May 14th
After a few short pleasant miles walking out of Deep Creek Canyon, the trail entered one of its less spectacular areas. We proceeded to walk across Mojave Dam, holding back nothing but waste land as it built to empound floodwaters. Dropping to the basin we followed mud and willows a short while, to rise back into hills studded with chapparal and walk endlessly in and out of gullys skirting the privately owned bottom land below. Occasional glimpses of Mt San Antonio were the only visual breaks of the day. Although on an animal highlight we did see three deer. Why they were out and active in the midday sun in an area with litle vegetation due to fire, is not known. But they are the first deer of the trip.
After passing beneath Cedar Dam, holding back Silverwood lake. there was a half mile road walk along highway 173 before the trail started a traverse of the hills, scarred by last October’ fires, surrounding Silverwood lake. A very hot and dry day, with only scarce water. A quick swim in the resevoir cooled us and revived our spirits.
After 19 miles, we dropped into Cleghorn Picnic Area for some water. The picnic area has not yet reopened since the fire, so it is completely deserted. But the water has been left on for the hikers, we suppose.
So, since the days activities were short, here’s a bit for the “gear heads”….. Here we cooked dinner. A word about our stove. We are using a home made stove which burns denatured alcohol, typically found in hardware stores. It can also burn methyl alcohol used for products such as “Heet”, a automobile fuel line additive / treatment, readily found along the trail. The design is the “cat” stove type pioneered by Roy Robinson aka “trail dad”, made out of used catfood cans. Details of its simple yet effective design and construction can be found on his website, which is listed under our “links” page.
This stove, or some modification or variation of it used by a majority of thru hikers. The main advantages is that at 1.5 ounces it is very lightweight. (Compared to say an MSR “Whisper Lite” which has been one of the more common stoves used by hikers in the past and weighs in at one pound.)
The other advantages includes the fact that short of stepping on it there are no parts to break or clog up with the alcohol stove. Not much can go wrong. And of course its cheap and easy to make. The most difficult thing is to get a feel for how much fuel to use. There is no on/off switch, so once poured the stoves burns until it runs out. For one person it is ideal. Cooking for two requires a little more finesse, but overall I have been very pleased with its performance.
So far the only stove that I have seen which I think compares favorably to the alcohol stove in terms of weight and perfomance is the MSR “Jet Boil”. It is very fuel efficient, because the pot is insulated and integrated into the stove unit. This product is fairly new to the market and does have the drawback that you have to use the pot designed for the stove and this pot is only large enough for one person.
