When you think about camping, the first fun activity that comes to mind is starting a campfire so that you can sit around and cook food, stay warm, tell scary stories, and roast marshmallows for smores. The hardest part of starting a campfire is at the beginning where you need to build up the fire.
Depending on where you are camping, either at the campgrounds or in the backcountry you will need different techniques of starting a campfire.
Do And Don’t
Camping and building a campfire should be fun and safe for everyone. Here is a list of do and don’t to keep everyone safe and not start a wildfire.
Do List
- Do prep, collect, and stack your firewood before starting to light anything.
- Do set up your tent far away from the campfire
- Do have a reasonable size campfire
- Do bring multiple fire starting tools like match and lighter in case one doesn’t work
- Do have a long stick to help manage the fire
Don’t List
- Don’t build a campfire under trees
- Don’t leave the fire unattended
- Don’t leave until the fire is completely put out
- Don’t throw anything that can explode into the campfire like a bottle of lighter fluid
- Don’t take any firewood out of the fire pit
- Don’t jump over the fire
Campfire At The Campgrounds
Making a campfire only in designated fire rings, grills, or fireplaces at the campsite. A lot of established campgrounds have some variation of these. Making use of a fire ring will lessen your chance of burning unwanted things and keep your fire from spreading out into the wild and starting a wildfire.
Contact the campsite park ranger before starting a campfire to ensure campfires are permitted at the location because it may be fire season at the place you are staying. In some areas, severe dry periods can cause campfires to be prohibited even in camping sites.
Look over the site prior to starting a fire. If the site is brushy or has low-hanging branches, maintain your fire small or skip it entirely. In dry conditions, fly-away ashes might easily spark a wildfire.
Campfire In The Backcountry
In backcountry areas where fires are allowed, make use of an existing fire ring if one has been left behind. Build a brand-new one only in emergency circumstances as well as, if the scenario allows, dismantle it when you are done. If one already exists, clean it out prior to you leaving.
Eliminate all combustible products from your firepit. Ideally, the base of your fire needs to be sand or gravel, or mineral dirt. Intense heat can sterilize healthy dirt, so pick your site carefully.
A choice to a fire ring is a mound fire. Utilizing your cleanliness trowel, build around, a level platform of mineral soil regarding 6-8 inches high. Utilize this as the base for your fire. Ideally, develop this platform on a level rock. You can conveniently distribute the mound when you’re finished.
You should use a hand size or larger rocks to place in a circle around the campfire so that the fire can’t spread outside of the rock circle easily.
Collecting Firewood
The type of things you need in order to start a campfire. You can either go around finding them or use a larger piece of wood and cut it down into smaller sizes. The types of woods you will need are:
Tinder- small branches, dry leaves, and so on
Kindling- small sticks around one inch
Firewood- bigger timber that can keep the fire going
Campgrounds
You can buy firewood at the camping area, they generally carry them. If not then you can get them at the local grocery store near your campsite. Usually, the firewood comes in a bundle and those firewood are big. You’ll have to use your ax to cut the firewood to a smaller dimension, tinder, and kindling pieces in order to create a campfire.
Backcountry
You need to go forage for the firewood. Just utilize the timbers you find on the ground and also not break off a branch from a tree. You have to go forage for the firewood because it’s not a good idea and doesn’t make sense to be carrying a bunch of firewood with you from the start of your adventure through the backcountry.
Stacking The Firewood
There are several ways to stack your firewood however the prominent ones would be the cone, log cabin, and also upside-down pyramid
The Cone
Begin with a tiny cone of kindling around a couple of handfuls of tinder that are loosely piled in the facility of the fire ring. Once the fire is going strong and the temperature level rises, you can add bigger firewood into the fire ring one at a time.
The Log Cabin
Place 2 larger logs of firewood parallel to each other and also with some room in between to develop the base of your structure. After that, turn 90 degrees as well as area two a little smaller-sized pieces ahead as well as perpendicular to develop a square. Area plenty of tinder inside the square. Continue including a couple of even more layers of firewood around the boundary, getting a bit smaller sized with each layer. Completed with a layer of kindling and also tinder throughout the top. Remember to leave room between logs so the fire can get plenty of oxygen. When you are stacking the logs it should only be three logs high, you do not want to go over three logs because it could fall and all the ashes inside the fire ring will kick up into someone.
Inverted Pyramid
Start with three or 4 of your biggest logs side-by-side on the bottom layer. Turn 90 degrees and after that include a second layer of a little smaller go to the top. Continue rotating a few even more layers in this fashion, obtaining smaller as you go. Put your kindling as well as tinder on top of the whole thing. This method is for people who just want to set and forget about the campfire, meaning that you don’t want to always have to add more firewood as time goes on. This method of stacking firewood will last for a long time before you need to add more firewood.
Lighting The Firewood
You can light the tinder with a fire starter to spark the tinder or if you really want it to be easy use a match or a normal lighter. The fun way to start a fire would be using the fire starter to make sparks onto the tinder.
When the tinder catches on fire, lightly lift the base of the fire with a long stick to provide the fire some oxygen in order to make the fire larger. As the fire burns, relocate the embers to the facility to maintain the fire burning longer. If you want to speed up the fire process then you should add in lighter fluid, it will help make the fire bigger faster. DO NOT THROW THE FULL/EMPTY BOTTLE INTO THE FIRE. Also, do not try to make the biggest campfire possible, keep the fire at a reasonable size because it’s dangerous things can catch on fire and it can get out of control fast.
Putting The Fire Out
As soon as the fire goes out, pour water onto the ashes and stir the ashes, as you stir put even more water onto it. Keep doing this until you see that there are no more burning ashes. Remember while doing all that try not to stand where the steam can blow into your face.
When you are done with using the water, use sand or dirt to cover the ashes to ensure it will not begin an unwanted fire.
Also, keep in mind to never leave a fire unattended because it can start a wildfire in seconds.
What’s The Most Convenient Way To Start A Fire?
If you make the effort to get 10 pieces of tinders and 10 pieces of kindlings the size of your thumb, you’ll have a great fire in a snap. It’s the fastest means to build up enough fire to light up larger logs.
So, what are the fastest, simplest means to start a fire? A great one is a straightforward lean-to configuration. Teepee-style fires are fantastic, but not good for beginners. As your wood starts to burn, the kindling can fall down, which means you’ll have to rearrange it after it’s started. When I teach people how to make a campfire, being safe and not starting a wildfire are my leading concerns. I don’t want beginners to be holding and moving burning firewood. It’s too dangerous.
To do a lean-to fire for the campfire, add a log inside the firepit and lean kindlings on the side of the log. Then place your tinders under the kindling but not too far underneath, because you won’t be able to reach it with a match. Develop a lattice with your smaller logs that crisscrosses three or 4 times. If your kindling is thin enough, you’ll have a good fire in a couple of mins. At that time, you can begin adding smaller sticks to the top of the kindling. Bear in mind– to burn a full-sized log, you’ll have to have a large coal bed. Wait up until you have a huge coal bed before you start including the larger logs.
Conclusion
Camping is fun and building a campfire is a great part of camping that people have to try and do once in their lifetime. It will give you a great appreciation for fire and the whole process of building a campfire because it takes hard work.
Once you are done building your campfire, enjoy it by using it to cook, roast marshmallows for smores, warmth, sitting around it to tell scary stories or just talk with your loved ones. Sitting around the campfire during the night and being able to look up into the sky to see the stars is one of the best experiences ever while camping. Have fun and enjoy the little things in life like just sitting around a campfire.