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Hivernant
posted
When building a fire I've always built with a rock fire ring. Ive been reading a lot about primitive treking and noticed in a lot of pics that a fire ring isnt built. Is this something you guys do or dont do? I was just curious what everyone does.
Bearclaw
 
Posts: 117 | Location: Texas Panhandle, North of the Canadian | Registered: 10 July 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pilgrim
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BC where I live we have more than our share of stones, if its hot i'll dig a pit and clear the area around it no stones if its cold I will surround my fire area with stones leaving the firering low facing me and pile them a couple layers higher in the rear this will help reflect the heat towards you and if its a little windy it will help break up the wind, hope this helped Big-D keep your powder dry.
 
Posts: 86 | Location: North central Alabama, Limestone County, Athens | Registered: 09 August 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hivernant
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For me it depends on the terrain as well as how long I'm planning on being there. Most of the time there are plenty of rocks around here in Texas and I'll be there more than one night, but in some places the sandy soil doesn't offer many large stones, so a below ground pit with a vent shaft makes for a better design for both cooking and heat. If it is strickly for cooking and I won't be there for long, a small hole dug out and a fire made from twigs is the best way to makes a small impact as well as contain the fire. Once it's cold out the soil is placed back over the ashes and leaves are spread over that. Careful when selecting rocks for your fire ring as river stones can explode when the water inside heats into steam.
 
Posts: 111 | Location: Texas | Registered: 25 May 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hivernant
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This is good info. I recall when I got my tipi I made my firering inside out of the Alibates flint we have lying around here. Everyone within a seventy mile range wanted to come see it and one friend of my dad's noticed the flint fire ring and warned me of the exploding rocks. Needless to say I changed the ring stones. Thanks guys im learning a lot.
Bearclaw
 
Posts: 117 | Location: Texas Panhandle, North of the Canadian | Registered: 10 July 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I've been camping and cooking over open fires since I was about 10. I'm now 68 and have yet to see a stone explode. Read about it, but never seen it. I've camped on river and creek banks all over the Pacific North Wet and the worst I've ever seen was one river rock that broke in two after three days and nights as part of a fire ring. I'm beginning to think that exploding stones are a myth along the lines of honest politicians and leprechauns. You hear about 'em but never see any.

Three Hawks
 
Posts: 506 | Location: Puget Sound Area | Registered: 26 May 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hivernant
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quote:
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Well then I must be the world's tallest Leprechaun at 6'4" since I've been present when some rocks in the fire exploded and we got hot shards on us. Granted this was no more then a very loud "pop!" when it happened but the slivers of rock would have hurt very much on bare skin or in someone's eye.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bull3540,
 
Posts: 111 | Location: Texas | Registered: 25 May 2009Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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In my humble opinion, the reason not to build a fire ring is that you end up with a bunch of fire blackened rocks. When you leave a camp no one should even be able to know that you were there. If you leave sign that you were there it is not only unsightly but it is sloppy camping. In my humble opinion.
 
Posts: 22 | Location: Boise, Idaho | Registered: 01 March 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
Picture of Josh Crain
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Fancy: In my humble opinion, I, too, think the same thing. Wink
~Josh


"Return unto me, and I will return unto you," saith the Lord of hosts.
~Malachi 3:7b
 
Posts: 297 | Location: MI | Registered: 18 August 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I do not build a rock fire ring.

I dig a hole and place the sod off by one of my tent ropes thats not too far away to be not convenient. While I'm camping and using the fire pit, all grey water is placed on the sod that was removed from the fire pit. That's where I spit after brushing my teeth. That's where I dump any left over coffee. After washing dishes and my hands, that water is bumped on that sod.

When it's time to pack up, I make sure the only thing in the fire pit is ashes. don't leave half burnt chunks of wood in it. I usually have 5 gallons of water left over so about half of it is poured into the fire pit. Once the pit is saturated, I use a shovel to turn over the soil to mix the ash. Next is to place the sod back into the hole the same way it came out and dump more of that 5 gallons on it.

Within a month or two, you can't tell where you've been. The grass and weeds grow back.

I used this same method in a number of places in Alaska when I was younger. I didn't have 5 gallons on hand so had to carry water from either a lake or pond in a coffee pot. There's more than one benefit to having a very small fire.

Load fast and aim slow.
 
Posts: 1726 | Location: Pacific Northwest | Registered: 08 March 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pilgrim
Picture of Laughing Bear
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I've done a bit o' campin' in this Great White North, as well as down south of the border.

Mostly, I've camped in places that others have already been and since most people think you need a ring of stones for a fire, mostly there's a ring waiting for me to clean it out and re-use it.

However...When I do get a chance to have a fire in a pristine campsite, I'll usually have it without the ring. Rings take time, seldom serve any purpose for me (small fires don't seem to need that sort of containment), and they get in the way of proper placement of cooking and other implements of destruction. There are a couple of exceptions...
On occasion, I'll use a wall of stones to reflect heat back to me on the far side of the fire and once in a while I will "gently" heat a stone or two to warm up the ol' blanket. I've also been known to bake a dosage of banock on a hot stone before the fire.

I too try to minimize my leavings, but I must admit that I'm less than fanatical about leaving ash in a pit. (Although I AM fanatical about leaving no trash.) Any archaeologist'll tell you that fire "lenses" are common. (That's the term they use for old fire pits.) And after several returns to old campsites, I don't see the problem.

And that's all I have to say about that.
 
Posts: 61 | Location: Edmonton, Alberta | Registered: 16 March 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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While I understand using stones for warmth and for cooking, may I humbly suggest that if you find a fire ring that some slovenly camper has left that perhaps you might remove that fire ring and leave the site better than you found it. We should all attempt to hae a standard of conduct in our camping that is a model for others.
as for stacking rocks for a heat reflector, just how may feet high will you stack them? I don't go into the wilderness to do construction work. I would just put my camp close to an existing rock wall. But that is just my humble opinion.
 
Posts: 22 | Location: Boise, Idaho | Registered: 01 March 2012Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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I use one depending on the fire danger. I will dig a hole and put my fire it using the sod I cut to make it or rocks if it is not very good sod. Helps make sure the fire stays where I want it. I also don't make more than a hat full of fire as I don't need much more and it is easy to put out.

BC


"Better fare hard with good men than feast it with bad."
Thomas Paine
 
Posts: 649 | Location: Oregon | Registered: 27 June 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Booshway
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One time in Michigan's northern peninsula nightfall caught me still on the trail. I was in the middle of nowhere as darkness fell, with thick forest and brush all around, so I set up camp right where I was, in the middle of the trail. I made a tiny fire without any stone fire ring, for cooking and a little illumination.
Next day I traveled on, leaving a small ash pile less than one foot in diameter.
Several days later I returned by the same trail and discovered that someone had placed a leafy branch over the ashes, apparently to hide them.


Know what you believe in. Fight for your beliefs. Never compromise away your rights.
 
Posts: 1296 | Location: Cherokee Land, Tenasi | Registered: 06 January 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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