On our canoe trip today I wanted to build a small fire to cook our hotdogs over. Also wanted to experiment with using a magnifying glass to start a fire. I had experimented on some leaves years ago that I had been able to light so I thought it would be a piece of cake - wrong.

I had a roll of toilet paper in our wet bag so grabbed a piece of it to use as tinder. While the boys gathered some twigs I rolled it up & brought the light to a bright point - nothing - I kept trying for like 10 minutes. Never so much as singed it? I was stunned. I switched over to some leaves & got them to smolder, but they must have been damp as it never would burst into flames even though I kept blowing air into it. The other dad that was on the float was an Eagle scout around 20 years ago & he told me to try some Pine bark that he had just seen while he was exploring around while I was trying to light the toilet paper. He got some & it only took a couple minutes before we had a roaring fire.

Only thing I can figure out is the toilet paper was white & bounced enough of the light off of it to keep it from heating up. I'm guessing one would run into the same problem using a cotton ball & magnifier - don't know?

I was really surprised by this & thought I would toss it out there.

Please no flaming me on this guys/gals. (Pun intended)