing pains in my stomach (the kind where you can't tell if you're too hungry or too full). We walked back, taking the old secret pathway along the way (though there was no waterfall flowing, so it wasn't quite as cool).

When we got back to the car, we opened up the trunk and grabbed the igloo thermos thing that contained ice cold water. I poured some into Thomas's bottle and then drank straight from the container itself. We chugged down so much water, and it was the most refreshing thing I had ever tasted in my life. And man, instantly, my stomach pains dissipated entirely.

After this, we made our way to the campsite. It was in a Youth Group area (meaning it can be used by youth groups). The site was very nice - secluded, forested, etc.

Well, we got the tent set up, started a fire, and got to cooking. We had bread (flat bread dough actually works quite well in a bread-shaped toaster device) and vegan sausage and hot dogs and stuff. Thomas wasn't too into the food.

As the night came over us, we sat gazing into the fire, talking about how there weren't any girls our age (other than one who was living in some crazy strict army family or something). Ha. Well, really, I was more disappointed that there weren't people our age period. It was mostly just families that we didn't feel like approaching.

I just wanted to try and meet some people and talk and eat with them. But even with ourselves, we had a great time talking and laughing. We talked about times where we felt hurt or frustrated, and about people we had hurt pretty badly. We mused about life and such.

That isn't to say that there was never time for any Baby Bel cheese, aged Gouda (which Thomas surprisingly or not didn't like nearly as much as I did), and, of course, S'mores (with cookies & cream Hershey bars, not that plain crap, and the option of gummy worms or strawberry marshmallows).

It was just a really good time. Kept drinking straight out of that ice water container. At one point we just lied right down on the ground and watched the fire, listened to the insects, and gazed at the smoke.

At one point we walked a bit down the road to try and see some stars, and there were a good amount, but it was too cloudy to see all of them. So we headed back and packed everything up and went to the tent to sleep.

When we woke up, it was a beautiful, early morning. I grabbed all the cooking utensils from the car and got started on making some delicious breakfast.

Mmm... I made me some eggs in a basket using my dough, an egg, and Thomas's bread-toasting thing, and a piece of pepper jack cheese. It turned out fantastically! Then I fried up some eggs, vegan sausage, and Gouda cheese in a pan and ate it up. Also delicious.

Thomas attempted to make eggs in a basket without poking a hole in the dough. He also put the egg in the other side of the toasting apparatus and didn't even put it together. I have no idea what he was thinking, but it turned out pretty awfully hahaha.

I offered to cook him some stuff, but he refused, lying and saying he wasn't hungry. Whatever, though. I had a delicious breakfast. Those pans were covered in charcoal...

Well, after eating, we packed everything up, and drove off to Conkle's Hollow. We hiked all the way down, and I found the Cherry wood plant I was told about back in the winter. I snapped off a twig, shaved it, sniffed it, and then chewed it. I even ran into a Mennonite person who was chewing a toothpick, mistook it for being a twig, and then told him about it.

Cherrywood.

We hiked all the way down to the beautiful end of Conkle's Hollow, and climbed up on some rocks. Then, as we were going back, Thomas thought he left his car unlocked, so he rushed back, while I walked calmly down the trail, stopping to examine bugs and plants and people.

Well, we got in the car after that, and drove ourselves to good old McDonald's... Thomas wanted breakfast.

It was a fantastic trip overall, just wish we had talked to people, even if they were just families. But we talked to each other about a lot of things, and I got to climb some cliffs and jump in some water, so it was all good.

-Andrew

Hueston Woods

I went to Hueston Woods with my friend Stephen (no one else could go) and met up with Robby. It was sort of a covert camping trip. We got to the park and started getting lost, but luckily saw Robby walking down the street.

We got our campsite bought and all set up, and walked over to a beach they had at the park. It was an artificial beach and the lake was formed as the result of a dam, but it was still very fun.

We stripped down and floated about in the water, and there were pockets of refreshing coldness and strange warmth. We floated around for a while, until we decided to get out, dry off, and hike around.

We followed a trail starting by a field beside the shore into a forest. There, we went off trail and followed a stream, and we were hiking for quite a while. At one point we ducked underneath a bridge, emerging into a sunlit spot on the stream that glowed magically.

After hiking for a while, we made our way back to the campsite by hiking down the road. It was a good time, and Robby talked about these hikers from a commune he had met outside of his dance/exercise studio. Apparently this guy and girl had met at the commune and were hiking somewhere (I forget where to) for days. So Robby had talked them up and invited them in the studio for some water and such, and he drove them a few minutes closer to where they were trying to reach. The guy hugged him in the end.

Robby said it was cool, but he was wondering about that lifestyle, since you don't give anything to society, but rather take from society. This got me thinking: While I do think one should be self-sufficient more or less if they're going to make a journey like that, what most people consider respectable turns out to be the most parasitic of society there is. Businessmen, marketers, investors, etc. What do they do other than rob us of our money, pollute our minds and pollute our lands? Surely that is more parasitic than simply asking for some food from a fellow human being. Hell, I would welcome a traveler happily!

Well, we kept walking down the road, and along the way, found some wild concord grapes. I tested them out first and confirmed they were edible. They were really delicious, actually.

We finally got back to the campsite and picked some blackberries. We got some food out but then decided to drive to Walmart (rugged, I know) to get more food. We bought some mini bagels, some pizza rolls, some meat, and other things.

Stephen had the brilliant idea of using blackberries as a jam for the morning. For now, though, we cooked some flat bread, some hotdogs, some veggie burgers, etc. We also made a pie using the dough I brought with blackberries and marshmallow (should've used the cream cheese, too, though). It was delicious.

Before and After:

So we ate and had a good time, and met a hippie guy but only for a short while. After we ate Robby promptly went into his tent and fell asleep. Stephen went into our tent and did the same, so I went in and wrote in my journal.

We awoke around 7:00am. I woke up to a strange feeling in my head that turned out to be Stephen poking me with a stick. Haha.

We got everything packed up and headed to the beach again and climbed some trees and waded around. It was completely empty.

Then we drove to the lodge and hiked some trails near it. We went all through the forest and talked about various things. Afterwards, we decided it was about time to head out. We went to a diner and grabbed some delicious food to eat, and my mom called and got mad that I wasn't home from "the sleepover" yet.

I became very anxious and nervous at this, and began pondering, why is it that some things we look back at and laugh about are things that, at those times, we take so seriously?

Well, thankfully, when I got home there was no yelling or trouble to be had. I only wish I had foreseen that so I could've enjoyed that lunch we got.

Anyway, before we left, I hugged Robby, and then we drove our separate ways.

So I went camping at Mohican State Park again during the summer.

I went with my friends Josh, Jess, Pawel, Nick, Stephen, and Logan.

The first thing we did when we got there was drive over to a fire tower and climb it. I hadn't done it during my spring visit to Hocking Hills with all my friends, so I had to do it this time. Well, we got to the top and for some reason decided to take our shirts off and take a picture of us dropping them over the ledge. Hilariously, all of our shirts landed on the rungs of the tower. Josh said, "man, it's a good thing our shirt didn't land on one of these things," pointing to a little notch that we wouldn't have been able to reach. I looked down and saw my shirt and Jess's on a rung right by the platform of the staircase... and on the rung just below it was Josh's shirt. Right where it was impossible to reach. We started laughing hysterically, and three army-dude backpackers were looking at us, perplexed.

Well, we drove down to a river and stood around a bit, and then drove to the park entrance and got our campsite and everything. We waited for Nick and Stephen to show up, and Logan was coming later. So finally Nick and Stephen showed, and we went and set our tents up.

(From left to right: Pawel, Jess, Josh, Nick, and me in the front)

Immediately it started raining, and most of us ditched our shirts. We were in the middle of setting up the tents when it rained. Luckily, Jess and I finished setting up ours pretty quickly, but Josh and the others were having some trouble.

Well, afterwards, we stood around wondering what we should do. We were all shirtless and soaking. Josh wanted to try to set up a little canopy thing he had, but that didn't really work out in the end.

Needless to say, when Logan showed up and saw all of us, he was a little perplexed:

Logan: "Uh, Guys?"

Well, we decided to go on a hike through the woods. We were starting on the opposite end of the first trail I had gone on in the winter. It was cool to see all those pine trees again, this time standing more subdued against the greenery of the rest of the vegetation.

We hiked for only a little bit when people wanted to turn around to eat. Most of the group was waiting up for Logan and I, who kept stopping to look at little plant or fungi specimens.

So everyone except for Logan, Stephen and I turned around to head back to camp and eat. We continued hiking along the trail, and then decided to go off of it, down a steep slope. We slid down and sat, propped up against trees, talking and gazing at the beauty of the forest, and looking at various rocks and plants and mushrooms.

I thinkI can say with some confidence that a simple forest to me will always be more breathtakingly beautiful than the grandest man-made palace.

Well, those shining leaves were beautiful, but we eventually made our way back to the crowded campsite.

It was a far cry from the winter, all right. Hoards of people gathered close together, with their spruced up RV's and their picnic tables and their satellite dishes...

Don't get me wrong - I appreciated it on some level. The idea of a bunch of people coming into one, more natural area is awesome. But the problem was that nobody talked to each other outside of their own groups. If they weren't busy being cooped up in their air-conditioned, satellite TV-equipped "campers," they were sitting around a fire with the rest of their family, simply talking amongst themselves.

Well, our group was at least big and diverse enough so as to not really feel the need to meet anyone else.

Nick on the far right with Pawel and Josh in the background.

Jess on the left, Logan on right

Back at the campsite, we cooked some hamburgers, veggie Italian sausage (mostly for me), had some chips, some granola bars (including a wonder called SoyJoy that Logan had brought), and water. It was a great meal. We all sat around talking and laughing about how much trouble Josh had cooking the burgers, and various other things. Oh yeah, I had a can of baked beans I was cooking for Stephen (he's a vegetarian that doesn't like tofu at all), and I had to use some fishing line I borrowed from some neighbors (I guess they were actually cool... Probably should have tried talking to more people) to make a grabbing device.

Well, nighttime came and we sat around the fire, just enjoying ourselves. Josh had the fantastic idea that we should wade around in the river at dark. So after a bit of digesting and relaxing, I took off my shorts and boots (I failed to mention that I had remained shirtless thus far, as had Jess), and Josh, Stephen and I all went into the river.

Stephen on the left, Josh on the right, me in the middle in the river.

Aside from Stephen flashing everyone his junk... it was really awesome to just stand there in the river. It was very peaceful - the water flowing, the crickets chirping, the dark sky above and the trees all around... It was a very peaceful, zen moment.

And it felt so freeing to just go barefoot in that river; to let the water and the mud embrace my body. To just give in to the enveloping peace of nature and be living right there in that moment. That is what nature is about.

After all that, we dried ourselves off and packed our things up. Nick, Josh, Pawel and I went walking around the campsite. It was a beautiful light show that we got; there were hundreds of lightning bugs in the trees, and

We got into our tents, and I wrote in my journal and joked around with everyone. It was Jess, Stephen, Logan and I in one tent, and Nick, Josh, and Pawel in the other. We kept talking from tent to tent about various things (like Josh's mom - an inside joke), and at one point Josh, Nick and Pawel all came into our tent.

Sadly, we, uh... were not drunk.

Anyhow, morning came, and we had some breakfast. I had the last veggie sausage, and we had donuts and juice and water and toasted up some pop tarts on the fire. So much junk food...

We went canoeing after packing up, which was fantastic. Though it wasn't the most wilderness area (mostly a river surrounded by farm), it still felt very nature-esque. The trees hanging down from the banks looked beautiful. I was paired with Nick in a canoe; Jess with Logan and Stephen; Josh was with Pawel.

We tipped a lot of times. At one point, Nick and I saw a little inlet and decided to paddle upstream till we got into it. It was awesome. There was a little creek and we got around, walking about. Judging by the beer cans, some farmers had sat on those muddy banks before. On the way back out, I saw someone peeing. It was really fun though, exploring the place.

Everybody tipped a bunch, and despite the fact that Stephen lost his shirt and glasses, it was cool to feel all the water around me and not be bothered by it.

After that, Logan, Nick and Stephen left. The rest of us went to a Pizza Hut or something to eat, which was quite satisfying. After that, we went to Pleasant Hill Dam and went on part of a precarious trail I had been on during the winter. Unfortunately, Jess and Josh weren't willing to go all the way to the point that had inspired me so much last time.

Jess up on a rock. We explored off the trail a bit, and it was reminiscent of Hocking Hills's landscape.

But it was still fun, and I was shirtless and barefoot the whole time. We even saw a snake!

Glad I didn't step on that with my bare feet...

Well, it felt great to be so naked in the wilderness. I really did feel more connected to the earth. Like I was part of the natural world. It's amazing how comfortable you can be without shoes or a shirt (permitting the weather is okay), and how little we really need out there.

Day Hike at Conkle's Hollow, Books, and Thoughts.

So at college, my roomate Max told me and our suitemate Tape (we were the three that enjoyed the outdoors) about a day hike hosted by the Parks & Recreation society. It was awesome. We all got into a car with some other people (a driver, a girl I think, and two hippies).

It was funny, the ride down was a huge bonding moment for my roommate and I. Me being a societally conditioned introvert who was adverse to partying (and still is not a big one), I wasn't too close to many people in my suite. But on the ride down, one of us brought up the idea that Conkle's Hollow was named after an old man living in a hollow (whatever that is). We started using a deep old man voice, saying creepy things like "Why don't you come into my hollow here and sit 'cho self down on this hea' rock?" The voice eventually became a high voice like the creepy old man from Family Guy.

We were howlin' so hard!

Above: Inside the cabin, and the most bizarre multiple choice question ever.

We got there and went in a log cabin (looked like a great place to stay). We talked to a few people. A tour guide came in and showed us maps of Ohio's soil and other things. It was sort of interesting... sort of. Max, Tape and I were all starting to fall asleep, and we were laughing so hard (like when the guy said, 'this is interesting stuff,' we all tried to stifle our laughing).

We set out on the hike finally, and the tour guide kept stopping at every tree to talk about something, which made us laugh more. I asked why they called it Conkle's Hollow, and he said it was because an old man named Conkle came and lived here for a while, to which I looked at Max and said, "So the legends are true..." Hahaha.

One cool thing that the tour guide did point out was that there was a plant called Cherry Wood (I think that's what he called it) that smelled just like root beer (but it wasn't sarsaparilla). He broke off some branches and let us chew on it, and it tasted like root beer too.

He also said Conkle's Hollow was a nature preserve rather than part of the park, so we shouldn't go off the trail.

We did anyway. Hey, we treaded softly, and nature is meant to be interactive. The only reason we're so careful with it is because we have so little of it now. It was fun to go off the trail, and we all fell behind the tour guide a lot.

We especially wandered off once we reached Conkle's Hollow.

Max and Tape

Tape posing epically

Beautiful frozen waterfall (it was a huge column)

More frozen falls.

Up in some rocks.

Well, another thing I wanted to talk about was books. Particularily, good nature books. Walden (and other writings by Thoreau, like his Walking essay) is a wonderful book for any nature lover.

I haven't read this yet, but I really want to read My First Summer in the Sierra by John Muir. I've recently picked up Aldo Leopold's Sand County Almanac, and Return to Wild America by Scott Weidensaul.

Works by Rachel Carson are also suggested. I haven't gotten around to reading any of these yet, though, as I am finishing up another book at the time (No Contest: The Case Against Competition by Alfie Kohn... I recommend it). I am, regrettably, a pathetically slow reader.

So anyway, I've been thinking a lot recently (as I always do), and I realized that all of my ideas are connected. My thoughts on simple living, on more economic equality... I believe it is so unjust that people like BP or Massey (the coal mining company) can ignore safety warnings and regulations, resulting in dead workers (11 and 25, respectively), and disastrous ecological catastrophes, just so the CEOs can try and make more money on top of the millions of dollars they earn annually.

On top of that, people are so disconnected from each other. This greed found in CEOs is the cause and effect of a deep materialistic and consumerist culture in America. I won't go too deep in this issue on this blog, but what I do know is that our desire for materialistic things is just a way for us to try and fill, in vain, a void caused by a disconnect of people. Neighbors don't know each other. People in New York don't talk to each other on the subways. People on the buses at campus don't talk.

What I realize now is that nature shows us so much about this. In nature, you live simply. Nature shows us how to be connected to nature (including the part of nature that is other human beings). In nature, you live to live. You support each other and other human beings. You have a deeply connected community. Nature reminds me of a nostalgic childhood where it seemed like that was how the world worked. But now I see nature can bring that communal, loving life to reality.

Go out in nature. Take your shoes off. Eat when you're hungry, drink when you're thirsty. Connect with the trees, the sky, the animals, and the people. Love.