The Perfect Fire

One thing that I think all will agree on is that a fire can be very important at times. There is a "right" way to make a fire but everyone does it different and all depends on where you are, the weather, and just what you have. What is it you love to use to build your perfect fire.

The perfect fire is one that is putting out light and heat by means of a bright, cheery flame. I use whatever is handy to achieve that. Years ago I made an evening fire in the low desert near the Tinajas Altas using ironwood . The following morning all we had to do was put the coffee pot on the still brightly glowing coals - boiled right up. It took all our "processed coffee" to finally put that sucker out....

More and more, a fire is just recreational - something for the kids to roast marshmallows over, or it is a last ditch emergency measure. In both cases, whatever is handy is just fine, as long as it burns <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Wood. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

More Witches! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Nah. Witches are too smoky. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

A perfect fire for me is a small fire. I gather dry sticks off the ground or break them off fallen branches and get a little bed of coals going. A fire about 1 ft. in diameter is perfect for backpacking alone or with a couple friends.

For cooking, I start adding some small, greener branches from white or red oak, or hickory that I gather from recently fallen branches. This gives food a nice mild smoked flavor. It's best if the bark is new and thin and has a little moss and lichen on it, it imparts a completely different flavor than old, dry, thick pieces of wood. You can tell when you smell the smoke if you've got good sticks. They have a kind of spicy aroma that just smells delicious.

If you get enough sticks about 1" in diameter then you can control the heat better and keep a small fire bright and warm and still easy to put out. It's also easy to scatter the ashes to reduce impact with a small fire.

Most of my friends like really BIG fires. I've converted a few but my success rate is admittedly very low. In the Ozarks during backpacking season wood is abundant and the wildfire danger is low, so I often get to tell people their shoes are melting and stuff like that. That helps add to the enjoyment of being with friends that like really big campfires.

Bill

As far as style of fires, I tend to use the lean-to style most often. I know there are more efficient fires out there, like the teepee style... but the lean-to I feel is the easiest one to make and to keep in form.

If I'm cooking though I'll use a teepee fire to get the coals going.

Very small rocks!
A duck!

Sometimes, dame fortune smiles and I find a piece of pitchwood, often a large knot or burl, that lights easily and burns brightly for a long time. As a bonus, the smokiness can drive off skeeters.

It's more work, but I like a small fire in a hole with a separate vent hole. Not exactly LNT, but it is more efficient. Usually I'm too lazy to do the digging.

For me, fires are mostly for beach picnics; I can't bring myself to build a fire in the woods because it leaves an eyesore for years. On the beach, driftwood is plentiful, and there's usually dry stuff above the high tide line. It's often hard to tell what kind of wood it is, so I always let it burn down to coals before cooking with them - less smoke that way. Adding a few hunks of wet alder can add a good flavor.

I usually lay two wrist-sized pieces about 6" apart so they channel the wind between them, then build the fire within.

It really depends on where you're at. Here in Ozarks the forests recover pretty quickly from fires, ice storms, and floods.

Around here the Forest Service does controlled burns every few years on public land and lightning will start fires as well, so I have no problem or guilt building campfires. Besides, now that I've been told my fires are "Carbon Neutral" and I'm saving the planet by not using a fossil fuel to provide light and heat, I find that I'm on the cutting edge of "Going Green" <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Bill

In a sandy wash, on a layer of sand and a handful of thumb sized dry wood. This is a nice little cooking fire with a renewable resource and nothing to put in the landfill. The wood burns to fine ash and sand can be scattered. The next big rain or two will cause the rock support to be scoured clean.

I like pine in the warmer months. The smoke is brutal - but the skeeters think so too. In the colder months I like old, heavy oak - that stuff will burn forvever. I do like a small fire. Ever since reading Camping and Woodcraft by Horace Kephart, many years ago I began to understand his description of the difference between a 'white mans fire and an indian fire'. He said that a white man would build a big huge fire that was too hot to sit beside and an indian would build a small fire.
I remember that quote when I am out with someone that spends hours collecting all the wood they can and then piles it high so that the fire can be seen from space. I always feel sorry for the next person to try and find wood at that site.
But, to each his own.

Hootyhoo
A Indian fire does not leave a cloud of smoke that can be seen or smelled. Thats the difference. Both the material, how dry it is, and how the fire is built will determine whether there is any smoke.


BoyNhis dog
Your photo of that fire brings home the extreme differences between our locations. Here in Oregon there are places as barren as your photo, but they're covered with sharp black volcanic rock. Everywhere else is deep in pine needles... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> We couldn't just light a fire like that in an arroyo here in Oregon. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

In the Sierras, which is really very sterile, there are lots of bare granite places. Here in Oregon I nolonger camp on sharp broken granite, instead its covered with plant life or nasty rock, except for a few protected meadows. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
Jim <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I have seen that beautiful country Jim and know just what you mean. Everyone has their issues when it comes to fire. If I have even a small doubt, I will not have even a small fire. If I am in any hight impact area, I won't have fire. Your pine forests are like gasoline when dry as your own brand of deserts can be. Thank goodness for the 3.5 oz Snowpeak stove. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Boynhisdog

Yep stoves have changed everything. My first long summer out I cooked everything over a campfire or on my sterno stove. I carried dried beans! <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> and I baked bread everyother day. Had no problem storing meat - took a can of USDA turkey along and opened it halfway through the trip. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

I've camped in Arizona, down in Organ Pipe BTW. We had some peccary leave their droppings at the front door. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />I ran 4 more out of camp one night waving my machete and I slapped one on the butt with the flat side of the blade. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

I love to collect rocks down there, its like the Mojave - you can see the rocks, theres nothing on top of them.

Jim <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />