Although not for everyone, many people still consider camping as a fun outdoor activity. Arguably, those who do find comfort in it tend to go all out to make sure they get the most out of their trips. If you are among those people and this is the first time you are going camping, then your mind is probably overwhelmed with a lot of things—What are you going to bring? Do you need a stove when camping? What is the proper camping attire?
What Does Camping Do for You?
Basically, you need a starting point to organize your thoughts and eventually figure out what are the things you need. Let us start with the question, “What do you want to get out of this camping activity?”
Maybe you are feeling cooped up at school or work, and feel like you need to get out. Perhaps you are tired of the day to day city life grind and need to be in some place different. Or you just can’t remember when was the last time you saw nature at its best and suddenly you have the need to see it again.
Camping is a great way to take a break from the bustling city and see and be one with nature. If this is the experience you are looking for, then you are on the right track. Now, what can be done to make sure that the experience is going to be perfect or at least close enough?
You have to make sure that you get everything covered—right gear, survival tools, proper clothes, and good and sufficient food. The first three are pretty much set as these are usually sold at camping stores and the like. However, the food is where you will need some deeper thinking.
Do You Need a Stove When Camping?
Unless you’d like to carry several days’ worth of food, which we hope are not just packs and packs of protein bars, you would most likely need to cook at the campsite. This is especially true if you are going camping for several days or even weeks. Additionally, if you are going camping at places with cold temperatures, then you will realize how a hot cup of coffee in the morning or at night can make or break your camping experience.
So, do you need a stove when camping? It depends. Whether you are on a camping trip for only a short period or a longer duration, then you must weight whether the cost carrying a stove is heavier than the experience of you eating good, warm food.
If it helps, we would like to let you know that you are not the first one to encounter such burden. Backpackers and campers back in the days have already voiced out their frustrations regarding this matter, and manufacturing brands have already created a solution for it: Camping stoves.
If you are the must-have-cooked-meals-for-dinner type of person, or if you would like to experience cooking at a campsite without risking to start a forest fire through a campfire, then all you have to do is ask because there are options out there for you.
What to Look for in a Camping Stove?
Aside from the obvious health and safety standards, there are other factors to take into consideration when picking out a camping stove.
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Portability
One most common concern is how you would bring a stove with you to camp. Obviously, something hefty would be out of the question, considering all the other things you have to bring with you. The last thing you want is lugging a bulging, heavy backpack during a what should be a time of relaxation for you.
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Functionality
Thankfully, there are many quality camp stoves on the market these days; most provide you all the functionalities of what a stove should be plus the benefit of not causing sore muscles and turning people into grumpy campers.
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Design
Not only do these camping stoves work great, but many of them were also designed to be visually pleasing as well.
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Lightweight
Camping requires you to bring a lot of stuff. Of course, it will be helpful if your camping stove doesn’t add much weight to your already loaded backpack.
One good example is the Uberleben Stoker Flatpack Wood Burning Stove. With its wonderful minimalist design, is a great example of this. It is a bio wood burning stove that is collapsible and portable, weighing in at only 14 ounces approximately.
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Durability
As mentioned earlier, camping is not for everybody. It takes one tough person to get through this activity, and as such, your camp stove should also keep up.
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Ease of Use
You are on a camping trip, the last thing you want is to deal with complicated cooking equipment. Aside from starving, challenging camping stoves might also ruin the whole experience!
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Size
Last, but not the least, you also have to consider the size of the group. How many persons will a camping stove have to cook for? If you are going camping with a large group, then you will obviously need one with a larger capacity. If in any case this is not possible, then the others can bring stoves, too.
Regardless of how you decide on each of these factors, the good thing is that, as camping and other outdoor activities become popular, more and more camping stoves are created and manufactured. One is a better version of the other, providing the solution to where the previous one failed.
Camping stoves are also not new to the DIY world. If you cannot find one that suits everything you are looking for, although this is quite impossible as there is a whole variety of camping stoves on the market today, then you can always create your own. Check out easy to follow guides online. Do your research. After all, what good is a trip to nature if you have to suffer eating boxes of granola bars and trail mixes as well as cans and cans of beans, right?