It wasn't my first encounter with bears out in the woods, but it did get me thinking a bit about what would happen if somebody just took off, leaving all their gear in the dust when that happened.

If it was nighttime, it wouldn't be difficult to get turned around and lose track of where your gear was. If that's where you then found yourself, what would you do if you didn't have your rocket stove with you and needed to cook a meal? What would you do if you were trapped in Peru right now, you had to watch out for angry Peruvians, and your little backpacker stove was out of fuel?

Aside from MREs, the most common type of backpacking food is the freeze-dried stuff. But to eat freeze dried meals, you have to have hot water (if you want it to be palatable). So, I built a Dakota fire hole to see how fast it would take me to heat up a metal tin of water to boiling, how long it took to dig the hole, how much smoke was produced, and the like.

Here's what I found.
I used the metal pot that's included in the Kelly Kettle Scout package (something I consider to be part of a good campfire cooking kit). It holds 0.85 liters of water, and I filled it up with cold water. (I figured that's what you're going to collect out in the woods anyway.)