Re[2]: [at-l] Zip Stove Convert-to-be

[Bob Cummings <ellen@clinic.net> (Bob Cummings)]

"...I used the cotton ball/vaseline firestarter.....worked great."

 I used a bit of birch bark, which abounds along most of the trail -- except
 Georgia. One of the nice things about birch trees is that they regularly
 disperse parts of themselves for the benefit of Zip Stove users.

 No, I didn't strip bark from live trees. I took it from fallen limbs and the
 whiskers that birch trees tend to discard periodically. In a pinch young wild
 cherry trees have curly barks that functions almost as well as a fire starter.
 Once or twice in desperation I used a handful of wooden matches as tinder.

 However, every shelter has mounds of paper products left in violation of ATC
 and National Park Service rules. Since the rules say that shelter maintainers
 should pack out all such things left by others, it didn't hurt my conscience to
 obscond with an occasional page when rain made my Zip hard to start. I figured
 that a missing page or two would just add to the mystery and interest of a
 Harlequin novel.

 No. I never used cotton balls and vaseline. I go to the woods to experience
 natural things. Cotton balls and vaseline don't qualify.

 I know, neither do nylon and aluminum packs, foam pads, synthetic fabric tents,
 tarps, battery powered wood stoves ....

 But even us non pure pragmatists draw the line somewhere. My line in the
 mountains is cotton balls soaked in vaseline. Now cotton tee shirts? That's
 another story.

 Weary