ANOTHER CANOE TRIP PHOTO..
i know it's about gear here but i thought i would offer
this up for your entertainment--no nukes..guns..lost..BOB's
or other "big knife" stuff..
ok..over a two week trip you will get some storms..



this nasty bit of weather came thru and was just the
start of an evening of steady rain that lasted untill
the next AM..i shot this photo and ran to drop the tarp
to keep it from blowing away and dove for the shelter of
my Atko tent..



after the weather cleared off i thought the soaking
would make for a good test of my fire making skills..
now in canoe country thats kind of a cheat..with all
the pine every bit of wood may as well be "fatwood" and
Birch bark burns even when wet...
the idea was to make a fire as quick as possible..lets
say the storm in the first photo hit while i was still
out in the lake and i washed ashore with just a
match case and no time to make fuzz sticks or anything
more that a hasty windbreak of rocks and toss in whatever
wood i could come up with in a few minutes..a rotten
Birch log was stomped empty of the punky wood inside
and the tops of falled Jack Pine were heaped in the
windbreak...ok--this is all going on in the BWCA canoe
park and fires have to be kept in the forest service
fire grates so thats what you will see in the photos..
on with the firemaking--ONE MATCH to the end of a shreaded
strip of bark--in it go's along with the other bark bits
and pine sticks..



now here is the catch---getting a fire going is not an
issue..with all the Bic lighters and 1500 degree fire
tabs just about anyone should be able to start something
on fire..the problem is KEEPING IT GOING..laying tiny
sticks over the flames untill you work up to finger size
bits of wet wood that dry and burn takes about 15 minutes
of careful tending..working up to larger stuff is tricky.
that hunk i'm holding is a soaking wet Aspen branch that i
know from experence will not only not burn but will snuff
out any small burning sticks next to it..Aspen is like a
sponge..however at the shore are lots of "beaver chew"
the dry,peeled branches that have washed off beaver dams
and houses and i know will burn once the outer wetness
has been driven off over the fire..note i said "over"
and not "in"...



when all is said and done the dryed "chew" is fed into
the fire and as the flames get stronger i add more and
more in a loose open pile that drys and burns into a
bonfire if i kept adding wood..total time to the last
photo from the start about 30 minutes..there was enought
heat to warm me up in about 15..
this is not the first time i've try this..other fires
have tested Army heat tabs,candles,fire paste, and each
time the lesson learned was that the start was not the
hard part...keeping it going was..

That's so true.

Some once told me get 4 times the amout of kindling and small stuff as you think you will need

Must be nice to have birch around too, I am from a part of the country where you don't seem much of it. Got to play with some last year in Alaska (in fact, I brought a bunch back with me), it is great fire making stuff!!!

Yeah, I live in paper birch country (northern NH USA). This bark is excellent for making fires. You should not strip it from live trees as it makes an ugly scar and opens the living tree to insects and other nasty things.

Robert R..that is a big problem in the canoe park..everyone
know how good that bark burns and take it off the living
trees ...with just a short walk into the woods you can find
downed trees and all the bark you can use--and the portage
trails offen have bits of bark laying around that can be
pick up and carryed to the next camp..when i get home i'll
post a photo of the mess someone made when they cut a live
pine to make a shelter in a major camp site..