On earlier trips, I would set up a small campfire and cook my food over that. It worked reasonably well, partly because I had been taught how to make a fire and keep it under control at all times and partly because it was easy to find small dead branches for fuel. One drawback is a fire takes a lot of time and attention. It takes a while to get the fire to the stage where it is good for cooking. Another drawback is the potential risk involved. Each summer, we have a lot of wildfires throughout the province which were caused by campers who left a campsite before the fire was completely out.

In the last decade, I have had campfires just two or three times while on bike trips, and only one of those was for cooking. A stove is a lot faster and easier.