Camping pet peeves

Here on the east coast most states don't allow transportation of fire wood over state lines because of the Asian Longhorned Beetle problem and other pests. So that leaves us to buy wood at the campgrounds, most of the time the wood has been okay but there has been a few times where the wood looked green which then forces us to look at the local supermarket or nearby road side stand which sometimes is not much better.

Not always easy to find dry/seasoned wood.

Mike

 

We get around this in Wisconsin with the Emerald Ash Beetle problem by taking kiln dried wood with, primarily pallets cut up to exclude the nails. Burns hot, very hot, and long. You can also buy manufactured fireplace logs. There is also a listing of firewood dealers that have been approved to sell bug-free firewood that will be allowed in most State Parks.

 

Ha! I had my pallet wood confiscated by a WI park ranger - told me that's how "the beetle" got into the states... the DNR had to BURN it.... apparently they thought I was going to pack it all into the forest and erect an illegal brothel or something! Sorry - just venting - I am very certain WI DNR has a much better method of BURNING WOOD than I do!

 

Yes, that's was all state departments do with confiscated uncertified wood, burn it. It seems that many people (campers) leave unburned portions.

 

I would have just camped next to where the were burning the wood.

My neighbor is a supervisor at a local sawmill, they have a huge kiln.
I can get kiln dried wood in sizes from thin scraps to 6 inch square blocks that are average a foot long.

The bad part is, if you don't keep them dry they absorb moisture VERY easily.

 

I get my wood at a company that makes sheds. They have a big dumpster full of wood scraps.

 

Son in law works at a flower box company. They mostly work with PVC, but must have some cedar as well. He brings home truckloads of scrap chunks of cedar.

 

Must be nice to even be able to have a campfire. Maybe this year we'll be able to have them.

I've done everything from boondocking to asphalt camping. I can pretty much sleep through any noise and I'm usually the one to put the fire out at night. I used to camp quite a bit at Oceano Dunes SVRA (aka Pismo Dunes) surrounded by all kinds of internal combustion powered stuff. If you can sleep in a tent with all that noise nothing will bother you.

I learned a long time ago to just not care what other people have and do (camping or otherwise). It's none of my business. If they want to drop $2M on a coach, more power to them. I camped with people who spent $30K on a toy hauler and they were checking out my camp kitchen setup on the back of my truck (strapped the ramp across the bed rails for a shelf). Had an old Coleman stove and one of those Camp Chef Oven/Stove (the stove sucks!) on the tailgate.

 

Based on the amount of rain you've have this winter, you must have high hopes!

 

You can get one of these that is a bit more fashionable for a couple hundred dollars more, but these work great.
https://www.ucogear.com/portable-gr...d-firepit-gr--fpg?returnurl=/portable-grills/

 

If in California get your fire permit from calfire website. Let's you have fires and use stoves unless it's a major fire warning.

 

It's the unburned wood that is th problem. Folks leave it lying around the campsite and the bugs move out to living trees and destroy.

 

I carry a chainsaw and axe, simply get a firewood permit when I apply for the camp permit. Or if my son is bringing his Ram we will just rob from the house wood.

Any deadfall is allowable, no cutting of standing timber. Quite often they will clearcut an area and allow locals to cut and carry nice rounds.

This is in state though.. I don't carry the weight if i'm traveling any distance.

Buying wood sucks.. which is why I try to leave enough for a decent hot fire for the next guy.

 

One can hope! Though we might not be able to get up into the forest until July. Another week or so and we'll see what the snow pack looks like. The last snow survey was 2/1 and we've been dumped on since then.

 

I used to have a fold up grill like that. Well, the same idea. Worked well. No idea where it came from as I found it in my parents' camp gear when I started camping so it would be over 40 years old now.

 

Tahoe got 9 feet just in the last week, so that area should be pretty well moisturized when it thaws!

 

We've had good moisture levels all last summer and this winter as well. Although most of the moisture over the winter is lake water... We did get a nice snow late yesterday and overnight which wasn't lake snow. Maybe 14" which brings us to around 220 for the year. They say the lake is going to be high, come spring melt.

 

Our main problem is that if we get a lot of rain in the spring then our reservoirs and rivers overflow from the combination of rain and snow melt, so they have to release water from the reservoirs to prevent the flooding. So we end up losing all that water we were lucky to get and end up in another drought.

We do better when we get more rain in fall and early winter because we use a lot of it before the snow melt happens - keeping the reservoirs at a more even level year round.

 

BOR just announced yesterday or the day before the initial water allotments for the year. The level 1 users are getting 100%. Some users as low as 35%. That's the initial pessimistic allotments since we still have another month of snowfall. They also need to get rid of 150,000 acre feet from Millerton Lake next month to make room so they don't have to do flood releases in April (currently 75% of capacity). That's just Central Valley Project (Federal) water.

 

This is the critical point of the year.