Hi, all. As a brief intro, I`m an avid short duration (mostly weekends, occasional week) bike tourist, just starting to dip my toe into the backpacking world for the first time since Boy Scouts in the early 80s. I live on the outskirts of Reno, a stone`s throw from the CA line and do most of my playing in the Sierra with a few high desert trips thrown in from time to time.

Drought conditions are really serious this year, and fire season is already off to an ominous start- I`ve seen plenty of online speculations about burn bans, which will probably eliminate my HEET powered stoves before ISO burners. Since I`m not willing to "go cold" and really prefer not to go back to packing my old white gas Coleman around again, I think I`m going to try a canister stove. Not really sure which way to go with it, though. I`m tempted to just get one of the cheap and simple models that screws directly on top of the can, then go back to my HEET stove when conditions permit. Are all those stoves (Pocket Rocket, GigaPower, Crux, etc) fairly similar to each other, or do they actually differ in significant ways?

And while I`ll PROBABLY start off with a simple screw-together in the $40 to $50-ish range, I`m a little bit tempted by the more sophisticated (yes?) versions that allow a nice stable base for the burner with a tube connecting to a remote fuel canister, thinking maybe I`ll like the ease of gas stoves enough to move on completely from alcohol. Just see how things go this year with an inexpensive model and save it for an extra if I later decide I like the format and go big?

My stove use is mostly to boil water, once in a while a short simmer, always for one person. I need to be able to use it in hot weather, rarely camp when I expect morning lows to drop below the upper 20s (F), though I get seem to get surprised by colder mornings a lot in the fall (may favorite time to be out). Altitude extremes range from about 3000 to 9000 ft, but most often between 6k and 7k- not sure if that matters, but there`s the info if it does. Most of my bike trips and all my forseeable backpacking trips are two to three days, so I generally carry all my fuel from the start with no need to resupply.

A few more thoughts that keep going through my mind are that, while I mostly like my cat stoves, I think I could get used to the ease of use offered by gas. Except the thing about needing a half pound canister just for a half dozen quick burns! I also like the simple restock availablility of HEET, but like I mentioned already, that probably won`t ever come into play for my backpacking- but who knows? I also like the price of operating an alky stove, though for a half dozen weekends per year, it isn`t like I`ll go broke buying a few canisters.

So, what do you think? Screw together? Whichever one I catch on sale, or think first and pay attention to the reviews? I think I gave all the pertinent info, but will fill in anything I missed if need be. Thanks!