After we wrapped up Offroading, I went to my favorite valley on the mountain, no cell reception, not alot of people, and the trailhead is easy to miss, meaning few annoying visitors at night.

This time, however, I was able to drive my vehicle right up next to my spot, a secluded fire pit hardly 150 feet off the maintained road, but almost invisible from both the trail and the road. It lies in a very dense stand of pine, and it appears to be so rarely frequented that there is an overabundance of dead wood for making fires.

Scrappy, as always, assisted me in finding firewood.



I was accompanied by a Bussekin on this trip as well.


After improvising a shelter (more on that in a sec), it came time to test out my newest idea. While tearing down crates at work last week, I stumbled across some highly compressed particle board bricks. It dawned on me that those firestarter logs they sell at 7-eleven are just compressed sawdust and lighter fluid. You can probably see where I'm going with this. So, I cut several 1 inch cubes and tossed them into a plastic bag, then poured in some Tiki torch oil and let them sit and soak up the oil.

The result.

And the inferno that it was easily built up to later.