Campfires suck.

[spaceweaseal]

This whole thing is starting to smell, and I don't mean from the smoke.

[dman]

I would get up on my soap box about how much fire has done for mankind and my personal camping experiences but I ran out of wood and had to burn the box.

[Refreshing]

IF you know which trash will burn in a fire, you won't see any unburned trash after the fire. You mean to tell me that you've never seen anyone throw a paper towel, Hershey's foil or Ramen wrapper in a fire? I'd prefer to see it consumed there than spend a couple of decades in a land fill.

After blowing my nose into some TP i have thrown it into a fire but i use TP as fire starter so I guess I never considered that trash, but it is of course, haha. Other than that I always pack out what I pack in and wont hike with anyone that doesnt follow this rule. But the landfill thing makes sense so I wouldnt fight my hiking buddy if he wanted to toss a ramen wrapper into the fire.

[koaloha05]

Clicked "hate". Closest option. For back country & stealth camping no fire outside of the BushBuddy for cooking. Yes to campfire when car camping at parks if allowed & wood is relatively inexpensive.

[TFC Rick]

I too like to drink and play games with animals, but find they taste better after being flame tickled.

[ontariohanger]

When canoeing in northern Ontario its almost ALWAYS mandatory to have a fire.
it keeps the black flies and mosquitoes at bay, which is amazing even if its 26 degrees out. (that's Celsius people )

a man could get carried away by those pests

[BillyBob58]

I've camped without a fire when unsure about the rules or wanted to be alone. fire can be seen for a great distance (maybe an advantage of having one sometimes) and didn't want visitors coming from near by. But most of the time a fire is nice.

As far as caring for the environment... If you do not wish to pollute we might as well just stay out of the woods entirely or kill ourselves. You expel CO2, methane, pee, poop and consume resources as long as you live. And even having any number of people doing this and beating trails while in the forest could/is "disrupting it". At the very least you drove to the trail or park anyhow before you hiked.

In my mind pollution/consumption is not a sin; its waste which is sin. If it costs something for us to survive and enjoy nature- so be it, but don't unnecessarily waste it. The question is not "are you polluting?" but rather are you doing something that will serve you, enhance your experience and enjoyment of nature or is it just excess.

Well said, Silverfoot! This reminds me of when I took my NOLS course 25 years ago. My instructors were super gung ho leave no trace. And not a bad over all guiding principle. But at some point, things get a little ridiculous and lacking logic.

For instance, fire rings, especially existing fire rings. ( relating to the OP) Way before us gangs of 20 well to do kids and a few adults got there on these trails, there were cowboys on horses making these trails, still used for some trips and rescue. Before them were the Indians. For hundreds or thousands of years. Before them were the animals making game trails. We would either obsessively walk right in the center of the trails- always staying in the muck and making the rut ever deeper- or travel off trail scattered so as not to concentrate the wear by lots of folks in one area. Etc. Well, that's reasonable I guess. But it's not like we are the 1st to walk these trails or even off trail. The best way to really leave no trace would be to stay home at least.

But back to the fire rings. We would either make our fires on sand from the rivers and return it, or cut out the equivalent of sod, have the fire on the rocky surface underneath, and spread the charcoal next day, replacing the sod. I think there was even talk of breaking down fire rings, though I don't remember if we actually did this.

But I'm thinking: the fire rings are already here, have been here for who knows how long. Maybe before any recreational back packer ever showed up here. Why not just use the existing fire rings?

We would fish for food, as well as catch and release. We would leave the entails out on rocks so that predators/birds would be attracted to it and clean it up, being careful not to discard them in the rivers. But all of these millions of fish- most of which we never catch and clean- aren't they dying sooner or later in the rivers anyway? What happens to their bodies, including entrails?

Why is it no problem if a bear digs up the ground to get a ground squirrel or turns over boulders to get at moths, and OK if the Elk make all kinds of game trails, but some folks would get upset if I leave a foot print some where in areas where people have gone for millennia? And again, the only way to really leave no trace is to stay home, or even better not be born.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not against making an effort to leave no trace, or as little as reasonably possible. But if we are going to go out there at all, at some point it just seems to get a little obsessive and even illogical.

I mean, if you are digging holes to bury your waste, and burning fossil fuels to cook and avoiding fires, and wearing manufactured clothing to stay warm, are you really leaving NO trace?

[Two Tents]

If I am on a long hike and doing a lot of miles I don't care to do the wood collecting for a fire. I'll sit by it if someone else has one but I ain't helpin get wood. In winter when I'm set up to stay in camp longer then I''l get wood and tend a fire-a little bit.. I find that quite a few fire lovers I know want to put way more wood on than is needed. That's why I could care less about a fire. A small fire does not need a truck load of wood but good luck with trying to keep the bigger fire lovers from constantly putting wood on.

[sargevining]

Fire is for sissies.

I eat my oatmeal raw in the morning, and I chew my coffee beans, then gargle with warm water to brew it up. If I think I want to have some meat on my trip, why I wear my corduroy trousers, then rub the meat back and forth over them until friction cooks it medium well. Sure I end up with the flesh on my outer thighs red and blistered, but its a small price to pay for a hot meal. Don't try it with burgers, though. If its dark outside and I need light, I just pick up a piece of trail wood and smack myself twixt the peepers with it. I see all sorts of lights then, and the experience has caused me to develope superior night vision to keep from having to do it so many times.

You can see the weight savings I getting. We're talking ounces here, man, not just grams.

[Dos]

The principal use of campfires in this day and age is social.

Well, I built my own house from the ground up within the last 20 years, even amongst this modern way of doing things.
I used fire to cook, I used fire to bathe in a cast iron tub, I used fire to heat, I used fire to enjoy my hard work at the of the day.

Fire is a way in nature to purge and renew as well.

I will always use fire in safe amounts as is required by my being regardless of what modern homo sapiens argue for or against with their ego.

It's a part of nature.