Isle Royale Forums

Where fire rings are available, is there a designated supply of fire wood? Don't want to sound lazy, just don't want to violate any rules when scavenging down, dead wood.

And, where fire rings are available, are they usually one ring per campsite, or are there sometimes shared "communal" campfire sites?

Most spots, the rings, are shared communal; a few have elevated grills to use.

There is no designated supply of wood, unless some from previous fires had leftovers.

There, also, isn't a lot of down stuff to gather. Most of it they, prefer to, let the forest re-cycle.

This place isn't a "car camping" type of place.

Stoves are the way to go; LNT.

Hi Eddy,

Get a copy of the Greenstone (the Park newspaper) - it has the campgrounds listed and shows which have individual and which have group rings. The individual ones are generally the "grill on a post" type. There is no stash of wood - the Park suggests gathering from a wide area away from the campground and not using driftwood or old beaver lodges.

It's generally more of a hassle to have a fire than it's worth.

Bob

As always, thanks for the feedback. We're planning to be fully reliant on backpack stoves, but it might be nice to include a foilpack fish dinner or share a small social campfire sometime during our 6 day visit. Or will the bugs suck the enjoyment out of an evening campfire anyway?

eddy_line wrote:As always, thanks for the feedback. We're planning to be fully reliant on backpack stoves, but it might be nice to include a foilpack fish dinner or share a small social campfire sometime during our 6 day visit. Or will the bugs suck the enjoyment out of an evening campfire anyway?

Mosquitoes are variable, but often it's too cold for them once it gets dark. Anyway, if you sit in the smoke you'll be OK.

Bob

In my experience the firewood gathering takes more time than the actual burning of said wood

The bar-bque grates in Rok Harbor had kindling and firewood stacked next to them. Forewood should not be a problem this summer with all the trees down

If you like to camp with a little bit of fire at your campsite you could consider a wood burning stove. These are not your typical hobo tin can deals but twig burners that either have battery fans or other methods to create a vortex of air that creates a very small, very hot fire. I remember someone else asking the Rangers and they were OK with them and did not consider them "open fire" because they have about as much fire as some gas stoves and they are only burning twigs, which they burn very efficiently.

I have kinda gotten away from wood burning fires since doing LNT (which I might add, a twig burning is OK with). When smoke gets into damp, sweaty, clothing that you are wearing for days on end, it smells terrible.

PatrickBDunlap wrote:If you like to camp with a little bit of fire at your campsite you could consider a wood burning stove. These are not your typical hobo tin can deals but twig burners that either have battery fans or other methods to create a vortex of air that creates a very small, very hot fire. I remember someone else asking the Rangers and they were OK with them and did not consider them "open fire" because they have about as much fire as some gas stoves and they are only burning twigs, which they burn very efficiently.

I have kinda gotten away from wood burning fires since doing LNT (which I might add, a twig burning is OK with). When smoke gets into damp, sweaty, clothing that you are wearing for days on end, it smells terrible.

I actually like the smell. The Native Americans used to take "smoke baths". It smells better than I do after a week on the trail

Mr Blister wrote:The Native Americans used to take "smoke baths". It smells better than I do after a week on the trail

There is still such a thing in use today called a Smoke Sauna. I have taken them on my trips to Finland. Instead of a modern heat source such as electric or hot water heating the rock pile they fill the entire room with hot smoke. Once the room and rocks reach working temperature the smoke is blown out (sort of). Then you go in, sitting on blackened benches in your undernothings.

PatrickBDunlap wrote:I have kinda gotten away from wood burning fires since doing LNT (which I might add, a twig burning is OK with). When smoke gets into damp, sweaty, clothing that you are wearing for days on end, it smells terrible.

We sometimes carry a forced-air twig burner. This can actually assist the LNT concept as we burn the charcoal that others leave in fire rings. The forced-air stoves reduce the fuel to a fine white ash that can be distributed about leaving no visible trace.

The grills at some sites are fine but IMHO the fire rings should be sold for scrap and open ground fires banned.