Kevin Callan: Death of the Campfire

I typically cook using a small alcohol stove when alone but still enjoy a small campfire during the evening hours. It's more for the relaxing feel it gives me than anything else. Typically I burn the stuff that no one else uses that proliferates around campsites. Using all that small stuff allows it to burn down to ash so there's no charred wood left over in the fire pit for the next group to come across.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time....be well.

snapper

This is one of the reasons I quit hiking in the Whites, most places have no fires. Then you look at most of the people, and that's most likely a good thing.
I'm not dressed without my knife, I'm not going to the woods without a campfire. I REALLY enjoy sitting and watching the flames, especially solo. On shorter trips, I've been known to buy my firewood locally and avoid the gathering part of it.

...Win some, lose some, some get rained out?

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Thread drift alert: great movie! Although I don't watch baseball now that they ruined it w/ the DH, I still watch that movie every year when pitchers & catchers report.

I’ve always enjoyed a small fire. To me it’s part of being.

There is something primal about a campfire that reaches to the soul and spirit of a person. Perhaps it touches the "genetic memory" that we carry, since it has only been less than last century and a half that staying warm, cooking and seeing at night has been accomplished by means other than fire. How many millennia have humans sat around the nightly fire, fearful of what may be lurking in the surrounding woods, compared to the short time that we have dazzled our own eyes with electric light, wonder what may be lurking in the surrounding suburbs.

When staying outdoors I prefer the flickering light of a campfire, the pungent odors of the smoke, the taste of food cooked in iron pans or Dutch ovens and the random crackle and pop as the wood is turned from a hard, solid organic material into vapor, ash and energy. Though I do carry a stove for times when the wood and tinder is too soaked, the wind is too high to safely have a fire, or I just get to camp too late and do not want to traipse around in the night looking for fuel, on those nights I do miss the campfire. Staring into the blue flame of a stove just does not strike the same chord.

Being able to build a campfire in difficult conditions is a skill worth having. If someone takes a swim in cold water, building one is important. Some people never build fires and some people are terrible when it comes to making one. Practice the skills once in a while because you may need them.

As a solo paddler I rarely have fires. Occasionally using my twig stove I have enjoyed that as a tiny glowing warm source of both physical and psychological comfort. However, on my last outing in the Adirondacks which was cold and rainy I managed two very nice fires which I thoroughly enjoyed. In particular, the second fire at a leanto was perfect as some kind stranger had left a small JiffyPop https://giantfood.com/groceries/sna...y-pop-stove-top-popcorn-butter-45-oz-pkg.html at the leanto which I cooked over the fire! Very enjoyable little treat at fireside- maybe even justified the effort to collect firewood, shown here in my canoe while scouting a campsite on St. Regis Pond before returning to the leanto.

Count me as one who hates campfire smoke. I rarely have fires. We backpacked 10 nights in glacier last summer before the fire ban and didn’t have a fire once. Same over 8 nights paddling superior national forest. Not a single fire. However, we just returned from 2 nights on the Allegheny river and had great fires both nights. My tent was far away.

I never build a fire to just have a fire. I find them too noisy both visibly and audibly. A fire seems to have me transfixed on the flames instead of looking over the lake to distant shores and what is going on there.

Many of my fondest memories include a campfire. I hope and pray to make many more. Just sat around one in my backyard last night. Both of my teenage kids (17,18) ended up there with their friends. They took over when my wife and I went in.

I don’t know what it is, but the crazier the world gets, the more makes sense around a simple campfire.

Last night in our son's kitchen my wife and I eased back in the rickety chairs and commenced to party, passing around the boxes of take-out Chinese food, filling our mugs to brimming with steaming hot tea, (feeding the dog under the table), and laughing till we cried over our young granddaughter's new words of the day. This family of ours had only just moved into an old house in need of loving care, and we'd barely had time to fix that and paint this before the movers arrived. With boxes shoved aside and counters uncovered the kitchen was chosen as the natural place to christen the tired old house a new happy home. We spent the better part of that long night baking a pie, uncorking some bubbly, and steeping the tea. And oh yes, we sang. Of course the youngest voice had to teach us her favourite tunes from daycare.
I'm not from Newfoundland/Labrador, nor have I ever been there, much to my regret, but over the years somehow and for who knows what reason, we've gravitated to the kitchen for our socializing. There have been woodstoves, gas ranges, and electric air-fryinduction bakeconvectionselfcleancontraptions in the heart of each kitchen, but we know the real heart of every kitchen is the group settled around the table eating, singing, sharing. On more than one occasion during power failures we've slapped together sandwiches and warmed our faces in the glow of candlelight and lamps. The light drew us in.
Campfires have been no different over the years. We'll continue to enjoy them as part of our backcountry kitchen party as long as we're able. Fire bans (all issued for very good reason, and always respected) have dampened our spirits somewhat at times, but we have sung ourselves silly huddled around flashlights, continuing the kitchen party culture. You had to be there.

a little campfire smoke is one of the good ways to discourage mosquitoes.

ppine said:

a little campfire smoke is one of the good ways to discourage mosquitoes.

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My problem was that it never seemed to be "just a little." Maybe woodstove skills are different than campfire skills?

Nick Pending said:

My problem was that it never seemed to be "just a little." Maybe woodstove skills are different than campfire skills?

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Think of it this way: you're creating a column of hot air, which rises and creates a vacuum that sucks colder air from around the base of the fire and heats that too, then pulls it up and perpetuates the cycle. That creates a draft that pulls the particulates (smoke) with it.
In a woodstove, it's the same principle, but that vacuum is much easier to manage. Heat and smoke rise out of the stovepipe, which (hopefully) is the only available opening for it, and the stovebox itself keeps too much heat from diffusing out into the open air. (Stoves suck fresh oxygen through whatever vents they have to make the draft.) Keeping a small open fire hot enough to do that takes some skill and some luck. If it's not burning hot enough, the air doesn't rise fast enough to pull the smoke out, and even a lightish wind can overpower the upward draft.
Managing the 3 elements of a campfire - fuel, heat, and airflow - takes some experience. Wood choice plays a big part - dry elm, e.g., is virtually smokeless when it's burning. In my experience split wood burns easier than rounds, barky stuff or punk wood. If you wanted a smudge fire to keep bugs off, or to make a Palmer furnace, you would manage wood and airflow differently than if you wanted to cook a steak. Experimenting with different woods and fire lays can be a lot of fun, when done safely.

MyKneesHurt said:

even a lightish wind can overpower the upward draft.

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Thanks.

That lightish wind, no matter where I stand, turns my body into a rock in the stream that makes an eddy and draws the smoke toward me. Can't avoid it. I don't want to smell like smoke so I usually just stay way away from fires if at all possible, especially as I (and the ones I'm with) am only marginally successful at the "light smoke production" that repels the skeets. Instead, I just cover up so they can't get me and remain my own sweet-smelling self (yeah, right < /sarc >).

My campfire days are likely over anyway, so practicing isn't worth the effort now. But thanks again, anyway.

^Oh, you got The Curse. It happens.
I haven't built a campfire in years, but it's a good skill to have in your back pocket.

MyKneesHurt said:

^Oh, you got The Curse. It happens.
I haven't built a campfire in years, but it's a good skill to have in your back pocket.

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I've built campfires in the past, some even relatively recently, like 2015. Almost all the recent ones were small just to rid of us of extra paper and garbage on trips and over quickly, not for warming or gazing or chatting around.

Heck, just a few weeks ago I had a huge fire going for two days to rid us of tree trimmings and such so they wouldn't be around when the next wildfire season is upon us (most of a year away). Will have more of same to do before then, too. I got really stinky then, but I could shower at the end of the day and let the clothes hang on the line for a while to let 'em air out. No tents up to collect smoke odor.

As mentioned before, the BLM about a half mile to the west of us is doing the same right now, burning huge piles of slash after a logging operation there last spring, part of which had been subject to wildfire back in 2020. My wife and I had been evacuated from our home for I think it was 12 days during that period. The power was out for 15 days. It was really stinky here for most of that two weeks, and we couldn't get away from it. Stayed at a friend's house who was more away from, but not entirely, the smoke effects and out of the evac zone. A smelly time. Very little effects of smoke in our immediate area this year from wildfires that were mostly away from us.

Our gang often looks for "chimney logs" amongst the deadfall in the ADK's.
When found, we set them aside for the evening fire, assured of a good draft and (hopefully) a stimulating view.
Here's one in action...




Edited to add:
while digging up that photo, I stumbled on another pic from the same night, clearly showing the existance of ghosts.

It seems to me, based on the majority of responses to this thread, that Mr. Callan is describing the death of an event that was not overly alive anyway. To repeat, Kathleen and I, like many others, rarely lighted campfires.

PaddlingPitt said:

It seems to me, based on the majority of responses to this thread, that Mr. Callan is describing the death of an event that was not overly alive anyway. To repeat, Kathleen and I, like many others, rarely lighted campfires.

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From what I remember of your trip reports, it seems you seldom paddled where there was any wood to burn.