Hello again,
I am looking for some advice on a good cooking setup for the 2011 PCT coming up here in a few months. So far I am kinda thinking about going with Ti-goats Caldera Cone 1100. Anyone here can back me up on this setup for a solo hiker?? Also I have read about the Inferno from Trail design... Looks like if I went this route I would end up needing to buy a separate pot. What pot to get? Or just go with Ti-goats package deal? Would love some feedback. So you get an idea; I will not be sending food from home. I will just buy food as I go and send some ahead in towns that have less. I am thinking this route will need a bigger pot since I don't have dehydrated food. I am also open to advice on maybe cheap dehydrated food I can buy and send... I am not completely closed off to this idea. Thanks for your comments.
-Joshua-

Just so you guys know I have been looking at the Titanium version so I can wood burn. I a open to suggestions and if you have had experience with Tigoats pots please let me know how the compare to others.

13 oz. for the Ti-Goat 1100 is pretty heavy and bulky with that caddy. That is also a pretty big pot for solo use. I'd go with a smaller pot, probably an Evernew .9L ultralight. If you buy it from George at End2End he'll give you a free stove. His Thru-Hiker stove is .6 oz. and works really well with that pot. I love the sound it makes when it's burning. For $40+ shipping you'd have a nice setup. Add a windscreen and you are done. If you use foil for the lid and a foil windscreen it would be about 4 oz. total for pot, stove and windscreen and save yourself about 9 oz. over the 1100.

If you definitely want to go with a Caldera, I'd go with the Sidewinder which will store inside your pot. I'd still use the same .9L ultralight pot. You could add the Inferno insert to that to burn wood.

I just recently got Tinnys latest Minibulldesign stove, the Cricket Cage. If I was doing a thru-hike this year it is the stove I would take. It's weighs about 2 oz. I've only done a few kitchen tests for far. The boil time for 2 cups has been a fairly slow 9-10 minutes, however, the total burn time with 1 oz. of Heet has been around 20 minutes. With 1 oz. of fuel I was able to boil two cups of cold water and cook a package of ramen. I had enough fuel left to boil another cup of cold water for coffee. Granted this was just a kitchen test but it's really efficient IMO.

Good luck with whatever setup you choose.

Agreed, 13 oz is pretty heavy. Alcohol (fuel) isn't that hard to get on the PCT, and at least for me I wouldn't have wanted the fiddle factor of gathering fuel, lighting and maintaining a mini fire, plus considerations on where such a rig is legal (parts of CA always seem to be on fire during thru-hiking season ...).

I'd go with a pretty light alcohol stove setup using a mug rather than a real "pot", or at least this is what I do now. Note that this is one place you can save some coin to invest in better equipment elsewhere; for example, Andrew Skurka clearly describes a very easy-to-make cat food can stove approach on his site. It works very well.

That is what is good about the titanium version caldera. If you have firewood, you burn it. If firewood isn't present or isn't legal, you burn alcohol in the little alcohol burner. If you have run out of alcohol, you use the backup Esbit burner.

--B.G.--

I used a supercat on the PCT and would do so again. My pot was a 1300 ml Evernew titanium, which was the perfect size for doing large meals. I usually aimed for 1000 calories for dinner, which often meant cooking two Knorr's or two boxes of couscous at once. The big pot was the perfect size for those big meals, and it meant that I could cook just once instead of twice.

"two boxes of couscous at once"

Good Grief! Were you cooking for a whole army?

If I get more than 2-3 ounces of couscous into one meal, that is a lot.

--B.G.--

Once I got going, a typical day's mileage was 28-35. So, I was burning about 5 or 6 thousand calories each day. I tried to eat about 4000 calories a day, and since I wasn't taking many breaks, a lot of those calories had to come from dinner. So I aimed for 1000 calories for dinner. Even then, I lost 15 pounds on the hike.

"That is what is good about the titanium version caldera. If you have firewood, you burn it. If firewood isn't present or isn't legal, you burn alcohol in the little alcohol burner. If you have run out of alcohol, you use the backup Esbit burner."

No argument about the flexibility, it would be very nice to have. I'm just suggesting that for a thru-hiker on the PCT that it might not be worth the weight penalty.
Don't get me wrong, here, I can easily see someone coming to the opposite conclusion; not having to carry fuel would certainly offset that weight penalty. If, again, it's worth it to you to deal with the "little fire" aspect and to figure out where it's okay to do that (for much of CA, I suspect maybe not ...).

W.r.t. size of pot: even when eating quite a lot, with the freezer bag cooking approach, an 850 ml titanium mug does me fine. 850 ml is 28.7 oz or about 3-1/2 cups. I can't remember ever eating a meal where I needed to add 3 cups of water to rehydrate it.

Certainly the answer could be different for someone that is inclined to cook in (and then later clean) the pot.

HYOH, but that is a bunch of pack space for that one hot meal per day. Start with what you think is best, expecting to modify your plan as you go. Plenty of other successful long distance hikers have succeeded with slightly smaller cooking gear.

Edited by heyyou on 02/15/2011 10:24:08 MST.

For cheep dehydrated food ideas, I just found this at a local ethnic food store but you can get it on Amazon. Osem, Mejadara rice and Lentils or any of the Osem heat and serve stuff. Just add 1.5 cups hot water ant 10 min in the cozy.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dgrocery&field-keywords=Osem+Heat+%26+Serve&x=0&y=0

Beans and rice, minute rice and beans from Santa fe bean company

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_21?url=search-alias%3Dgrocery&field-keywords=santa+fe+bean+company&sprefix=santa+fe+bean+company

Nile spice makes several add hot water soups - for example black bean, lentil, or pea

They come in convenient paper cup which I throw away and put contents into plastic bag

A lot more dehydrated food than like Lipton Soups

Thanks for the help guys. Any more advice will be helpful. So far .9L pot sounds like thats what everyone recommends.

A good size for your pot is probably whatever size allows you to fit your burner, etc. inside the pot. I find that I can just barely fit my burner and pot stand inside my 0.9 L pot.

You can easily fit everything into a 700ML pot including stove, windscreen, fuel, lighter, etc.

I used a 700ML on the AT and could even share the right meal with another person out of it.