Little Sahara Sand Dunes 2013

We made it to Little Sahara Sand Dunes again this year and had a blast!  I was able to take my "new" Suburban, and pull the scout trailer as can be seen below.  I got 13 mpg pulling the trailer.  Not as good as I had hoped, but pretty good when you consider I can have 9 people inside.

Once we got there and set up tents we played some football on the sand for awhile then had dinner.  Our typical dinner is to have everyone bring a can of stew, mix it all together and heat it up.  The troop provides rolls and something to roast over the fire for dessert.  The boys (on their own) have decided that Dinty Moore stew is the best, with the biggest chunks of meat, and it usually comes with a handy pop top so they don't have to use a can opener.

We had to deviate from the usual fire roasting dessert this time.  We have in the past brought Twinkies and roasted them over the fire.  They get carmelly and crispy on the outside and it's really quite good!  But since we couldn't get Twinkies right now, we decided to try Cloud Cakes from Little Debbie:

They were actually just about the same as a Hostess Twinkie, so our dessert tradition is preserved!
We didn't bring hot dog sticks, and there aren't any trees or sticks out there, so we got creative with our sticks, carving them out of slices of wood from the firewood:

They worked pretty well as long as you switched hands often so you didn't burn your hand.

We played capture the flag out in the dunes at night, and this time we moved the flags further away from each other and had the guards move further away from the flags and jails.  Sometimes we're too close together and people just stand around looking at each other instead of trying to get the flag.  This time there was a lot of sneaking around around sand hills and such to get to the flags.  It was a lot of fun!

Unfortunately the 4-wheelers thought that they owned the sand and kept driving right through the "field" even though they knew we were there, and there was tons of other places they could go.  Next time we'll try to go somewhere that is less of a 4-wheeler haven.

Little Sahara Sand Dunes Campout

So for April we drove down to Little Sahara Sand Dunes for our monthly campout.  We planned to play capture the flag, explore the dunes and experience an 800 foot tall sand hill!

Unfortunately during this trip we saw how dependent our scouts are on us - and we've facilitated the whole dependency!  Our older scouts were so willing to help in whatever needed to be done, that the younger ones have gotten used to not needing to help.  Now that the older scouts are moving on, we're going with just the younger ones that aren't used to helping out in the kitchen and such.  We try and try to get them to help out in the kitchen but they're lazy!  I need to clarify that not all of them are, but a good majority are.  One of the boys we asked to wash dishes after dinner (just one pot and a ladle) didn't know what to do.  He said that it's his sisters job to do the dishes at home, so he's never done it!  I had to show him exactly what to do in order to get it done!  We had to hound the boys to work together to get their tents set up and taken down.

So we've decided to do things a little differently next time - the way it should be done.  We're going to let them plan out the meals, and the cooking and cleaning schedule - and post it so all know what their jobs are.  We're not going to hound them about setting up their tents - if they don't get them set up they will just have to sleep under the stars.  We'll be available for consultation, but will let them run the show.  I've gotten into the habit of planning out the activities and such, and end up doing the kitchen stuff so that we will have time for the activities.  Next time I'll let them plan it all out and if we don't have time for the activities that's just too bad.

Wish me luck.

Backpacking Stoves

Backpacking stoves are an interesting subject where different people have completely different opinions.  So I'll offer my opinion on the pros and cons of each of the ones below, but understand that it's my opinion based on my camping experiences.  Below is a photo of the 3 backpacking stoves I have access to.  The one on the left is our troop's stove, made by Coleman.  The middle one is mine, and it's also made by Coleman.  The one on the right is a woodgas stove that burns wood instead of gas.  Each of the stoves below cost approximately the same ($50-$80, depending on where you get it).

The 3 stoves I have access to

So, the first one is a Coleman Featherlight Exponent backpacking stove.  It will run off of white gas, unleaded gas, or kerosene.  I don't picture using the kerosene feature much, but the white gas and unleaded makes it so that if you run out of white gas you can siphon gas out of a stranded vehicle and still cook food.  It's fairly small, but not the lightest thing out there.  It weighs 24 oz empty and gives out 7,500 Btu's of heat on high.  Tank holds .34 L and will burn for 1.5 hours.

Coleman Featherlight Exponent Stove

Here's my first stove.  It's a Coleman Dual Fuel 533.  It will burn white gas or unleaded as well, but not kerosene.  It is larger than the Exponent (above), and weighs 14.5 ounces more as well at 38.5 oz.  It has a larger tank (0.52 L) which will provide 10,500 Btu's (high) for 1.75 hours.

Coleman Dual Fuel 533 Stove

Here's my new stove (below).  I got it from THIS WEBSITE.  It's called a Biomass Wood gas Stove.  It burns wood, but has a fan run by 2 AA Batteries that allows you to burn the wood gas at a more consistent rate.  At high it gives off 10,500 Btu's and at low it gives 5,000 Btu's.  Unfortunately it's either high or low, nothing in between.  But, you don't need any gas, just batteries, and 2 AA Batteries are supposed to last 10 hours on high or 11 hours on low.

Biomass Wood Gas Stove

Let's see, compared to the stove above that would be: 10 hours/1.75 hours = 5.7, and 0.52L x 5.7 = 2.9 L of gas needed to burn for 10 hours on the Coleman Dual Fuel Stove!  Thats approximately 3 quarts of fuel, weighing a total of 6 pounds!


So, weight of Coleman Stove (38.5 oz) + weight of fuel to burn for 10 hours (6 pounds) = 8.4 pounds!
While the weight of the Wood Gas Stove is 1.6 pounds (battery and carrying bag included)!  That's 6.8 pounds less!

Plus, white gas is about $9 per gallon right now.  1 Gallon gas will burn (on high with the dual fuel stove) for approximately 13.3 hours.  While with two sets of 2-AA Batteries you can burn for 20 hours.  What do AA Batteries cost now, maybe $4 for a set of 4?  So, for the same cost as the gas ($9), you could burn your wood gas stove for approximately 40-50 HOURS (instead of 13 hours).

So, suffice it to say that I'm pretty excited about using it.  I have tried it out in the backyard and it worked great there, but I'd love to take it on a backpacking trip (I'll go on at least one this spring) and compare it side by side with the Coleman Stoves.

As I've stated in earlier posts, I like the white gas stoves because the white gas will work at lower temperatures much better than propane, or some of the other gases out there.  I've been on camping trips when people have had the butane tanks or whatever that come pre-pressurized and ready to go - simple, right?  But then some of the tanks would only use up about 1/2 of the gas.  We could tell there was more in there, but it wouldn't come out.  With white gas, you can open the lid and see how much is in there (and you know how much you put in there, you don't have to guess on your next trip how much is actually in the half used tank), and you know you can get it all out.

A word of caution:  If there is a ban on open fires in your wilderness area, you can't use the wood gas stove.  You'll have to use the Coleman stove or another of your choice.

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Fuel for Winter Camping

I’ve found out the hard way that when it gets cold, propane shrinks and doesn’t come out of the bottle very well.  Here’s what we’ve found:

• Stove Fuel:
  
  
• Propane will freeze if the temperature is below 30 or so.  It'll still come out of the bottle, but so slowly that it can't keep up with the heat loss of whatever you're heating.  Bottom line, you eat cold stew.
  
  
• White Gas is somewhat of a bother with the pumping and everything, but I've used it in temperatures down to the single digits and haven't had a problem with it at all.
  
  
• I haven't had the chance to try a butane or other type of stove, but I know my butane lighter doesn't work too well when it's really cold.
  
  
• Propane Lantern uses so little gas that it seems to work fine even when the temperatures are in the single digits.  I haven't ever had the chance to try one out at lower temps then that though.

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