Who the Heck is Hikin Jim?

I'm just a guy who likes being out in the outdoors who happens to like stoves.

NEW:  Come visit me on Facebook:  Adventures in Stoving Facebook Page.

Yours truly, the author

I started hiking and backpacking with my dad and my uncle in the 1960's and 1970's. In terms of cooking, we started with wood fires and a tin can on a wire.  It was some years before I saw anything resembling a backpacking stove. I still have our old Sterno stove, our Thermos 8423 dual burner camp stove, and my uncle's 1962 Primus 71 backpacking stove. I wish I knew what happened to our old Optimus 8R backpacking stove.

I bought my first backpacking stove, a Whisperlite, in about 1987 from Sport Chalet in La Cañada, California, a stove I still have today.

Since my first stove in 1987, I've branched out. I now own over one hundred backpacking stoves, everything from kerosene to hexamine stoves, and pretty much everything in between.

To my surprise, I've found that most people don't know much about stoves, even highly experienced backpackers. There are so many myths and half truths out there, it's astounding. The purpose of the blog is three-fold:
1. To serve as a resource for "Stoving 101" type information, that is to provide basic information about stoves and their use.
2. To provide detailed but practical reviews of stoves. Are you tired of "fluff" reviews where everything is vague and they never really give a stove any hard scrutiny? Here, I try to dig just a bit deeper and provide some real information.
And finally
3. To showcase some of the many fascinating stoves that I have.

Stove testing on Echo Mountain.

Welcome!  And, as they say, enjoy the "ride".

HJ