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Thread: 24 hour overnighter alone

  1. #21
    Super Moderator crashdive123's Avatar
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    Looks like a great outing. Thanks for taking us along.
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  2. #22
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    Default River Rock, heat, lower humidity

    Quote Originally Posted by wilderness medic View Post
    Another question. I know not to use river rocks because of air pockets and explosion danger...but how do you know they are "river rocks" besides to obvious they were in a river bed? What constitutes a "river rock"? How do I know ones I find up on the side of the hill aren't filled with air pockets?
    Good questions. I have used "river rocks" in various ways for many years. A river changes course over the centuries and deposits these smooth rounded stones all over the valley. If they are up high preferably where the afternoon sun hits them most of the moisture will have evaporated from them so less of a danger of cracking or exploding, rock chip or wood coals in eye etc.

    I have built a stack of them around tea candles (or homemade bee's wax in pet food cans, multi wick) then the heat radiates from the rocks after the candles burn out and keep your shelter/tarp/4 season tent drier and a bit warmer. Most difficult part is reducing oxygen but still not allowing candles to go out.

    Other use of "river stone" is in a "Dakota Fire Hole". If you are in mountains difficult to dig down much in rocky soil so build stack up mostly. Similar problem of oxygen control: tunnel or vent from windward side but dampen as much as possible to reduce smoke, burn fuel (wood etc) slowly all night long.

    Last is to heat "river stone" beside campfire. Wrap in fabric or bark/fiber or whatever and put in your bedding to preheat it. This does not last very long. Beside your "femoral artery" will theoretically warm up your entire body the most effectively just be careful to buffer with fabric to avoid roasted nuts, bears like those I am told. (a poor tasteless joke.)
    Last edited by TXyakr; 11-18-2014 at 02:48 PM.

  3. #23
    Senior Member wilderness medic's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TXyakr View Post
    Good questions. I have used "river rocks" in various ways for many years. A river changes course over the centuries and deposits these smooth rounded stones all over the valley. If they are up high preferably where the afternoon sun hits them most of the moisture will have evaporated from them so less of a danger of cracking or exploding, rock chip or wood coals in eye etc.

    I have built a stack of them around tea candles (or homemade bee's wax in pet food cans, multi wick) then the heat radiates from the rocks after the candles burn out and keep your shelter/tarp/4 season tent drier and a bit warmer. Most difficult part is reducing oxygen but still not allowing candles to go out.

    Other use of "river stone" is in a "Dakota Fire Hole". If you are in mountains difficult to dig down much in rocky soil so build stack up mostly. Similar problem of oxygen control: tunnel or vent from windward side but dampen as much as possible to reduce smoke, burn fuel (wood etc) slowly all night long.

    Last is to heat "river stone" beside campfire. Wrap in fabric or bark/fiber or whatever and put in your bedding to preheat it. This does not last very long. Beside your "femoral artery" will theoretically warm up your entire body the most effectively just be careful to buffer with fabric to avoid roasted nuts, bears like those I am told. (a poor tasteless joke.)
    Thanks for answering my question. So the moisture eventually leaves the rock if it's not subjected to water submersion it sounds like.
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    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Yeah, just put them around a warm up....then move toward the fire.......Avoid just tossing one in until you know it won't go 'Kaboom'
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    Quote Originally Posted by hunter63 View Post
    Yeah, just put them around a warm up....then move toward the fire.......Avoid just tossing one in until you know it won't go 'Kaboom'
    Yes exactly! I agree with that. First try to get the driest stones you can. Then heat up slowly to dry out. Most of us are not geologists and cannot begin to guess which ones will contain the least moisture from rain or water submersion based on appearance and geographic location etc. If you are car camping you can use an inverted clay pot over a shallow aluminum cook pot with tea candles in it but when primitive camping river stones stacked around a shallow hole works just fine, a bit more work however. Candles or whatever natural fuel you can find. I know some "friends" that use chicken/pig feed pans (Behrens Utility Pan) or aluminum /steel baking pans they put under and use in a 3 season tent but this is crazy for several reasons, IMO. A debris shelter, tarp or 4 season tent with "dirt" floor is much less risky, but still be very careful. Same thing for Little Buddy Propane heater which I have never used but hear are great as long as not extremely cold.

  6. #26
    Senior Member hunter63's Avatar
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    Pretty impressive when they do go....and people don't think about it as most any camp fire I have ever seen in movies, TV....has the mandatory stone ring around it.
    Fire ring = stones......I mostly did a trench and flip over the sod if possible...

    Hot rocks can boil water or cook stews with even in a hide.....just go slow and allow them to dry out.
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  7. #27
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    Default Always some risk with stones and fire, use common sense.

    Quote Originally Posted by hunter63 View Post
    Pretty impressive when they do go....and people don't think about it
    I have seen rocks crack several times in fires. Once I was at a friend's very nice (expensive) house in the suburbs with stones in a raised natural gas ring beside their swimming pool. The high end builder had installed a "river stone" fire pit with "quality stone" and surrounded it with custom masonry. But it had rained recently, one of the stones evidently had absorbed enough water so when they lit the natural gas it heated it up fast enough that it popped and a piece of the stone almost hit our friend's daughter in the face. Best to keep the metal screen over these fancy fire pits at all times, or risk loosing an eye. Clay pots can flake/chip off if moist and heated quickly as well.

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    Just watched your YT video on a large screen. Very impressive. Not even a tarp! I can positively identify many poisonous mushrooms (by stem) but am not courageous enough to eat those I am fairly certain are not. Constructing a debris shelter in a few hours is very labor intensive and always a balance between sweat, rain/snow moisture and hypothermia exposure etc very difficult especially in winter. Little tools like Ti cat hole trowel can help, I have one from:

    http://qiwiz.net/trowels.html

    Protects knife from abuse. But I have been building these shelters since I was in grade school (40+ yrs) and it always takes a lot more time than I estimate. My Father built jungle huts and Canadian barns etc for decades before I was born, taught me a few tricks.

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    Quote Originally Posted by TXyakr View Post
    Just watched your YT video on a large screen. Very impressive. Not even a tarp! I can positively identify many poisonous mushrooms (by stem) but am not courageous enough to eat those I am fairly certain are not. Constructing a debris shelter in a few hours is very labor intensive and always a balance between sweat, rain/snow moisture and hypothermia exposure etc very difficult especially in winter. Little tools like Ti cat hole trowel can help, I have one from:

    http://qiwiz.net/trowels.html

    Protects knife from abuse. But I have been building these shelters since I was in grade school (40+ yrs) and it always takes a lot more time than I estimate. My Father built jungle huts and Canadian barns etc for decades before I was born, taught me a few tricks.
    Thanks! I was surprised how well it held up against rain. Only the outside highest edge leaked water, but I was in the corner enough to stay out of it. The only wetness I had was from the surrounding moisture that condensed on me.

    I absolutely LOVE this forest for the sheer amount of building materials there. Where I lived before it would take forever to make sufficient insulation. Here, even thought it was all soggy forest leaf litter, there was so much I could pile it on quickly enough to offer not only rain and wind shelter, but feel my body heat warming the inside. And it was only a LEAN TO. Not a full surrounding shelter. If I had made that thing 360 degrees and omitted the fire I think I would have been more than warm enough.

    The mushroom situation is weird. Much like a lot of flora, if you know something well, it can provide you with a plethora of food for a short amount of time. Literally hundreds of pounds of food. A certain species usually fruit for a week or two and then stops. It is also weird I am more comfortable and familiar with a deadly genus than the usual edibles.

    For instance if you happen to notice in the video... There were hundreds, if not thousands of Boletes/Suillus mushrooms. I couldn't walk without destroying them in places. I could have stuffed my face with those for a couple weeks. But, I wasn't positive on those so I avoided them. I am surprised, for as much plant/fungal life as there is in this forest there seems to be an insane lack of animals. In my hikes and trips I rarely hear a bird, let alone mammal. I seem to be the only creature roaming, amongst many plants and fungi. And I do try to be quiet and observe the surroundings.
    Last edited by wilderness medic; 11-19-2014 at 03:33 AM.
    R.I.P.

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    CPL Charles Gaffney
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