Let's talk about Cold Weather Camping and Cycling - Part 1: You gotta eat!

Everywhere I go... Everyone I talk to .... I hear it's too cold to be riding a bicycle.... it's too cold to be sleeping outside.... well I guess that's true if you're not prepared, you don't know what you're doing and you don't have the right equipment.

So I wanna tell you and show you what I do - may not work for everybody but it works for me, so here goes.

First off, you gotta eat and you probably will have to eat more than you usually do because you're body is gonna be working hard to stay warm and that burn calories too.

These pictures show you some of the stuff I use:

• MSR Pocket Rocket - screws onto the fuel canister.



• Isopro fuel canister - here's a tip - when it's really cold put the canister under your shirt or in your sleeping bag with you and warm it up a little bit; if you don't there won't be enough pressure in the canister to force the fuel out of it when you open the valve especially as the canister gets down below half full.



• 1 qt pocket with lid and folding handle



• Alum foil - I wrap it around the burner and fuel canister to create a closed cylinder to preserve the burner heat - the water boils about twice as fast this way meaning that as much as 50% of the heat is lost to the ambient air without this simple heat preservation technique.



• Metal coffee cup



• Leatherman multi-tool



• 3-piece utensil set



• Lighter



• Firestarter sticks - like a big match that burns for 10 minutes - gather some dry twigs or shave off some wood, light the end of this thing and add wood and in 10 minutes you got a roaring fire.... guaranteed.



• Knorr Pasta Sides - this one was Butter & Herb Rotini - it had green beans, carrots and rotini pasta.



• Beef jerky - you cut this up into small pieces and add it to the pasta while it's boiling; the jerky re-hydrates and becomes steak so you end up with beef and vegetable pasta - this combo was so good I would eat it at home and when it's 28 deg outside like it was in this picture and you're tired and hungry this really makes a camper happy!



• Oatmeal - you just can't beat this for breakfast.... still one of my favorites.



• Hot Chocolate - don't go camping in the cold without it!



• Coffee



• Sugar

• Cream-mate

It's not really that hard - you just lay all this stuff out and get after it and in about 15 minutes you got a good hot meal that'll make you feel warm inside and that will provide calories and nutrition to keep you going for hours.