You’ve just spent all day hiking. You’re exhausted. All you want to is that giant burger to stuff in your face. But you don’t have a giant burger in your pack, backpacking food is all you’ve got. Chances are you need to heat water or food before you can eat it. And you probably want to heat things up anyways. A hot meal after a long day hiking, especially in cold, miserable weather, could be the best part about backpacking. The wait while you’re cooking can be excruciating but that warm satisfied feeling laying around camp after a good meal can’t be beat.

With so many stoves on the market right now, how do you choose one? We’ll walk you some of the basics of stoves and which one to go with for your situation.

First a few questions. 

Questions to Ask Yourself

The first thing we need to do is look at how you’re going to use your stove. There are some questions you should answer before even looking at any stoves. The answers to these will direct you to the type of stove you’ll be happy with. Stoves are just like tents, there are many options but many not be only 1 best choice. Most of the time you can narrow it down to a small number of choices that will suit you best and then you can decide from there. So grab a piece of paper (or computer or tablet or phone) and write out your answers to these questions. These are also nice to remind yourself what exactly you are buying your stove for when you go looking at new shiny gear.

What are you going to cook?

How many people are you cooking for?

Where are you going to use it?

Where will you get fuel from?

How much weight do you want to carry?

How much space do you have?

Now that we’ve got those questions out of the way, we can move on to the features of the stoves and how they relate to your questions. Keep your answers from the questions above handy as you go through the features and examples at the end. 

Major Features of Stoves

Now we’re into the major features of all the stoves. These specifications or features are different on every stove so watch for these when you are buying.

Type of fuel and canister

There are a few different types of fuel on the market for stoves these days. Most stoves only have the required parts for one type of fuel. It may be important to be able to use different kinds of fuel because you travel or like different types for different applications.

Iso-butane Canisters

These are the small metal canisters you can get from outdoor gear stores. They are very convenient to use and light weight. These stoves are fast and easy to light. You cannot refill the containers though and it can be tough to see know how much you have left. Many backpackers have a pile of half-used canisters because they don’t know how much are in them. Some canister manufacturers are starting to put measurements on the canisters so you can float them in water and see where the fuel level is.

Liquid White Gas

White gas has been used in camping stoves for a long time. The benefit to white gas stoves is that you can see how much you have left and refill the fuel bottles. These are heavier to carry though. Bigger, more powerful stoves are often white gas. White Gas stoves are great for big groups or melting snow.

Alcohol

If you’re looking to go ultra lightweight, a small alcohol stove may be your best option. You can make one out of a pop can. These can be finicky to light but are nice and light.

Others

Some stoves are able to use fuels like diesel or other liquids that burn so it’s easier to find something you can cook with. Others, like the BioLite stove, are turning to wood you’d find on the trail to keep your fire going.

Weight of stove

Always in the mind of every backpacker, the weight of the stove can be important. Do you want to carry a big stove around with you or a tiny little pocket-sized cooker. There are perks to each size. It just depends on what you want to do with it. If you’re going to be cooking gourmet meals for large groups then you’ll be getting a bigger stove with more space on top. If you need to be fast and light and are just boiling water with the occasional soup, then something tiny and fast might be the way to go.

Boiling speed

Every stove has a different speed at which it can boil water. It all depends on the size of the flame under the pot, the intensity of that flame and amount of wind protection you can give it. If all the heat is going out the side with the wind, you’ll be waiting a long time for your food! Boiling speeds range from 3 minutes up to 5 or 6 minutes. The boil times will range with a given stove depending on the temperature, wind speed and fuel canister pressure. IsoButane canister pressure drops as you use the so your boil time will increase as you use the canister. White Gas fuel bottles can be pressurized whenever you use them so the boil times will stay more constant.

Operation at Altitude and in Weather

These factors will affect how much pressure is in your canister and how much heat is getting to your pot. Some stoves like the MSR Reactor have a bunch of special parts and a special pot to conserve all that heat and direct as much of it as possible straight into the pot. Wind and bad conditions will slow that process down.

Size of Pot

If you’re pot is going to be for 1 or 2 people then you can get a smaller stove but if you are going to be cooking giant meals for a group of 10 you’ll want something bigger. A small stove with a lot of people will work in a pinch but it’s much more convenient to get something bigger. Some stoves require special pots so keep that in mind. The MSR Reactor pot doesn’t fit on any other stove and you can’t use any other pot on the Reactor so keep that in mind if you get a specialized setup like this. Aside from a few specialized options, most pots and stoves work very well together.

Type of controls

Some stoves have multiple adjustments on them to make it easier to simmer. If that’s important to you add it to your list.

Location of Canister

The location of iso-butane canisters can be different on the stoves. Some are attached directly to the stove with the stove sitting on top of the canisters. Some canisters are attached remotely and connect through a gas tube.

Specialized attachments

Some stoves have special features on them and other attachments that only fit with that stove. That can be good or bad depending on how you look at it. Some have special pots, battery chargers, or wind screens. The MSR Reactor, for example, has special pots that fit onto it’s burner. It’s very fast at boiling but you can’t use other pots with it.It would be a good idea to order these in priority for yourself when you are picking one. Is the type of fuel more important to you than the size of the stove? Is the weight of the stove more important than the size of the pots it can hold. Think about your questions above and then prioritize the features to fit what you want to do.

Stove Examples

IsoButane Stoves

MSR Pocket Rocket

MSR Windpro II

MSR Reactor

Snowpeak Gigapower

Primus PrimeTech

Primus Express Spider

Liquid White Gas

MSR Dragonfly

MSR Whisperlite Universal

Alcohol

Alcohol Stove

Wood

Biolite

Updated August 29, 2022. Originally published November 23, 2013.

The post How to choose a camping stove first appeared on Pack & Trail.

This tutorial applies to Mac version 4.4.6-4.8.11 and Windows version 4.7.3. It will be similar for other versions.

How to send a GPS track to your GPS with Garmin Basecamp

Plug your GPS into your computer with the USB cord. It will show up in Basecamp on the left in the “My Garmin Devices” or “Devices” section.

Find the GPS track that you want to put on your GPS in the “My Collection” folder on the side of the screen. Drag the track from “My Collection” to the GPS. On Mac just drop the track (or tracks) on the GPS name. On Windows drop them into the Internal Storage folder.

The track will still be on your computer but will now be on your GPS as well. Eject your GPS from Basecamp (Right click on your GPS in the menu > Eject) and then turn it on to make sure the GPS track is in your track list on the unit.

One warning. Sometimes it take a couple tries to get it to show up on the GPS. If you don’t see it in the list on your unit, plug it back into he computer and run through the process again. For some reason it might take a couple runs through to stick.

Always double check the track is there before going out!

The post Garmin Basecamp: Send a track to your GPS first appeared on Pack & Trail.

GPS use batteries.

Electricity makes our modern life amazing but it can be a serious liability in the backcountry. Batteries don’t last forever. If you are using your GPS a lot and have all the features enabled, it may only last a few hours. That’s just about the amount of time it takes to get deep into the woods and have your gps batteries die.

If you are using a GPS, always have a backup like a map and compass or be able to get home without any of that. GPS are nice to have though and there are ways to increase that battery life so they last your whole hike.

Do a battery range test

One thing you can do to see what kind of battery life you are working with is a range test. When you are enabling and disabling certain features it can be hard to know what’s good and bad for battery life. By doing a range test you’ll be able to see how much something affects your battery life. You can also use it to test how long different batteries list.

To do a range test, enable everything you can on your gps and use it as much as possible. Keep it on and in use until it dies. Take down the time you started and the time the batteries died. This is the heavy use test, it should be the short end of your battery life. Most of the time it will last longer than this.

To get the greatest battery life, disable every feature you can (maybe by looking below to see what to disable) and then leave your GPS on until the batteries die. Don’t do anything with it. It will die eventually. This is the top end of your battery life.

Now you have your bottom end and your top end of your battery life. Now you can test usage with each of the tips below and see how it affects your battery life and find where it falls on the range from short battery life to long battery life.

Now here’s 10 ways to increase your GPS battery life. I’ve grouped them together to things related to your batteries, disabling features, the map, and the screen itself. I added photos from the screens on my Garmin Montana 600 to see what the menu’s look like.

Battery related tips

These tips relate to the batteries themselves.

Lithium Ion batteries with the highest mAh

Lithium batteries tend to last the longest, especially in cold weather. Also check the mAh measurement on your battery. The higher the mAh the longer the battery will last. 2500 mAh is pretty good. 3000 mAh can last as long as 56 hours on the Garmin Montana.

Use new batteries

Old batteries can have all sorts of problems or just not work well with your new GPS. Make sure you are using new batteries.

Make sure the battery type is set to the right setting

If the GPS allows you to use either Lithium Ion or NiMH batteries, then it might have a setting that tells the GPS what kind of battery it’s using. If it’s on the wrong battery type, your battery life won’t be what it should be. Make sure it’s set to the type of battery you are using.

Disabling features

Whenever you have a feature enabled on your GPS, it uses up battery life. If you are looking to extend that battery life, maybe you can disable a few things.

Here’s what you can disable on some devices

• electronic compass
• track record
• GLONASS
• WAAS

Turn off the electronic compass

Old GPS only know which direction you are going when you are moving. If the latest point on your GPS was north of the point before that, then your GPS assumes you’re pointing north. If you’re not moving then it doesn’t know which direction you are going.

The electronic compass in most new GPS knows exactly which way you are pointing at all times. This is handy when you come to a fork in the trail and you need to know which direction to go. It also uses more battery. If you don’t need this feature you can disable it.

Turn off the track record

The track record is the breadcrumb of where you went with the GPS. You can put this on your computer after or send it to friends. You can extend battery by disabling it.

Disable GLONASS

GLONASS is an alternative to GPS run by the Russian Aerospace Defence Forces. You can use it to get a faster location fix and battery accuracy in mountainous terrain because it’s using more satellites. It will drain your batteries faster.

Disable WAAS

WAAS stands for Wide Area Augmentation System. It’s a series of ground stations and satellites that help increase the accuracy of your GPS. It can help you get a more accurate location but it uses more battery. Disable if you want to save a bit.

Disable ANT+ Sensor

A few of the Garmin GPS have an ANT+ sensor on them. This lets them communicate with other devices like pedometers or heart rate monitors or other GPS.

Map screen related

The map is one of the most important screens on a GPS. What point is a GPS if we can’t see the map? Updating the map takes battery power. Less updates = more power saved.

Use the compass or the trip computer to navigate, not the map

If you can stay off the map screen as much as possible, you’ll save battery power. Drawing the map takes power to do and if you are always on the map screen then it’s always pulling power. If you can use the trip computer or compass to navigate then the GPS won’t be redrawing the map all the time. I often just use the GPS to take a track log and double check navigation decisions so it’s in my pack most of the time. While it’s in your bag or pocket, it’s displaying the main menu and not chewing batteries redrawing over and over.

Set map orientation to “North Up” instead of “Track Up”

Setting your map to North Up will always draw the map with North at the top of the screen. It never has to spin to orient itself to the direction you are pointing. This will save battery life but makes navigation a little more difficult. You have to point the GPS north yourself or make the adjustments in your head.

Set map speed to normal

Some GPS will let you set how often you want the map to redraw. The “Fast” option will update the map more often so it’s more accurate but every time the screen redraws the map it’s using power. The “Normal” option will redraw slower but use less power.

Screen related

The screen is one of the biggest power draws on GPS these days. Big, bright screens are easy to see but also draw a lot of power. We definitely need the screen to see what’s going on but we can adjust some options to make it use less power.

Turn down the backlight

The backlight is a power hog. Turn it down as low as you can use it.

Decrease the timeout time

After you’ve turned down the backlight, adjust the timeout time as low as you can set it. Just like your smart phone, the screen will turn off eventually. This is the timeout time. Set this as low as you can tolerate to save battery life.

Exit Camera app when not taking photos

Some new GPS have cameras on them. The photo app might continue running after you’ve finished using it. But it’s still draining power. Fully quit the app when you aren’t using it.

Set touch sensitivity to normal

Setting touch sensitivity on the screen might make it easier to use with your gloves and hands, but it’s going to draw more power. Keep the sensitivity setting on Normal to use the least amount of battery.

Enable Battery save mode

Battery save mode on some GPS will turn the display completely off when it times out. It also might disable WAAS so if you need that you won’t be able to enable this mode. This will gets save a bit more battery power.

To Summarize

Here’s the quick list of how to save battery life on your GPS.

• Use Lithium batteries
• Use new batteries
• Set the right battery type
• Disable electronic compass
• Disable track record
• Disable GLONASS
• Disable WAAS
• Use compass instead of the map
• Set map orientation North up
• Set map speed normal
• Turn down the backlight
• Turn down the backlight timeout
• Exit the camera app
• Set Touch sensitive to normal
• Enable Battery save mode

What do you think? 

What do you think of these tips? Do they work with your GPS? Do you have any other go to tips for increasing your battery life?

The post 15 Ways to Extend your GPS Battery Life first appeared on Pack & Trail.

I use Google Earth all the time to see GPS tracks and waypoints. The satellite imagery on the maps is so detailed in many places which makes it easier to see little features that may not show on a topographic map.

I use a Garmin Montana 600 GPS so all my GPS tracks are stored in Garmin Basecamp. I wish Garmin would add more features and update Basecamp but it’s still the best track editor and organizer I’ve found. I hope they move it all online and make sharing easier. I’ll be reviewing the premium version of Gaia GPS in the future so stay tuned for that.

Basecamp used to have a nice feature where you just click on a track and then ‘Export to Google Earth’. Because of a change on the Google Earth side and a lack of resources for updating Basecamp, they removed the feature instead of updating it.

It takes a few steps to export tracks from Garmin Basecamp to view in Google Earth now but it’s still possible.

Exporting Tracks

Select the track you’d like to export then go to File > Export Selected User Data. Select a folder and file name for your GPX file.

Open Google Earth and drag the GPX file onto the map.

A data import window will come up. You can adjust these to your liking. I prefer to use Create KML LineStrings and Adjust altitudes to ground height. These require a bit of adjustment after to get the most usable tracks in GE.

After importing, the track will show under Temporary Places in the sidemenu in GE. I always expand all the parts to the GPS track in the menu and deselect points which are all the individual tracking points from the GPS. The Path is much easier to look at.

The default path style is usually thin and grey. To change that to something more visible, right-click on the path, click Get Info, the Style, Color. Here you can pick your color and thickness of the path.

Tracks are imported into Temporary Places in GE. You have to right-click on them and click Save to My Places for them to be saved permanently in Google Earth.

If you know of a faster way to get tracks from Basecamp into Google Earth, definitely let us know!

The post Garmin Basecamp: How to export to Google Earth first appeared on Pack & Trail.