[pct-l] To Flare or not to Flare

[abiegen at cox.net]

Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes <diane at santabarbarahikes.com> wrote:

>For emergency fire, I had 3 waterproof matches and 3 trick birthday
>candles. I never had to use any of them. I don't know if the trick
>birthday candles would work or not, but it seemed worth a try.

For emergency fire I brought waterproof matches and a half dozen Tampax. Yes, Tampax (the kind without the applicator thingy) are the greatest firestarter invented. First of all they are compressed about as tight as anything possibly could be compressed. And they are individually wrapped. You just fluff them out as far as possible and poof! -  they ignite like gasoline. No wax or alcohol required. Don't remember where I got this tip, but tried it and it really works.

Of course they can be used for other purposes. Piper and I were hiking on the JMT and were approach by a man who had camped nearby. He had brought his two young nieces to show them the wonders of the wilderness when one of them unexpectedly got her period. He had seen Piper and hoped that she might have some "equipment" suitable to deal with the situation. Unfortunately all we had were the clothes on our backs and bandannas. I briefly thought about offering the bandannas but I didn't think that it would help much. I'm not an expert on this stuff, not having any personal experience myself. 

So now I am prepared to help if there is ever a re-occurrence of this same situation, even though it might be astronomically small. And I have my emergency firestarter too.

TrailHacker

"When my feet hurt, I can't think straight"
Abraham Lincoln