Another fantastic weekend rambling in the woods in the Midwest - and the weather was even spectacular. Perfect bluebird days in the 50's to low 60's and nights in the upper 30s to 40ish. I expect to read a LENGTHY rhapsody from Bill V. about his weekend cataloging rare flora a little ways north of me - Bill?<br><br>Friday thru this afternoon, eldest son and I attended a modest size gathering at our scout reservation, with wife and other sons able to spend most of Saturday assisting. Although there were enough folks attending to accomplish some important maintenance tasks, we were easily able to camp and do our parts in semi-isolation, then walk in and gather for meals and other business - sort of the best of both worlds in some respects.<br><br>It's been pretty wet in the upper Mississippi River valley the last several weeks, and we've been fortunate enough to spend 3/4 of the last 4 weekends in the woods all weekend. Some observations:<br><br>1. Short of committing a large scale act of environmental violence, it is very difficult to find dry fixin's for fires right now. It's not simply the rain; it's been HUMID and the dews are something to behold - even the sheltered dead stuff on cedars is damp through and through as a result. Some native shrubbery (hedge??? I know it when I see it...) that usually has a collection of dead shoots yielded fairly dry fixin's, as we expected, but it only burns so-so and is not very good at drying out more suitable wood. Otherwise, splitting various dead woods of various sizes at best gave us damp wood. <br><br>While we were always able to produce useful fire when we wished, it took a LOT more foraging, preparation, nursing, and time than is normal for us, and fire lays with damp wood are not the same as with dry wood. We're about as knowledgable as we're likely to get without hands-on instruction from some bonafide experts on things in OUR neck of the woods. I honestly do not believe that a "tossed-into-the-woods-naked-expert" would be able to produce fire under these conditions, although I'd be happy to be wrong about that. If we had not been carrying some sort or another of dry tinder... we have been abstaining from matches and lighters for quite some time (yeah, we carry them just in case, of course). Natural spark catching materials in situ, dry tinder in situ - forget about it. I'm ready to learn beyond what I know now from someone - any significant tips?<br><br>2. Gadgetoria: <br><br> CS shovel (sharpened with a file) is a cleverly useful tool. Light chopping, moderate splitting (I'm talking campfires, not woodlot operations), coal manipulation - oh, it digs as well. Very handy; all vehicles should have one or something similar.<br><br> Magnesium bars (eg Doans) are as much PITA as I recalled. Perseverence, patience, and a big knife help. Smaller folders are terrible at getting shavings off. This stuff must be a Mag-alum alloy - it is too darned hard to be truly useful. About like trying to get shavings off an alloy wheel - maybe worse. Anyone ever try to anneal one of these? They're just too hard for me to take them seriously. OTOH... I suppose I can fiddle around with other pocket stuff, like Wave file, but first importance to me is that only a knife-like tool should get the job done.<br><br> Knives about the size of an SRK and a bit larger are very useful for many routine tasks. Slimmer fixed blade knives are also very useful for most of the same tasks (not splitting wood) and more. Neither are so useful if they are not on your person (and they are about as welcome as a submachine gun at a church picnic to some folks tender eyes). Big locking folders are not the equal of fixed blade knives for many things. I'm still leaning towards less expensive locking knives for regular abuse, er, use when a fixed blade is going to cause conniption fits. BTW, fellow Scouters, we are not getting any grief for this from 90% of our fellow scouters - genuine interest and appreciation only. It helps that our scouts are well-behaved and very "mature" with sharps.<br><br> Sparklites work great with supplied "tinder" or homemade (e.g. cotton balls impregnated with beeswax or petroleum jelly, char cloth, etc.). Get the orange colored ones - the OD ones are much more difficult to keep track of if dropped. However, I find them a bit too small to easily manipulate in my hand and wonder about effectively using one if I/my hand is very cold/damaged. Also, they are dirrectional (rotate the wheel in the indicated direction). If space is not at an absolute premium, I'm thinking that a Blast match of current production would be prefereable for one-handed sparks. I'll have to purchase one and use it for a while... anyone using a current production Blast-match? We're content with simple rods for routine use and find it hard to beat the BSA Hot Spark for over-all value and utility. It's EDC for all of us and it's what we normally light fires with. A bigger rod would not be as close to hand.<br><br> Good multi-tools get near-constant use, with the pliers seeing the lions share of applications. We prefer Leatherman Waves, period, but that's just personal choice. For those on a severe budget, I suggest a small pair of pliers (needle nose or linesman) in a homemade belt holster or pouch. I carried a pair of needle nose pliers for 20+ years whenever I stepped into the wilds, and the key is like with a big knife - have it on you. Buried in a repair kit in ones pack is OK but not as useful. The utility of pliers fairly leaps at one when they are at-hand constantly. Some of my kids have been carrying Waves ever since that model came out, I think, but I've only been carrying one for a year or two. Having it on one makes a huge difference.<br><br> Photon IIs are so darned handy, it's silly to not carry one or more as EDC all the time. We RARELY ever dig out a headlamp or LED flashlight since we started carrying Photon IIs - thanks, Doug. Yeah, I'll probably pick up an Arc-Light LE one of these days, but I don't think it will replace the Photon IIs. Red in the right pocket, turquoise in the left, and I use the red one most of the time. In the woods I add a white one on a break-away lanyard around my neck, but it usually gets remembered only when I want to check the cooking pot after dark.<br><br>3. Oops - the feast for the returning wanderers is ready... hope Bill has posted about his weekend by the time I'm sipping my post-prandial beverage...<br><br>Regards,<br><br>Tom