Building a camp fire

Ok, so this seems simple, right?  Ya get some wood, and set it on fire.  How hard can it be...  Well, as a prepping and survival skill, doing it efficiently is more important then one might think.  Fires are a "system", a combustion process that can be maximized by the way the wood pile is laid out.   Fuel and oxygen need to mix at the proper levels to reduce smoke. 

Now I am no expert, but luckily one of the other Assistant Scoutmasters is.  Being a former firefighter, he is well versed in the "hows and whys" of combustion.  He says its not actually the wood that burns, but a gas that is emitted by the wood as it gets to a specific temperature.  Using tender at first, then a good bed of coals to maintain and achieve the proper temperature is key.  Also creating proper air flow to the lower points of the fuel source so the heat drives the oxygen and gas up as it combust in the right mix.

The advantage of weekend camping every month is we build lots of camp fires.  This also means we gather lots of tender and fire wood.  We also work on building specific types of fires.  Some are for cooking, some are for heat, some are "designed" for a slow burn to last for hours without additional fuel.  

This is one of those tasks that anyone can do in its basic form, but with a little training and experience it can be done much better.

Now the second half of this fire discussion is where you make your own luck.  Fires don't just happen, well, yeah they do, but thats not the kind i'm talking about. Being able to make a camp fire is different from being prepared to make a camp fire.  Having the right tools is cheap in this case.  There is no excuse for not having the right stuff.



Personally I'm never far away from a "fire kit".  I keep a kit in each of my backpacks, in my emergency get home gear in my truck, and larger ones in both my camping gear and in my camp trailer.

So here is one of my fire kits.  Actually this is a midsize one, because its the kit I keep in my hiking pack and it gets used to make campfires regularly.  The waterproof matches and holder was 5 dollars, but they make a smaller on thats only 2.  This kit has 5 wetfire, the smaller kits only have 2 cubes.  The lighter is my Coleman extreme windproof torch. Normally any old 2 for a dollar bic lighter will due.  Even its bag is an upgrade, I normally just toss everything in a freezer bag, but my backpack gets rained on, we go canoeing, all sorts of things, so this kit is kept in a mini watertight roll down bag.  All I need is to gather some wood, and pull out my knife to scrape some kindling and i'm ready to go.  So for what you pay for a cup of Starbucks coffee, you can have a kit that may even you life.



It may seem easy to think of making a fire in the warmth of your living room, or on a nice summer day.  But who needs one then?  The preparation is for when its 20 degrees, and you're wet and tired.  When the wood is damp and your hands hurt and are numbing from the cold, when the light is fading, and the north wind is howling and you NEED a fire for survival.  

IF i had a Bug-Out bag...

I don't believe in Bug-Out bags.  I say that every time i'm asked, if I have time to grab one bag, I have time to load my real gear and be properly prepared to survive any extended crisis.  That being said, my backpack camping load out is about as close as I have to a bag I could grab and go with and survive.

The pack and its contents has been selected to be mobile and efficient, but provide everything i need to survive.  I can go overnight, a long weekend, a week, or a month, the only difference is the volume of food I add to it.

First, the backpack itself. It needs to be a "bag" to carry everything in, have pockets and compartments that organize gear, act as a mounting platform for several tools weapons and equipment, and have a frame and suspension system that allows it all to "ride" on me comfortably for both miles and hours of hiking.

My choice is a Kelty  Coyote 80. I love the fit and feel of Kelty backpacks, and rely on my Redwing 50 regularly for day hikes. This 80 liter pack is arguably the most comfortable large pack around.  I picked green to blend and allow easy concealment if i had to hide it, as large and efficient as a Rucksack but without the military look or attention.

The first thing everyone sees it my SOG Tomahawk lashed to the pack.  Yes it s technically a "tactical tomahawk" so it could be a throwing or combat weapon, but it also serves very well working with timber for a camp fires and other camp needs. Its not an axe by any stretch of the imagination, but it fills the need. I will admit, vanity got the best of me and i went for the upgraded green digital camo version.

Ok so here is most of my load out all spread out, and inventoried for an overview.

Up on the right is my ultra light Vango Banshee 300 tent I had shipped from Europe.  I have pulled the poll bags out and carry them in a separate pocket.   A full review of it is coming, but the design, function, and material of the Banshee was worth all the trouble of acquiring a European tent.

Included is a Green MPI All weather space blanket, some parracord and S clips.  I also have my Jetboil Zip to serve as a cook system for meals, and hot water for both drinks and hygiene.  A MSR Miniworks water filter, Camelbak Groove water bottle with the intagrated charcoal filter, and my Camelbak All Clear UV purifier fulfill my water needs.   With this kit I can produce almost limitless safe drinking water on a multi day hike.

Up on the left are my hiking gloves and polls, binoculars, Several flash lights, Hand warmers, First Aid kit, head lamp and arm marker lamp, both a fixed and folding knife, Bushnell Backtrack, and safety whistle.   Another important need is rest, so you also see my Klymit insulated V sleeping pad and Klymit X Pillow.  Both get top marks for comfort and quality, but also both are very compact and light weight.

Spare clothes include convertible hiking pants, REI active shirt, termal military undershirt, wool socks and underwear, mesh "wet" shoes, and some other personal items.  It all fits in the green compression sack.  I regularly add or swap out clothes based on the season and expected weather, but the pants and shirt always stay.

And Here is my ledge light weight 20 degree sleeping bag, a few microfiber camp towels, my tent light, and a supply of cliff bars and other trail food that i always keep in my pack.  You can also see that i make good use of the tie ons to my pack, and have attached my tents under tarp.

So.... here are my new "cold" boots

Ok, so if you have seen any of my previous posts, then you just KNOW there is a good and probably humorous story behind this, and you would be right...  

Let me start by saying I have boots.  Well, I thought I had some boots.  I have "wipe off the car and shovel the driveway" or "walk across the street to the mail boxes" boots.  Those are NOT boots.  For what I was about to face I may as well had on Ballerina slippers, but i'm getting ahead of myself.  

Knowing disasters aren't just a "summer thing",  I wanted to take full advantage of every training opportunity.   Well when our Boy Scout troop decided to do a winter campout and offer the Scouts a chance to earn their Polar Bear badge, I figured it would be another great opportunity to test and train.  For those unfamiliar with the requirements, you must stay outside for a minimum  of 24 hours in subfreezing temperatures.  Thats, eat, sleep, bathroom, everything... 

So, growing up a city kid, cold scares the crap out of me, and I didn't want to freeze to death so I asked a friend who lives in Alaska for advice. While he didn't laugh in my face (i'm sure he did later), he dismissed my weatherman's forecast of 18 degrees with stories -35 and real arctic storms and real polar bears... he also assured me I would be fine, I was not going to die overnight, and gave me some helpful tips.  Hearing it from a cold weather expert made me feel a LOT better.

So off we went on our hike / trek around the scout ranch.  Using maps and compass to find our way, cooking meals on the winter trail, packs of gear on our backs.  If I don't look happy, its because it was dark,  it was cold, and it was 5:30 AM when we set out on the trail.  Now believe me I have good gear, fleece hat and Balaclava, base layers, the best wool socks Gander Mountain sells, the whole nine yards...  but my boots?  They were good enough, right?

Well, my boots had never failed me before, but 2 days is a loooong time.  They were ok on the hike, but as the day went on, the cold crept in, the rubber got cold, then colder, then, colder, and there was no warming them up. By lights out i was walking abound with ice blocks on my feet like in the Bugs Bunny cartoon.  Just a little tip, if you get your boots too close to the camp fire, the soles can and will catch fire before they warm up... Don't ask why i know this.   By the time we had made dinner at base camp and were ready to bed down for the night, I had a pair of hand warmers stuffed down on my toes.

What came to me as a lay in my sleeping bag thawing my feet and trying to get some sleep was, what if this really was a crisis and I was going to be stuck for more then 2 days.  After all, this is Michigan.  Winter isn't exactly rare. Crisis don't know what season it is, nor do they care.   Be it the 2003 blackout, or Zombie apocalypse, or whatever, it could all happen during 2 feet of snow just as easily as a nice summer day.  In fact, Murphy's law especially applies to cold weather.

The morning was actually more pleasant then you might expect.  Thanks again to my friend in Alaska, I had stuffed my boots down in the bottom of my military bivy sac to keep them from freezing and overnight my body heat had warmed them up.  I did however find out that damp gloves, if left in the tent overnight, will freeze rock solid.  In the end, all the Boy Scouts and I survived and were no worse for wear, and we all learned some valuable survival skills.  When they get their Polar Bear Patch, I hope they are as proud of what they accomplished and of what it represents as I am.

Now in true fashion, the first thing I did when I got home AFTER warming my feet by the fireplace was to hop on the internet looking for insulated thermal boots that would meet my increasing list of needs, and reflect what i had learned. After quite a search and reading a lot of reviews,  I settled on Columbia's Bugaboot.  They are insulated and waterproof enough to stand still in 6 inches of snow all day, yet with enough grip to function as good trail boots in the cold winter months where we hike without snow.  So, anyway, lesson learned, gear improved, and I pushed myself beyond where I thought my limits were.  Now for hunters and other outdoor enthusiast this may not be much, but growing up a city kid, overcoming the cold, and my own fear, is a big deal.

And a special thanks to my buddy Permafrost at American Preppers Network for all the great advice.