Maybe I'm easy to make happy, but it always makes me happy when the previous camper leaves his/her/their fire-poking stick. Consequently, I always leave one, along with a piece of lighter pine and a little fire wood, if I have any left.
Like you froggie I had learned from others and always tried to leave some firewood, poking stick etc for the next campers. This was especially true in my backpacking and canoe camping days. I used this credo in campgrounds until I discovered that most of the campgrounds I frequent have crews that go around and pick up anything left by the previous campers. Yeah, they go around and pick up firewood and any valuables left behind. Some clean the fireplaces. I can tell you they don't pick up all the trash left behind.... Some eager beavers even picked up some solar light posts I had put in a sunny spot to recharge. Took us the entire day to get them back. That said, I take my left over firewood home but do leave the poking stick....
We usually leave partial bundles for the next camper. Don't use a stick for fire management. Picked up fireplace tongs at a garage sale and it's great for moving the wood around.
At the SP's in Ohio that we go to the park host goes around and picks up the wood that is left behind. So I take my home. I bought a nice 3ft. long porker at Menards for $4.00
I have been the beneficiary of leftover firewood. Our last trip was really great, on the first night, we had a heavy all night rain. The next morning, these campers in tents across from us started packing up. On their way out they stopped by my site and said they had gotten soaked and had enough. They said if I wanted to go get it, they left all their wood at the site. I thanked them and went to look at it thinking it would be soaked. I was very surprised to see it had been covered and was completely dry. Not only that, there was more than enough for the rest of the weekend. If I have leftover wood, I always leave it for the next campers too. It's less to pack up. But as far as the poker, I have never been that lucky. I got tired of looking for good ones all the time, so like ghacker, I found a nice fireplace poker, and keep it in the tube on the back of my camper.
I used to enjoy the search for a poker stick til the one trip I couldn't find one. Now, I carry along a fireplace poker.
I can't believe how many times we yelled at our kids this past weekend when they played with poking sticks in the fire. Once they were asleep and the adults were gathered around the fire I couldn't believe how all of us men had to get our sticks in the fire to move stuff around LOL Pokin' in the fire must be in our nature...
The vast majority of our camping is National Forest C/G's and those are usually the ones with minimal facilities ... (the way we like it) ... and most always they are the fishing spots, too. The NFS uses a certain fire grate and it is the fisherman's code to leave the fire poke stick through the metal loops of the grate for the net guy. Now, if you don't like the stick, then burn it and find your own, but leave that one!
VT SPs clear the site, including the fire pit, so the wood often gets tossed into the woods behind the campsite or taken back to the ranger station to be resold. We usually hand carry our leftover wood to someone who looks to be staying a few days - especially if they look like newbies.
We tend to find campers staying longer than us and offer the extra firewood to them. This was done for us the first time out. It made a lasting impression. As far as pokers go, I use a large set of tongs picked up at a landscape center. They're a little larger and more heavy duty than your standard fire place poker. Works great for grabbing hold of logs to turn them.
I usually bring leftover firewood home. The rangers don't leave it for the next campers. Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2
Yes it's a man thing. . No it's not my DW plays in the fire more than me. We cook over the fire a good bit. So you have to get the coals in the right spot. A fire poker is one way to do that.
Yeah... we find that it is often necessary to rearrange things to reinvigorate the fire as it burns down.
I have an iron poker with a hook on the end . I do most of my cooking around the open fire so a good sturdy poker for lifting the DO out of the coals is a must. As far as leaving wood behind I will take any wood I find at any empty camp and I leave any wood I don't use behind . We boon dock but I have in the past driven through campgrounds and grabbed left behind wood, especially if were arriving later in the day and need a fire before dark.
