As I was on my last day of a 26 day trip I ran across a guy who gets on this site and he asked how I managed to pack for nearly four weeks without a resupply mid trip. I explained as best I could and afterwards thought of all the things I forgot to say so I sat down and wrote it up in a word document. I rarely get online these days so it may take some time to get back to you, but if anyone wants a copy just shoot me an email.

Email sent. I am especially interested in how and what food you packed. I am planning a 21-23 day for September. I think I can fit enough food in my barrel for that many days if I do some repackaging and dehydrate some of my own stuff, but I will have to make room in my gear pack for my stove and gas until I eat enough to be able to fit them in the barrel.

How do you know how many gas canisters to bring? I use an alcohol stove. The liquid fuel adds a lot of weight, no? But do you have a way to figure gas consumption over this many days?

Was the inquisitive guy fishing from shore on the Sea Gull River?
Glad you had a nice trip.

Sent you an email.

jillpine-

One answer to your question: canister gas estimator

That comes from a website called "Adventures in Stoving". You can download the spreadsheet, but you need to use your experience to enter numbers that are appropriate for you. Even before I found this on that website I had started to track my usage - how many waters for coffee heated, how many waters for a meal boiled, and how much gas I used to do that on average. I weigh a canister before and after to determine how much was used and compare to what I used it for. After doing that for a while you get a very good idea of fuel usage.

Many of the canister manufacturers list a burn time for canisters, which is usually around 30 minutes per 100 grams. That's another way to get an average, but actual usage varies with temps, wind, stove efficiency, fuel blend, etc. Somewhere there it is noted that most stoves are more efficient at less than full blast, something like 30%.

For me an example might be 2 coffees and one hot meal per day. On average it takes me about 60 seconds to heat water hot enough for coffee and 90 seconds to boil enough for the dinner. I trip in Sept. usually last half. I usually plug 3.5 grams of fuel per cup boiled in the spreadsheet for my old Jetboil.

Using your scenario of a 22-day trip, I need 231 grams of fuel (essentially one medium size canister) and 24 grams for a 10% margin of error, or 255 grams total, so the spreadsheet tells me to take the large canister (450 grams/16 oz.), which gives me 195 excess grams of fuel, or 55 additional cups boiled. I could take a 230 gram/8 oz. plus a 110 gram/4 oz. canister and have plenty. On the other hand, the large canister only weighs about 2 oz. more for 4 more ounces of fuel and probably not much difference in bulk. Note that the larger the fuel canister, the larger the percentage of total weight that is attributable to fuel.

Your needs and usage will differ. Once you get a good average usage for you, it's really pretty simple. But it does require a little up-front attention to detail.

Thanks, Boonie - man, this gear-updating is killing my checking account.

Sorry to stay OT. Jillpine, Boonie really knows his stuff. I way overestimated my fuel needs on my 27 day solo last year. I brought a 450g canister for each half. Did a resupply on day 16 so didn't carry both of them or all my food. The 450g canister still had quite a bit of fuel remaining in it when I replaced it. So now I have 2 partial 450g canisters left from that trip. I will just put them in the car camping gear to and use them up that way.

For my 21-23 day in September I'm going with a 450 and 100g. I figure 3.5g per cup of water x 6 cups per day x 23 days = 483g. Hopefully I wont have much left. I also will bring my Firebox Nano just in case for backup.

email sent...

Yes, I would appreciate a copy of your long trip gear list. Thanks for offering it.
Forgive my ignorance, I could not find your e-mail

MossBack

MossBack: " Yes, I would appreciate a copy of your long trip gear list. Thanks for offering it.
Forgive my ignorance, I could not find your e-mail


MossBack"

MossBack, Click the little envelope under the screen name and it should pop up for you. Good Luck!

Thats what I thought, open the envelope. Does not open on any member's name?

MB - just hover your cursor over the envelope and look in the lower left corner of the screen. You should see it there.

On my android, I just tapped it and email app opened with address.

Thanks boonie and others who offered help. Apparently I was not thinking, or looking, outside the box,

Regards, MB

I just sent you an eMail if you still have that Word doc available. There should be plenty of info for even how to be more efficient on week long solo trips.

Thanks!