Charcoal vs wood campfires

[West Texan]

Re: Charcoal vs wood campfires

At the lake, I'll do wood fire, out hiking in NM go fire free as it ain't allowed.

[luv2scrapinva]

Re: Charcoal vs wood campfires

The wood/Charcoal combo works well. You get the look of a REAL fire and the charcoal speeds up the process.

Last camping trip I bought wood but from my previous trip and disappointing Fire I also brought Charcoal. I put the wood out the mixed in some charcoal to help get the fire going. Had a nice fire then.

[ppine]

Re: Charcoal vs wood campfires

I agree that charcoal can be a nice addition to a wood fire that is reluctant to take off. Good for a cooking fire.

Oak pallets make good firewood. They are easy to break apart. Just watch out for all of those nails or screws used to hold them together.

[Coastie]

Re: Charcoal vs wood campfires

Yes the first time I went out I had a heck of a time getting the fire going. So second time i took charcoal along as well and did wonders.

[Moss]

Re: Charcoal vs wood campfires



Found a good spot on Craigslist for free pallets, this was about 1/4 of the stack they were offering, about 5 minutes from my house, no need for appointments, take as many as you want! Spent 3 hours breaking them down today, plenty to burn in the home fire pit, I break 'em down for great kindling.

[Irate Mormon]

Re: Charcoal vs wood campfires

Interesting idea - pallets are usually made of oak. Good wood if you don't have any deadfalls you can cut up.

[NYCgrrl]

Re: Charcoal vs wood campfires

I use charcoal to start my firewood but that's it for the minute.
I adhere to the fire regulations in whatever state I'm in cause it's not that difficult for me to comply and I'd have to buy burning supplies anyway.

[MacGyver]

Re: Charcoal vs wood campfires

The picture I posted on page two of this thread, with a bed load of wood pulled from the forest, is now obsolete for me. There are far too many places around here that sell seasoned firewood in small quantities that it's much easier to just buy what I need for whatever length trip I'm going on. In a slighter larger version of batoning the wood into smaller pieces, I split most of the typical quarter round chunks of wood into halves or thirds, leaving several big pieces to give us a good bed of coals for starting it up the next day. With a good hatchet and a good... no... great splitting axe, the chore doesn't feel like work at all. I just file it under "one of those things you just gotta do while camping".

[CampingMama]

Re: Charcoal vs wood campfires

We buy firewood at the camp store for cooking fire, but also will go log hunting too. We camp in Tn, you can't cut down tree's but you can use any fallen logs. We take charcoal for the grill and use it some. We mainly cook over the campfire. The hubs always brings a full size ax us and it's handy for chopping up big pieces of logs or even the already split stuff. My fav part of camping is cooking over the fire. I don't care if it's a steak or a s'more. The hubs makes a mean white gravy over a wood fire too.

[Mike]

Re: Charcoal vs wood campfires

Camping Mama: "The Hubs"??

Ha ha ha

Somehow it doesn't sound particularly endearing, I suppose a feller might be called worse

[MacGyver]

Re: Charcoal vs wood campfires

I suppose a feller might be called worse

If I mentioned what my ex-wife's pet name for me was, I'd get banned from here.

[CampingMama]

Re: Charcoal vs wood campfires

HAHAHA! I HATE the word Hubby! I'll just refer to him as DH from now on, hows that, lol! Y'all ain't right! :P

[Mike]

Re: Charcoal vs wood campfires

Definitely not charcoal

Wow that is a great idea, I wonder why more people don't think of it - including me. Actually, car camping in developed campsites is a little bit new for me. I spent most of my life wilderness camping where firewood was never a problem, so even this common-sense solution seems brilliant. Thanks for the great suggestion, McGyver

So, last weekend I gave it a try. Of course, the campgrounds were thoroughly picked clean of firewood. I checked out the local wood sellers and figured I needed about $20 worth of pre-cut wood for a modest one-night campfire.

I only had to drive about 3/4 of a mile away from the entrance to a National Forest campsite to find a fire-lane road into the forest. I pulled in a few yards, took out my bow saw, and in about 20 minutes had more than enough excellent wood for a nice bonfire that night.

Just as an aside note, I brought a big bow-saw which made fast work of cutting the wood, but I wish I also had an axe or good hatchet to limb some of the wood so that I could have cleaned it up and stacked it into the back of our hatchback.

[actad]

Re: Charcoal vs wood campfires

On our last camping trip in October, I continued to use just my pocket stove for the ambiance of a fire. I only wanted to toast a few marshmallows. I had some packaged dried applewood chunks used for grilling that caught fire easily and smelled wonderful. They were the perfect size for the pocket stove.

DH went in early as it was too cold for him outside. I regretted not buying a load of firewood and having a full fledged fire for the warmth. I was still in summer mode, I guess, where the warmth of a fire is not necessary.

[brewmandan]

Re: Charcoal vs wood campfires

"It ain't camping if you don't have a campfire (and s'mores)" is my thoughts. I like using firewood for my campfires, but sometimes we'll use charcoal for meals.