Does anyone else hate camp fires?

[ESCAPE POD]

Although we're used to having a campfire when weather permits, we've discovered an outstanding composite log: "Clean-Flame", which burns cleanly with almost no smoke, and can even be poked and/or cooked over, and combined together or with wood (unlike most other composites). An added benefit is that the logs are made from wax-coated produce boxes, which cannot go into normal paper recycling, but take forever to degrade in a landfill. The wax is "food-grade", so no toxic fumes, and it settles into coals that are good for cooking over. The inventor of the "Campfire-In-A-Can recommended them. Here's the website: CleanFlame They are available in a variety of stores; we get them in Safeway markets, or Vons markets in our area. Check them out!

Cheers,
Jerry & Susan

[Mexray]

We've always had campfires, it's a ritual thing with the family, kids, hot dogs, marshmallows, smores, dutch ovens...etc., etc..coffee around the campfire on a crisp fall/spring morning is an experience hard to duplicate...

Up until recently, we've never had any real problems with ours or neighbors camp fires - I guess most of the places we've camped all our lives, we've had enough room to get the fire ring away from the tents, trailers, Moho's so the smoke hadn't been a problem for us...

Now for the exception - last Thanksgiving we camped on the beach at Pismo SP in central calif for 10 days...we had some harsh wind for a couple of days, and so moved the fire ring closer to our AS that was acting as a wind break, so we could sit around the fire in the evening with the kids and grandkids...BIG mistake, as the next morning our AS smelled like one of those smoke houses mentioned by several above!

We'll never put our AS in that position again! We had to air out everything for several weeks to get rid of the smoke! We sure learned the hard way about 'nearby' campfires!

...cough, cough...Ray

[Ag&Au]

I have always felt that campfires are for the wide open spaces, not crowded campgrounds.

We recently spent a week in a very nice RV park in Elkader, IA.
The park is lovely and run by extremely pleasant people. However the experience certainly strengthen my anti-campfire feelings.

The temperature was in the high 80s and low 90s with near 100% humidity. In the evenings the the temperature dropped into the 70s and fog formed.

On the weekdays it was not too bad, but on the weekend, the RV park and adjacent city campground nearly filled up. Mostly with people from within 100 miles. A large percentage of them seemed to come for the sole purpose of building a campfire.

Since the town is in a valley and there was essentially no wind, the smoke hung in the air like fog. I don't have a big problem with allergies, but I was stuffing up like crazy. We were visiting relatives, so luckily we were away from the trailer a lot in the evening. No exaggeration, we could smell the smoke more than a mile away as we approached the campground. It was like there was a big wildfire just upwind.

I am wondering how this can be enjoyable for the ones who are causing it. Is there some sort of immunity one develops?

Regards,

Ken

[slowmover]

Originally Posted by klattu

One of the main reasons I don't camp at Wal-Marts anymore...they keep demanding that I put out the campfire.
Its just not camping without one.

Yup, I caint never get them partial-burnt logs out of the asphalt.


.

[altnbndr]

We spent this last weekend in a Yosemite Valley Campground (upper Pines). Yosemite has campfire restrictions that seem to appeal to people on both sides of this topic.
At Yosemite you are only allowed to have a campfire between the hrs. of 5pm and 10 pm. We heard that before these restrictions the valley floor would be filled with smoke from campfires all day long.
Although we didn't get to enjoy our morning campfire coffee it seemed like a reasonable trade off to have clean pure air for our busy day of hiking, biking and climbing.
At 10:01pm the rangers approached every campsite that still had a fire going and with no uncertain terms told all of us that still had fires that they must be fully extinguished NOW with water not even a smolder would be allowed.

[mutcth]

Originally Posted by w7ts

I have always felt that campfires are for the wide open spaces, not crowded campgrounds.

Totally agree. We recently spent a night in an oceanside campground in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. While we much prefer state parks, this was right off our route and we could walk to town for dinner.

Not surprisingly, the trailers were chock-a-block to one another. That didn't stop our neighbors on either side of us, 10 feet in either direction, from starting campfires. One was more a "campsmoker," as smoke billowed from the firepit. It filled our trailer with smoke.

Thing is, these firepits sat about 15 feet from a busy road and the whole thing was pretty much in town. Just doesn't seem right.

Tom

[Arrowstream]

I like my campfire... I'm not real crazy about yours.

[Happycampers]

I don't mind a good clean burning campfire, what I don't like is the ones that people put green or wet wood on and try to smoke people out or when they go in at night just leave the fire to smolder. But when that happens I just close the windows and they can listen to the a/c running or if there is no 30 amp. they can listen to the generator running.

Marvin

[Mikethefixit]

I love a well-built Campfire. Under some conditions NOT SO MUCH. But lately Im have problems after a very large pot luck supper,Even stayin awake long enough to enjoy one. Guess it comes with the territory.

[Streamer Dan]

Camping isn't camping without a fire, that's one of the best things about it, get set up, get the camp fire going, and crack open a beer.

[Ag&Au]

Originally Posted by Streamer Dan

Camping isn't camping without a fire, that's one of the best things about it, get set up, get the camp fire going, and crack open a beer.

I agree with your statement.

However, In my personal book of definitions, camping isn't camping when you take a small house with most of the amenities of home out into the woods. It is RVing or perhaps staying in a mobile cabin.

I spent the first 50 years of my life in the Seattle area. I did a lot of camping both with my family and with BSA. We built a small fire to cook our food and to keep warm when it was chilly. We weren't plugged into electricity and the only running water was in the creek. Our fires didn't bother anyone, because there was usually no one near enough to bother, and if there was, they had a fire for the same reasons. By the way, camping is still available, but one may have to use their feet to get there.

I never refer to what we do when we taking our trailer out as camping, anymore than I would refer to going somewhere to stay in a resort as camping. We don't go camping in the mountains, we take our trailer to the mountains.

So if one feels it is necessary to have a campfire, to convince oneself that they are camping, they should at least have consideration for their neighbors 20 feet or so away and invest in a portable propane fire pit.

The same principle applies to charcoal grilling and using lighter fluid to start. Its only upside is that it doesn't last as long. Once again the considerate solution is to use a gas grill.

It is not just rumor, it is fact, that breathing smoke and the other products of wood combustion is detrimental to your health. Just ask anyone who lives in Moscow.

Why does one party in an RV park have more right to their smokey campfire than those surrounding them have the right to breath smoke free air.


Regards,
Ken

[SSChanger]

We've had to leave camping because of being downwind on a 100 degree day from folks who "needed" a campfire, then drove off and left it smoldering.

Saw an ad for a fake cigarette recently--"lights" up and you blow some sort of non-smoke vapor, and the tip glows. Maybe someone could invent a fake campfire.

[bimpy]

There's nothing better than a campfire reflecting on a polished Airstream

[Bluejaydave]

Really? Taking a campfire out of camping is like taking Mickey Mouse out of Disneyland! I imagine the people that complain about campfires, smoke, etc. also complain about everything else!!!

[Happycampers]

Hello... We don't mind campfires only when they are smoldering 15 ft from our trailer and we have to close up all the windows. When we bought our present Argosy the screens were so black with smoke from campfires that we had all the windows redone. The little red campfire from CW is wonderful...

[RBolton]

I hate it when the guy in front of me at a football game jumps out of his seat everytime there's a big play and I hate it that the neighbors dog barks everytime my other neighbor lets his cat out and I really hate it when the car in front of me at an intersection wants to go left and holds me up - but I suppose if I'm gonna go to the game or live in a neighborhood or drive a car I ought to expect those thing...

[r carl]

WOW, sooo many good point of veiws in this thread. So many different situations. Just have consideration for others if you have a fire.

[the544man]

yes i agree--i spent a weekend on the oregon coast and you would have thought you were in a freaking forest fire. then to boot--we got the added bonus of toxic fumes from some rednecks throwing there plastic ware in their fires. i didn't sleep half the night due to the obnoxius fumes. i don't know what the answer is as i like to have the kids cook dogs and smores on the fire--but dry wood and common sense sure would help. cheers--ted

[sempi2]

We are with the dry wood, plus the fire dancer is good also.

[stonyfork]

"common sense sure would help" And yet this is clearly the one thing that is missing. I'd be willing to bet a good percentage of those who have stated their bad experiences with neighboring campfires have developed their aversion to them because of the lack of common sense (and courtesy) on the part of those neighbors who insisted on having smoking campfires (because, dang it, I paid for my site so it's my right) in spite of a simple request to either control the smoke by burning a proper fire (dry wood, paying attention to drafts/breezes that might be blowing smoke directly into another camper, etc.) or only burn it for the time you are sitting right there next to it. And so a deep aversion develops. Same with noisy kids, noisy dogs, loud diesel idling. Well, unless you're boondocking, you are not the only one in the campground and certainly not the only one who paid for the lot, and is on vacation hoping to have an enjoyable time. What you have in a campground is a community...everyone on this forum who shares a love and affection for these aluminum tubes can gertainly get the idea of community since we all sought this one out. And part of what makes a community work is sensitivity to others and a cooperative spirit. That gets lost a lot of the time in the "I paid my way, I can do as I please" atitude; which I can definitely state has needlessly and selfishly ruined more than one of my own vacations and likely one or more of yours. No one relishes having to request a neighbor to tone down the noise, quiet the dog, or limit the burning of a smoky fire, but know that when they do it is only because it is having a negative and detrimental effect on their enjoyment of the same space. Common sense and courtesy are all that is asked.