Lightweight Cook Kit
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It seems like I’m always tweaking my lightweight cook kit. While preparing for some upcoming bikepacking trips (gasp), I redid my lightweight cook kit yet again. This time it has a new stove and pot. This lightweight cook kit could be used for backpacking, canoeing or kayaking and work out just fine. What I really like about it is that the stove, fuel canister and spoon all fit inside the ultralight mug, which is compact. Overall, I’m in at 15.8 ounces for my kitchen. Leaving behind a stuff sack and elastic band saves me 0.3 ounces, but they also add convenience so I’m going to carry them.
Lightweight Cook Kit Gear List
- BRS Stove — This is sold under several brands on Amazon, but it is the same stove.
- Mini Bic lighter
- Snow Peak Ti spoon — Snow Peak doesn’t offer this spoon anymore
- Sawyer Mini Water Filter — Read my review here: Sawyer Mini Water Filter Review
- Sawyer plunger
- Sawyer squeeze bag
- WXtex bear bag
- Sea-to-Summit Ultralight Dry bag – 8L
- Vargo 750 ml Ti mug — Read my review here: Vargo Titanium Ti-Lite 750 Mug Review
- An empty 100g fuel canister is about 2 ounces.
I can save 1.4 ounces by switching to Zpack’s bear bagging system from the WXtex bear bag and Sea-to-Summit Ultralight dry bag. Switching from the Sawyer Mini to Katadyn’s BeFree water filter saves 2.4 ounce. Total saved by making those changes would be 3.8 ounces. That would cost $100 or about $25 per ounce. I could save even more weight if I used a Loksak Opsak12x20 Inch Storage Bag (REI offers these for the cheapest price) and just stashed the food in the woods away from the campsite. Those bags are suppose to stop odor and people are using them in that way. Making that switch saves 4.3 ounces. So with the Loksak and the Katadyn, I’d save 6.7 ounces. If I was buying new equipment right now, that’s what I’d do. Those changes would make this lightweight cook kit drop to 9.1 ounces and have a more usable water bottle to drink from.
Food
I started carrying Camp Chow meals for dinners, oatmeal or cereal and powdered milk for breakfast and a couple of granola bars for snacks. For lunch, I usually do pitas and hummus or peanut butter or cheese and summer sausage. I shoot for between 1.5 and 2 pounds of food per day. On the shorter three-day trips that I’ve been taking, it usually all fits into an 8 liter dry bag for bear bagging.
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6 Comments
Chuck - Killer Kayaks
Oooo, thanks for posting about this. I kayak a fair amount and go camping 1-2x a year and it’s that time of the year when I upgrade my gear. Thanks Bryan :)
Tom in PDX
Helpful, thanks. As for food, I really like the shelf-stable Indian meals at Trader Joe’s. I think they’re $3.99. Great over TJ’s 10-minute brown rice.