Testing out the Camping Stove

We tested out our new GSI Selkirk 460 stove on our first morning when I made scrambled eggs for breakfast. I had planned to use it for my husband’s morning tea first, but apparently the mug I packed is not enamel, even though it looks like it. It isn't any good for hot beverages as it will get super-hot itself and burn the drinker. So no tea for Vagish. We’ll have to pack different vessels for hot drinks if he wants to have tea or coffee in the mornings or if anyone wants hot chocolate, which I enjoy on cold evenings.

I found that the stove heats really fast and even the  lowest setting on the burner is pretty hot, but it lights easily with the igniter and blocks the wind well. As we've used it since, the igniter seems to be less effective. Sometimes it will light on the first try, sometimes it will light after you click it a few times, and sometimes it doesn't light at all. Now we mostly use the lighter to ignite it, and are thinking that it would have been more cost effective to buy a cheaper stove that's designed to be ignited with a lighter.

Also, we didn’t realize that we could turn the propane bottle on its side, so had quite the elaborate set up involving graham cracker boxes and other props so the bottle could rest on the picnic table bench while the stove was up on the table. My last stove was one of those single burners you just screw onto the top of the bottle, so it was always upright and I'd never used a big two burner stove like this one when camping. When we got home, I googled images of the stove and saw how to set it up more easily and all on top of the table.