Camping places... where to go?

[cho]

Originally Posted by T4RAWR

most provincial park camp sites are on a booking basis so you're SOL there.

there are some off road/wilderness campsites i could think of if you're vehicle is capable of getting there.

i took my lowered civic out to some off roading, oh god why am i so dumb

[T4RAWR]

that just looks like a dirt road

[akalic]

wanted to go camping this weekend but the weather looks sketch in hope... 40 percent chance of precipitation...ugh. wonder if there are any cabins for rental still?
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[Presto]

Campfire ban is in effect, tomorrow:

PARKSVILLE -- Effective at 12 noon on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2013, all open fires, including campfires are banned in all areas of the Coastal Fire Centre, except for the Fog Zone and Haida Gwaii.

A map of the area covered by the campfire ban is available online at: See a map

This step is being taken to help prevent human-caused wildfires and protect public safety. The fire danger rating is currently "high" to "extreme" throughout the Coastal Fire Centre.

With the current trend of warm and dry weather, wildfires in the region have displayed aggressive behaviour and required additional fire suppression resources. It is also anticipated that the Coastal Fire Centre will experience lightning throughout the next week, which will likely produce more fires. Human-caused wildfires can divert critical resources and crews from responding to naturally occurring wildfires.

Open burning is prohibited throughout the Coastal Fire Centre. This prohibition applies to open fires of any size, fires with a burn registration number, industrial burning, fireworks, tiki torches, sky lanterns and burning barrels. The prohibition does not apply to cooking stoves that use gas, propane or briquettes, or to a portable campfire apparatus with a CSA or ULC rating that uses briquettes, liquid or gaseous fuel, as long as the height of the flame is less than 15 centimetres.

The open burning prohibition covers all BC Parks, Crown and private lands, but does not apply within the boundaries of local governments that have forest fire prevention bylaws and are serviced by a fire department. Please check with local governments for any other restrictions before lighting a fire.

Anyone found in violation of an open fire ban, including campfires, may be issued a ticket for up to $345. Anyone who causes a wildfire through arson or recklessness may be fined up to $1 million, spend up to three years in prison and be held accountable for associated firefighting costs.
http://bcwildfire.ca/hprScripts/Wild...le.asp?ID=2027

It says coastal, but this also applies to the interior.

[tmc22]

^ Do you think a bit of rain in the next couple of days will lift the ban?

[T4RAWR]

probably not.

[Brianrietta]

Originally Posted by tmc22

^ Do you think a bit of rain in the next couple of days will lift the ban?

To be honest with how dry everything is right now I'm surprised there wasn't a ban weeks ago. It won't be lifted for the rest of the summer, I'd bet.

[T4RAWR]

bc wildfire website:

Fire Prohibitions and Area Restrictions - Wildfire Management Branch - Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations - Province of British Columbia

ban and restriction details:

Ban & Restriction Details - Wildfire Management Branch - Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations - Province of British Columbia

definition of campfire:

Glossary of Wildfire Terms - Wildfire Management Branch - Ministry of Forests and Range - Province of British Columbia


from what i can tell there are no bans on campfires currently. i would call the provincial park that you plan to camp at and confirm over the phone before picking up firewood.

[T4RAWR]

btw, for those of you who DO plan on having a campfire a good tip is to bring a shovel and a bucket thats able to hold atleast 10L.

the shovel is handy for moving coals around, banking the fire as well as moving logs around without burning your fingers off or fiddling around looking for the "poking stick" that eventually ends up in the fire anyways.

i usually bring a cheap charcoal bbq and throw in hot coals from the fire to do the majority of my cooking/grilling.

the bucket of water is obvious.

[Brianrietta]

^ Great advice. Keep in mind that any one of the following is a $345.00 fine:

Campfires are prohibited in an area which has fire restrictions or bans. It is the campers' responsibility to find out what areas have campfire prohibitions and restrictions.

Campfires require a fireguard, this means scraping down the dirt one metre high around the fire and removing flammable items, such as twigs, leaves, needles etc...

Campers must have at least 8 litres of water and/or a shovel to properly extinguish the fire.

Fires are not to be larger than 0.5 metres by 0.5 metres or approximately 19 inches by 19 inches.

Campfires are never to be left unattended.

When leaving the campfire, it must be properly extinguished so ashes are cool to touch.

That would be on top of an additional $345.00 if there is a fire ban in place. Also the government has a history of pursuing people who do end up starting fires - this guy got a $861,356 dollar bill for his troubles.

Be careful out there guys.

[inv4zn]

Ah. ignorant question. edited.

[T4RAWR]

no question is ignorant.

ask away

[inv4zn]

It actually was pretty ignorant.

It was "are campfires completely banned during the campfire ban." Pretty much the definition of ignorant...

Going to Alice Lake on the 8th....gf was really looking forward to the campfire

[T4RAWR]

No big deal.

Generally its a region wide ban.

You never know, they might lift the ban before the day you go.

Im hoping for a few good days of rain to help settle things down.

[stewie]

Heading up to Kentucky lake at the end of the month with the gf and my dad. Get one more decent summer camping trip in! Hopefully I'll have better luck fishing there than what I get here lol...
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[Purely]

Just got back from camping at Cogburn with a bunch of friends, and had a great time! (thanks T4RAWR!)

-stock cars can make it there no problem
-lake was clean to swim in
-no noise complaints can be good or bad (group beside us was blasting music out of cars/partying all night)
-not too much privacy as more groups came in
-we regret not bringing legit inflatable rafts/boat for the lake

[punkwax]

Buy a portable propane campfire and you're good. Just got back from 4 nights up at Kalamalka lake between Kelowna and Vernon, brought my $90 Costco propane campfire and we were the only ones there who had a fire each night. It was great!

The lake was insanely nice, super warm. We had a playground 4 stairs away from our site, the kids had a blast. $.25 for a good, hot 5-7 minute shower. We stayed at Owls Nest Resort, kinda pricey at $50 a night but it was clean and quiet so no complaints.

[kevin7352]

Originally Posted by gYU

Just got back from camping at Cogburn with a bunch of friends, and had a great time! (thanks T4RAWR!)

-stock cars can make it there no problem
-lake was clean to swim in
-no noise complaints can be good or bad (group beside us was blasting music out of cars/partying all night)
-not too much privacy as more groups came in
-we regret not bringing legit inflatable rafts/boat for the lake

+1. will come back again next year with upgraded toys

[Purely]

Originally Posted by gYU

Just got back from camping at Cogburn with a bunch of friends, and had a great time! (thanks T4RAWR!)

-stock cars can make it there no problem
-lake was clean to swim in
-no noise complaints can be good or bad (group beside us was blasting music out of cars/partying all night)
-not too much privacy as more groups came in
-we regret not bringing legit inflatable rafts/boat for the lake

It's that time of the year again .

Does anyone have any suggestions for camping places that are non-provincial that has camping activities to do?

Also, how is cabin camping compared to camping outside in tents (done this for past 2 years). Any recommendations to rent out a cabin/place for ~15 people?

Thanks!

[stewie]

Originally Posted by gYU

It's that time of the year again .

Does anyone have any suggestions for camping places that are non-provincial that has camping activities to do?

Also, how is cabin camping compared to camping outside in tents (done this for past 2 years). Any recommendations to rent out a cabin/place for ~15 people?

Thanks!

as for a cabin, i cant say i know a place big enough for 15 people...but if you look into chataway lake up in merit, you can easily sleep 4 people per cabin and rent out 3-4 cabins beside each other (they have sections for rv's and tents on the other side of the lake). has all the basic needs...a stove. ghetto mattress (sleep in your bag on top of it lol), ghetto couch, draining sink (so long as you have your own water supply - they have outdoor taps to fill up buckets), and electricity until 9pm. has a playground for kids, a "lodge" type place with a pool table/pinball (i think...been a while since there), showers, porta pottys, and outdoor games (horse shoes). its right on the lake, can rent row boats, for a bit extra you can get a small trolling motor added on. lakes fine to swim in, and if your adventurous theres a dozen other lakes in the general area that you can drive to from going down the old logging roads.

CHATAWAY CONTAINERS LTD

me and my family used to go there every year for 10+ years straight when me and my brother were kids
ps- if anyone looks into that place, cabin 2 is the largest, 3 rooms - kitchen/couch area, and 2 bedrooms divided by a log wall. all other cabins are bachelor style with a bed beside the stove etc

[T4RAWR]

for cabins i'd say head up to shuswap lake and get yourself a nice little waterfront slice of heaven.

if you've got 15 people you can rent and entire house/cabin. lots of stuff to do nearby

[Brianrietta]

Originally Posted by T4RAWR

btw, for those of you who DO plan on having a campfire a good tip is to bring a shovel and a bucket thats able to hold atleast 10L.

the shovel is handy for moving coals around, banking the fire as well as moving logs around without burning your fingers off or fiddling around looking for the "poking stick" that eventually ends up in the fire anyways.

i usually bring a cheap charcoal bbq and throw in hot coals from the fire to do the majority of my cooking/grilling.

the bucket of water is obvious.

So I guess after camping last August I forgot to update this thread with the story of my trip to Seymour Arm which had shortly followed our fire discussion in this thread.




The Saturday morning (11ish in the A.M.) some of our crew who were starting breakfast hear some panicked yelling from what sounds like the next campsite over so one of my friends goes over to see what's going on. Well he runs back pretty quickly and yells that there is a fire next door. He grabs the shovel that I had sitting outside my tent and his fiance tries to wake me up to ask me whether I had a fire extinguisher. More on that later. At the other campsite the original lady who was calling for help is still freaking out basically spinning around in circles like a headless chicken. In the middle of an abandoned campsite there is a BBQ... And it's on fire... And the hose heading to the 10kg propane canister is on fire... We shovel a TON of sand and dirt onto the fire (it's a good thing it was also next to the beach because hard packed dirt at the end of the summer is full on awful to try to shovel). Several hours later we notice the campers from next door come back on their boat (a young family). After showing them the carnage and giving them a stern verbal shitkicking we discover that the husband had been under pressure from his bitch of a wife and wanted to at least have some food ready for them for when they got back in off the lake so he had left some smokies on the grill on the lowest heat setting before the went out on the lake. Obviously this guy went full retard but it's a good reminder that just because you are competent in the bush (and let's be honest none of us are ever as prepared as we think/hope we are) there are still plenty of potential Darwin award recipients out there that are waiting to try to take you down with them. I mean the community in Seymour Arm nearby there doesn't have a fire department... the ground was still tinder dry... and if the full propane tank had gone up in flames no amount of shoveling/small fire extinguishers were going to help at that point.

So the story about them asking me for the fire extinguisher: my friend Leanne pokes her head into my tent and asks me whether I had a fire extinguisher. I'm operating off of 3 hours of drunken sleep and she was doing an excellent job of not sounding panicky so I mumble some stuff like what and uhhh before I roll over and try to go back to sleep. I learn about all this an hour or so later when I hear commotion outside my tent where they're explaining what happened to some other late risers.

Spoiler!

I did have a fire extinguisher, it was in the rubbermaid container next to the shovel I had left out after using it to put out our own campfire the night before

So the lessons to be learned here people, please be prepared. Always carry a shovel with you in your 4x4 (preferably a full size one, you'll thank me if you have to dig yourself out as well). Consider carrying a fire extinguisher in your vehicle (again, preferably a full size one - please read THIS THREAD for information on what to buy and why). It's not necessarily for you but even something like a small underhood fire while you're out bombing away on a forestry road can be absolutely disastrous for you and your surroundings. And thirdly, if somebody wakes you up to ask you about a fire extinguisher, you should probably rate that higher on the oh shit scale. A good practice I've always had at camp with people is having everyone's bear sprays sitting out around the camp in convenient places and making sure everyone knows were my first aid gear is but since then I've included the shovel/extinguisher/bucket as critical items that everyone should know the location of.

[Soundy]

For a nice camping spot with no fees, may I suggest Francis Lake, just a ways up West Harrison. Camped there a couple weeks ago, got some really sweet spots, and apparently the lake has some fantastic fishing. 4WD not required, and in fact, you could probably get there in a stock-height car.

Which also leads me to a fire story: so we arrive at this spot and our buddies are already there. They've been completely unsuccessful at getting a fire going for almost an hour, so I pull out my little jerry can, pour a little flame juice on the pile of sticks, apply the lighter, and voila!

I set the can on over by the picnic table and head back to the Jeep to get some food out while buddy pokes at the fire and puts more wood on it... I guess the fire isn't doing so well now, because next thing I see the light flare up, look around, and there's dude standing over the fire with my jerry can in hand... then I see he's got the big cap closed and the vent cap off and he's squirting gas on the fire from the little hole.

Which is working fine until he decides he needs a more direct aim, so he holds the can directly over the fire, squeezes it... and now the flame has travelled up the stream and is burning off the vent hole and on the gas that's slopped down the side of the can.

Of course, dude does the first thing that comes naturally: he throws the can away. Trailing gas out the vent the entire way. Until it lands on its side near the campfire, now drizzling gas out the vent and flaring up more and more.

Campfire on the left... gas can on the right...



It was all bare ground around and pretty damp, so we just let the can burn itself out...

[murd0c]

you know you are from the city when....

[stewie]

try using doritos next time

they might be safer for your friend to use lol