Failed Miserably At Starting Fire !!!

pitdog

pitdog

Joined
Apr 13, 2007
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So I set off on my hike today with the intention of showing y'all some nice pics of the scenery and of my little cozy fire started with mynew Fatwood parcel idea.......man did it ever go wrong !!!!

When I say it was raining heavy today I hope you grasp the concept of just how heavy I mean ! There were streams running where there should be footpaths and rivers running where there should be streams. I passed a park ranger who was checking that the overflow ditches were working because the rain was so bad ! She told me I had to put Maisy on her leash, " of course " I said, that is until I get around the next bend !!!!

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Because I am now so great at starting fires I only carried my mini kit, what else would I need !!!!
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I got out one of my new Fatwood parcels....
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Despite numerous attempts to light this I failed miserably, so I got some more cotton wool from my kit and tried to light this....failed again. I then started to make some fine Fatwood shavings and tried again, this caught every so often but some big blobs of rain would hit it and put it back out.
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Frustration had now set in and I decided I would use the matches in my kit. To my horror the matches wetted out so fast that they would not light either !!!!
I decided that I would try once more with Fatwood and fire steel, this time I tried to start it under a small overhang that offered slight protection from the rain.This time I did eventually manage to start a fire, I then made the mistake of trying to move it back over to my seating area too quickly and as the rain hit it I was left with just smoke again !!!! At this point I was done and sat down soaked through to drink my tea, check out my trouser leg !
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I decided that the matches would be swapped for a mini Bic as soon as I got home !
At least the waterfall had come back....
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This rain had even got to Maisy, check out her face in this pic....
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So some valuable lessons were learned today and I hope this prompts some of you to also try out your methods in really bad weather before you need them for real and find they don't go as planned !!!!
 
Well, I asked what went wrong in the other thread, and you gave a good answer in this one. :)

I don't think the parcels were a bad idea, you were just trying to light them in really wet conditions. Not many fire starting methods work well when rain is falling directly on the tinder and other materials. Maybe you could bring a small trash bag or something similar to rig up a temporary overhang if you can't find a dry spot under a tree or rock.
 
storl said:
Well, I asked what went wrong in the other thread, and you gave a good answer in this one. :)

I don't think the parcels were a bad idea, you were just trying to light them in really wet conditions. Not many fire starting methods work well when rain is falling directly on the tinder and other materials. Maybe you could bring a small trash bag or something similar to rig up a temporary overhang if you can't find a dry spot under a tree or rock.
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Yeah I think you are right, I did actually find a piece of plastic flooring that someone had used as a seat, I tried covering my fire with this but the rain seemed to find it's way in at all angles !
I think I would have struggled today even with a blow torch !!!:o
 
That's a rough situation! But at least you took out what is your 'minimum' for fire, and got to test it under low-stakes but high-difficulty conditions! That's worth a lot.

Like other said, sounds like you had a fair gear setup, but you ought be a cheater like me and use an overhang of some kind. If I can do it without smoking myself out, I'll set up a small poncho/tarp over the area and myself until it lights.

PS- Try wax coated jute.
 
Man, stories like this make me want to carry a road flare.

Maisy on a leash :grumpy: Many years ago a park ranger in Maine once told me to put my dog on a leash but I didn't have a leash and my dog had literally never once been on one. So I found some string and tied it through her collar and she promptly sat down and literally wouldn't budge. The ranger said, well then she's gonna have to just sit there and stormed off.
 
theonew said:
Man, stories like this make me want to carry a road flare.

Maisy on a leash :grumpy: Many years ago a park ranger in Maine once told me to put my dog on a leash but I didn't have a leash and my dog had literally never once been on one. So I found some string and tied it through her collar and she promptly sat down and literally wouldn't budge. The ranger said, well then she's gonna have to just sit there and stormed off.
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That's strange ya say that cos this ranger said " you will have to put your dog on a leash if you have one !", when she said it I thought what would she do if I said that I didn't have one ?:confused:
 
theonew said:
Maisy on a leash :grumpy: Many years ago a park ranger in Maine once told me to put my dog on a leash but I didn't have a leash and my dog had literally never once been on one. So I found some string and tied it through her collar and she promptly sat down and literally wouldn't budge. The ranger said, well then she's gonna have to just sit there and stormed off.
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Never met a ranger worth the oxygen he/she was breathing.
 
Dude thats alot of rain, carry a tarp/poncho to keep the rain off.

Maisy's face says it all
 
theonew said:
Man, stories like this make me want to carry a road flare.

Maisy on a leash :grumpy: Many years ago a park ranger in Maine once told me to put my dog on a leash but I didn't have a leash and my dog had literally never once been on one. So I found some string and tied it through her collar and she promptly sat down and literally wouldn't budge. The ranger said, well then she's gonna have to just sit there and stormed off.
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lmao :):):)

Sorry to see you didn't get the fire going but at least you got to use the camera. :thumbup:
 
thanks for sharing...

my hardest time starting a fire is also in the rain...because the drops always seem to fall right into your budding little flame.

i have tried things like spreading a poncho that i'm wearing on the ground in front of me so that i can work under it, but then i just get smoked out and afraid i'm going to melt a big hole in my poncho...

so i think i might try a small umbrella next time i'm in the woods in the rain. that way i can just set it over my shoulder to protect the flame, and it will keep my dry as well...the only problem i can see with an umbrella is that it will snag on branches and plants off trail...
 
Pit, I know you thought of this and just decided to try without it to show that a fire could be started with direct rain, but usually when I'm trying to start a fire in the heavy wet, I'll make a little shelter out of a couple of sticks and some sort of cover, be it leaves or a piece of wood, etc. and spark my tiner under that. That way you don't have raindrops actually falling on your sparking tinder. Helps out a lot. Anyways, thanks for trying. It was a good idea and good effort.

-D
 
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