Review: Überleben Stöker Flatpack Stove

January 6, 2019January 6, 2019 / adkjoe / 6 Comments

It is no secret that I love gear, so when I came across this Uberleben Stoker flatpack stove I knew I had to give it a try. I already own a Solostove Lite which I love. In my opinion you can’t have too many twig stoves.

This afternoon I headed to my local State Park to get it’s fire burning and have some food. Conditions out on the trail aren’t always perfect and today’s weather I feel was a good representative of that. The temperature a balmy 38 degrees in addition to 15-17MPH winds and snow flurries thrown in for good measure. It has been very damp and wet here lately so in order to get the fire going I decided to bring some dryer lint and two small pieces of fat wood and in no time the belly of this beast had come alive.

I filled my pot with 12 ounces of cold water and placed it on top. I continued to feed the fire a steady diet of leaves, twigs and sticks. The one thing I have noticed with these twigs stoves is they are constantly hungry. In these conditions it took 15 minutes for the 12 ounces of water to boil which I felt was reasonable. On a warm day with light wind I’m confident boiling time would be around 8-9 minutes.

I poured the water into a Goodto-Go single serve dehydrated meal (Chicken Gumbo) stirred and sealed and let rehydrate for 15 minutes. I put another 12 ounces of water back into my pot in order to boil for coffee.

The Stove: A little on the heavy side (14.5 ounces with canvas sleeve), this extremely compact and simple 5 panel stove assembles in about a minute or so. The first time I put it together it felt a little clumsy to me and I was skeptical that it would be as sturdy as I have read. All the pieces fit snug together giving it a solid base. This stove is made from heavy duty 304 grade stainless steel which is anti-corrosive. After I had it assembled I truly liked its feel, solid as a tank. You will have no issue what so ever placing a heavy cast iron skillet or pot on this stove. Another great feature about this product was the large opening to feed the fire and the nicely placed holes for consistent airflow.

What I Liked:

Ease of assembly, compact, large opening to feed the fire, Sturdiness, airflow and lastly the price.

What I Didn’t Like:

A little heavier than I would like and extremely sooty during disassembly.

I believe that the positives outweigh the negatives and highly recommend this compact, affordable twig stove. I hope this review of the Uberleben Stoker Flatpack Stove was helpful and if you have a product that you would like me to review please feel free to contact me.

Cheers!

Compact & flat the Überleben Stöker Flatpack Stove comes in this nice canvas sleeve. ©Joe Geronimo

All the parts of the very compact easy to assemble Überleben Stöker Flatpack Stove. © Joe Geronimo

Completely assembled the Überleben Stöker Flatpack Stove is extremely sturdy. ©Joe Geronimo

The belly of the Überleben Stöker Flatpack Stove is alive with fire. ©Joe Geronimo

12 ounces of water working itself to a boil atop of the Überleben Stöker Flatpack Stove. ©Joe Geronimo

15 minutes later we have boiling water atop of the Überleben Stöker Flatpack Stove. ©Joe Geronimo

Goodto-Go chicken gumbo and a hot cup of coffee on cold and windy winter afternoon. ©Joe Geronimo

Autumn in the Air

September 29, 2016September 29, 2016 / adkjoe / 2 Comments

Cool and crisp as an Autumn morning should be. This morning my cars thermometer read 38 degrees as I drove the backroads to Nanticoke lake. Arriving under a blanket of fog and now 35 degree temperatures it was time to unload my canoe and hit the water. My friend Don from Ithaca who I met last summer while paddling another area lake was joining me as well on this small hidden gem near Center Lisle. The fog seemed to roll across the lake as a slight wind kept the water from being glass like. Right before the 0659 sunrise the Canadian Navy (Canadian Geese) were doing maneuvers as well as the local beavers. One beaver in particular wasn’t too fond of me being close to his lodge and thought it would be fun to try and splash me with a few “THWACKS” of his tail, he was unsuccessful! I did however slowly back away to witness the three of them playing and pushing one another around for a short while.

The sun had finally broke over the tree tops creating pockets of beautiful color along the shoreline. The color is definitely beginning to show here and it made for a nice backdrop for a beautiful setting.

At 46 acres with a maximum depth of 20 feet, sitting at 1,400 feet of elevation, Nanticoke lake was originally constructed in the 1970’s with the intention of establishing a wild, self sustaining brook trout fishery similar to those found in the Adirondacks. Unfortunately, due to low dissolved oxygen levels in the summer months, brook trout survival was extremely limited.

Notes: From the parking area to the lake is a 1/4 mile carry on a well maintained trail. Having a 17lb canoe made this extremely easy, however Don used a set of canoe wheels to wheel in his canoe into the lake.

Early morning on Nanticoke lake September 28th 2016. Image © Joe Geronimo.

Don Welch taking in the Autumn beauty on Nanticoke lake September 28th 2016. Image © Joe Geronimo.

Blue Heron on Nanticoke lake September 28th 2016. Image © Joe Geronimo.

Postcards from the Road

July 31, 2016January 28, 2020 / adkjoe / 7 Comments

We recently have just come off our summer vacation. I think this was one of my favorite vacations to date. We rarely get the opportunity to visit with Julie’s family as they live far away. Rather than blah, blah, blah about what we did while on vacation I’m going with a different approach. I think you’ll be able to travel right along with us via postcards from our 2,737 mile journey. So buckle up and enjoy the ride!

Cheers………..

July 10th-13th:

And we didn’t even shoot our eye out!

July 13th-16th:

July 16th-20th:

July 20th-21st:

2016 Vermont Covered Bridge Half Marathon

June 6, 2016June 6, 2016 / adkjoe / 5 Comments

My previous post I wrote about running this race for fun and that is exactly what I did. The whole weekend in itself was fun. Saturday my friend Sue and I drove to Long Trail Brewing in West Bridgewater Corners, VT where we met up with her cousin Kaye-Lani from North Carolina. We also met up with our friends Chris and Lori who moved recently from Endicott to New Hampshire and as an added bonus my friend Ian made the hour drive from his house as well to join us all for some beer, food and laughs.

Kaye-Lani had rented a rustic cabin retreat about 8 miles outside of Woodstock, VT. After lunch Sue, Kaye-Lani and I got to the cabin, settled in for a bit. Shortly we were off to the pre-race pasta dinner at the Suicide Six ski resort. The evening weather was absolutely perfect, returning back to our cabin we spent several hours enjoying the rest of the evening chatting before crashing for the night as we had an early start to our Sunday.

Sunrise was beautiful as we got ourselves dressed and ready for the days race. Once parked and ready to board our bus that would take us to the start is when the rain began to fall and it fell. It rained during the entire race, after the race and all the way home back to New York. The rain during the race did however feel great, kept the body temperature in check. I did have one issue as my sock was quite wet and was chaffing at the bottom of my right foot making it a little uncomfortable.

We began the race together and I ran the first two miles at 8:44 pace stopped for a brief bathroom break and then gradually got into a really comfortable groove for the rest of the race. I finished the half marathon in 1:41:25 finishing 188th out of 1,890 runners and I had a blast doing it.

Cold and completely soaked I found the Harpoon Brewery beer tent and celebrated appropriately. Afterwards we made a quick return to our cabin to wash up and some dry clothes before heading into Woodstock for lunch. We met back up with Chris and Lori at the Worthy Kitchen, the “Worthy” is completely worthy of your business.

After lunch is when we all would part ways ending a fun weekend with friends in Vermont.

Cheers!

Our cabin in the woods.

Kaye-Lani checking out the bathtub and outhouse.

Checking the place over.

A little cramped!

Sunrise

Cabin Interior

Sue & Kaye-Lani at the pasta dinner.

L-R: Myself, Kaye-Lani, Lori, Chris & Sue at the Worthy Kitchen in Woodstock, VT.

Day Trip: The Finger Lakes

March 21, 2016February 25, 2019 / adkjoe / 2 Comments

Our day started early with a trip to the car dealership in Horseheads. I wasn’t happy with the tires that came on our new car so I had them changed. Since we were so close to the Finger Lakes we decided to make an afternoon of it. After leaving the dealership we made our way through Watkins Glen driving route 14 along the west shore of Seneca Lake. We had our stomachs set on lunch at Fox Run Vineyards only to be disappointed when we arrived to find the cafe was closed until April 1st. Starving we decided to hit up Eddie O’Brien’s in Geneva. Once seated I ordered a pint of Climbing Bines pale ale which is located in Penn Yan. For lunch I went with my favorite the “Bacon, Egg & Cheese” burger and Julie had the french dip. The food was wonderful, the company even better and peering out the window a snow squall had enveloped the city of Geneva.

Bacon, Egg & Cheese burger at Eddie O’Brien’s in Geneva, NY.

After lunch we left Geneva and made the short trip to Vintosa Vineyards where we tasted some pretty darn good wine. Departing Vintosa with a bottle of their 2013 Riesling and now driving south on the east side of Seneca Lake we opted to head towards Ithaca. As we got closer to Ithaca a quick stop was made at Taughannock Falls for a glimpse of the 215 foot splendor. https://youtu.be/PY4BeH6b1n8

Screen Shot 2016-03-21 at 7.28.04 PM

Our Ithaca destination was the amazingly awesome Purity Ice Cream.

Brownie Sundae with chocolate peanut butter and vanilla ice cream. Yeah I know awesome!

After ice cream we made our way home where our two teenage boys didn’t disappoint. The house was a mess when we returned.

Here is to our next adventure!