How To Build A Campfire And The Preparation

If you plan to build a campfire, be sure that the area you are hiking in allows fires and if they are required to be built in developed fire pits. Before beginning to build your fire, be sure to have water available nearby and a shovel to throw dirt on the fire if it gets out of hand. Next, there should be a proper fire pit. If there isn’t one already, build a small fire ring with rocks. To prevent wind from blowing your fire out, create a depression in the ground 3-6 inches deep inside the fire ring.

If you plan to make a traditional wood campfire, the next step is to search for and gather 3 types of materials:

Tinder: Small materials that will ignite easily with a spark kindling such as dry grasses, shredded bark, fungus, or mosses. To spark, this material needs to be as dry and finely shredded as possible.

Kindling: Medium sized materials that will catch flame from the tinder quickly such as dry leaves, small twigs and sticks, or larger pieces of bark. For the kindling to catch fire, it must consist of small, dry items.

Wood logs: This is the large, sustainable material used to keep the fire going once it has caught flame from the kindling. The wood should be as dead and dry as possible to catch on fire faster. Find various sized logs to use once the fire gets larger and use an axe or knife to cut the wood into more combustible pieces.

Remember, only you can prevent wildfires!

 

Types of Water Treatment for Backpackers

There are generally five ways to treat your water, so you've got water filters, water purifiers, you've got UV light treatment, chemical treatments and of course, you can also boil your water. With filters and purifiers you have a couple of different options. In this case we have a synthetic cartridge. So these style filters usually pump water very quickly, so you get a lot of water output for not as much work time. They are not field maintainable and they tend to clog faster because of that synthetic material that's not able to be cleaned. And you end up replacing the filters more often, but they do pump a lot of water very quickly. Then you have a ceramic style filter. And this is basically a piece of clay here. These pump a lot slower than synthetics, however they are field maintainable. As you can see on this piece, you can use a Brillo pad and kind of scrub the outside and clean off any dirt that's built up on there and put it back in the case and start pumping water again. So they're field maintainable and they last a really long time. You're not going to be spending perhaps as much time or money replacing them. However, they do pump slowly and they are a little bit more brittle and delicate than a synthetic. This is a piece of ceramic, so if you were to drop it really heavily or if it were to freeze in the wintertime, it could potentially damage that cartridge. A third option is going to be a filter or purifier that offers you the best of both worlds. So in the case of this model, we have a ceramic filter here at the top.

You’ve got the best of that and then underneath here you can see you also have the synthetic, so this is a combination version that basically gives you the best of both worlds. There are also models that have systems that allow you to back flush them. What this means is you can kind of rearrange how this system works so the water is going the opposite direction and forces water back through that filter system and cleans up some of those built-up contaminates in it. So it extends the life of those filter systems as well. So UV light is another form of water treatment and this is a technology that is frequently used in urban municipalities to treat large quantities of water, so it's not just an application that's being used for backpacking. It consists of this lamp here that the UV light comes through, which can be very delicate. Most models come with a protective covering to keep that safe. The upside to these models is that they are extremely small, compact and lightweight. They also will treat your water for different forms of bacteria – protozoa, kryptosporidium and viruses. So you're good there. The downside to them is that they do run on batteries or are going to need to be charged after multiple uses. so potentially you could be out in the field and have this item stop working on you. And they don't give you an option with just the model by itself for cleaning particulate matter out of water. That would be things like leaves, mosquito larvae and chunky stuff that gets in the way. So you would want to strain your water or run it through a pre-filter of some sort before using this. Chemical water treatment options have some upsides and downsides to them. The upsides to them are that they're going to be really affordable.

 They're really lightweight and barely take up any space in a pack or emergency kit. The down side is that you typically need a lot of them to treat water especially over a longer period of time. And a prolonged period of time needs to pass for chemical water treatments to break down viruses and other bacteria and other contaminates in the water. A couple of these treatments would be iodine which is an extremely common one that has been used frequently by backpackers in the past. It does have a pretty bad taste with it and there are studies that show long term side effects to using this over extended periods of time and quite a few people are also allergic to iodine. So it may not be as easy to find in shops as it once was. Another good chemical option would be Katadyn MicroPur tablets. This is a product that is based on a chlorine treatment that's really similar to what you might find in your tap water. It has very little taste and is also affordable and lightweight. So your fifth option is boiling water, which will remove all of the things we discussed in this video from your water and can be used in conjunction with all of the methods that we talked about here.

Eagle Nest Outfitters DoubleNest Hammock

This is the Eagles Nest Outfitters DoubleNest Hammock. The DoubleNest is a hammock that is made large enough for two people so you can relax with anybody that you, ah, want to be that close to. It’s a nice parachute nylon material and packs down to a pretty small size with this compression strap that wraps around it. You’ve got extra space on the side, again, to fit two people in and it’s tied off here, at the end, with a very strong cording that gathers all the material together for strength. They also have a steel carabiner, that’s included, this clips right into your ENO (Eagles Nest Outfitters) SlapStrap or SlapStrap Pro or whatever other suspension system you may come up with climbing rope or another nylon cord of some sort. So that’s the DoubleNest. I have this hammock and have used it several times and love it better than tent camping especially when backcountry camping alone .

Common Fire-Starting Methods

Even if you find yourself without matches while hiking or backpacking, there are plenty of ways to start a fire without them. Below are a few of the most common methods of starting a campfire without the help of matches or a lighter.

 Flint and steel:
 Using flint and steel is one of the most primitive ways of starting a fire. There are multiple ways of using it and making your own kit. For an in-depth look, see CampfireDude’s Flint and Steel article.

Lenses (magnifying glass or eyeglasses):
 If it is a sunny day, angle your lens toward the sun. Put a ball of tinder under the lens as you concentrate the light into the smallest area possible. If you add water to the lens you will be able to intensify the beam.

Steel wool and batteries:
With a nine-volt battery and a strip of steel wool, simply touch the contacts of the battery to the wool. Blow on it gently to encourage flames and add it to your tinder.

Household items:

 Common items that can be found at home can be used as a quick and easy fire starter. Items include clothes dryer lint (which is extremely lightweight), candles, insect repellents and alcohol hand sanitizers.

Putting Out The Camfire :

Even if you may think your fire is completely out or can burn itself out, wind can come up and reignite the embers and make the fire start up again. As a safety precaution, drown the campfire with water or dirt once you are finished. Stir the fire’s remains to uncover any hot embers and throw on more water or dirt. Remember, only you can prevent wildfires!

How To Fit A Hiking Boot

This is a helpful video on how to properly fit your hiking boot or hiking shoe from the wonderful and experienced people at backcountryedge.com . Which if you have never had the chance to check them out do so . Great customer service plus great prices but the best thing about them is your purchase is guaranteed for life .

How To Dry Leather Hiking Boots

This is a video on how to dry out your hiking boots or shoes after hiking in the rain .