Step 6: Other stuff, that you never think about
clothesline and clothespins - A good strong cord or rope strung between trees will do for drying towels and clothes that got wet. remembering to pack about a dozen clothespins will help keep things on the line while they dry.
babywipes - these things clean up EVERYTHING!!! I am a firm believer that whoever it was that invented them needs an award.
bag up a set of clothes - if you are planning to make any stops on the way home, it is nice to have a set of clothes that don't stink like campfire when you "return to civilization"
walkie-talkies - because you don't always get good cell phone reception in the mountains it is nice to have a set of walkie-talkies to maintain contact when you are not all together. You can get a decent pair of walkie-talkies for less than 30 bucks. The ones we have are listed as having a 2 mile range.
Spares - Spares of what? anything consumable. Mantles for your lantern, batteries for your flashlights and walkie-talkies, flashlights in case one or more gets lost or broken(especially if your little kids are prone to get a hold of them).
Wet weather gear - Ponchos don't take up a lot of space, but you will be very upset if the weather turns wet and snotty and you forget to pack one for everybody.
fire starters - It never hurts to have more than one way to start a fire (light, matches, fire stick, etc). For almost as long as I can remember I have been in charge of the campfire. I had to get the wood, get the fire going, and keep it going. My dad used to challenge me to build my fire smart so that all it took was one match to get it going. I still like to make at least one "one match" fire on each trip to keep in practice, but for most of the fires I will use a starter stick rather than fuss with gathering up a lot of kindling. The fire starters basically amount to a miniaturized duraflame log. Just light it and it will burn for quite a while to get your small and medium sized wood to catch and start your big logs burning. The fancy ones even come with one end tipped with a matchhead-like substance so all you have to do it strike it on the box and Viola .. you have fire.
water container - it is really depressing to get your camp set up and then realizing that the nearest water source is a few hundred yards away and the biggest container you have is a medium sized saucepan.
Zip ties - second only to the almighty Duct Tape, zip ties have hundreds of uses and don't take up a lot of space.
babywipes - these things clean up EVERYTHING!!! I am a firm believer that whoever it was that invented them needs an award.
bag up a set of clothes - if you are planning to make any stops on the way home, it is nice to have a set of clothes that don't stink like campfire when you "return to civilization"
walkie-talkies - because you don't always get good cell phone reception in the mountains it is nice to have a set of walkie-talkies to maintain contact when you are not all together. You can get a decent pair of walkie-talkies for less than 30 bucks. The ones we have are listed as having a 2 mile range.
Spares - Spares of what? anything consumable. Mantles for your lantern, batteries for your flashlights and walkie-talkies, flashlights in case one or more gets lost or broken(especially if your little kids are prone to get a hold of them).
Wet weather gear - Ponchos don't take up a lot of space, but you will be very upset if the weather turns wet and snotty and you forget to pack one for everybody.
fire starters - It never hurts to have more than one way to start a fire (light, matches, fire stick, etc). For almost as long as I can remember I have been in charge of the campfire. I had to get the wood, get the fire going, and keep it going. My dad used to challenge me to build my fire smart so that all it took was one match to get it going. I still like to make at least one "one match" fire on each trip to keep in practice, but for most of the fires I will use a starter stick rather than fuss with gathering up a lot of kindling. The fire starters basically amount to a miniaturized duraflame log. Just light it and it will burn for quite a while to get your small and medium sized wood to catch and start your big logs burning. The fancy ones even come with one end tipped with a matchhead-like substance so all you have to do it strike it on the box and Viola .. you have fire.
water container - it is really depressing to get your camp set up and then realizing that the nearest water source is a few hundred yards away and the biggest container you have is a medium sized saucepan.
Zip ties - second only to the almighty Duct Tape, zip ties have hundreds of uses and don't take up a lot of space.
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They collapse and take less space as they get used up Plus have a dispenser cap already built in.
Or steel wool and a 9V battery can be fun.
Newspaper, rolled into a rod, tied with bits of twine, cut to 1-2" lengths and dipped in paraffin wax will light even slightly damp kindling.
you can carry several with bits if tin foil in a leak-proof container, such as a waterproof containersold to hold matches for camping. load each cotton ball, presoaked in petroleum jelly, with an individual patch of tinfoil, say 2.5 inches in diameter, in the middle of a respective u-shaped bit of string, so that each cotton ball and folded tin foil base can be retrieved by pulling the ends of the associated length of sting. all the string ends are kept near the mouth of the container as you pack in the balls.
In my scout corps we teach the scouts from age 10 and up to make fires without firestarters in normal conditions. (Normal would mean temperatures from -15 to +30 degrees Celsius, from sunshine to light rain and not too much wind, probably less than 6 m/s, when they can do this and from about age 13 we challange them with more severe weather conditions)
They get a small axe, a knife and 3 matches for the firestarting to get the merit badge. Of course there is some other requisites for getting the badge, like knowing where to find kindling and wood, types of wood and their qualities and a number of types of fires for different uses. We have seen that after they learn this they take pride in knowing how to make a fire and doesn't need any firestarters.
What will you do if you use up your firestarters? What if you loose them? When you don't practice your skills you'll loose them too. :-)
Keep camping and start your fires "naturally".
Happy trails, Jim
Counting on a fire starter as your sole method of making a fire can definitely have its drawbacks.
Knowing how to make a fire several different ways, but using a fire starter because it is easier is a different story.
I agree with you that if you don't keep practicing your skills you will have problems when you are in a situation that you need them. That is why I make sure to practice making a "one match fire" at least once each camping trip.
Next year's camping trip I will start teaching my oldest how to build and light a fire properly, and as the little ones get older they will learn too.
You can never have too many practical skills in your repertoire.