Fires on the A T

imported
#1

Over my 25 years hiking in the south on the A T I have noticed how big some of the fire rings have become and how little the dead wood source has gotten to. All though i like a good fire as much as the next person. Some of the shelters fire rings have gotten way to big and the loss of fire wood has gotten a lot worse over the years. What can we as hikers do to prevent the shelter areas become as prestine as the rest of the hike. Me and my brother usally rebuild the fire rings to a smaller form and come back only to find them larger the next time we come back.

D Welborn

#2

One of the seven principles of Leave no trace is to minimize fire impacts.

There are several techniques that can be used, including a fire pan, etc., but I have not seen them used along the AT. But perhaps the biggest impact of fires is not the fire ring itself but rather the “human brouse line” created by firewood gathering.

Several areas have campfire bans, mainly because of the impact from years gone by.

Bottom line, if we really want to reduce the impact of campfire, then just don’t have a campfire. I realize this is contrary to everyone’s vision of camping and so forth, but most thru-hikers don’t cook over the fire, and we don’t dry clothing over a fire, so a fire really isn’t necessary most of the time.

Peaks

#3

If theres’s no wood, soon there will be no fires and then the rings will get smaller.

Virginian

#4

“What can we as hikers do to prevent the shelter areas become as prestine as the rest of the hike. Me and my brother usally rebuild the fire rings to a smaller form and come back only to find them larger the next time we come back.”

It seems your doing more than most people… thank you.
TB

TB

#5

I see a lot of overly large fire rings near the shelters too. I have found that the rings get larger and taller over time. This is mainly due to incomplete burning of the wood in the ring. Often, the charcoal base is quite deep. There are two options here. Take the time to widely disperse some of the charcoal. Not the semi-burnt logs, but the finer stuff. Or, stay up late enough so that the fire is hot and burn the wood down to ash. Stop putting wood on the fire early enough in the evening to do this. If you can’t burn it down to ashes, don’t light it.

Alligator

#6

That’s fire maintenance, not “fair maintenance”, we don’t want to burn down the local festivities.:eek:

Alligator

#7

I always thought a fire violated the leave no trace policy so I would only start one if I get stupid and have to save my or someone else’s life with one. Oh, Alligator, fair maintenance works better, more poetic.

Blue Jay

#8

LNT doesn’t apply to a 500yd. radius around any shelter. It’s a joke actually.

Lone Wolf

#9

The seven LNT suggested guidelines apply to any area, depending on the choices and behaviors of the individuals who make up their own mind about how to treat our public lands. A lot of people care about future generations, and have a desire to save what we enjoy for others. Many others do not care at all. It boils down to individual character and ethics.

THA WOOKIE

#10

As a former Boy Scout and current Scout leader, I’ve grown up with campfires. It just didn’t feel like you were camping if there wasn’t a fire burning. As an ice-breaker and social stimulus, nothing beats a campfire. Even the shyest of boys enjoys the easy fellowship that seems to surround every campfire.

I never thought I’d be saying this, but I enjoy our troop’s no campfire policy on our annual section-hikes of the A-T. It’s just not necessary. Wood cooking fires for boiling water are highly inefficient and make your cooking gear filthy. Most of the time we’re so spent after a day’s hiking that we just can’t wait to get to sleep, so we typically have no desire to stay up very late. If you’re really cold, you’re usually better off to climb into your sleeping bag than to stand around a campfire. It’s also nice to come home without all your gear smelling like it spent a week hanging in a smokehouse.

As part of the trail maintenance requirement for the Scouting 50-miler award, our crew picks up trash along the trail and around the shelters. We’re always amazed at how much non-burnable trash (or unburned trash) is left in the fire rings. An awful lot of hikers treat the fire rings as their backwoods dumpsters. On our section hike of the Smokies in 1999, we must have piked up (and hauled out) at least 15 pounds of trash in the short section between Newfound Gap and Davenport Gap!

Wounded Knee