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Fire or no fire?


wiiawiwb

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My experience which is almost exclusively solo hunting, fishing and camping is a fire is just one more thing you have to mess with. Its good to be proficient at starting one, in case you get yourself in a bind, but as I gained more experience on the camping side of the equation, it was generally more trouble than its worth.

 Now if your on a more social adventure or maybe taking someone camping for the first time I almost always get a fire going, most people find it comforting.

Fires rarely attract wildlife but they do attract people.

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I will say this. I’ve cold camped often. And a open fire can save your life too.
 

But nothing in all of the outdoors anywhere beats a wall tent and a roaring fire in a wood stove.

 

Your dry because you have a roof over yer head. The smoke is going out the chimney and not chasing you around a rock ring. And it seems to me that propane heat in a RV is wet and doesn’t dry stuff out. I’ve been rained on in a RV. A wall tent is hot and dry.

 

They are also heavy, bulky, difficult to set up (don’t start drinking beer before getting it set up) and not easily moved. We ditched the frame when we were mule packing and cut wood poles Instead. But once up? Taj Mahal.

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A wall tent is the best way to go, no question about it.  You can get dry, stay dry, and live comfortably within. The only problem in my case is I'm the mule and have to haul everything in my backpack. That forces me to make decisions about what is critical and what is comfort. If I'm going to add 24oz to bring the thermal imager, I need to take away 24oz from some place else. And I've already shaved weight bringing ultralight gear.

 

Fortunately where I go, water is plentiful so I carry no more than a liter and filter water along the way as needed.  That's a huge savings.

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53 minutes ago, wiiawiwb said:

A wall tent is the best way to go, no question about it.  You can get dry, stay dry, and live comfortably within. The only problem in my case is I'm the mule and have to haul everything in my backpack. That forces me to make decisions about what is critical and what is comfort. If I'm going to add 24oz to bring the thermal imager, I need to take away 24oz from some place else. And I've already shaved weight bringing ultralight gear.

 

Fortunately where I go, water is plentiful so I carry no more than a liter and filter water along the way as needed.  That's a huge savings.


Kifaru builds a lightweight tent and stove. You may wanna check that out.

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With a liner, $1,442.

 

With an unspecified color liner...I wouldn't like not having a choice for that much dough.

 

Have to admit...that could be a fun camping experience with a small stove in the tent!

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40 minutes ago, NatFoot said:

With a liner, $1,442.

 

With an unspecified color liner...I wouldn't like not having a choice for that much dough.

 

Have to admit...that could be a fun camping experience with a small stove in the tent!


Kifaru is super proud of their stuff. Mule packers would never pay it. But we don’t weigh things in ounces either.

 

I bet you could buy a military parachute and sew a stove jack into that bad boy for a couple of hundred bucks.

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1 hour ago, norseman said:


Kifaru is super proud of their stuff. Mule packers would never pay it. But we don’t weigh things in ounces either.

 

I bet you could buy a military parachute and sew a stove jack into that bad boy for a couple of hundred bucks.

 

Still waiting for that insiders BFF price on a guided elk hunt for two, 1 week, we pay for food and 1 bull.

 

Just saying. :)

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8 hours ago, NatFoot said:

 

Still waiting for that insiders BFF price on a guided elk hunt for two, 1 week, we pay for food and 1 bull.

 

Just saying. :)


LOL!

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18 hours ago, wiiawiwb said:

A wall tent is the best way to go, no question about it.  You can get dry, stay dry, and live comfortably within. The only problem in my case is I'm the mule and have to haul everything in my backpack. That forces me to make decisions about what is critical and what is comfort. If I'm going to add 24oz to bring the thermal imager, I need to take away 24oz from some place else. And I've already shaved weight bringing ultralight gear.

 

Fortunately where I go, water is plentiful so I carry no more than a liter and filter water along the way as needed.  That's a huge savings.

 

 Agreed that's where I'm coming from, it is astounding how the weight adds up, while I completely get where Norseman is coming from having been on a few "expeditions", it is nice having all the comforts of home right on site. In regards to the OP I guess it really depends on your experience and where your going, as far as attracting Bigfoot, I'm a skeptic but I will make a comparison to a known animal that has routine contact with us, bears they can get very comfortable approaching humans especially if there's food involved. If your new to camping please don't keep food in your tent.  I've encountered bears on the east coast and out west, I'm much more leery of the east coast bears, they seem to be very comfortable with humans. If you ever see cubs start moving in the opposite direction.

 

 Having said that realize that any animal can get use to human contact and what it means when we are viewed as a food source, there's a NP(National Park) where bears routinely swim to islands that people camp on to check out what's on the menu. The other critter that will visit your camp and rummage thru everything is raccoons, they basically have four hands and will get into everything and I suspect are responsible for many encounters of this type that are attributed to Bigfoot, or people for that matter rifling thru campsites. Put a jar of peanut butter in front of your game cam and watch the fun, obviously not in your camp site! 

 

 But back to the OP,  if Bigfoot has been living side by side with us for centuries on a continent wide distribution basis (like bears), I highly doubt he cares about our campfires one way or the other, I would think just your mere presence in the woods would drive them the other way. That's the only way a species of this size could survive completely undetected until modern times on the US continent. 

 

 

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On 1/5/2020 at 6:08 PM, norseman said:


Kifaru builds a lightweight tent and stove. You may wanna check that out.

 

Thanks, Kirafu makes a lot of nice outdoor gear and I looked at their hot-tent combos.  I'm a bit of a tent addict and ended choosing a Seek Outside 4-man tipi with a titanium stove and extra-tall' flue for cold weather. My go-to tents when it's above 40F are a Zpacks Duplex (~19oz), TT Rainshadow, or a SMD Lunar Duo.  All of these are easily backpacked and the larger ones can be split between two people making them a breeze.

 

11 hours ago, Foxhill said:

... as far as attracting Bigfoot, I'm a skeptic but I will make a comparison to a known animal that has routine contact with us, bears they can get very comfortable approaching humans especially if there's food involved. If your new to camping please don't keep food in your tent. 

 

I would hope people do a little homework before going out in the woods in a tent. I bring a prescription bottle filled with ammonia and leave it out 10', or so, in front of my tent with the top uncapped.  It highly discourages all animals with a strong olfactory sense.

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On 1/6/2020 at 8:54 PM, wiiawiwb said:

. I bring a prescription bottle filled with ammonia and leave it out 10', or so, in front of my tent with the top uncapped.  It highly discourages all animals with a strong olfactory sense.

 

Interesting idea! I'm gonna try that. 

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As I mentioned at the outset, I think fire is counterproductive to sasquatching and it's not ablaze while I'm doing so.  Having said that, I do make a quick fire between the time I'm finished with my recon and the time I head to the tent for the evening. The fire helps me to relax and it provides the pathway from thinking about the sasquatching to chilling out and readying for sleep.

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