Dumb campers

[oops56]

Well went camping this week car type tent and all in state park nice in woods. Now hear is the kickier all the dumb campers start there fires with bbq fuild or kerosene or coleman fuel. When there is a lot of dead birch laying around. I just get me some birch & trigs & pine cones and on one macth its going.Why i did not use flint and steel just before camping cut the thumb on table saw and i can do flint steel good and it p---- me off could not do it that way

 

[Longstrider]

There's a lot of them around who are like that Oops. Straight from the Bushnoot my partner, Sandy, and I went up into the Brecon Beacons for a weeks camping on a lovely little privately owned site in the middle of nowhere. The site owner has the field in which we camped and about a dozen acres of woodland on a very steep hillside the other side of the small stream that flows alongside the campsite. The site owner is happy for campers to have open fires with fuel gathered from the woods and has even built a decent fire-pit for the purpose. Our first night there we had the place to ourselves and cooked bannock and dinner on the fire whilst watching the stars come out... Wonderful. By the second night of our stay a couple of families (travelling as a group) had arrived with their teenaged kids. They pitched their tents in such a way as to surround the fire pit, effectively claiming it as "theirs".
I had not used any of the so called kindling that some kind soul had left by the fire pit in carrier bags, and had used a very large log nearby as a chopping block whilst preparing my own firewood. This group then decided to have a fire. They used petrol syphoned from the car to light the kindling from the bags, all at once, stuck the big log (about 14" diameter) across the fire pit and then panicked when they realised that it was never going to last. The half a dozen youngsters then fled into the woods in search of firewood only to return a few minutes later with as much between them as I could have found in half the time on my own, half of it green and wet. We chuckled at their ineptitude, went to bed and left them to it.

The following day I asked the site owner if we might have a small cooking fire on the gravelly bank of the stream where we could easily clean away the evidence of it ever having been there. He agreed happily and I spent half an hour or so gathering, cutting, and stacking our firewood for the evening. As dinertime came the other group arrived back on site and out came the petrol can again.. The kids gathered about enough small sticks for a 20 minute fire and lit up...
I smiled to myself, got the bow-drill out and soon had our fire going nicely.
We sat cooking dinner on our small fire amusing ourselves as we watched them scrabbling about for more firewood in the dark. Their fire died long before they were ready to retire for the night so out came the petrol again... (You get the picture! ) I banked up our fire for the night and we went to bed.

The best fun was seeing the looks on their faces the next morning when I put a handful of kindling on the coals, left it to warm for a minute or two, blew on it twice, had a brew done and was cooking bacon and eggs for breakfast in about 10 minutes, whilst they stared forelornly at their cold, dead fire-pit. All together now.... Aaaaah *LOL*

Had this group not been so anti-social as to "take over" the one fire pit, or had even asked, I would have happily helped them get things a little better organised, but as it was it turned out to be far more fun watching their antics when they really didn't have a damned clue.

 

[falling rain]

I once had a fire down at Widecombe and collected some firewood in the morning for brekkies and a brew and enough for the evenings fire, which I stacked carefully and neatly next to the fire site ready for the evening when I returned. I went out for the day and when I returned my little carefully prepared stack that I'd collected from the woods myself had gone...................Someone, instead of going to the trouble of collecting their own firewood had decided they'd have mine............all stacked nicely ready to go. :aargh4:

 

[Ryan Woods]

Brilliant story longstrider, much enjoyed reading it.


AAAH!!

 

[Draven]

There's a lot of them around who are like that Oops. Straight from the Bushnoot my partner, Sandy, and I went up into the Brecon Beacons for a weeks camping on a lovely little privately owned site in the middle of nowhere. The site owner has the field in which we camped and about a dozen acres of woodland on a very steep hillside the other side of the small stream that flows alongside the campsite. The site owner is happy for campers to have open fires with fuel gathered from the woods and has even built a decent fire-pit for the purpose. Our first night there we had the place to ourselves and cooked bannock and dinner on the fire whilst watching the stars come out... Wonderful. By the second night of our stay a couple of families (travelling as a group) had arrived with their teenaged kids. They pitched their tents in such a way as to surround the fire pit, effectively claiming it as "theirs".
.............
Had this group not been so anti-social as to "take over" the one fire pit, or had even asked, I would have happily helped them get things a little better organised, but as it was it turned out to be far more fun watching their antics when they really didn't have a damned clue.

Great story mate!

It's a sad truth though, I don't understand why people think that they have to light a bonfire big enough to flash-fry a buffalo just to make a brew

 

[Zodiak]

Several years back I was camping on a Scout site and the leaders (mainly women) from a youth group (church affiliated I believe) in the site next to us lit a fire in the trees between the two sites using a can opf petrol, not in one of the marked fire pits just a bit of open ground. They all sat round in chairs with a pile of beer and started talking and laughing.

Around 11PM they were getting very loud and we wanted to get to sleep so I asked them to keep it down which they agreed to but 5 minutes later it was just as loud.

I asked again, but they were pretty ratted by now and one of the blokes got a bit stroppy and told me to calm down. I was not amused and decided that we were going to get up at 6:30 to make as much noise as possible.. however.. that was not going to happen.

I was woken up at around 2:30 by loud swearing and somebody falling over my tent.. that was it I was out for blood and shot out with a mallet. It seems that their fire was going out and as they had emptied the site wood pile had decided to help themselves to the pile we had cut for next morning.

In those days I used to leave a big thick log on the fire at night so we could start cooking straight away next morning, they saw it probably didn't realsie it was alight and decided to nick it, one bloke at each end. By the time I was out both men had burnt hands, and injured legs where they dropped it. The women were panicing and shouting.

None of them seemed to have a clue about first aid, and one woman was trying to get into our cool box to look for a first aid kit! I managed to get a look at the bloke who had been rude to me, he wasn't too bad so I told him to sit with his hands in one of our fire buckets to cool them down while I tried to get to the other one. He was a lot worse and needed hopsital, plus his leg was burnt where the log had melted his tracksuit.

They were all in a complete panic, all the kids were awake, and they wanted me to take the injured men to hospital as the only ones with cars were too drunk to drive!

I refused as it meant leaving my kids with a bunch of self confessed drunks and then it started to get nasty. I sent two of my 15 year olds off to phone an ambulance (this was pre-mobiles) while I tried to get the badly injured man to the tolets and into a shower, but he was going into shock and I couldn't move him so I had to settle for dousing his leg. It took a good half hour for the ambulance crew to reach us, even with one of my scouts at the gate, and even them they walked over, but I was glad to hand over to them.

It was gone 4AM before I got my lot back to sleep and I slept by the fire because I wanted to keep an eye on the other bunch.

Next morning they didn't say a thing, I didn't see the two blokes again and they went off before lunch, I don't know if they had planned that. I couldn't believe that they didn't come over and say sorry for nicking your wood or thanks for the first aid.

When the warden came to inspect our site I mentioned the incident and it was all news to him but he was absolutly ape when I showed him where they had lit there fire and the beer bottles in the bushes.

People like that should not be allowed to look after kids.

 

[pierre girard]

Several years back I was camping on a Scout site and the leaders (mainly women) from a youth group (church affiliated I believe) in the site next to us lit a fire in the trees between the two sites using a can opf petrol, not in one of the marked fire pits just a bit of open ground. They all sat round in chairs with a pile of beer and started talking and laughing.

Around 11PM they were getting very loud and we wanted to get to sleep so I asked them to keep it down which they agreed to but 5 minutes later it was just as loud.

I asked again, but they were pretty ratted by now and one of the blokes got a bit stroppy and told me to calm down. I was not amused and decided that we were going to get up at 6:30 to make as much noise as possible.. however.. that was not going to happen.

I was woken up at around 2:30 by loud swearing and somebody falling over my tent.. that was it I was out for blood and shot out with a mallet. It seems that their fire was going out and as they had emptied the site wood pile had decided to help themselves to the pile we had cut for next morning.

In those days I used to leave a big thick log on the fire at night so we could start cooking straight away next morning, they saw it probably didn't realsie it was alight and decided to nick it, one bloke at each end. By the time I was out both men had burnt hands, and injured legs where they dropped it. The women were panicing and shouting.

None of them seemed to have a clue about first aid, and one woman was trying to get into our cool box to look for a first aid kit! I managed to get a look at the bloke who had been rude to me, he wasn't too bad so I told him to sit with his hands in one of our fire buckets to cool them down while I tried to get to the other one. He was a lot worse and needed hopsital, plus his leg was burnt where the log had melted his tracksuit.

They were all in a complete panic, all the kids were awake, and they wanted me to take the injured men to hospital as the only ones with cars were too drunk to drive!

I refused as it meant leaving my kids with a bunch of self confessed drunks and then it started to get nasty. I sent two of my 15 year olds off to phone an ambulance (this was pre-mobiles) while I tried to get the badly injured man to the tolets and into a shower, but he was going into shock and I couldn't move him so I had to settle for dousing his leg. It took a good half hour for the ambulance crew to reach us, even with one of my scouts at the gate, and even them they walked over, but I was glad to hand over to them.

It was gone 4AM before I got my lot back to sleep and I slept by the fire because I wanted to keep an eye on the other bunch.

Next morning they didn't say a thing, I didn't see the two blokes again and they went off before lunch, I don't know if they had planned that. I couldn't believe that they didn't come over and say sorry for nicking your wood or thanks for the first aid.

When the warden came to inspect our site I mentioned the incident and it was all news to him but he was absolutly ape when I showed him where they had lit there fire and the beer bottles in the bushes.

People like that should not be allowed to look after kids.

What a crew! Must be a bit different than the church groups around here ( who are pretty much known for their temperance stand)

Scouts can be a problem as well - if not properly lead.

This happened when I was very young. We have a large piece of land up north. A friend of my father's told a local scout group it would be o.k. for them to camp there (then he asked my father). We went out to see how they were doing. They'd started a big bon fire right at the foot of a large red pine. The scout master was standing right near the fire. The flame was going up the bark on the side of the tree.

My father ran over and kicked the fire out. We all set to, but it took quite a while before there were no more flames. My father, in a rare show of temper, told the scoutmaster what he thought of his woods skills. He also told him to pack up and get his kids off our land. My father's friend was rather red faced over the whole affair.

 

[Ryan Woods]

Amazing stories, thanks for sharing guys!

 

[SiriusB]

I remember a few years ago when at a campsite a few friends and I had a nice little fire that we cooked on. Some neighbours weren't having much luck and I spotted them with a large bottle of meths and not very much wood.

In the interests of them not potentially burning down their tents we offered them our fire as we were finished.

They were well made up and we got a bottle of Whiskey out of it

SiriusB

 

[spamel]

This just goes to show how reliant man has become on the comforts of home. My fire is a bit too big to cook on, I'll just turn this little knob that regulates the heat!! It really isn't that simple on an open fire!

It is the same with starting the fire, turn the knob, press the button "tick tick tick tick tick woof!" and the fire is lit. No, it's not that easy, but it is more rewarding to start with wood and a bit of kindling and to get a good fire going, just large enough to cook on. I liked the flash fry a buffalo comment, it's absolutely true!

I believe there is some sort of red indian saying about white men and their fires, I can't remember it off the top of my head but it was funny! Some times a big blaze is nice, but there is a time and a place for it and it's called Guy Fawkes night!!

 

[SiriusB]

One of my friends sees a real camp fire as a sort of novelty. As such he wants it to be as big as possible using as much wood as possible and he always has to spray on lots of meths to make it woosh.

He just doesn't understand why we don't make it a huge fire. Cooking a tin of beans doesn't need a forest fire lol. What makes it worse is after 10 minutes when the novelty has worn off he will go back in his tent because its too cold or whatever, leaving us with a bloody great fire to sort out.

These days if he comes we start the fire without him and build a little rock wall around it so the fire stays within a certain size. That way he can't just chuck on a huge log.

SiriusB

 

[spamel]

Crazy!! The reason he is cold is because he has got used to standing next to a fire that is so large he is actually cooking himself!!!

 

[Tadpole]

Crazy!! The reason he is cold is because he has got used to standing next to a fire that is so large he is actually cooking himself!!!

I believe there is some sort of red indian saying about white men and their fires, I can't remember it off the top of my head but it was funny! Some times a big blaze is nice, but there is a time and a place for it and it's called Guy Fawkes night!!

I think it's something along the lines of
"Indian build a tiny fire and huddle close for warmth, white man build a blaze and has to stand back and freeze"

 

[spamel]

That sounds about right!! Cheers!!

 

[Ogri the trog]

I think it's something along the lines of
"Indian build a tiny fire and huddle close for warmth, white man build a blaze and has to stand back and freeze"

I thought it was;-
Indian make small fire - keep warm,
White man build big fire and keep warm by fetching more and more wood!

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[leon-b]

i thought it was
indian makes a small fire and sits close
white man makes a big fire and sits far away
leon

 

[outdoorgirl]

I agree with Ogri - I had always thought it was 'Indian build small fire and keep warm; White man build big fire and keep warm collecting wood'...

Seems there are many versions, as a quick Google shows...

The principle is always the same though - it's not necessary to have a large fire to either keep warm, or cook.

ODG

 

[Squidders]

There are lots of people who don't know how to make a good fire with an appropriate size and I find that instead of being an elitist snob and sitting there chuckling at them, actually helping them works better.

Just because I have a small degree of camp ettiquette and knowledge that doesn't make me better. I am able to get over the fact that they may not have known to ask to use the communal firepit and just offer some assistance.

I think sharing my knowledge is a wonderful thing.

It's like laughing at your child when they can't do long division without helping them, its just mean.

 

[Wayland]

You don't have to look that far to find the same behaviour at bushcraft meets.

Just watch the kids. Left to their own devices they will add every burnable scrap within 100m to the fire.

 

[Rod]

You don't have to look that far to find the same behaviour at bushcraft meets.

Just watch the kids. Left to their own devices they will add every burnable scrap within 100m to the fire.

And try to poke each others eyes out with sharp sticks