Took the turn up Tunnel Creek Rd. Quite possibly the most beautiful campsite I had every seen was up there last year. I had the whole place to myself one week after Labor Day Weekend, and I mean the whole place including the surround hill tops and valleys. Not a sole.

The site was on the East side of Brothers Mountain overlooking the Hood Canal and with a view from Tacoma to Everett. The lights at night were beyond any description I could give them. It's just one of those things you have to see for yourself.

This year, to test out the Pocket Stove, I went up two weeks before Labor Day weekend on a Wednesday. It was warm weather in August. A beautiful day. Plus we just came out of a couple of rainy days and the mood of the public was anticipating outdoors in this good weather coming up. I figured the camp site I had seen last year must be somebody's favorite campsite, if not several, so I kind of figured the whole mountain would be teeming with people.

Amazingly there was no traffic on my way up Tunnel Creek Rd. Bub came along and we stopped at a creek on the way up to cool off. Bub is the best stick getter in the business. She'll fetch a stick if it's across a river, in the woods, or faked and thrown the other way. Bub is a lot of fun on any trip. It was a surprise as we came up the trail from the creek to see our fist car. Two stunningly beautiful women, in summer clothing got out to pet the dog and ask for directions. I could only admire the beauty of nature and appreciate this rare circumstance. I'm going to tell you right now, that was the only car I saw up there and these were the only people I ran into on my three day camp out in the National Forest, in August, no less.

The main reason for my isolation was that the Forest Service had troughed the roads. I never imagined it, but when I turned up the second to last forest service road on the way to the beautiful camp site, somebody had troughed the roads every hundred yards or so, making it impossible for a passenger car to drive through. Lifted vehicles could make it, with difficulty, and I was in a Jeep Cherokee. Even still it took a shovel a couple of times to make it across, and I imagine after the winter rainy season you'll need a winch.

I almost quit a couple of times, figuring the road would be impassible. There must have been eighty or ninety troughs before I made it to the camp site.

I stopped part way there and fired up the Pocket Stove for the first time. I wanted to make some coffee. I gathered up five or six rocks to make a wind break and found some dry ground. Conditions were bone dry so I wanted to take any and all fire precautions I could. I soaked the ground with some water, underneath a small rock I placed the stove on. Since I was only making a cup of coffee I only filled the pocket stove part way. Just a guess. I didn't bring any measuring devices to calibrate my pours. I dribbled a little alcohol on the stone beneath the stove, put the stove back on the stone and lit the dribbled fuel. My wind break of stones was not adequate and a gust of wind blew the flame out. I reinforced the wind break with smaller stones plugging the holes and repeated the dribble process. It worked. A rolling boil in seconds. Instant coffee, instant milk and some instant caffeine energy. I poured some more water in the pan for a second cup. That water boiled and then the Pocket Stove kept burning, a little longer than I wanted while it burned the rest of the fuel up. It's a bit of a waste until I figure out a better way to calibrate how much fuel I use for different meals there's going to be some waste.

I decided to walk the road the rest of the up to the beautiful camp site and see if the troughs were passable and if the site was vacant. The forest service road did go on through, North, so if that way was passable I expected to see crowds.

It was late enough in the day part for part of the road to be shaded, which was important for Bub. It was too hot for a lot of exertion and we were above any streams to cool off in. Also in the sun here, on a hot day, there's a certain type of fly, that I don't see in other areas, that's big, and that's relentless when it comes to biting and chasing. I swing the end of the leash around, like a helicopter blade and Bub keeps nipping to try and catch one. The flies are territorial, so there's only one per section of trail or road, and as soon as you go into the shade the fly stops following.

One thing that's unique, up here, is that you can hear a low buzzing sound permeate the fields and woods as the bees and flies buzz around. The sound is vast and consistent in volume.

Got up to the beautiful site. It was empty. So were the other sites around it. Not a sole. Not a sound, but the view.... incredible. Walked a little farther up the road, North and I could see the forest service had troughed it as well. All part of our stimulus money donated to the forest service. I guess it put some people to work, although I saw tractor tracks, so they didn't do it with physical labor, just some guy in a back hoe, I guess. Part way up the road they had pulled down a bolder that blocked the road completely. Amazing. Roads probably built by the CCC core back the thirties to put people back to work during the Great Depression, now being blocked off by stimulus money from this depression.

Walked back down to the Jeep. I brought some water but couldn't get Bub to drink the whole way. When we got back to the Jeep I begged, pleaded, cajoled and she finally took a complimentary sip. I can't get enough water, I worry about the dog getting too hot, and she won't drink. Go figure. A hot day. Dogs are tough.

Drove to the beautiful site and the first thing I did was set up the Pocket Stove on the ridge overlooking the valley below. I was anxious to see how the stove did in wind, but here, where I expected it to get windy, was windless. Well you know how it is. It's never windless. The air always moves a little and that's tough on camp stoves, so you have to think about your wind break. I set up a simple wind break and had coffee poured in less than five minutes. I've always wanted a stove like this and now I've got one. Cool!.

Once again, conditions were very dry. I soaked the ground with water. I learned this the hard way. Years ago my brother and I camped out in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area with Yogi, his big black Lab/Newfoundland mix. Big dog. We went to sleep by the campfire and during the night I had a dream where a big black bear was telling me to put the fire out (and no he wasn't carrying a shovel and wearing a Forest Ranger hat). I woke up and it was Yogi whining and pawing the ground. The ground beneath our campfire had caught and the fire had spread outside the pit. If we had slept through the night it might have spread too big for us to dig up and put out. I just wanted to relate this because before that I never thought much about the ground beneath a campfire. It might be easy to overlook in dry conditions. I recommend soaking the ground beneath the Pocket Stove in dry conditions. Alcohol floats and will light anyway.

Sunset at the beautiful camp site is beyond any description I can give it. The shadows are amazing as they fall across the hill tops and the lights flicker on. The sunset's shadow travels across Hood Canal, across the Puget sound towards Seattle and up to the Cascades. You gotta see this. I wouldn't mind hiking up the road if they cut it off.

You can see the Space Needle far off in the distance. I'm overwhelmed by history as I've grown up in the Seattle area. People growing up, struggling to survive, conflicts with what now seem to be petty arguments. Then school, stomping grounds venturing into Seattle, first car, parties, attempts at success, working, living in lower Queen Anne, walking around the Seattle Center remembering the fountain, fairs, people. Watching the city grow and the personal histories that fade away. I've watched Seattle evolve into something I don't fit into anymore. I'm in overwhelm at all the pain and suffering we all go through and the beauty and happiness that it all could be. I didn't expect these kind of feelings up here at the beautiful camp site.

Dinner was a breeze with the Pocket Stove. I used the same quick wind break I set up earlier. Like all first meals on a campout, which they taught us in Boy Scouts, you can have something semi perishable. Remember campers stew. You'd put your cut up meat and potatoes and maybe carrots, onions, or whatever else you put in a stew and put in on the camp fire in foil. Here I boiled the stew it in a pan. Camp fires were prohibited up here this time of year. So I planned on duplicating the camper's stew experience without the camp fire. The meat was precooked at home and the vegetables were put in raw. I got the Pocket Stove to burn a full fifteen minutes. It's pretty easy to fill it enough to burn for twelve to fourteen minutes, but getting that last little bit in for the full fifteen minutes requires a little extra time, a few extra seconds, twenty to thirty. The alcohol has to soak into the dispersion material inside the stove. Either way it cooked the stew and the potatoes I diced to about a quarter inch were actually mushy. I didn't add any onions so I could give some to Bub and she approved, twice.

More coffee. No wind yet so I could use the same wind break. Stars and lights of the city were incredible. A diluted milky way was visible, washed out by the city lights, an equitable trade up here.

Next morning woke up in bright sunlight. The lowlands, including Seattle, Hood Canal and Puget Sound were covered by a layer of clouds. This beautiful camp site was above the clouds. Coffee and instant oatmeal on the Pocket Stove. 'Piece of Cake'. I mean it was easy not that I had cake, although I did see a cake recipe online for cooking on a Pocket type stove. I do wish I had brought a frying pan and eggs. Will have to do that next time. I'd also like to figure out a way to make some toast on a Pocket Stove.

The clouds moved up the valleys below on their way from the lowlands. The cloud animals, from above, were riding the clouds. The clouds broke up and the city finally appeared, before the Sound. Boiled enough water to wash the dishes, clean up and shave. Don't want to look like one of those infidels, even though I'm up here all alone in the mountains. The remaining clouds snaked their way up the valleys below to within a few feet of where I was sitting on the ridge. Time takes on a different meaning when you're camping. It almost mid morning.

Took Bub for a hike. We brought along some ravioli in a can. Bub gets the first few bites and I cook the rest in the can. Ravioli cans don't appear to be coated, inside, yet so it's okay to heat up food in them. With some cans now, you want to be careful as they have a plastic coating or something inside and it doesn't look healthy to eat. So as a rule, don't cook food in cans.

I wanted to see an old hunters camp site I had seen here last year. It was also a remarkable camp site, only a couple of miles away from the beautiful camp site it overlooked several square miles of forested wilderness. A different world form the view of civilization just over the hill at the beautiful camp site.

One thing that struck me about the hunters camp site was the wind break they built around the camp fire or rather what looked like a smaller cook fire. They found some slaps of shale, maybe an inch or two thick, twelve to twenty inches long and set them up, on end around the fire pit. It looked impervious to the wind. I wanted to give it a try with the Pocket Stove.

We got to the site and the wind break was no longer there. The camp site itself, looked like the ultimate in hunting vantage points. You could see hundreds of acres of forested and open spaces where I'm sure hunters waited for a deer to make an appearance. It was at the end of forest service road, long since blocked off by a land slide. The fire pit was there, but it didn't look like anybody had used it for a while. I imagine the site was the premier hunting site when you could drive into it. Now that it took a hike, maybe it got less usage.

I found a couple pieces of the shale, but it didn't matter, there still wasn't any wind and I was able to make a simple wind break with rocks. I cooked the ravioli and Bub and I finished off some cheese and crackers we had. The fly that dominated this site made it almost impossible to enjoy our meal. The site was in the sun and Bub got tired of snapping and found some shade where the fly didn't go. I finished cooking the meal. I joined here while we ate and when the stove cooled down to the touch I put it in my shirt pocket, flattened the ravioli can and put it in my garbage sack.

Bub and I hiked back from the hunter's campsite and it was time for dinner. The challenge I came up here for finally arrived, wind. Twenty mile per hour gusts, enough to hamper any camp stove. The weather report for the following day was rain so a minor weather front was moving in causing the wind.

I thought I'd try filtering boiled coffee first, instead of instant. I built up the wind break and plugged all the holes I could find with smaller rocks. I filled the Pocket Stove half way. Since the ground was still muddy from this morning I poured half a capful of alcohol on the rock stove base with part of it spilling onto the ground. It only took one match to light.

As soon as the stove got going I put the pan with coffee grounds and water over the stove on top of the wind break. The flame continued but I was concerned about wind gusts that penetrated the cracks I still had in my wind break. I filled them with smaller rocks and I also filled any spaces I could find around the pan.

My next concern was that a wind gust might put out the pocket stove before it finished burning all its fuel. I wouldn't want to backpack the Pocket Stove with fuel in it so this was an important test for future backpacking trips. The wind break worked and as the Pocket stove burned down it stayed lit and consumed all the fuel. It's an important consideration and this adds impetus to the wind break as a safety issue. I suppose if the wind breaks allows cooking it will allow all the fuel to burn and any residual, if it should remain will evaporate. I'll keep working on it.

For dinner Bub and I had the second can of ravioli. Ravioli was a first for Bub on this trip. She wasn't quite sure what to do with it at the hunter's camp site, until I put some cheese on it. By now she knew about ravioli so she ate part of it along with some dog food I brought along and I scarfed mine with Top Ramen noodles. Why is it that food that's 'so-so' at home is so delicious while we're camping?

A string of clouds started to move in so I covered our tent with a tarp. Hot chocolate and stars blinked on and off as the clouds moved in overnight.

Next morning we were up in the clouds, not above like the morning before. It drizzled and my interest now was how well the Pocket Stove would do in rain.

I filled the stove and made breakfast. The only extra action I took was to make sure I didn't leave the Pocket Stove uncovered so it would get rained on. I wasn't sure how well the Pocket Stove would do if water got inside of it. Alcohol is lighter than water, so I'm sure it will still work if it gets wet, but that's a field test I'd rather do at home. It might be harder to preheat if it gets water inside. We'll see. The dispersion material inside the stove is water resistant, but surface tension on water, and alcohol cause the liquids to adhere to it thus dispersing for better evaporation.