Wet weather scenario for fire starting:

peripatew

peripatew

Joined
Jul 31, 2007
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You decided to go canoeing. Your excited about this decision :thumbup:. You take basic gear, but for firestarting all you have is a bic lighter, big firesteel, and 1 or 2 pj cotton balls. You have the multitool of your choices, a 4.75" blade, a 9" blade, and a medium sized axe. You planned of getting dry wood from the riverside, but it had just finished raining for a week, and the river just came down from a flood (10'). You find your campsite with 1.5 hours till sunset.

Describe your process of going about procuring firewood, and getting your fire going. For fun, lets say it just finish raining about 2 hours earlier, and it is the middle of fall.

L!

(My son wanted me to include some of these: :foot::):confused::eek::mad::rolleyes::yawn::o :barf: )
 
This is a good topic. I have been wanting to come up with something like this for a while. Thanks.


Step 1. Create a quick shelter, tie up a tarp!
Step 2. Collect tinder and branches that might be under some coverage.
Step 3. Start stripping the wet outer layer off, either through batoning or with the axe.
Step 4. Make a bunch of fuzz sticks from dry inner wood.
Step 5. Get a small fire going with your cotton balls and Fuzz sticks.
Step 6. Start drying out some foraged tinder
Step 7. Add larger inner pieces till fire is stable.
Step 8. Cook some food and Collect more wood.
Step 9. Relax and dry off!
 
These are almost ideal firestarting conditions! (Hey! I'm in the PNW! :D )

Look for standing deadwood or a blowdown that is protected by the canopy of another tree. Break, saw, or chop off sections about 2' long. split said sections with axe or chopper. Split some various sized pieces, from secondary tinder and small kindling, all the way up to your main fuel. Make three times as much as you think you'll need!

Build your fire lay protected from the wet ground by a layer of wood or dry flat stone. Pull off a small piece of PCB and twist it around a twig. Light this with your Bic or firesteel and then use that to light your fire. Save the rest of the PCB for later.

Once you've got your fire going, you can stack damp wood around the perimeter to dry.

-- FLIX
 
I'll play, your son is cool! I would have picked the exact same smilies. :D

Based on my geography, I am collecting kindling from the underside of dead branches on standing white pine. Hemlock if necessary. Same would be true for my squaw-wood of which I would make fuzz sticks if nessary with the generous cutlery your son provided me.

At the sametime, I would hope to find a dead yellow poplar or other soft hardwood from which I could collect the inner bark for more tinder and have it drying in my pocket from bodyheat -- if is really wet (and humid) the PJ Cotton may need some help to get the kindling going. If no inner bark is to be had, I would also be looking for dead grass or moss and being drying that out too. If I am really lucky, I may find that spot that always stays dry on some of the large hemlocks and I would be in business with the duff layer. Also being next to a river in my area, there is a good chance there maybe a rockshelf up the bank that always stays dry.

After I got my fire going with some squaw-wood that I split with the axe, I would be splitting more firewood and laying it next to the fire to dry.
 
Where I live the best choise of timber to light a fire would probally be Red Cedar, see if I could find some dry cedar bark or wood to start fire even if I had to chop or split it out of the middle of a wet piece. Pat
 
Naked,

once the fire was going strong. I would gather tinder and larger peices and lay them around the fire. They will dry up pretty good.
 
Thanks for the input. I was out today in a similar place to the scenario. So I thought through it a little. Here, when the water gets up high and comes back down, the trees catch a lot of really good fire starting material. So I'd try to find some smaller piles that might have had a chance to dry out a little, or some that was hanging out under some good cover.

IMG_0450.JPG

IMG_0448.JPG


The only problem with this stuff is it burns quick, and its usually pretty muddy, and so sometimes times some work to get it to light (but not to much).

So this would be my tender and kindling. I'd also be looking for some bigger branches. I usually rush to much to try to gather fire supplies, meaning I don't take enough time to gather a lot from all the different stages.
 
In my area it would be a quick hike to find some Birch Bark, The oils in the bark make it almost impervious to moisture:D:D I think I could scrounge up enough timber to baton dry firewood. It does take some planning and thought to collect more than enough material before you start.

Also if it is riverside I would be looking for blowdowns and piles of timber and logs on the river, They always seem to collect tinder-like materials in the roots. Just a thought! Wild grape vine "tentrils" sp? burn quite well even when wet, again it's the oils in them.

Great idea to outline the dilema and have people come up with the solution. It is really where we learn and grow, from exercises llike these.

Paul
 
Naked, great posts of picts from a similar environment. really helpful.

Valcas1, wild grape vine? Never thought of that for tinder. I will have to give that a try.
 
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