I thought I'd never use one of these

[bill m]

I made a trip from Lake Chelan ( Wash. St.) through to Hwy 20 North Cascades Hwy. I had a hiking partner that I'd done one trip with. I thought we played well together. So we did another.

Well, he's a smuggler because he knows how I am about weight. I looked at the stuff in his pack before we left and all looked good. By the way, he got to watch me load mine. So we both saw each others stuff.

Well, it's about 4 days into the hike. It's hot. We're stinking. And what does he do? He pulls a fricken solar shower out of his pack. I'd a called him all kinds of whimp names if I had seen that at the house. I would have had him leave it behind. On long hikes, ALL weight is important.

I held my toungue. I watched him hang it up. Then he says, "This thing holds enough water for two showers! My mouth started watering. I started thinking about my stinky self. My clothes were soaked. The creek, which is my usual bath tub was frigid cold. I gave it a try.

I love that guy! He was my hero for the rest of the day. It was hot water and it worked beautifully! I am probably going to get one. It hurts to say that. It's age.

He was suprised that I didn't see it before we left. I don't miss much. But I have to say that at that moment in time, I was happy I missed it.

[DancesWithKnives]

If the lakes and creeks are too cold, I usually just warm a pot of water over the fire but one of my good friends carries a solar shower on backpacking trips. It's worth it to keep the girlfriend clean and happy. I take one on raft/canoe/4WD/horse trips but not backpacking.

For 4WD truck camping I have one of the powered showers from www.zodi.com. I can get by with less myself, but the gals sure like the idea.

DWK

[Rock Chuck]

They also make bath sized moist towelettes. One or at the most 2 can get you fairly clean. Their big advantage is in bad weather when a solar showers don't work and they can be used inside a tent. Hint: they contain alcohol and can freeze your sweet tail off. I drop the pack in hot water for a couple min. to warm them up.

This is just one brand. There are others.
http://media.rei.com/media/kk/aee9a990-5d56-46da-b676-23d2f7b101e7.jpg

[bill m]

I also usually just heat some water up in my cook pot. I spit bath so to speak.
But I tell you, I have never felt so rejuvinated as I did after that shower.
As long as he packs it, no problem. But I am tempted to look into them.

[bill m]

I have always thought that a flint would be a good thing to have; and to know how to use.
I've seen them on survivor try to use them. There's always the guys who think they know how to use them, and the guys who do know how to use them that just remain silent until the know-it-alls make fools of themselves or get lucky.
But I have never used one and am not foolish enough to say that I do. I can tell that there is a system to it.
I wonder how long they last before you have to replace them? What's the tricks to being sucessful with one?

[GF.]

Flints are easy. All you have to do is get a good shower of sparks into something that's willing to ignite at the touch of a spark!

Which is why I never pass up a chance to top up my supply of birch bark - that stuff's the next best thing to trioxane, and a hell of a lot easier to come by in the woods, as a rule. Personally, I've never had a lot of use for the magnesium block types, though I've owned several. Yeah, it might make all the difference one day if you were in a bad spot and were willing to do a lot of damage to your knife in order to get a substantial pile of Mg shavings built up, but short of really saving my bacon, I feel guilty about trashing a good blade and rankly, if it all really hits the fan, I'm not sure that farting around shaving metal off of a block is something a guy would feel like he had much time for. Best time to build a fire is a good hour before you really need it.

So nowadays I carry a 'big' flint rod - one of the Swedish ones - and leave the Mg behind. Any kind of really good, dry tinder will do, so long as it's fine enough, so the real trick (IMO) is to have plenty of stuff on hand that's the next size up, and the next size after that and the next after that. Otherwise, you may as well put a match to a wet log and wait for lightning to strike it.

I've always wondered, though... a magnet will pull iron filings out of sand like nobody's business, and since steel wool makes pretty good tinder, then what'd be the difference between iron filings, steel wool, and the Mg?

[bill m]

Sounds like a challenge GF.
You know, I goofed. I meant for this to be a new thread. Glad you found it.
Do you know a website that has those Swedish flint rods? I'd like to look at one.

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

0000 steel wool burns like crazy and is perfect for starting a fire with flint and steel. My understanding is that it burns so well partially because of the oil that covers it from the milling processes that produce it. Even steel wool is of little use unless you have lots of tinder and a progression of dry fuel. I hardly ever stray too far from the truck but I can always put my hands on a lighter (butane), some matches, a couple of candles, a magnesium fire starter and the ground in our area is covered with flint. I always have a knife.

I have a magnesium fire starter in the boat, along with all of the above and some trioxane bars. The magnesium will burn hot enough to start damp (not wet) tinder if you play your cards right. If I'm stranded in the boat we're going to have a gasoline fire going anyway. Unless I'm stranded because I ran out of gas.

Alan

[bill m]

Save that gas!
I have always kept birthday candles in my pack. I can only remember using them a couple of times; one of which was simply to save myself from struggling with wet stuff.
But I'm alway looking at new ideas. Anytime I can make my life easier.
My hiking technique has been one of extremely light weight though. So I'm really driven by weight.
These days, I'm not doing the mileage that I used to or I'm taking more time; emphasis on the 'More'.

I don't feel old enough to feel old. But I do. I guess it's been an overactive life and I used alot of me up. Now I have to exercise.
Somebody shoot me!

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

When my boys were younger we always made a big deal about building the fire with candles and fire starters and one match and such. That was to teach them how to do it if they ever had to. Now days we get that baby going ASAP cause there's cooking to do and we don't have time to play with starting the fire. I'm quite sure any of us could survive in the wilds. We do other things for fun. It's never wrong to be prepared. I use those small votive candles because they can put more wax on the tinder and get it going faster.

Alan