Canister vs White Gas vs Alcohol? Now, I know most people are going to reply “Alcohol”, but IF I were to go with an MSR pocket rocket (what I used on the AT), can I find isobutane canisters in towns along the PCT?
Sundog
Stoves - Pacific Crest Trail
system
#2
This question has come up on the PCT-L. You can search the archives there for an answer. With careful planning you can find canisters. The trick is to know where you can find them so that you are always carrying enough fuel to get you to the next source. Someone on the PCT-L has compiled a list of locations where canisters can be found.
Canisters are not as easy to find as alcohol.
Scott Bryce
system
#3
I “Cook” on the trail, not boil water, and I’ve found that the only thing that works for me is the old one-burner Coleman stove. The canisters and alcohol stoves are fine for boiling water, but when I am out I prefer to eat a lot better than that. I can get by for up to 8 days on a full tank of white gas and a single bottle of fuel. My multi-fuel will burn all forms of “gas”, white gas, coleman fuel, or even unleaded gasoline. What I lose in weight I make up for in the ability to prepare good, well balanced meals. I’ve tried the alcohol stoves and teh canisters over teh last 15 years and I still keep going back to the old Coleman.
Hardcharger
system
#5
Searching PCT-L archives is the way to go…i posted on there all the places i found canisters, and a few people added on some others i hadn’t looked for them at.
All in all, it’s a non-issue, unless you do a LOT of cooking. Planning is good and you should do it, but i bet even if you didn’t plan, you’d find canisters when you need them. The overplanning/spreadsheet crowd (of which i’m sort of an auxillary member) tends to leave extra canisters in hiker boxes too.
If you really search PCT-l and don’t find the list, i’ll type it out again (and i’ll save it this time).
markv