Bemco Backpacker Oven

Customer Comment

2011-10-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

This E-Mail from Fran who just purchased the 8" oven kit.

Blue Corn bread:
I halfed the recipe I usually use and used powdered milk and powdered whole eggs. The dry ingredients weighted 6 5/8 oz. Add water and oil and mix and bake. Is enough for 4 people. The pan for the 8 inch oven is actually a perfect size for this recipe. After seasoning the pans the way the instructions said everything just drops out of the pans. I did pam them before cooking in them though. I can see cornbread and beans after a long day on the bike. Well not too terribly long daily wise but length wise will be. At 73 my miles get shorter but the trip can go on forever. I love this oven.

The biscuits could be a little browner but they are done. Just used a packaged biscuit mix. They just slid out of the pan after paming it before putting them in there and seasoning the pans like the instructions say. I used canola the first time and that was a sticky mess.

I wish I'd had this oven this summer because it gets too hot in my kitchen to bake so I have done very little of it. With this oven on top of my stove I wouldn't have to worry about all the heat from the oven. This would also make an excellant emergency oven for when power is out(my oven won't light then) or after a hurricane ( I was out of power for a week once). I am really glad I found this. When not using (mine will stay on the stove til I am ready to take it camping) it won't take up any more storage space then a notebook. Pizza will be my next recipe to try out. Since I live 50 miles from the grocery store I can't just run down and get ingredients any time, however tomorrow my son is going to the big city and I will go and see what I can bring home to try. I love it.

Fran,

Looks like she is enjoying her new Bemco Oven.

Thanks for your support.
Brian.

Customer Comment

2011-09-24T15:53:00.000-07:00

This just in today!

I've been looking at this oven for a while (vs reflector ovens) and I'm glad I finally purchased it.

Nothing but great reviews on it.... I am impressed with the designer, nice work.
I do short 1 week canoe trips here in the northeast (Allagash, st. Johns, west Penobscot) and have been using Jetboil.
We push pretty hard at 17-20 mi per day, so good food becomes the focus, this oven is going to make the paddlers really happy !

Al

Yes Al will now be able to make pizza, lasagna, breads, biscuits, etc.

Thank You
I hope you enjoy your new freedom to now bake while camping. Simple, easy setup and baking with the Bemco Backpacker Oven. Works just like your home oven in the wilderness!

Thanks Again!

Customer comment

2011-09-04T10:45:00.000-07:00

This came in on Saturday from our web site:

This question was submitted on Saturday, September 3rd, 2011 at 08:10 PM.

Email : #####man@hotmail.com

Name : Scott
Comments : I bought the 7" oven for a 7 day backpacking trip with my teenage sons. I figured the best way to keep them happy would be with food food. We had pizza, chicken enchiladas, cinnamon rolls, brownies, etc.
Your oven worked great! I love it.
Scott
Post Falls, ID 83854
Submit : Submit

I remember sending this one out!

Thnaks Brian

Brunton Stove stand

2011-07-10T10:02:00.000-07:00

Well I have found out that the Brunton Stove Stand is NO LONGER AVAILABLE in the metal version. I was told that the new stove stands are going to be made of Plastic and this will melt under the oven. We will continue to look for more of them but it does not look good so far. We may need to make our own stove stand made just for the Bemco Backpacker Oven. If anyone would like to propose making them for us we would be more than glad to talk!!!

Thanks

Bemco Backpacker Oven and the CDTA

2011-05-19T18:45:00.000-07:00

Jon over at the CDTA sent over his first field report on using the Bemco Backpacker Oven. They used it on the trail chef traning in New Mexico. This is the E-Mail he sent along with some photos.
Hi Brian,
Here is a story line and pictures you can use on your site, if you'd like:

The Continental Divide Trail Alliance had an opportunity to do a first round testing on the Bemco Backpacker Oven during our crew chef training in El Malpais National Monument, in NM. Our chefs in training were fascinated by the compact oven, the simplicity and beauty of the design. The oven was lighter than we expected, far lighter than ovens we have packed in the past. We used the 9" kit to make several rounds of buttermilk biscuits, each round coming out consistent, as good as if you cooked it at home. They were delicious, and we are all looking forward to testing more recipes, and baking on future volunteer

Close up of the biscuits

projects. Thank you Brian for being such a wonderful supporter of the CDTA, we'll be in touch with future reports!

Jon Pierson

NM Field Program Coordinator

Continental Divide Trail Alliance

P.O. Box 35457

Albuquerque, NM 87176

Phone: (505) 659-7364

Photo of oven and biscuits

Customer Comment

2011-05-10T15:55:00.000-07:00

Just got this E-mail off our web site from Jeffery He purchased one of our 7" ovens. He is now enjoying some great baked foods on his camping trips.
This question was submitted on Monday, May 9th, 2011 at 09:59 AM.

Email : #########@yahoo.com

Name : Jeffrey A Cromer

Comments : Had such great success with this Oven using my featherfire xl alcohol stove, that I had to purchase the modified stove stand for my cannister stove. Great product, just wish I would have been bright enough to order stand with oven to save on shipping. Keep up the good work. jeffrey A. Cromer

Submit : Submit

We gave him a $2.50 discount on the shipping. I know it's not much but every dollar helps in these times. Thank you Jeffery for your purchase. Bake some yummy stuff for me!!!!

Baked Cornish Game hens in the BEMCO Backpacker Oven

2011-03-23T15:51:00.000-07:00

Ready to go in the oven

Well my home oven took a crap now the only way I can bake food is in the BEMCO Backpacker Oven on my stove top. So we have been baking a lot lately and this is a photo of our latest. Cornish Game Hens stuffed just like a turkey.

Photo of 9 inch oven on stove top

Game hens baked in about 50 min at 375 deg.

Cooked and ready to serve YUM!!!!

We baked them for about 50min but it may have been an hour I did not keep track. But they sure do look good. They tasted great and completely cooked all the way through. While baking we had to rotate them from top to bottom a couple of times. This was to keep them cooking evenly.
I guess you could bake some wild quail in the oven if you can catch them. Any way have fun and this is just another example of how well the BEMCO Backpacker Oven works. Try it yourself and if does not work we will give you your money back!

Trail baking not steaming or frying this is real baking!

Fresh baked bread in the BEMCO Backpacker Oven

2011-03-20T14:31:00.000-07:00

It's a rainy day in California today so I decided to try some baking. I found this recipe for some mini white bread loafs. It goes as follows:
It is from the Taste of Home Cook book and the recipe is by Nila Tower, Braird Texas

Baked bread cooling on oven rack

1 package (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1/3 cup warm water (110 to 115 deg)
2-1/4 to 2-1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons melted butter or margarine

Combine yeast, sugar and water in mixing bowl. Add 1-1/2 cups of the flour, salt, milk and butter. Mix for 3 minutes. Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 to 8 minutes.

Dough in pans after rising

Place in greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 min. Punch dough down. Divide in half; shape into two loaves and place in greased mini loaf pans as shown in photo.
Cover and let rise until doubled about 30 min.
Bake at 375 deg for about 30 min or until they are golden brown. Remove from pans; cool on wire rack. Brush with some melted butter. Yields: 2 mini loaves

Cooling bread on oven rack.

Holding loaf of bread for size.

Nutrition Facts: One 1/2 inch slice equals 75 calories, 156 mg sodium, 0 cholesterol, 14 g carbohydrate, 2 g protein, 1 g fat. Diabetic Exchange: 1 starch. ( this information is from the cook book)

I used the 9 inch oven for this bread but you could cut the recipe in half for use in the 7 or 8 inch oven. Then you would make 1 loaf at a time. The bread actually baked for only 20 min but this may be different when done in the back country. As you can see you can pick any recipe in any book and bake it in the BEMCO Backpacker Oven with no problem.

So get out there and bake some great food on the trail with your BEMCO Backpacker Oven. If you don't have a BEMCO Oven yet, get yours today at www.BackpackerOven.com

Thank you for using the BEMCO Oven and I hope to here about some great experiences in the future!

Have fresh baked cinimon rolls

2011-03-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

I have been trying to come up with a recipe for cinnamon rolls that you can make from scratch in the back country. This is what I have so far.

seven 2 inch rolls

Makes about 7 two inch rolls.
1-1/4 cup bisquick biscuit mix
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup raisins
1/8 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
3 tablespoons butter

Mix in a bowel the biscuit mix the milk and half the raisins until you get a dough, then roll out on a board until it is about 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick, spread the butter on the dough, spread the rest of the raisins on the dough, sprinkle the sugar and cinnamon on the dough then roll up into a log, then cut into slices about 1 inch thick and place on shallow baking pan, bake at about 400 deg for around 10 min or until golden brown. Then if you have it, spread icing over the cooked rolls. You could also add grated orange peel or lemon to flavor. I used the 9 inch oven but with the 7 inch oven it would make two 6 inch pans of rolls. You could put four rolls in each pan. You could use the deep pan also instead of the shallow pan I am sure it would work just as well.

Rolls in the oven on my stove top at home

Baked rolls

You can try this they are actually quite good. Would be great at 12000 feet in the back country with some hot chocolate.
Forgot to weigh the ingredients though I don't think they would be over 8 oz though.

Thanks for reading I will be posting more recipes on this site. If you have any you would like me to try please send them on to brian@backpackeroven.com. I will post them here for everyone to use.

Home made bread with the BEMCO Backpacker Oven

2011-03-20T09:54:00.001-07:00

I received this yesterday via E-Mail. This looks like some great bread. Don uses his home stove top while at home and the MSR Dragonfly while out camping.

Hi Brian,

I bought a 9" oven from you back in April and I just wanted to tell you how much I am enjoying it. I have a lot of experience with an Outback Oven and there is no comparison in performance between the two. Your oven works like a conventional oven and I have never burned anything in it! I can't say that about the Outback Oven.
I did a side by side test, Backpacker Oven versus our kitchen oven. I mixed up a 6 cup recipe of buttermilk yeast bread and divided it into 2 loaves. One went into my wife’s Kitchen Aid oven and the other into my 9” Backpacker Oven. Both ovens were preheated to 400 deg. F. I removed the top rack in the Backpacker oven to give more room for the loaf to rise. The recipe called for 400 deg. F. for the first 10 minutes and then 350 deg for 20 to 25 minutes. It was easy to check the progress of the bread in the Backpacker Oven by looking through the top vent hole with a flash light. That way I didn’t have to open the door and let the heat out of the oven. I was really surprised that both loaves finished baking at exactly the same time. I have attached a picture of the bread so you can see how they came out. The round loaf was baked in the Backpacker Oven.

I have tried the same baking test with cookies. While my wife baked cookies in her oven, I baked in the Backpacker Oven at the exact same temperature. Cooking times were identical and so was the appearance of the cookies. In fact you couldn’t tell them apart if they were put on the same cooling rack.

I baked a brownie mix “Duncan Hines Chocolate Lovers Brownies, Double Fudge” The 17.6 oz box is intended for an 8x8” pan but works fantastic in the 8” round. The baking time was exactly what the box said for a conventional oven. What amazes me is that I can bake 2 of these at one time in the 9” oven.
I’m really impressed with the Backpacker Oven. The 9” oven will easily bake enough food at one time to feed my family of 4. While I bought it primarily for using on our salt water boat, I think it will see lots of car camping or it might even go on my next canoe trip.

Thanks for producing such a fun product and also for the awesome customer service.

Don

Customer Comment JetBoil Helios stove

2011-03-15T06:58:00.000-07:00

This comment was submitted today:

Brian,

I saw that the pan shipped. Thanks.

We made the first trial run with the oven this weekend. We cooked 3 Pizza's, and it turned out great. We were really impressed and wowed by how well everything worked. By the way, we used a JetBoil Helios stove, it should be recommended that the push button igniter be removed when using the oven, the glue that holds the wire to the spark rod can't handle the heat and will melt out.

Other than that, it was a very successful trial run. Attached is a picture with the 2nd pizza and #3 just getting started.

Thanks again.
Mike

Mikes Pizza

MSR Windpro burn test

2011-02-28T11:36:00.000-08:00

We had a question yesterday concerning how long an 8oz Isopropane canister would keep the BEMCO oven at 400 deg. I had one in the shop and I decided to go ahead and test it out.
The outside temp was 52 deg. I lite the MSR Windpro stove and heated the oven to 400deg, then turned it down just a bit to maintain the 400 deg temp. Set the stop watch and I was a bit amazed that it kept the oven at 400 deg for 4 hours and 57 min. By the time the test was over the outside temp was 42 deg.
So in conclusion you could be safe to say that one 8oz canister should last through 10 (ten) 20 min bake times or 200 min and still have about 97 min of fuel left. That's enough for 10 meals or about 5 days worth of cooking. Of course this would change depending upon the wind conditions and temperatures.

This shows how little fuel it takes to bake in the BEMCO Backpacker Oven.
Oven used 7 inch
Stove MSR Windpro
Canister MSR Isopropane 8oz size.

MSR Windpro stove & Canister


7 inch BEMCO Backpacker Oven

Thanks for the Question Cory. Enjoy your new oven and ability to bake all types of food in the great outdoors with the BEMCO Backpacker Oven and your imagination.

PCT Hiker video

2011-02-15T17:26:00.000-08:00

Dream's a guy I met when I went up to Chicken Spring lake last summer sent me a link to his video of his PCT hike. Great video!
Any way I made about 8 pizzas for the trail hikers and this is what he sent to me. Check it out it's good!! I am glad he made it all the way that's GREAT!!

Copy of E-Mail:

Name : Dreams

Comments : I ran into Brian during my PCT thru hike last summer. When we approached Chicken Spring Lake, G.Q. and Avo were walking in front of me, and we met Brian. Brian was in the Sierra back-country using his product, a Bemco backpacking oven."Would you guys like me to bake you some pizzas? It will take about 20 minutes?" We were speechless! We waived over Lip Service, Neon, Captain Obvious, and Princess as they hiked by while Brian cooked us about 8 fresh mini-pizzas. Are you kidding

me?!! This was the best trail magic on the whole trail. I made a little homemade 45-minute movie with a short clip of Brian and his oven.

Check it out here:

http://www.vimeo.com/19919643

Dreams' 2010 Pacific Crest Trail Video from Drew Reams on Vimeo.

Customer Comment

2011-01-03T13:02:00.000-08:00

I recently received the Bemco oven as a Christmas gift and LOVE it! I've already made pastry-wrapped baked brie and pizza with wild chanterelle mushrooms picked the same day :-)

Unfortunately, my instruction manual/recipe book got soaked when a water bottle dumped onto it, and isn't legible any more. Would it be possible to have a new one mailed or emailed to me? I'd really like to see the recipes.
Thank you!
Erin

We E-Mailed a new copy. Then she sent this photo of the pizza they made.

Erins Pizza YUM!!!!

Erins Bria YUM!

Thank you very much, I appreciate it! For your website, if you want them, attached are photos of the baked brie and pizza I made in the oven. I had forgotten my backpacker stove so we improvised with a Coleman stove and the oven worked perfectly. The product is fantastic! I love eating gourmet when I backpack, and I plan to bring this on every trip. My boyfriend and I climbed Mt. Shasta this summer and were wishing we had something like this to make a pizza on the top of the mountain!

Thanks again!

Erin

Bemco Oven and PackaFeather XL Stove

2010-12-11T17:48:00.000-08:00

We purchased one of the PackaFeather XL Stoves from packafeather.com. I thought it would work good as you can adjust the heat output on this alcohol stove. Well it worked perfectly it is a great design for use with the BEMCO Oven as it has the cable adjust heat output.

This is a photo off of their website.
Price $32.97 plus shipping of $3.60.
Stove weight 1.3 oz.

I tried the pot stand and it held my Pinnacle Soloist pot perfectly.
Below is a breakdown of time and temperatures using the stove with a BEMCO 7 inch oven.
Filled stove with 2 oz of fuel per the instructions.
Lit stove and set the oven over it centering the stove under the oven.
Time to reach 400 deg (F) 2 min 25 seconds outside temp 58 deg. closed down stove all the way then opened it to 1 turn open.
After 6 min the temp began to drop below 400 deg so I opened the vents on the stove to 1.5 turns open.
Temp rose to 425 deg at 10 min into burn time.
Monitored temp and adjusted stove 1/4 turn up or down to maintain the 400 deg.
Total burn time using the BEMCO 7 inch oven was 33 min 22 sec. Long enough to bake most anything you would want. Except maybe brownies as they normaly bake for 40 to 50 min.

In conclusion I feel this would be an excellent stove to use with the BEMCO Backpacker Oven and I will be testing it with all three ovens and baking with it.
Look for photos of baked food to come soon.

Customer Comment

2010-11-19T12:27:00.000-08:00

Recieved this info today something to store your thermometer in:

This question was submitted on Friday, November 19th, 2010 at 11:21 AM.

Email : left out for privacy
Name : Randy B.

Comments : I got my oven two months ago and I love it. It has opened

up a new set of gourmet food for our camp. I have cooked pizza,

muffins, hushpuppies, and our new favorite shepherds pie. Any way the

reason I am writing is that since I have had my oven I have been

worried about the thermometer breaking because the front is glass and

I throw my pack around. Well I ran into the perfect solution. I
bought a granite gear #5 air bloc stuff sack and it comes compacted in a
small plastic screw top jar. Well the thermometer fits like a glove in

it with zero play inside. It just a tip for users of the bemco. I took

pics but can not find a way to post them. Great product.
Randy
Submit : Submit

Randy's thermometer case.

Hi Randy

It sounds like you are enjoying your new found freedom to bake

anything in the backcounty thats GREAT!!

If you would like you can send the photos to me and I will post them

with your comment on our web site.

Thanks

Brian

BEMCO Backpacker Oven

Customer Comment

2010-11-19T12:10:00.000-08:00

This was sent over the other day!

This question was submitted on Sunday, November 7th, 2010 at 02:20 PM.
Email : left out for privacy
Name : Rob A
Comments : I have been using your oven and have baked a lot of epicurian delights. My heat source comes from a Brunton Vapor AF multifuel stove. I have only chosen to burn coleman white gas while baking. What are you thoughts about using unleaded gasoline, diesel fuel, jet fuel or aviation fuels which the Brunton can burn as well? My consideration is that these fuels may not be healthy with all the toxic fuel additives they contain consentrating inside the Bemco oven. What say you?
Submit : Submit
Answer:
I would only use white gas, propane type fuel or alcohol as these burn clean. You need to have a clean burning heat source!

Thanks
Brian

Customer comment

2010-11-17T14:48:00.000-08:00

This was posted on our Photo site at Shutterfly.

Jeffery T I purchased the BEMCO, big letters are needed! If you have a brain and any skills at cooking you will drop jaws ,not as in big fish. I've backed itallian bread.bisquits,pizza.allthe standards. I'm going to embark on a campaign to bake everything you can do in your kitchen conventional oven. I expect the result to be as with anything else I've whipped up in the Bemco absolute perfection. I've been backpackpacking for fortythree years and this is the only backing unit that I will give my personal gold seal of unconditional approval!!!

Jeffery purchased the 8" oven kit and is no doubt enjoying it!!!

Link to photo site: http://backpackerovenphotos.shutterfly.com/404

Thanks Jeffery for your input!! I hope to see some of his baked foods soon!!

Customer comment

2010-10-17T08:59:00.000-07:00

Just recieved this one last week.

Name : Dan Barwick
Comments : Used the oven for the first time this past weekend for a four-day trip, and just wanted to let you know how impressed we all were with it. We've used the competitors and all of us agreed that your oven basically sets the standard. (It probably also helped that with daytime highs of 55 and nighttime lows of 35, hot baked goods were always welcome!) I had used the oven twice before the trip at home to make sure I knew what I was doing, and during the trip it worked fine on both a backpacking stove and a larger Coleman camp stove. We made bread sticks, garlic knots, cheese and bean enchiladas, sausage biscuits with gravy, cake, brownies, bannock, and cinnamon buns. We all agreed that it was easy to use and produced the best results of any backpacking oven out there. In addition, the oven ended up helping us in other ways we discovered that the diffuser plate can be used under any pan for vastly improved simmering capability!

This was the best new piece of equipment Ive used in years thank you!
Dan

Dansville, NY

Here is a photo of his bread sticks.

Changes to the Backpacker Oven for 2010-2011

2010-09-26T10:10:00.000-07:00

We have made some changes to our oven this year. These include the installation of the door latch. This keeps the door shut while you are baking, and takes the place of the door spring that was on the door. Also we have moved the thermometer from the center of the right side to about 1.5 inches from the back of the right side. This gives more room for baking breads and cakes. We have also begun using a stronger wire rack while keeping the weight the same at around 24 ounces for the 7 inch oven.

This is a photo of our deluxe kit notice the door latch above the handle.

This year we started selling the 8 inch oven and the 9 inch oven for larger groups. They have actually sold pretty well. The 9 inch oven is made of the same material as the 7 and 8 inch ovens but a bit heavier as the span of the metal is farther. This makes for a very sturdy oven. Weighing in at 42 ounces it is the heaviest oven we sell.

From left to right 9 inch 8 inch 7 inch ovens with pans that are included in our kits.

We have also started using the Velcro One Wrap material for our straps. This material wraps around and sticks to itself and holds very well. I have used this material as a strap to hold my rolled up tent together when I lost one of the straps on a backpacking trip. It held just as good as the nylon strap with the buckle. But it weighs a lot less.

Our old nylon straps with velco attached to the ends.

Our new Velcro One Wrap straps.

We are always looking for ways to improve our product. Making it stronger and keeping it as light as possible.
This oven is the easiest oven to use as it works just like your oven at home even at 14,500 feet above sea level. See the video on YouTube.

This oven in the photos has been on many backpacking trips, including to the top of Mount Whitney twice baking pizza. This oven was the one used to bake all the items in the photo on our web site. I have made the changes as we implemented them on all of our ovens that are now being sold. If you have one of our older versions please E-Mail me and we would be glad to make the upgrades for you at no charge. You would need to pay the shipping both ways though. Or you can send us your old oven and we will replace it with a new one for just $20.00 plus shipping.

Photo of the oven that I have used sense 2008

Back of folded oven notice that the inside of the oven stays on the inside so your pack does not get dirty.

Oven with the straps removed.

Oven setup ready to use.

Photo of the inside of the oven.

As you can see the oven has been used a lot. On many trips, backpacking and just car camping. I have not had any problems with this oven. It always works great for baking food. I even barbequed steak on the wire rack just like the home barbeque.

We also now include with all of our ovens a small baking guide. This gives the owner a starting point so they can start baking right away. We are trying to include more recipes as time goes by. If you have anything you would like to see on our site or even to be included in our baking guide please forward them to me at brian@backpackeroven.com I would be more than happy to include them in the guide or on this blog.

Thanks for reading!

Cottonwood Lakes Aug. 2010

2010-08-22T11:37:00.000-07:00

We did a trip to tour the Cottonwood Lakes area on Friday the 13th of August. These are some of the photos that where taken. You can see all the photos at http://backpackerovenphotos.shutterfly.com/

We baked pizza, blueberry muffins and chicken enchiladas see the photos below.

Fresh baked pizza

Uncooked Chicken enchaladas

Baked Enchaladas cooked for 30 min @ 375 deg.

I caried the 9 inch oven so I could try it out in the mountains and also make larger portions as we had 3 of us camping that weekend. The oven worked perfectly using my MSR Wisperlit stove.

This is a photo of our camp. We camped away from the lake as the mosquitos where prety bad.

This is the three of us on top of the mountain in the center of the valley looking north to Mount Langley.

Some great flowers that we found on top of the mountain.

We had a great time and ate some good food thanks to the BEMCO Backpacker Oven.

If you would like to share your trips or food stories please send them to Brian@backpackeroven.com I would be glad to post them on my site!!!

Bemco Backpacker Oven

2010-06-23T14:56:00.000-07:00

Well we got our review completed by Backpacker Magazine. Joe did a real good job with the information on the oven and how it works. Some nice photos of the Bemco oven also. This is a link to the review on Backpacker.com ( Backpacker review ) and a link to the Blog entry ( Backpacker daily dirt )

I would like to say thanks to all the folks over at Backpacker Magazine for agreeing to test our Bemco Backpacker Oven and hope they enjoy the tasty treats they can now bake so easy in this light weight backcountry oven.

Feeding the PCT hikers

2010-06-14T11:21:00.000-07:00

I went up to Chicken Spring lake outside of Horseshoe Meadows on Sunday the 13th of June 2010. Set up two ovens and brought enough food to make a dozen pizzas, 4 loafs of banana nut bread and some oatmeal cookies.
This is a photo of the ovens setup and cooking pizzas. I was making 4 pizzas at a time to feed the hungry hikers.

This photo shows a couple of hikers chowing down on pizza.

And some more eating the pepperonie pizza I baked for them!!
It was a lot of fun and I am planing to do this every year. Only next year I will camp at the lake for a few days. That way I can feed more PCT hikers. It was quite a treat to see how happy they were to be eating pizza along the trail. They said this is the last place they would think to be having fresh baked pizza!!!

Hope everyone has a fun trip and be safe!!

Big Pine Lakes May 2010

2010-06-02T15:29:00.000-07:00

I did the Big Pine Lakes trip again with some guys from the Backpacker Magazine Forum. We had a great time although the snow was pretty deep in some areas. I baked pizza, lasagna, blueberry muffins, cornbread and biscuits and gravy. We started our hike on Saturday at around 9am and made it to the Black Lakes camp by about 2:30pm. Set up our camp in the same spot that I camped at in October of 2009. The next day we hiked to all the lakes even with the snow at about 2 to 3 feet deep. On Monday we hiked out past 3rd lake, 2nd & 1st lakes. The snow was pretty much clear past 3rd lake on the way down. Made it back to the Trail Head by 12 noon and stopped to have lunch on the way home in Lone Pine.

Here is a Spot Trip map.

Big Pine Lakes May 2010

Share your Adventures with SpotAdventures

Using the BEMCO Backpacker Oven on a Barbeque

2010-04-18T08:34:00.000-07:00

We were making some Barbeque chicken last night and wanted to make some biscuits. Well I had the just add water mix. So I set the new 12 inch BEMCO oven up on the side burner of our Barbeque. In about 3 or 4 minuets it was up to temp. I made the mix and placed it on a pan as the instructions say to. Put them in the oven and in about 12 minuets I had perfectly baked biscuits.

These photos show how the oven fits on the side burner of our BBQ.

Photo of biscuits in the oven and prior to putting them in the oven.

Biscuits comming out of the oven.

Perfectly baked biscuits and barbequed chicken YUM. No cooking inside the house all cooking was done on our barbeque outside. This would be great for hot summer cook outs, corn bread, muffins, etc. With the 12 inch oven you can use any pan that will fit inside the oven as with all our ovens. We are still testing this oven but so far it seams to work just fine. Although it does take a lot more heat to use it. We have used it with the MSR Whisperlite International with good results. the 9 inch oven would be perfect for the BBQ and still bake the same way maybe even better as it would not take so much heat to bring it up to temperature.

So another use for the BEMCO Backpacker Oven just set it up on your side burner of your BBQ and you have an oven to bake with out side. Now you can have fresh rolls, biscuits, muffins breads, you name it you can bake it anywhere with the BEMCO Backpacker Oven.

PayPal and International payments

2010-04-14T07:05:00.000-07:00

Well we have had some interest from people in other countries. The problem is that PayPal does not seam to work as they say it does. Most people can not use the standard paypal to make overseas purchases. I have had long discussions with them concerning this matter. Every time I call I get a new answer to the same question. The Customers that are trying to purchase from overseas get totally different answers to why they can not make the purchase.

This is an E-Mail that I received from the concerning this matter:

Dear Brian Marsh,

If you're having trouble completing your payment, here are some things to keep in mind:

Make sure you have a valid payment method

To make a payment, you need to link a bank account or a debit or credit card to your PayPal account. If you've used PayPal in the past, it may be that your debit or credit card has expired. To find out if your card has expired:

1. Go to the PayPal website and log in to your account.
2. Click "Profile" at the top of the page.

3. Click "Add or Edit Credit Card" to see your cards and their expiration dates.

4. Click "Edit" to update your card details.

There may be a sending limit on your PayPal account

Your sending limit is the total amount you can spend with PayPal before you need to get verified. You can get Verified by confirming a bank account or getting approved for the PayPal Plus MasterCard� or PayPal Buyer Credit.

To view your sending limit:

1. Go to the PayPal website and log in to your account.

2. Click "View Limits" (if you don't see this link, you've already lifted your sending limit).

3. The remaining amount you can send is listed under Sending Limit.

4. To remove your limit, follow the instructions on the Sending Limit page.

Your card issuer may have declined the transaction

If the bank that issued your card declined the payment, you'll need to:

� Check to make sure there is enough money for this transaction � you may have hit your credit limit.
� Make sure you haven't gone above the monthly limit set by your issuing bank.

� Try again later. Sometimes that's all it takes.

Thank you for using PayPal!

The PayPal Team

They also told me that in some cases they cannot verify the address on some cards and this is why they are not being completed.

If you do have trouble with PayPal please contact them by phone. This way they can walk you through how to complete the transaction. Please let me know also my E-Mail is brian@backpackeroven.com

Thanks for all your interest in our product.

Section of PCT near Lake Hughs Ca.

2010-04-03T18:48:00.000-07:00

Did a little short hike today on part of the PCT. Only about a 4 hour hike but it was nice to get out and do some hiking. This is a Spot map of the hike.

Section of PCT near Lake Hughs Ca.

Share your Adventures with SpotAdventures

Dangers of Freezer Bag cooking

2010-04-01T09:13:00.000-07:00

I have always wondered about the chemicals that are used to make plastic bags. I know a lot of people use them for cooking. My question is that it is called a "Freezer Bag" not a Cooking bag. So I looked and searched on the net about this and found that the bags do not contain the BPA but what about other chemicals. Now I found this information here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ziploc

Controversy

S.C. Johnson & Son has faced several controversies over their product, Ziploc. One of the uses that is most controversial is the Ziploc omelet. To make the Omelet you are required to place the Ziploc bag in boiling water.[citation needed] Through the years there have been many accusations against S.C. Johnson & Son saying that when the bags are boiled, the toxic substance, Bisphenol-A, which is used in the manufacturing of some polycarbonate plastics, is released into the contents of the bag. [7] S.C. Johnson & Son heard about the claim and published an article saying that Ziploc brand bags do not contain any of the Bisphenol-A substance. [8] There are still warnings out saying that the steam that is created in the bag could allow a number of other chemicals used in the bag's manufacturing to release into the food.[7] Ziploc has not commented on this aspect of the argument

Basically they S.C. Johnson is not commenting on other chemicals that may be released when you put boiling water in a freezer bag. I wonder why not! Has anyone done testing to find out if any chemicals are being released into the food when the bags are used in this manner?

Now I did find on their web site Steam bags:

But when you search the site for Freezer bag cooking they do not have any information about that. To me that says that they do not recommend this, as you are using the product for something it is not made for. That is why they came up with the Zip'n Steam bags!

Link to the Manufacturers Web page on Zip'n steam: http://www.ziploc.com/Products/Pages/ZipSteamMicrowaveCookingBags.aspx?SizeName=Medium

So I would not recommend the use of Freezer bags as a cooking system. Especialy if the manufacturer does not recommend it!!! Now as a storage bag or a freezer bag as they are intended to be used GREAT!!!

Be safe and have fun camping & don't eat any chemicals that you do not know about.

Brunton Stove stand and the Bemco Backpacker Oven

2010-03-31T19:04:00.000-07:00

We have purchased a number of Brunton stove stands and shortened the legs so they will work with the Bemco ovens. No other modifications have been made. You could also use a standard Brunton Stove stand all you would need to do is dig it into the ground about 1" this will give room for the stove and stand to fit under the oven properly.

I have also had some questions on how to use the stove stand, and what it is used for. I have included a photo of an MSR Pocket Rocket attached to the stove stand. We have also included with the modified stand a Velcro One Wrap strap to wrap the folded stand up with. This will hold the fuel line wraped up.

To use the stove stand with your canister type stove. You would screw your stove onto the stand the same as onto a canister. Then open the control valve on the stove all the way as you will be using the control valve that comes with the stove stand. Then screw the canister onto the connection at the end of the fuel line and wha la you now have a remote canister type stove. Use the small black knob at the canister to control the flame on your stove. This works great for use with the Bemco Backpacker Ovens.

Have fun camping and don't forget to bake something yummy!!!

Bemco R.V. Oven

2010-03-24T16:26:00.000-07:00

The 9 inch Bemco oven is ideal for the R.V.'s that only has a stove top and no oven, such as in horse trailers with the living quarters inside, and some campers and trailers.
We recently went out looking at trailers and saw one we liked but it did not have an oven. They wanted an additional $600.00 for an oven instead of just a stove top. Now we have an oven for the trailer that only cost $70.00 instead of $600.00. We can bake the same things in it that we could bake in the other oven. The 9" oven is perfect for this.
Wow another use for the BEMCO Backpacker Oven not just for backpacking!!!!

Here are some photos of the Oven in our Aljo 23' trailer:

The only problem I see is that it slides a bit on the stove rack. If you just cut some small notches in the sides in the location of the rack it wont slide around. This can be done with a pair of Tin Snips. I could do it but I am sure not all stove racks are the same and the notches might be in the wrong spot! the oven heated up to 400 deg in a mater of 2 minuets and I had to turn the burner down to about 2 and it maintained the 400 deg no problem. The oven was empty so when baking you may need to raise the burner temp of course.

If you have any questions please contact me at brian@backpackeroven.com

Alcohol Stoves and The Backpacker Oven

2010-03-24T06:09:00.000-07:00

I have found that a lot of the alcohol stoves do not work well with the Oven. This is due to the alcohol getting too hot and boiling. This causes the flame to be too high and uncontrollable. This is also the case with our alcohol stove that we make. I tried it yesterday but their was a slight breeze and the stove flamed up and the temp rose to 700 deg with in just a couple of minuets this is not acceptable. So we have discontinued them until we can figure out how to control the heat output.
They work great indoors on the garage floor but once outside they seam to be unpredictable!!!!.
I will be testing adding water to the alcohol to see if this will keep it from over boiling this may help.

If you have purchased the alcohol stove and are having problems please send me an E-Mail brian@backpackeroven.com

Using the Bemco Backpacker Oven with Coals from fire.

2010-03-16T05:41:00.000-07:00

Ok so the other day I was talking to a gentleman in PA. Well he asked if the Bemco Backpacker Oven would work by using hot coals from a fire. I told him I had never tried it but as long as they staid hot long enough to bake something I did not see why it would not work.
So this morning I decided to try it. I got the fire going in the fire place with some hot coals. I placed the coals in a Stainless steel tray and set the oven over them. The Oven heated up in about 2 min and I kept it at 400 deg F. for 1 hour and 10 min. I added coals to the oven 1 time during that period. I placed the coals on the tray and then slid them under the oven using a knife. It worked out perfectly and now I know I can cook with hot coals from my camp fire. Thanks for the idea Thomas from PA.

Food for 10 day backpacking trip

2010-03-06T12:44:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to get 10 days of food in 1 Backpackers Cache. Well I finaly did it! This video shows the 10 days of food. Most of the food is baked items like pizza, breads, muffins and lasagna. So check it out and let me know what you think. My E-Mail is brian@backpackeroven.com. Thanks for watching.

New Bemco Backpacker Oven's

2010-01-14T16:01:00.000-08:00

We now have available for purchase a 9" oven that weighs in at around 38oz and an 8" oven that weighs in at around 27oz. The 9" oven is made of heavier gauge material that is why it weighs much more. The 8" oven is made of the same gauge material as the 7" oven. Both of the new ovens are on our site in the online store page.

This photo shows all three ovens with the 9" oven on the left, a backpacker’s cache then the 7" oven followed by the 8" oven. All of the ovens have been used with the stoves shown in the picture.

We have also started installing our new door latch on all of the new ovens. This latch will hold the door shut while baking as we have found that in some cases the door does not stay shut when the oven is heated.

Bemco Backpacker Oven

2009-12-22T16:17:00.000-08:00

We have had a comment that the Bemco oven was not very sturdy. Well we tried to see what was wrong. We found that a lot of users are not making sure that the top of the oven is on correctly.

The oven top has 2 slots cut in the sides of the top. The sides of the oven need to be inserted into these slots see photo above. This will increase the strength of the oven greatly. The photo below shows how we set 46 lbs of weight on top of the oven. Wow that’s one big pot!

As you can see the weight had no efect on the oven. If you have any questions about the use of the Bemco Backpacker Oven please contact me at brian@backpackeroven.com

Cottonwood lakes 2009

2009-11-18T15:52:00.000-08:00

This trip was a great trip for the beginig of the season. It was a solo trip that I did in 2 1/2 days just walking around and exploreing the area. Got a lot of great pictures you can see them all at http://www.backpackerovenphotos.shutterfly.com/ This is a Spot adventure map of the trip. I used the Bemco Backpacker Oven for all my meals like pizza, corn bread and chili, blueberry muffins, banana nut muffins ect. This Backpacker Oven is great to help save some food weight as the uncooked baked foods cook up to a lot more than you would normaly get for the weight of the food. I am thinking of working on a wood fired backpacking oven as this would even save more weight in fuel.
Well it looks like this trip map won't load properly but the link works so you can check it out that way.

Cottonwood lakes May 2009

Widget powered by Spot Adventures: GPS Geotagging

Bemco Backpacker Oven

2009-11-10T18:18:00.000-08:00

Today I was at work and decided to use my Backpacker Oven to heat up my roast beef sandwiches. I always keep my oven in my truck anyway. So I set it up and started my MSR Wisperlite stove opened up my sandwiches and laid them on the oven rack open face so that when heated the cheese would melt. The first sandwich heated in about 4 min and as I ate that one I heated the second one. The cheese was melted perfectly and the bun was slightly toasted. It was like an Oven baked sandwich that you would get at a restaurant excellent! I should have taken pictures but I was at work so I did not really have time to do that. In all it took about 15 min to set up the oven and bake the 2 sandwiches. This was plenty of time for my 30min lunch break. Ho by the way I am in construction so this works well as I normally do not have time to go to a fast food place or out to lunch. I just set it up out side by the truck and wha-la I have fresh baked oven sandwiches.

A photo of the oven folded up. I will take pictures next time.

Big Pine lakes trip report

2009-10-25T07:40:00.001-07:00

We did the Big Pine lakes trip on the 23rd and 24th of October instead of the 16th Due to snow fall that week. Even after over a week the snow cover up at 7th lake was at almost 2 feet in some spots. This is a photo of the snow around 7th lake. The temperatures where not too bad. Day time was in the mid 50's and night temps in the mid 30's.

We baked Lasagna in the Bemco backpacker oven for dinner the first night and it turned out real good. It was almost more than I could eat myself. Definitely plenty of food. That night I took photos of the Glaciers reflecting in Black Lake it was awesome.

I had a great time even though it was only 2 days I got to see lots of scenery and not too many folks up in this area. Only saw 4 others camping up at 4th lake. I heard the fishing was great but I did not bring the gear as this was only a photo trip short and sweet. Here are photos of all the lakes starting with Black lake.

Black Lake with Temple Crag in the background.

Summit Lake from up on the north side of the canyon with Temple Crag.

Seventh lake from the north shore.

Sixth lake as I was leaving 7th lake.

Fifth lake from the North West shore great camp spot.

Fourth lake looking north as you enter from the main trail great fishing.

Third lake from just off the trail not much camping around this lake.

Second lake from just off the main trail looking south.

First lake looking east towards Big Pine. This lake has great camping areas on the west shore area.

My kitchen setup at Black lake heating water for my hot chocolate while the Lasagna that I baked in the backpacker oven cools.

Fresh baked Banana nut muffin for breakfast on Saturday. Showing how the Bemco backpacker oven bakes evenly.

Looking up the South fork Big Pine creek great fall colors.

On the way back to the trail head from the falls.

This was a great trip for a two day or even a three day outing. Not too strenuous but not too easy some great views of the mountain and lakes. I would recommend this trip for a quick weekend outing.

Big Pine lakes 10/16/2009

2009-10-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

We are planning a trip to the Palisade Glacier area this weekend Friday, Saturday & Sunday. With the recent storm coming in for Tuesday, Wednesday and part of Thursday we expect to have any where from 3 to 8 inches of snow on the ground. This will make for some great pictures of the area. We are planning on seeing all the lakes and possibly going up to the Glacier to get pictures of the entire basin.

This is an equipment list of the items we are bringing and food for the three day trip.

Three day gear list

• Jan Sport big bear 82 backpack 59.5oz

• Mountain Hardware 20 deg bag 40oz

• Silk liner for sleeping bag 6oz

• Mountain Hardware Sprite 1 tent 56.15oz

• Backpacker Oven 24oz

• Cook set 1 qt pot 8oz Includes mixing bowl & baking pans.

• Water filter 11oz

• Camp chair 16.5oz

• Whisperlite Stove 12.2oz

• Fuel 21oz

• Water bottles 8.25oz

• Kitchen sink 4.25oz

• First aid & Misc gear 24.7oz

• Clothes 42oz Extra socks, Shirt, Pants, Thermals.

Snow Gear , Crampons, Trecking poles 16.5oz

Total pack weight without food & Water =344.05oz or 21.5lbs

I figure the entire pack will weigh in at under 30 lbs and this will make for a very easy trip. The last trip we went on my entire pack weight was under 40lbs and that was for a total of 8 days. This was the Horseshoe Meadows to Onion Valley trip in August. We took 16lbs of food for each person and we came back with about 2 days food left over between the three of us.
What we will be eating on this trip:

Dinners

Lasagna
Calzones
Brownies for 1

Breakfast

Biscuits and gravy
Fried Eggs and Banana nut bread

Lunches

Trail mix
Instant soup
Possably Pizza

This should total out at about 60oz of dry food or 3.75lbs.

Baking in the Bemco Backpacker Oven

2009-10-03T15:21:00.000-07:00

Today I was hungry for a Calzone and decided to bake one up real quick. But I did not want to fire up the oven in the house it takes too much propane. So instead I fired up the Backpacker Oven and began baking. The BEMCO oven only takes a small amount of fuel from your backpack stove. I use the MSR Windpro or the Whisperlite stove. Today I was using the Whisperlite because I was out of fuel canisters for the Windpro.

So I baked the Calzone seen here and then decided I would make dessert as I had the oven fired up any way. So I whipped out a double layer spice cake. All this baking only took about 2 hours.

Photos of the double layer cake. I spent about 10 min frosting it with the brownie topping that comes in a tube. This would be great for a wilderness birthday surprise just add a few candles and it's more than 2 could eat. You would be able to feed about 4 to 8 people with this cake. Takes about half the box mix and baked for a total of 25 min. Prep time is minimal and you can get the powdered eggs that I used in this cake from Packit Gormet or your local health food store. The Oven worked great for baking this cake and many other great treats and meals. I normaly test all recipies prior to taking them out to the wilderness with me.

Folding Camp Oven

2009-09-28T08:13:00.000-07:00

We have seen that a lot of folks use Dutch ovens for car camping. We have used the BEMCO Backpacker Oven for car camping. The 9" size works great as the inside area is much larger. You can fit a 8 1/2" pan inside the oven and this is large enough for most pies, cakes, casseroles etc.

So the BEMCO Backpacker Oven can be used as a light folding camp oven. This oven would pack away in your trunk the size of a cook book 12" x 9" x 1 1/2" thick great for space conscious folks.

Horseshoe Meadows to Onion Valley 2009

2009-09-10T13:06:00.000-07:00

We started our trip on Friday night at about 7pm. Hit the trail head at Horseshoe Meadows and started hiking as we went it started getting dark but we wanted to get to Chicken spring lake by at least 9:30 this was a 4.5 mile hike up over Cottonwood pass. As we hiked the sun went down and we had to put on our headlamps. We saw some lights coming down the trail from the top of cottonwood pass as they got close we head the 2 guys say " What are you crazy going up at this time or just stupid" Well I thought the same thing about them coming down the trail.
We did get to Chicken Spring lake by 9:30pm set up camp. Could not believe that their was hardly anyone at the lake. When we woke in the morning it was 34 deg out no clouds and no wind perfect day in the sierras. We made breakfast oatmeal and cereal bars and started our journey to Lower Rock Creek about 8 miles from the lake.

This is a photo of Chicken Spring lake from the trail to Rock Creek. A part of the PCT that runs from Cottonwood pass to Rock Creek.
On the way to Rock Creek it would be a stretch of trail without any water for the entire 8 miles. We saw wild Turkey and a lot of chip monks.
Photo at right is from the trail looking south west over Big Whitney meadow. This is my daughter and I taken by our friend Jesse. It was too bad that I had the only Camera on the trip.
This is a photo of the wild turkey that can be seen in this section of the PCT. We saw a total of about 5 of them along the trail to Rock Creek. As we got closer to Rock Creek we ran into a coyote running from a hawk that was swooping in after it. It was quite funny to watch the coyote run from this bird. We arrived at our camp spot Lower Rock Creek at around 2:30pm plenty of time to set up camp and go exploring. We caught a couple of Golden trout although they were so small we ended up throwing them back. We set up our fire for the evening collected wood and mad dinner. We had Chili and fresh corn bread it was perfect.

We sat around the campfire and ate our chocolate pudding, talked about our great day of hiking. Where we were going the next day. Up over Guot pass and on to Crabtree meadows we decided we would camp at Crabtree the next night. We all turned in at about 8:30 -9pm as the night was getting late and the fire was dying down. Jesse got a sink full of water and dowsed the fire prior to turning in.

Sunday 8/16/2009

Up at around 7am temp was actually very cold at about 34deg in the morning then warming to around 68 during the day. Had biscuits and gravy this morning and boy did that hit the spot. Started out up Guot pass at around 8 or 8:30am and reached the top at around 11am this is quite a climb out of Rock Creek. This is a photo of some of the steps made from logs on the way up the pass. We reached Crabtree meadows at around 2pm this gave us enough time to relax and check out the water falls below the meadow on Whitney creek. After relaxing for a while we are sitting their by the creek and some lady come running out of the trees. We did not know what to think we looked at each other and then the lady says “ Do you know where you are?” We looked at her and said Yes! Crabtree Meadows then she asked if we had a map she could look at. Of course we said sure it hear in my pack. Then another lady come out of the forest and said something then they both turned around and walked back towards the forest without saying anything at all. They came back to the creek a couple of time but did not ask for anything. We hope they found out which way they wanted to go. The ranger station was just up the trail about a mile so I am sure that was where they went. Any way that was some excitement for our day.

We Then set up camp down by the falls as we like the rushing water sound. We baked our Tuna noodle casserole for dinner and mad some Vanilla pudding for desert. Then headed off to see the meadow and what kind of animals we could see. When we got to the meadow we saw 8 deer and 2 baby’s we could actually get quite close to them. We hiked around for a while went up to Upper Crabtree this was a great meadow with trees and rocks in the center like an island. Some of the deer at Crabtree meadows. Jesse was trying to see how close he could get.
8/17/2009 Monday
Today we are heading to Guitar lake.
Breakfast was Oatmeal and Honey bran muffins. We made 2 large muffins so we had some to share. Yesterday we saw some folks camped by the trail near the bear box so I headed over to see if they want some fresh bake muffins. We I arrived they were just packing up. The one guy that was at the site I asked if he wanted some fresh muffins and he said” No way fresh! Your joking!” then I gave him the muffins and he could not believe it he then asked how we did this so I gave him a brochure on the Bemco Backpacker Oven. He was so excited he showed his wife and shared the muffins with her.

Well after that I headed back to camp to get ready for the days hike to Guitar lake. We left our site at Crabtree at around 10am late start today although we only had about 3 miles to go. Hiked through Upper Crabtree and past the ranger station then on to the JMT to head to Guitar.

Right photo reflections in Whitney creek.
Arrived at Guitar lake at around 12:30pm it was a beautiful day no wind and about 70deg. My daughter who had knee surgery last year said her knee was hurting and she may not hike to the top of Whitney on Tuesday. I was hoping she would go after all we hike all this way 20 some miles. Well Jesse and I went on a short day hike up to Hitchcock Lakes took some photos and explored the area for about 3 hours then headed back to camp. At camp we finished setting up and decided to cook dinner we were going to have The corn bread, spam, cheese casserole. Right photo of baking cornbread cassorol.
After the sun went down and the wind stopped it was pretty cold at around 40deg we saw other hikers arriving as late as 8:30pm. They must have been hiking all day. One guy was so dirty it looked as if he had been following a pack of horses. The stars were great that night and we turned in at around 9:30pm.

Photo at right is of Me looking over Hitchcock lakes while on our day hike around Guitar lake.

8/18/2009 Tuesday

Up at around 5:30am Temp was 42deg.

Breakfast was Oatmeal as we wanted to get started early. My daughter decided she was not going on the hike to Whitney her knee hurt too bad. We did not want to push her at this point as we still had 35 miles to go on our trip to Onion Valley. We set out for the top as Denise set out for the camp site at Crabtree Meadows. It was a long hike up but the views were great and temps did not get too hot. We passed a number of hikers on the way up the trail as we did not have packs just day packs. Reached the top at around 11:30 am after starting the hike at 7 am. Walked around a while checked out the views and then decided it was time to set up the Bemco Backpacker Oven to make lunch. Everyone else was having trail mix and dried fruit. But we were setting up to make fresh pepperoni pizza. We mixed the ingredients and prepared the pizza's 2 - 6" pizzas one for each of us. Stuck them in the oven and they baked in about 15 min. The temp at the top of Whitney that day must have been in the 50's or 60's no wind a perfect day. We ate lunch then signed the guest book and took pictures. A few people asked about the Oven and I gave out about 5 brochures. Then we started back to Guitar lake the hike down went fast it only took 1.5 hrs to reach the lake. We packed or packs and set out to meet Denise at Crabtree meadows for our 4th night out.

We arrived at the camp at Crabtree around 3pm. We set up camp and then walked down to see the ranger station. Looked around a while the ranger arrived and we asked if they had an egg we could use. We wanted to make some of the brownies but we need 1 egg. The ranger did have some powdered egg whites she gave us enough for 1 egg and we told her that we would bring some brownies back for her to try. Went back to camp this was only a ¼ mile away or so carrying this powdered egg white wrapped in foil along the way.

We made the brownies and brought the ranger 2 of them they were great!

Brownies that we made and shared with the rangers.
08-19-2009 Wednesday

Up around 6:30 am temp was around 38 deg. This morning we baked biscuits and gray we each had 3 large biscuits some snacks and packed up for our hike to Tindall creek going through Wallace creek total of 8.5 miles. We arrived at Wallace creek at around 10:30 am had lunch and headed fro Tindall creek this was the half way point. After hiking mostly up hill and across a flat plateau with a large pond off to the south side no trees though. We finally arrived at our destination of Tindall creek. Walked towards Forester pass as this was our planned trip for the next day. Made camp in a small grove of trees next to the creek. Setup our tents and cooking area and headed off on our daily hike to check out the surrounding area. This was great we saw lakes and looked at the trail for the next day. At about 5:30 we arrived back at camp and began cooking Chili and corn bread for dinner. This would give us the energy to make it over Forester pass the next morning. We also made some Vanilla pudding for desert. We could see all the way to Forester pass and also Shepherds pass from our camp site. We all turned in early as we knew we had a big day ahead of us.

08-20-2009 Thursday

Up at around 6 am temp was 48 deg. Nice morning.

We started our hike to the pass at around 7:30 after breakfast it was going to be 4.7 mile to the top of the pass and I figured we would get their around 10:30 or 11 am. The hike was mostly up hill past a number of lakes and ponds. We saw a lot of Marmots and 1 small animal that actually looked like a grey hamster. We sopped at the lake at the bottom of the pass and took a break. Then started up we actually reached the top at around 10:30. A lot of people were at the top 4 of them were doing the JMT from Yosemite and 4 other were heading the same way as we were. We found that a lot of the hikers were doing anywhere from 10 to 18 miles per day and hiking all day long from sun up to sun down. We sat at the top of the pass a while and ate some snacks talked to the folks then headed down to Vidette Meadows our next camp spot. This was a great walk down the canyon. Saw the rangers repairing the trail and a lot of hikers going up to the top of the pass. We hiked until about 2:30 then found a great spot down by the Buds creek. We could have a camp fire again in this location as we were under 10000 feet in elevation for the first time in 5 days. We checked out the area and found 3 great waterfalls along the creek, took lots of pictures. Hung out down by the creek walking up and down just looking at all the great views.

Tonight we were going to have Pizza as this was our last night in the back country. I made up 6- 6” pizzas all of them had pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, bell peppers with tomato sauce and shredded cheese. We pigged out and even had desert.

8-21-2009 Friday

Up at around 7am temp was in the mid 40’s

Photo looking back at Forester on the way out of Buds creek.

Today we are hiking out of the back country and heading to our car parked at Onion Valley hope it’s still their. We headed out down the trail and saw a couple of deer along the way. Then up the hill out of Buds Creek and up to Bullfrog lake and the Kersarge lakes then up over the pass and down the car waiting at the bottom this was going to be about 9 miles. We got to Bullfrog lake at around 10am then headed up to the pass this was going to be a climb. But considering we just went over Forester the day before it seamed like a piece of cake. We ran into a pack mule team heading down the pass the leader was having a hard time getting the mules to go down the pass. We made it past them and helped her get them moving. Made it to the top of the pass at around 11:30 hung out for awhile then began our decent to the truck passing a number of day hikers and BPrs as we went. It seamed that the day hikers did not even want to say Hi. Maybe it was cause we had been out for 7 days. Smell you know but I don’t think so as we could not smell each other cause we all took a dip in the creek the day before. Anyway we made it to the truck by 3pm and on our way back to Horseshoe Meadows to pick up our other car. Then we stopped at the Whitney restaurant and had dinner before our long trip back home.

It was a great trip and I hope I did not bore you with this report see all the photos here.
http://backpackerovenphotos.shutterfly.com/647

Bemco Outfitters

2009-07-01T10:40:00.000-07:00

We are going to be starting up our new segment of the company. This will involve supplying backpacking gear that will be included in our guided trips to many different areas in the California mountains and surrounding areas. We will be posting on this site the dates and itinerary's of these trips with contact information. If you are interested in this please send and E-Mail to brian@backpackeroven.com.

Onion Valley day hike

2009-05-19T14:47:00.000-07:00

The weekend of May 16th 2009 we completed a day hike to Roger lake above onion valley. We went and baked Oatmeal cookies and had sandwiches for lunch at the lake. The views were great with snow on all the north facing slopes.
We hit a lot of areas of the trail that still had snow about 2 to 3 feet deep but were easy to cross. This is a great area for day hikes as its only about 2 to 3 miles and you are with in reach of about 4 or five alpine lakes.
This is just off the Hwy 395 in California eastern Seirras.

Mt. Whitney 2009

2009-03-31T14:51:00.001-07:00

We are taking reservations for a guided trip to Mt. Whitney from Cottonwood Pass trail. We will supply breakfast and deserts you supply lunch and dinner. The cost for the trip will be $450.00 USD. To be paid 50% upon reservation and the remaining upon arrival at the trail head. If you are interested or have questions please contact me at brian@backpackeroven.com.
The date for the first trip is June 22nd thru the 28th. The second trip has not been scheduled as of yet but planned for the end of August.
See photos of our last trip at http://backpackerovenphotos.shutterfly.com/ also check out the goodies that we bake along the trail.

Requirements you must be in shape for at least 10 miles per day with 35 to 45 pound backpack. You will need to bring all your own gear. The only items that we will supply are Breakfast and fresh baked goodies everyday. We will also supply Chilli with fresh baked corn bread at Guitar lake after the day hike to the top of Mt. Whitney.

Backpacking trip

2009-03-31T11:16:00.000-07:00

We are planing a trip back to Mt. Whitney in August of 2009. We will be starting in Horseshoe Meadow and exiting out at Onion Valley this will be about 58 miles and we plan on taking 6 to 8 days. Baking all kinds of goodies along the way.
Our Mt. Whitney trip last year 2008 will be featured in Backpacker Magazine in the May issue page 23 reader trips. This is very exciting as we have been trying to get the message out about how easy it is to bake all kinds of goodies in the wilderness with the Backpacker Oven.

New Web design

2009-03-31T10:09:00.000-07:00

We have currently finished our new web design. The new site is much easier to navigate through. You can also see our photos at http://backpackerovenphotos.shutterfly.com/ we will be posting our trip photos on this page.