Fire in the Oregon WET

L

luna

Joined
Nov 9, 2007
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I do a lot of pretty remote bicycle riding on the logging roads here in the Oregon Coast Range. It's pretty realistic to assume that a fire could be a lifesaver sometime. I've been carrying fire starting gear for a while (Storm lighter, Wetfire) and always figured I could "get something going if I had to". Well, after one particulary miserable rainy/snowy ride I thought I should test this assumption, and it simply wasn't true. I have been experimenting (with a LOT of help from this forum thank you all), and have the tinder phase pretty well covered now, I think (Sparklite, Esbit, fatwood, some trioxane on the way), but it is just plain hard to find something dry enough to burn here in the winter. I mean EVERYTHING is WET, and SOAKED. I am careful with how I lay the fire, but clearly my kindling is not well enough prepared. I am going to start carring either a pruning or pocket saw and a larger fixed blade, but that's about the limit on a bicycle. Anyone got any experience starting fires in these sorts of conditions, or any ideas short of a chainsaw and a gallon of gas?
 
luna said:
Do you build a fire over it, [15 minute road flare] use it like a torch?
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Well, actually you lay your kindling over it as it burns, then larger wood, etc.

I've used them several times in some really wet, cold, miserable weather and they work everytime. If you don't want to carry a standard one, you can cut one in two, Elmer's Glue and a bit of duct tape over the cut end, striker still intact, and you'll still have a flare that will light your wood.

The key, no matter what, is to have a LOT of kindling, as dry as possible. (Splitting branches to get to the dry interior is a good way to get some pretty dry kindling.)

Good luck.

L.W.
 
I have the same problem a lot of the places I backpack. Everything is always SOAKED, so just grabbing dry wood is usually not an option.

Baton or split some larger sticks/logs to get to their dry center. You can build a pile large enough for a fire to keep a person or two warm in very little time, especially with a good sized fixed blade or hatchet. I have split wood with a sharp rock a couple of times, just to see how well it would work, so you can used the materials around you as well. Couple this split wood with some good tinder and a firestarter that can burn for several minutes (fatwood, Coughlan's firesticks, PJ cotton balls, etc.) and you should have a fire in no time. The tinder can even just be shavings from the dry wood that you just split if you can't find anything else suitable.
 
1 thing I have learned the hard way is to build or find some overhead shelter. After that start preparing your fire. Do whatever it takes to keep the tinder and kindling dry. I have even stuffed em inside my jacket on really bad days. Just need to keep em as dry as possible till you are ready for em. Manmade tinders work best. I wouldn't even try a friction fire on a day like today(Pouring buckets). I have found Vaseline soaked cotton balls and candles work best. You need something that burns long enough to dry out your tinder basically. Another lesson I learned is that a small fire probably won't work for ya. Gotta be a little bigger fire/heat to fight off the moisture. I have seen Bic lighters give up the ghost when wet so always have a back up plan such as a fire steel. A small poncho can be very useful too. The poncho can also be a shelter if the fire starting doesn't go well.
 
Mother nature will always provide you with what you need to start a fire - she just may make you work a little harder for it. You definitely have to get to the inside of the wood where it is dry. There are several ways to do it but batoning has always been the easiest for me. I would be willing to bet that you are adding pieces of fuel that are too large, too soon. After you get the small stuff (tinder) going, don't add anything larger than a pencil, hopefully of dry wood from the middle of a branch. Once you have a significant amount of "pencil" size pieces going, move up to "thumb" size pieces. Once you get to "wrist" size pieces you have an established fire, prior to that you are still in the preliminary stages of "coaxing" a fire to life. Another trick is to keep all of the subsequent size pieces of wood as close to the fire as you can, it helps to dry them out while you are still "coaxing". Birch bark, if available, will make the job exponetially easier.
 
I use Firepaste, kinda like "napalm in a tube". Then as others suggest, using the driest kindling available and building on that.
 
I know what you mean about everything being wet and hard to get fire going.
Integral Designs makes a silnylon poncho which would be ideal for cycling in super rainy weather, (not mtb, but touring) and it packs up really small and light. It can also be used as a roof, which I think is the most important aid for making fire in wet conditions, like Bill Siegle said. Getting lots of kindling beforehand is also a really good idea.
 
The benefit of a larger blade for battoning. Make sure its quality enough to be pounded.

Wet saturated envrionments are very fire challenging. Fat wood is wet proof as is birch bark if you can find them in your area.

Skam
 
I just moved to Oregon a few months ago and also need to "Practice" my wet fire conditions, thanks for reminding me Luna :)
 
Something I have done when I didn't have a tarp or poncho with me is to build a small lean to to keep my tinder under and get the initial fire going. Just a couple sticks jammed in the ground at an angle with a couple boughs over them will get the rain off your work for a good while :) One lesson I learned at a winter survival course was to be sure you have a good base too.......Nothing sucks like watching your new flames drop into the snow and go out! Wet ground will hinder a fire too so look for a piece of bark or something flat to start the fire on. Fire in the big wet is not impossible but it does take a lot more prep. You may want to make shelter the #1 priority in wet conditions. Fire is nice but in most of Oregon's climate,simply putting a barrier between you at Ma Nature is enough to survive. Maybe not comfortably,but alive. Plus once you have the shelter you have plenty O time to work on fire. Lord knows water isn't going to be a hassle this time of year :D
 
Bill is very right, keep that stuff dry, it was wet enough to begin with.
I have a new idea to have much more then basic tinder ready, somewhere between just a flint and a road flare. If it's cold and wet, no need to muck around getting warm and fed, but I think a road flare is a bit of overkill for the whole wilderness dynamic.
I was thinking of possibly some birch bark pieces rolled up real tight, possibly some chunks of fat wood in the middle. Probably a few pencil sized and a few twice as thick. A bag of vaseline coated cotten balls or whatever primary tinder source would round it out nicely as well. These sticks are going to be light, and if its dry and wood is available, leave them in the ziplock bag in your pack.
I would go all the way with it and have a bic, wood matches, toilet paper, magnesium shavings, fat wood splinters, drier lint, all of the above and any others, packed somewhere different on you in a waterproof container. All this stuff is so cheap (basically free) small and light, why not?
An altoid tin-der box piggy backing your sheath knife, a firesteel on your sak lanyard, bic in your boot, you get the idea.
 
Thanks everyone, these are great ideas. I especially like the shelter-first and lots of basic tinder ideas (although the road flare has a certain overkill appeal). For my situation, which is almost entirely on vehicle accessible roads and with someome at home with a map of my plans, I don't worry much about anything but keeping hypothermia at bay for 12-24 hours while I sit tight if necessary. The most likely scenarios are getting injured and not being able to move around too much, or mechanical failure. In the latter case I'd start walking back and stay warm that way. Needless to say, I avoid crashes!
 
I used to live in western Oregon back in the day, and am very familiar with the saturated woods! Those of you who haven't been there (or elsewhere in the Northwest west of the Cascades), have no clue about how incredibly soggy everything can get.

My eventual solution was to get the smallest, lightest backpacking stove I could find, fit it into the smallest pot I could find, and always carry that set up. Hot water or tea in 1/4 the time it took to make a fire.

May not be real woodsy, but it gets you home alive and happy.



p.s. The tarp or other shelter is a important as well.
 
Grampa said:
I used to live in western Oregon back in the day, and am very familiar with the saturated woods! Those of you who haven't been there (or elsewhere in the Northwest west of the Cascades), have no clue about how incredibly soggy everything can get.

My eventual solution was to get the smallest, lightest backpacking stove I could find, fit it into the smallest pot I could find, and always carry that set up. Hot water or tea in 1/4 the time it took to make a fire.

May not be real woodsy, but it gets you home alive and happy.



p.s. The tarp or other shelter is a important as well.
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GOOD SUGGESTIONS GRAMPA....:thumbup:

i usually carry a few different ways to strat fire... mainly tinder-quick's, fatwood and some shreded jute twine....

i also do a lot of mtn. biking, when not gimpy....:( i carry a small sil-tarp and some p-cord in my camelbak.... it would provide shelter form the elements in no time.... while on backcountry rides i usually always have some sort of small stove... either an esbit or an MSR pocket rocket.... hot tea or coffee is sooooo good in the rain.....
 
Good idea.

I am thinking along your same lines, and I suggest also making sure you check under thick piles of leaves. Oftentimes, the bottom of these piles are quite dry despite what's went on up top.
 
The road flare thing works well. We used to use them to get driftwood fires going to cook crab with on the beach. Called them the "magic match".
 
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