Solar oven cooking

imported
#1

am i crazy to be thinking in the “solar” vein for cooking meals on the pct? (the desert especially)…i’ve checked out a couple of models of “ovens”…one uses a automobile windshield shade :
(http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Windshield_Shade_Solar_Cooker)

(we carry a windshield shade anyway to sleep on!..ah ha!..double duty!)

billy goat and others have wisely advised us to get out of the heat in the middle of the day in the desert…perhaps this would be a good time to cook using a solar oven!

has anyone else out there had any experience cooking “solar”? (the “molly baker” is also very cool!) http://www.mollybakersolaroven.com/

maw-ee

#2

Neat idea, but for one thing, you need to consider the wind. On my PCT trip, it was rarely calm enough to even think about a reflector, and often windy enough to carry anything not anchored down into Arizona or Nevada. I heard a lot of hikers swear by umbrellas, but I can’t remember many days when I could have used one. I think we had a cooler and windier than normal season, though.

The other thing is simplicity and watching every gram of weight. I doubt the reflector would be worth its weight in fuel savings.

Hopefully you’ll get some less skeptical responses!

Garlic

#3

paw-ee and i are checkin’ out your “pct wisdom” in yogi’s book and your journals (or are you that same “garlic”?)…anyway, we keep forgetting about that “wind thing”…(we have always carried umbrellas, but are wondering about their effectiveness for the pct)…and yes!..we keep whittling away at that weight!..thanks again for the reminder!

maw-ee

#4

I’m not the Garlic Man in Yogi’s books, but I am the Garlic Man (PCT’04 and CDT’07) and Garlic (AT’08) on Trailjournals. Long story. I changed my name last year out of respect for the first Garlic Man (Yogi’s friend and triple crowner a few years before me).

I know lots of hikers absolutely swear by umbrellas on the PCT, so don’t rule it out based on my experience. I did well with the ventilated wide-brim Columbia hat and a long-sleeve ventilated trekking shirt.

Best of luck with the planning.

Garlic

#5

If you type the number “8” and a “)” you get a dude with sunglasses. See the reply above.

Garlic

#6

8888888888

neighbor

#7

okay…here goes…8)

(i never can get emoticons to work!)

i’d love to hear some other discussion on solar cooking…but perhaps it’s just not being done…yet!..did anyone check out the sites listed above for making ovens?

maw-ee

#8

(wow!..a dude with sunglasses!..awesome!)

maw-ee

#9

I found an umbrella at Kennedy Meadows. I wished I had had one all along. They really take the edge off the mid-day sun. I suppose if you had an umbrella you would no longer rest mid-day for oven cooking. Even without the umbrella, I rarely rested mid-day. I rested maybe two hours at Scissors Crossing and 3 hours in Jawbone Canyon but other than that, I kept going no matter how awful the sun was. I got obsessed.

Piper