The paradox is that fire making is a really essential survival skill, but is a practice with significant ecological consequences. How do you stay proficient in a rarely used skill? I guess that is why more and more of us carry handy dandy lighters, tinder, and fire starters.
Yeah, that's about the size of it.
When I first started backpacking, we cooked with a coffee can with a long wire looped as a bail through holes poked in the sides of the can. We had to pick spots with wood. My job as a boy was to gather fire wood, which was time consuming even with dad doing camp set up and me gathering wood.
The plus side is that I learned how to make a fire from a guy who really knew how to make fires. Dad started hiking in the 30's and 40's. By the time I came around in the 60's, he had already been cooking on wood fires for a couple of decades. Relying on a wood fire for your food definitely increases your motivation, and repetition really gets it down to a science.
HJ
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