Around the Campfire

It is not the length of life but depth of life.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

It has been a long time since I sat by a warm fire on the trail. The world is simply too warm and campfires too great a risk. Where I live in northeastern Washington, even outdoor barbecues are not allowed typically from June until late September, depending on the fire season.

Campfires have become one more thing that stirs up nostalgia for me. Recently I came upon a box that I packed up last spring as I was unloading my camper and getting it ready to sell. It contained a fire starter kit, which I used to carry on backpacking trips. I was actually quite skilled at starting fires, and this handy kit was one of the reasons.

It contained my homemade version of a fire starter, made from sawdust, egg cartons, and wax. I would fill egg cups with sawdust and pour melted candle wax over them. When cooled, it was easy to simply tear off one cup. They burned for a long time and never failed me. I learned this trick as a Campfire Girl many years ago. Apparently in those days it was believed that young girls needed to know how to start campfires. They were right.

My kit also included a small bag of paper birch, provided for me by a hiking friend, Pam, who moved home to Wisconsin. When she would come back to visit she brought paper birch bark for her hiking friends, a greatly appreciated gift. I well remember a night when I hastily found a campsite while hiking in a rain shower, set up my tent, and attempted to start my stove so that I could retreat to shelter after dinner. It was the worst time for my stove to fail, but that is exactly what happened. There was that baggie of paper birch in my pack, which did the trick, even in a rain shower. By the time I had eaten my freeze dried dinner, the rain had stopped. I was well fed and warm as I sat by the fire. Thank you Pam.

Finally, here is a trick I learned only a few years ago while on a camping trip with my husband and two granddaughters. It will start your fire every time, and you can eat it if you do not need a fire. . .Cheetohs. They burn readily and for a long time, so they will quickly allow the tinder and kindling to catch fire. It only takes one to start a fire, and then you can eat the rest of the bag. Truly an efficient camping asset.

Burn bans have now become a regular fact of life for campers and backpackers. Essentially, a forest does not need fire starter. It is its own tinder box. Remembering campfires and the warmth they provided for body and soul, is also a way of remembering a cooler world, a world perhaps without mass shootings, a world where we could walk softly in the woods, set up camp, start a fire, savor the warmth.

As always my response is to remember, give voice, write about campfires, write about Cheetos and birch bark, sawdust and egg cartons. Let the memories and the warmth fill us so that we can love more deeply this broken world.