[Cdt-l] Be careful out there.... :O

[Charlie Thorpe]

Hello All -

I use a Brasslite alcohol stove and it can get a tad tippy if I am not careful to set it up on a solid surface.  

I haven't tipped it over or started any forest fires (yet...), but I have set small patches of duff on fire by carelessly dribbling alcohol into the duff as I am lighting it.

I am now carrying a small square of the material from the emergency fire shelters that the wildlands firefighters carry.  Friends in the land managing agencies (NPS, USFS, BLM, etc.) save me the old shake and bake kits when they have to replace them (they go out of date).

The scrapped fire shelters must be destroyed per the agency regulations, so we make them useful again by cutting them up into 18" squares for use under backpacking stoves.  We have been doing this for years for use with the white gas stoves (especially the wet prime types) and it works equally well for the alcohol stoves.

The square of material doesn't weigh much at all and it also gives us a clean place to lay stuff on while cooking.

Any of the agencies doing wildlands firefighting will have scrapped emergency fire shelters when they hit a replacement cycle.

- Charlie