When you can't have a campfire due to severe drought conditions

[Kayak_Ken]

What do you do to take it's place? Use a lantern, Luci light, sit in the dark or go to bed early?

Kayak_Ken (in a canoe)

 

[Canotrouge]

Up here, even in fire bans area we can use a fire box, That is what forestry told my wife when she asked them in preparation for a trip with her students a few years back. I'm sure it is different in other places!!

 

[yellowcanoe]

No Title

Look up. I might go to bed and read if the bugs are bad or its snowing. No campfire is my usual modus operandi. I love how eyes can see in the dark if you give them 20 minutes to adjust.

 

[sweeper]

We haven't been there as of yet but the above suggestions sound good that and the Luci's

 

[yellowcanoe]

Tie Luci down. It flies away in a puff of wind
We tie one to the tent for overall campsite illumination

I'd like to remember to put one in a tent and the tent in front of the Milky Way

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I used to be the fire maker for my canoe club 30 years ago, but I'm too lazy to make fires when I'm boat camping alone, which has almost been always been the case for the past 15 years. I cut so much wood at home during three seasons that I'm not much inspired to do so when I'm on a paddling trip.

For the past 12 years or so, I've just brought two headlamps. When it gets dark I sit in my chair for a while and read with the headlamp. If it's too buggy or cold for that, I go into my tent and read. Not much point in staying outside after dark when you're alone. Sometimes I'll listen to FM on my weather radio if I can get reception. Get up at dawn and get back on the water. I'm there to paddle.

Had to look up Luci light. Never heard of them.

 

[Guest]

Rarely have a campfire, you can't see the stars then. use a twig stove.

 

[Odyssey]

When the kids were young and we were still cool enough parents for them to trip with us we would use a lantern with batteries. It helped cheer them up. I remember throwing a thin cloth over the brightness of the lantern too for a better "low fire" glow. I found it easy to forget the fire was fake. Stories and songs, laughs and giggles. "Whose turn is it for Charades?" Now that it's just we two we don't bother. I honestly can't remember the last fire ban we tripped in, it was so long ago, although they're not rare.
I love cooking over fire, but am ambivalent towards our very own "fireplace channel" every evening. Having fires aside from cooking depends on our mood. Even on the darkest nights sometimes we'll sit in the dark down near the water to look, smell, listen...and try to store all this up in our memories to take home with us again. I love fires, but it's never the fires that are the most memorable of our trips. Nor perhaps the most necessary. But I do love fires.

 

[Grandpa Paddler]

Had to look up Luci light. Never heard of them.

Great lite. My wife was so impressed with mine, she got 2 for herself.

 

[goonstroke]

I hadn't heard of Luci Lights either. Maybe someone can review?

 

[yellowcanoe]

Luci LIghts are by Mpowered. They have been around at least five years.
Here is one of thousands of reviews on the Net
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb...view-Mpowerd-Luci-Light-(-Luci-is-different!-)

They are not high light as in for reading. I have had mine at least four years. For some strange reason I forget to deliberately charge them and they work just fine. As they are the older version probably whatever I say is inaccurate.
https://mpowerd.com/

they were developed for use in emergency situations ( not for camping) and for third world situations off the grid. However they work great for camping if secured.

 

[frozentripper]

My reading of the Ontario forest fire prevention act FWIW does not include candles as outdoor fires so if it's a windless night, a few of those can be kept burning around the campsite. There's something comforting about the natural light of candles, much better than the harsh eyestrain from a Coleman lantern or an LED headlamp. There have been quiet nights making camp when it was too late arriving, goofing off en route again, or simply too far and too long... not bothering to cook a meal, granola and salami, and lying down on the sleeping pad with some candles going for that nice yellow light they provide... really nice.

BTW milky way viewing is at it's best at this time of year... moonrise later and later with each passing night.

And it seems Ontario fire prevention law states that your vehicle, your boat and your body, if it is an able body over the age of 18, can be pressed into service to fight forest fires if necessary. Failure to comply can result in a fine of $25,000 and/or three months imprisonment. Something tells me that experienced, flame-hardened firefighters will view canoetrippers as only slightly more suitable for that purpose than those found wearing high heels, makeup and perfume, men included, so that may reduce the possibility of press gangs invading campsites looking for able-bodied individuals to be pressed into service. But, and there's always a but... climate change and past fire suppression policy might change all that.

 

[Odyssey]

I'm happy with our Luci-like camping lantern made by Ultimate Survival Technologies called the Spright. Clever silicone lighting dome that extends for greater lighting, and also has three settings. A 4 IPX rating (splashes) is adequate for us, as it stays in the tent. We read by this light. However when turned off the light goes in nightlight mode, in which it glows pale green. I have no problem but my wife doesn't like it.

 

[yellowcanoe]

Lucid are a little better illuminators than candles. Candles of course warm better. But also can make the rangers cross and you gator dinner if you burn your chickee down.

 

[Guest]

Luci LIghts are by Mpowered. They have been around at least five years.

They are not high light as in for reading. I have had mine at least four years. For some strange reason I forget to deliberately charge them and they work just fine. As they are the older version probably whatever I say is inaccurate.

I have two different model Luci lights, a smaller newer one , and an older one that is half again as big, unfrosted and much brighter. I used them for the first time in 3 or 4 months this past weekend and never got around to charging them in the sun.

I used them specifically as reading lights, one attached at the “head of the bed” on each side clipped with minibeeners, angled and pointed directly at the book.

I don’t do well reading in dim lights and the two directional Luci lights are like stadium lighting on print.

The little one finally went dark after a couple days and I didn’t even notice at first, just the big one was plenty if pointed at the printed page.

If they no longer make the older bigger/brighter version any more I may begin to baby mine.

 

[Guest]

What do you do to take it's place? Use a lantern, Luci light, sit in the dark or go to bed early?

Yes to all of those at times, provided the lantern isn’t one of those blinding bright white gas Colemans effing monstrosities. Arrrgggg, my night vision.

The thing that best replaces the warmth and cheer of a wood campfire for my purposes is a Fire-In-A-Can.

Essentially a giant wax candle with a spiral cardboard wick, in a pot with a lid. Write up about making FIAC’s #5 and #6 here. The DIY build photos are gone, but there is a shot Glenn took in post 3 of a small round roasting pan FIAC.

http://www.canoetripping.net/forums...scussions/diy/23273-​fire-in-a-can-no-5-and-6

I always bring a FIAC in no campfire areas or areas that require a fire pan and ashes pack out. Heck, I always bring it when travelling and truck camping. And often when paddling solo, where a full-on linger late around the campfire and converse isn’t in the cards.

It isn’t something you would want to portage; even the little SS kayak-hatch pot weighs 3 lb, 70z, and add a couple more pounds for feeder bricks. FWIW, the roaster pan versions have 5lb (round pan) to 8lb (oval pan) pounds of wax. Those are still no-portage canoe ballast friendly, and work very well to light up a campsite.

Advantages:
That little round roasting pan Fire-In-A-Can in Glenn’s photo probably had 50 hours of burn on it. As long as you add “feeder bricks” (soap bar sized bricks of wax) even the cardboard wick survives for years. That FIAC could have gone another 50 or 100 hours, but I deliberately burned it out and poured new wax over a more loosely spaced cardboard wick design.

The FIAC has always been allowed, even in no-campfires places. Sometimes I have had to show it to the Ranger staff or permitting people to get their approval, but I’ve never been told no. Producing the FIAC has always elicited officialdom fascination. Which sometimes meant holding Adult Show & Tell and lighting it for a brief burn and snuff out.

(I was admittedly a proud and willing participant in those Ranger Station demos; mostly I didn’t want them to come check on my suspicious campfire, but I enjoyed the ohh-ahh reception)

The FIAC lights with the flick of a Bic and is going well in 60 seconds. Actually, I light the wick stubs in several places; 3 flicks of the Bic.

It is self-contained and extinguishes instantly when you put the lid on. I think that instant “off-switch” controllability is part of why it has always been approved. I have never asked about using it under fire-ban conditions, and probably wouldn’t in that case anyway lest I attract unwanted attention.

Since nearly all of the flame is above the “fire ring” A FIAC throws a lot of light at night. In a group I ask that no one turn on a flashlight for some minutes after it is snuffed out; the instantaneous inky darkness when you put the lid on is way freaky cool, and should be appreciated.

I can light it when I return from a chilly walkabout for some instant warmth and cheer and put it out at will, without having to burn out a campfire or douse coals. I don’t want to wander very far from camp with a hot coals campfire, and don’t want to be dousing the fire pit I may use later tonight where wood fires are permitted.

I sometimes light it and extinguish it several times over the course of a day, without processing any wood or etc. See above. Wax on, wax off.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fULNUr0rvEc

A Florida friend found it to be bug useful, or at least vengeful. The flying biters were drawn away from him, attracted into the flames with a satisfying sizzle. He also had Citronella feeder bricks. And some bricks with funky flames additive.

If this link-attempt works (can’t click on the thumbnails, but maybe can still see them), a couple of my favorite Fire-in-a-can shots early on in this trip:

http://s1324.photobucket.com/user/JoelBeckwith/library/10 Day Green River Trip?sort=2&page=1

That’s the shallow oval roasting pan, it throws a lot of light, and there is some weird stuff in those wax flames.

Some FIAC build photos. Mark III build; Dollar Store prayer candles and scrap wax in an oval roasting pan:
http://s1285.photobucket.com/user/CooperMcCrea/library/Fire In A Can 3?sort=2&page=1

Mark IV & V build; car camper stock pot and replenished Mark I round roaster:
http://s1285.photobucket.com/user/CooperMcCrea/library/Fire In A Can Mark IV And V?sort=6&page=1

The first photo is extracted charred was what remained of my original, mostly burned down FIAC. That Mark I worked well enough for several years, but after making improved versions I knew the wick was wrapped too tight; a finger width spacing between the cardboard spiral is about perfect. The big 12 lb stock pot in those photos was for a friend’s continental car camper, carried cross-country to the fascination of fellow campers met along the way.

Obviously I think the FIAC is the bee’s knees, especially in no campfire situations. The wax is the only hard to source part, and I’ll never throw away a candle stub again. Well, mostly the missus saving home candle stuff, and I appreciate it.

I just found a car camping perfect SS stockpot at Goodwill, with a handle on the lid & handles on the sides. $4. As soon as I find another kayak hatch sized pot I’m going to make a couple more for friends. And pour more citronella and trippy Funky Flame bricks.

I’m out of those custom feeder bricks own myself. I see a wax melting production run coming.

 

[riverstrider]

I now have two clear Luci Lights that I could use if I am without a campfire, but that hasn't really happened yet. And I was just introduced to the Luminoodle at the recent Canoetripping gathering in NY. It can be strung out in a number of configurations, or simply coiled into its translucent storage sack and used as a lantern. Pretty neat.
-rs

 

[Steve in Idaho]

Look up. I might go to bed and read if the bugs are bad or its snowing. No campfire is my usual modus operandi. I love how eyes can see in the dark if you give them 20 minutes to adjust.

This. ^

I use a headlamp with red LED option if I need to see something better up close. Protect that night vision for the starlight.

 

[yellowcanoe]

This. ^

I use a headlamp with red LED option if I need to see something better up close. Protect that night vision for the starlight.

And if you don't you can get red cellophane to go over your white lights. We went on a four day star party in Acadia National Park and everyone attending nighttime events was only permitted to use red lenses or white lenses covered in red cellophane. Of course that is handier to do on flashlights.

Occasionally someone would turn on a white light and get roundly scolded by a hundred people on their backs on Sand Beach

 

[lowangle al]

I don't count on the fire for illumination so I don't think I would do anything different in that regard. I would alter my menu and bring more stove fuel. The Luci light looks like it would be good during a fire ban or not though. Just because you have a bright light doesn't mean you have to have it on all night, just when needed.