I’m on the road this weekend, visiting some of my old stompin’ grounds in Philadelphia and doing some other things. (So no livestream is possible today!) But I have some things I’m eager to share with you all when I get back home, involving the difficulties of having self-sufficient heat-up/cook methods while staying in higher-end hotels. It is very, very difficult because you can absolutely not create smoke.
I’m in a Marriot here in Philly, and there are probably 300 people or more staying in this hotel. The last thing on earth I can do is risk setting off the fire alarm in this building early in the morning. Can you imagine the resulting chaos that would ensue?
Instead of drinking the hotel’s terrible coffee, I want to be able to boil my own water for my own coffee that I have brought, enough water to have a cup now and to also brew plenty for my thermos for drinking throughout the day after I check out.
In preparation for this, I even brought a small, portable electric stove top that just plugs into the wall. As a backup, I have a small alcohol/pop can stove. I’ve been able to use neither one this morning. I’ve tried, and both are just too risky.
When I get home I’ll do a demonstration for everybody highlighting the problems I encountered with both things, and the ultimate solutions I arrived at.
Gettin’ outta the glorious rain in the glorious backcountry with my glorious dog
I found this video interesting as it relates to conversations we have about the true nature of things, what is really important and what is not, and how little importance some things have depending on the needs of the moment.
For example, this guy and his fellow soldiers, while being shot at would just dump their blankets - the blankets were totally unimportant to the immediate goal of staying alive. This meant later suffering, but at least they were alive.
I think about this sort of thing all the time when seeing guys building elaborate, beautiful shelters in the woods. When you’re hungry and lost, or simply traveling through the wilderness, nobody is going to care about building an elaborate shelter. You’re only going to care about conserving energy and using energy for only things that are absolutely necessary in any given moment.
This means sleeping under a rock outcrop, or a fallen tree, or just trying to get through the night under your sweater and some leaves you scrounge ...
