Lately I’ve had the urge to do some extra camping to stay closer to a climbing site to decrease travel time. The only problem was that I was completely un-prepared to prepare a camp meal. Cooking a decent meal can be very time-consuming compared to preparing a meal at home. This is no longer an issue with the MSR Pocket Rocket camp stove.

On a recent trip to Acadia National Park to test the Pocket Rocket I found it was This micro stove boiled about a liter of water in five minutes. I was then able to use the water to rehydrated some udon noodles in with a coconut peanut sauce. In total it was about 15 minutes of waiting to prepare the meal that was enough to feed two people. During that time there was no tending the stove so we were free to set up camp. Since we’re just boiling water, there was no risk of it burning. The MSR Pocket Rocket became my new favorite piece of camp gear. That said, if I could do it again, I may have purchased the slightly smaller version of stove because it would fit inside the water vessel along with a small fuel canister. That would be a great setup for packing. For a campsite and packed car, it is not necessary. You can find this stove now for $39 at L.L. Bean’s.