Help Me Get Wood

[Black_Fly]

Campfires aren't a big priority on backcountry trips, but in car camping, we will likely want to relax with an adult beverage while stroking our pyro urges. Where can we score some uninfected firewood on our way north through SSM, WaWa, etc?

 

[Odyssey]

Each park sells locally sourced firewood. You can ask them about it upon entry at the gate. Some parks used to have a truck driving around the camping areas daily selling bagged firewood, don't know if they still do that, otherwise there's often a wood yard where it is stored on premises.
https://www.ontarioparks.com/parksblog/planning-to-bring-your-own-firewood-to-the-park/

 

[recped]

When you are driving along that dirt (gravel) road to Missinaibi Lake, after you stop to look at a moose just wander off the road 20 feet, pull out your saw and gather a nice pile of deadfall. 5 minutes and you'll have a good supply.

 

[Guest]

When you are driving along that dirt (gravel) road to Missinaibi Lake, after you stop to look at a moose just wander off the road 20 feet, pull out your saw and gather a nice pile of deadfall. 5 minutes and you'll have a good supply.

There is that opportunity, but you still have to then load it and paddle it into camp.

On trips where I bring a saw I usually make camp and then paddle a whopping 200 yards around the point to find wind-driven piles of deadwood washed up in some cove. Cut up with a bow saw into 2 – 3 foot initial lengths that is good wood processing practice, although I have lazily piled in large driftwood root balls that burned as multi-day Yule logs.

There can be a lot of deadwood awaiting a short distance away from picked-over camp, and it is assuredly wood local even to that lake.

To that end the family rule of thumb is that, if you wander away from camp, afoot or afloat, bring some firewood on your way back, even if that is just a handful of dry squaw-wood branches and twigs. If everyone does that there is assured to be a neat pile left over for the next visitors.

Some of the side-of-the-road locally source split logs and limbs, or even Park-sold wood, can be cut-a-month-ago green and still sappy wet. Buyer beware.

 

[yellowcanoe]

I would forage.. Unless things have changed the wood Ontario Parks sells is crap.. Birch ( which is fine as a species) and rotten inside because it is not stored properly or is unseasoned or unsplit .. No doubt you will pass by places selling wood.that has been harvested locally.

 

[Odyssey]

The important thing is to source your supply locally. I assumed you were car camping near the main highway, hence my first post. In Miss I'd pass on the car campground pyro games and wait for the real deal tripping. No shortage of backcountry supply. In the frontcountry the park staff do walk around campgrounds and ask what you're burning. The crap I've bought in parks has been wet softwood, totally useless unless you want to whittle it into whistles.