CAMPFIRES and FIREWORKS while camped

[Ray Eklund]

I now understand WHY I avoid camping at Organized Campsites. My absence leaves an empty campsite for those needing to be crammed into close quarters... like in a suburban home setting, sans campfire, with an opportunity to light it up and live the primordial human existence for the weekend.

Suggestion: Campfire in your BACK YARD?

Why do you not find campfires in the front or back yards of the homes of a trailer, tent or RV owner? Wouldn't it be just as much fun cooking weiners and marshmallows? This seems to be the logic used to justify having a campfire when NOT at home. You may as well add fireworks, bottle rockets and flame throwers on site, if you think nobody is watching or cares about your need for fire and entertainment. Or is it your concern that your neighbors will find it offensive and call the local authorities? While camped you do not give a flying C..p?

After following the Campfire Thread and getting a grasp of both sides of this issue, maybe Fireworks bans are also against the "freedoms of campers".

This issue cannot be debated using logic. There is no logic having a campfire next to your $150K RV, $65K Trailer or $.2K Tent when the evening temperature is hovering around 95F. The bonfires of yesteryear are not as popular after some disasters and loss of lives. Fire attracts humans and moths, so there is no real correlation between primordial intelligence and an insect.

A campfire... while tent camping in the mountains. This is better reasoning to cut the edge of cool to below freezing temperatures after sunset for comfort before climbing into a sleeping bag.

Your roasting a weiner is no more a right than the guy handing out firecrackers to the kids to toss at one another at the campsite next to yours.

Of course, these examples are intended to get everyone to think. A little. I have no interest in your building a campfire next to my trailer than you wanting me to dig my latrine next to yours.

Distance between campers makes great company. Campfires have their place while camping. Providing this need is far enough away from those who might not want to share your experience as "marshmellow reasoning" and suck your smoke into their lungs. This is why there are screens on the windows of your Airstream... to keep the insects out without dense smoke.

I enjoy a campfire with a group at a "Community Pit" when in the back country.

[Lily&Me]

"I enjoy a campfire with a group at a "Community Pit" when in the back country."


Good. .

I hope we are able to have some. .


Maggie

[Ray Eklund]

Originally Posted by Lily&Me

"I enjoy a campfire with a group at a "Community Pit" when in the back country."
Good. .

I hope we are able to have one .
Maggie

******

Nancy will be checking July 13th Monday AM at the Forest Service office at Quemado about an open campfire when she gets the key to the water pump. We will know Monday for sure. We have not in the past, but as a group there might be a good reason to share the hunter's fire pit if it is still intact at this campsite.

[ColoradoLady]

Ray, do you realize what you have DONE.??? You've given "those who are ignorant of the Golden Rule and Common Sense" yet another activity at campsites!!! OMG!!!
And just before July 4th!!!

I can never again go camping on a holiday weekend!!! Surely, some Neanderthal will read your post and bring a HUGE FIREWORK display....in an effort to flex his fur covered muscles for all the other campers in AS's to endure next weekend!

Forest Rangers....please be out in force! Backcountry Firefighters, be prepared to parachute in to squelch their fireworks before the forests are set ablaze!!

Of course, I jest, Ray. However, there is a bit of truth to be found in it. Unfortunately! I would bet my patio fire pit ....that some low I.Q.'d idiot, with a beer gut, and possibly stoned on Colorado grown will think it's a terrific idea to take smoky bug infested wood for a huge bonfire and a huge supply of fireworks.....(in an effort to display his....AHEMM!...manhood and "intellect")...camping....into the nearest forest filled campground on his annual weekend warrior trip....and scare the ¥#€¥£+^* out of all in the region.

Just remember, Ray....you gave him the idea! He probably could not have thought of it all by himself.....given his tiny ant sized brain!!!

Enjoy your camping over the 4th, be safe! HAPPY TRAILS, YA'LL!

[xrvr]

The same ones that would use fireworks at a camp ground are the same ones that will keep me awake until two in the morning on the fourth. Same thing on New Years. Noise for the sake of noise is outgrown by most of us.

[Ray Eklund]

Finally, some sophisticated Airforum members speak out.

We are probably the few that do not take advantage of the 4th of July holiday camped at a crowded field near a small river or stream with lots of inner tube floaters and armadillo roasts... and a few errant sky rockets and incoming rockets red glow expired at 100 feet. Although it can be fun... there is little chance of a comfortable evening counting shooting stars, either.

When you drive to Cheyenne, Wyoming from Denver, Colorado there are a complex of large buildings catering to the pyrotechnical individuals coming to Wyoming to camp at Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. You buy one case of bottle rockets and get THREE cases for free. Open year round and Wholesale, Retail, Hotel or Motel to the Public.

The Fireworks Tents of Wyoming, Colorado and Missouri are huge. They are packed this time of the year with eager adults. Many of these merchants, they say, raise money for charity. OK... that must make it good. Eye, nose and burn units possibly.

I admit. I love fireworks. The "pop" bottle rockets with report and hand tossed into the air, when there were NO glass bottles to handle the challenge as an option. Or a M-80 dropped off into a small creek to watch the glow of an atomic bomb in miniature at night. Sometimes not tossing the Black Cat soon enough would tingle your fingertips. How about the wise guys at the Drive In Theatre dropping a string of 100 firecrackers as they drive by to find a parking spot?

I survived. Stupidity can be overcome over time, but do not waste your youth as a spectator, only. I am an innocent victim, myself.

Some of you, well experienced now with attitude, will recall spending hours with your buddies to build Military Forts stationed with plastic Infantry, Bazooka and Gernade Thowers, etc. Then... put the firecrackers to use against the enemy forces. Of course, the spares from the Fourth of July hoard, from five years earlier. (Being an Army Brat at the Presido of San Francisco provided a safe place on Base to learn about digging in the troops from fireworks attack.) I am sure that this is illegal today. Not the fireworks... the plastic military troops.

The public fireworks displays, laying on your back on a blanket is well worth the attendance. Put together by the best pyrotechnics that money can buy. How does this correlate with campfires? Big Bangs and Big Fires go hand in hand.

The fireworks is illegal to use in Wyoming and Colorado... unless, you are at a "legal location". It IS legal if you do not light them and toss them around. (I made that up.)

Do not get me wrong. Fireworks and Campfires have nothing in common, but it sure seems to attract the same people. Well, take it wrong, but come on, you know I am just making trouble before we pack up and leave for New Mexico.

Quotes from a Google Search:
*******
"I am from Denver CO and am looking for a safe legal place in Wyoming ( preferably near Cheyenne), to light off my Phantom bought fireworks." Taken from a Google search just for your and my entertainment. PyroUniverse.com

"Out in Colorado, the state prohibits the use of consumer fireworks that it doesn’t explicitly permit. According to the APA, the ones allowed by Colorado law are “Cylindrical and cone fountain, ground spinner, torch and colored fire, dipped stick and sparkler, snake and glow worm, trick noisemaker and certain other novelties.”

For that you need to turn to the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 16, Part 1500.17(a)(3), which bans:
“Fireworks devices intended to produce audible effects (including but not limited to cherry bombs, M-80 salutes, silver salutes, and other large firecrackers, aerial bombs, and other fireworks designed to produce audible effects, and including kits and components intended to produce such fireworks) if the audible effect is produced by a charge of more than 2 grains of pyrotechnic composition.”
and and (a)(8), which bans:
“Firecrackers designed to produce audible effects, if the audible effect is produced by a charge of more than 50 milligrams (.772 grains) of pyrotechnic composition (not including firecrackers included as components of a rocket), aerial bombs, and devices that may be confused with candy or other foods, such as “dragon eggs,” and “cracker balls” (also known as “ball-type caps”), and including kits and components intended to produce such fireworks.”

[Ray Eklund]

[QUOTE=ColoradoLady;1642191]
Surely, some Neanderthal will read your post and bring a HUGE FIREWORK display....in an effort to flex his fur covered muscles for all the other campers in AS's to endure next weekend!
*****

You must include "fur covered muscled" Neanderthal women as well. This Thread is an equal opportunity service to the Airforum Community. Even though this community may be small in number, furry and who may have to shave their backs, none should be discriminated for or against Campfires or Fireworks. My brother, included.

I am also sure that many appropriate products will be keyed into the subject matter for your and my benefit.

[ColoradoLady]

Ahhh, yes! This brings to mind....each and EVERY ¥€#^£?! Holiday...my youthful neighbor right across the street will regale my daughter and I and the entire subdivision....with the fruits if His ant sized brain....till the wee hours each night...probably beginning this weekend till sometime after the 4th, as we pray for him to run out of supplies.

He has 4 boys, and he is sharing his ???wisdom??? And his sport with them. The wife/mother leaves for several days during these times. I suppose she has given up on trying to communicate common sense to one who ...has none. Maybe it's easier for her than divorce. Nice lady, but,she's lost the will to fight...God bless her!

So, we are left here to endure. Memorial week....it was a nightly ritual. Police drive by, give him warnings, summons, fines. He's too stupid to correlate those with his behavior...so, the wife leaves...and we endure. Until the last night, midweek....when he and his similarly enebriated buddy came up with the BRILLIANT idea....."let's put a big ? M80 in the dumpster at the school yard (3 doors from my house)! At 3:AM., JUST AS WE FINALLY WENT TO SLEEP! LAST STRAW,!!

I flung open my front bedroom window, yelled out at him and his dim witted buddy ..... WHAT THE ¥€*£+ Do you think you're doing ....you stupid ?&+¥€£#!!! Both of them stopped in their tracks right on the street in front of this usually quiet senior lady and simply said..." I dunno...we dint do nuttin'" DUH! They went. In the house, turned off all the lights....ahhh! Quiet...finally.
On second thought....maybe we SHOULD go camping over the 4th!

[Ray Eklund]

Originally Posted by Lily&Me

"I enjoy a campfire with a group at a "Community Pit" when in the back country."
Good. .
I hope we are able to have some. .
Maggie

******
The hunters at the Quemado campsite left a "community pit". Much nicer than the one they used in previous years. It is behind a tree. Nancy suggested I take a couple of metal fence poles and tarp so the Community can partake of its intent.

... or were you speaking of the possible existing Community FIRE Pit?

(I tried to pull a grinning face icon over but it did not cooperate.)

[ColoradoLady]

Oh yes, and Ray, thank you for your sensitivity to the fairer sex. It is, after all, politically correct, but, I must say, I don't see many feminine Neanderthals, with their freshly waxed backs, who enjoy the sport of exploding things. They are too busy cooking, cleaning, hunting, gathering...and making excuses and apologies to the surrounding neighborhood for the idiotic behavior of their spouse.

[Lily&Me]

I was quoting you, sir, and was of course referring to a campfire.



Maggie

[featherbedder]

I stay home 4th July, have chiminea for fire on patio, I have neighbor next door from So. of border very loud mexican music barking dog huge party all nite plus bang bangs, and booze so all does not happen at camp grounds. This first year noise ordinance in county so will see what happens. There are 5 homes in mile No. of me, one home across rd. same thing, both multiple families at partys. Would go camping but cannot leave property empty. to much equipment and toys.

[J. Morgan]

Fireworks used to be fun in Las Cruces, lots of mortar displays all across the valley, till we got all "civilized" and banned all but the panzieworks.

Apparently fireworks two days a year is too much barbarity for civil people to endure.

[mandolindave]

I don't know what they are called ( Japanese Lanterns??? ) They are basically a hot air " balloon " powered by a candle. Hippies and Yuppies, both seem to like them.

Some people I knew at a festival launched a lot of them. The first two went horizontal way before they went vertical, as it was a warm night. They JUST cleared my awning. I mentioned that they were a few feet away from buying me a new awning. They laughed, and told me not to worry.

They stopped smiling when I told them how much a replacement awning costs.

[Protagonist]

Originally Posted by Ray Eklund

Suggestion: Campfire in your BACK YARD?

Done that, in the courtyard of a New Orleans Garden District apartment building for Halloween. Lots of fun. Didn't get arrested for it, either. We did get into trouble with the landlady for throwing 200 pounds of dry ice in the swimming pool to create a spooky mist rising off the water, until the danged pool froze over. The beer kegs we had floating in the pool got stuck.

There is no logic having a campfire next to your $150K RV, $65K Trailer or $.2K Tent when the evening temperature is hovering around 95F.

Even in the heat, a campfire provides after-dark light that is much more appealing than a battery-operated lantern. Same logic that explains why people have fireplaces in a central-heated house. They don't need a fireplace for heat, but they still use a fireplace for ambiance.

I've never stayed in a campground that allowed fireworks, so I can't speak to that side of the debate.

[m.hony]

If it is 95 degrees I won't have no fire...
I probably won't even be outside.
I'll probably be in the trailer watching a DVD.

[davidz71]

I enjoy a small campfire when camping. It just adds to the enjoyment while we do hotdogs or s'mores. I've never heard someone complain unless the fire was made outside a designated firepit or fire ring. Fireworks are another story. Most places I have camped do not allow them and will put a stop to it. Fireworks have a place but a campground isn't one of them. By the way, our city ordinance does not allow fireworks within city limits but people do it anyway during July 4. Good for them, stupid law.