Solo Stove Lite

The Solo Stove Lite in action

Mt Hood Wilderness

Today I did an amazing hike in honor of my mom who would have turned 73. I decided to splurge and have fresh Ramen noodles for lunch, a rare delight for me. The health factor, particularly the high sodium content make Ramen a food that isn’t consumed in my house. But secretly, I LOVE it! Usually a peanut butter sandwich is just fine. And chips. Always some chips.

The original Adventure Mama

This made it a great opportunity to try the Solo Stove Lite before considering a longer backpacking trip. It’s a little bigger than the Jet Boil I regularly carry but not having to use gas, and just knowing I would be cooking over a real fire made this a delight. First of all, it’s been hard to get gas at our local outdoor store lately and I know wood can be found anywhere so it felt like a great time.

Above are three different cooking options. In the middle is my emergency stove which is super small but also hard to cook a real meal in. The Solo Stove is like a Nesting Doll and stacks together to make the size not that significantly bigger.

The Solo Stove did not disappoint. Just the coolness of setting up and gathering some firewood made me smile. It really only needed a handful of firewood so it only took about 3 minutes to gather the twigs needed. I was pleasantly surprised by how little wood it really took. What I didn’t expect is that it really relaxed me. I knew I was setting up for about 30 minutes to enjoy lunch so it mentally helped me slow down. I, sadly, need that.

So here’s my general take. It was super cool to know I was just cooking with wood and no extra environmental impact. The stove lit up wicked fast and the fire was going within seconds. It only took about 3 minutes to boil two cups of water. I thoroughly enjoyed my Ramen, with egg and carrots, for lunch.

The pro’s:

• Coolness factor - cooking on an open flame

• Lit easily and warmed up fast

• Flame stayed contained so I didn’t feel like there was a risk for a fire to start. I did start it up close to a creek because forest fires are no joke…

The con’s:

• The soot on the pan got everything a little dirty. I’ve now learned the new trick to keeping soot off of pans which I’ll use next time!

• Cool down time - I overstocked the fire a little so it burned out while I was eating lunch. It definitely needed some cool off time before I could pack it up but I put the stove in the pot and put that in the creek. I think taking a longer break in the middle of the day might actually be good but the time is to be considered if you’re on a timeline. That said, from unpacking for lunch to being packed back up was a total of 40 minutes. I think my secret Type A is a little transparent here…

I’m excited to start exploring more outdoor recipes for the Solo Stove, both at home and in the wilderness!