Gear Review: BioLite Campstove

By -
My first reaction after coming across the BioLite Campstove was excitement followed by a little bit of skepticism. I thought it was a great idea but wasn't sure if it would preform well in the often wet forests of western Cascadia.


Cooking dinner beside Dillon Lake- Three Sisters Wilderness

After testing the BioLite on my back porch with some dry twigs and dry wood, I was impressed and confident that it wouldn't fail my girlfriend and I on our upcoming backpacking trip to the Three Sisters Wilderness.

Starting a fire inside the BioLite is similar to starting a fire anywhere else. You need something dry to get it going. I always carry Cotton Balls soaked with petrolatum jelly, or plain in case I can't find anything dry. On this trip there was abundant Old Man's Beard (Usnea). Usnea is the lichen that often hangs from low branches or on trees that looks like blue or green hair. More information and pictures of Usnea




After finding the smallest and driest twigs that we could, I loaded the BioLite up carefully avoiding the air holes on the side. Then I began lighting Usnea and putting it into BioLite. After about 10 seconds (as recommended) I turned the fan on low.




Despite the fact that the twigs and Usnea were still somewhat damp within about 45 seconds of turning the fan on the flames were reaching the top and I added more, slightly larger fuel. The fire was fairly smoky because the larger twigs still had some water in them. This didn't seem to slow down the BioLite though, I continued to add more twigs until I had a solid bed of coals. 

Size of stick I would use for cooking with the BioLite

After experimenting around with small pieces of wood, I started to add larger pieces. When I filled the stove with these I boiled 4 cups of water in about 5 minutes. This was close to what BioLite listed as the boil time for 1 liter, I could see that if you had completely dry hardwood. Also I'm fairly sure they didn't use water that was near freezing when they tested their boil time.

Perhaps the coolest part of the BioLite was left untested on this trip. I always forget something when I go camping and this time it was my iPhone charger. So I will post an update on charge time as soon as I can. The only issue I have with the BioLite is it's weight, which is a 2 pounds 1 ounce. I'm not an ultra-light hiker by any means, but I would like the BioLite to be closer to 1 pound. Though if you were on a long trip there could be weight savings in batteries if your headlamp, GPS, phone and other electronics could be charged via USB. I ended up using the charging feature on my trip to the Deadfall Lakes Area.

Something else that was awesome that we used the BioLite for was to start our 'real' fire. After getting a solid bed of coals in the BioLite and drying some larger sticks on top of it we dumped them onto some tinder. We had a great fire to dry out gear, made easy with the BioLite.



 Final Rating: 4 out of 5




Location: National Forest Development Road 2638, Willamette National Forest, Blue River, OR 97413, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Make a Homemade Planter Box For Under $30

By -
Image
When you live in a second floor walk-up there are certain things you sacrifice. When we moved in I realized that there was no way I would be able to seed the cement back patio and have a luscious patch of green to call my own. I have accepted this and moved on. Presently I tell myself that at least this way there is no lawn that needs to be mowed. I have come to terms with not having grass to roll around in and I am alright with it. For now. One thing that I wasn't willing to sacrifice, regardless of our second floor status, was a garden. A few months ago John and I made several shopping trips. I had it in my head that I was going to buy some long, and narrow in proportion planter boxes to line our patio. Did I want square ones? No. Did I want small little rectangles that looked like elongated loaf pans to grow plants in? No. I wanted substantial 18 inch wide, 6 foot long planter boxes. We went to 4 or 5 different stores ranging from one stop shops, to hardware stores, we even pe
Read more

McQuade Creek Trail: Spring Gateway to the Middle Santiam Wilderness

By -
Image
The Middle Santiam Wilderness is an incredible place. Massive Douglas-fir, western hemlock and western redcedar line much of McQuade Creek Trail and the Chimney Peak Trail. After calling the Sweet Home Ranger Station and finding out that the trail head on the south side of the Wilderness would likely be closed until July, because of snow, I decided to find another route in. The lady I was talking with was pretty knowledgeable and let me know that Forest Road( FR) 1142 was open, but a massive rock blocked the road one mile from the trail head. That wasn't much of a deterrent an extra two miles round trip wouldn't hurt.   The rock blocking FR 1142 The McQuade Creek Trail starts out with 2 fairly rapid creek crossings, both of them being about calf high on me( I'm about 5'6) as of June 2, 2012. The trail then begins to slowly climb through a relatively recent clear-cut, which gives you a pretty awesome view of the valley below. As you climb you wil
Read more

Santiam Wagon Road: Mountain House to House Rock Falls

By -
Image
Normally I'm somewhat apprehensive about hiking on old roads, especially ones that run parallel to a modern road. But I also love to hike any longer trails in the area. The full length of the trail portion of the Santiam Wagon Road is approximately 21 miles, running from Fish Lake to Mountain House. Some of the trail is still on drivable road, but thankfully much of it is only open to non-motorized transportation. Bridge across the South Santiam River South Santiam River  The hike starts out at a small pull out next to a gated bridge across the South Santiam River. The trailhead would hold about 5 cars, but I wouldn't expect to see many other people. Shortly after you cross the bridge you enter into an almost pure stand of Red Alder. I'm not sure what kind of disturbance caused this early successional forest, but it's beautiful.  Dense Red alder (Alnus rubra) line the trail Bigleaf maple (Acer macrophyllum) and Red alder (Alnus rubra) leaves c
Read more