Fail: Pacific Coast

Everything was wet
Once while traveling though the northwest, I’ve spent the night camping off the coast of Oregon. Nobody told me that the area receives a lot of rain. So, there I was trying to start my fire with very soaked sticks and wet pine needles. I tried everything to start that fire, even using lots of starter fluid, but nothing lasted. As a result, I spent a cold, damp, wet night in the rain.

Pass: Let’s Make Dry Wood

Split the wood to find the dry core
Most of the time wood is just wet on the outside. You can chop the sides off to get to the dry core. This will give you plenty of dry firewood to burn. Now, to start your fire you will need some dry kindling. First, get your knife or axe and strip some bark away from a tree. Then you can peel off some dry strips of wood. Don’t do this too much to any one tree because they need their bark to survive.

Dig down for dry needles
The rain will only soak the top layer of needles on the ground. If you dig down, you will find dry pine needles to start your fire. Also, look inside tree trunks for dry kindling.

Dry your logs next to the fire
While you are waiting for the fire to get big enough for logs, you can place them on the sides of the fire to dry out. You will notice smoke coming from them, but don’t worry they will not catch on fire. When the smoke ends you’ve got a dry log to burn.