The recent sad story of the two young men reminds us of safety, it started some discussion on how to start a fire.
Here’s my two cents on that…
Forget everything you heard about an emergency fire starter kit.
Below is all you need to know, from someone who did it, during a heavy rain.
The scenario;
Temperature was in the 50s, rain and wind solid for days, dead sticks were soaked and spongy.
After hiking for more than 12 hours, nothing was dry anywhere, except for what was in my backpack.
Pitched the tent in the rain, needed to get body core temp up before diving in for the night, it was almost dark.
I built a dome of sticks while rain poured off the brim of my hat, started out not unlike other fire nests, except this one had to work. I only had one kit.
First a robust amount of tiny bird nest size sticks, then the pencil size sticks, and so on, up to wrist size branches.
Everything was dripping wet, but it didn’t matter, there were two keys to making it work.
First was the fire umbrella, for this - Tree bark. A nearby fallen birch tree provided plenty, placed atop the stick pile, rain was diverted.
The second key - my Fire kit, a small hollow area at bottom was left for this.
Under the tree bark umbrella, and out of the rain it lit right up, but it needed to dry out the sticks. Most kits won’t do this.
Smoke and steam followed for 10 minutes before the whole thing went ablaze, then logs got hurled on, with more tree bark in between.
It was still raining hard but the flames grew taller than me, before I stopped adding to it. Mission accomplished!
My fire kit; it resides in a Ziplock bag, is smaller that a golf ball, weighs about an ounce, and will save a life.
Here it is…
A McDonalds ketchup container, filled with curly wood shavings, a candle wick, and just enough wax to hold it all together.
It lights like a candle, and stays lit for a long time, then it turns into a mini blow torch. And my pack, always has one.
When hunting, be prepared, and keep situational awareness foremost, despite the distractions.
