JoCoSAR Blog

The Dakota Fire Hole

Not what you will use everytime, but well worth knowing about and trying at your leisure so you will know what this offers you when you might really need it.

Survial Topics   A site worth visiting.

A little known survival aid related to wilderness fire making skills is the Dakota Fire Hole, also known as the Dakota Fire Pit. This handy device is easy to construct and has marked advantages over other types of camp fire constructs.

Once you make a Dakota fire hole and try it out, you may choose to use this method for outdoor fires on a regular basis.

Making a Dakota Fire Hole is initially more labor intensive than simply building a fire on the surface of the ground. However the outlay in energy required to make a Dakota fire hole is more than offset by its efficient consumption of fuel; it greatly reduces the amount of firewood required to cook meals, treat water to destroy pathogens, or warm your body.

The Dakota fire hole is a valuable wilderness survival aid because it burns fuel more efficiently, producing hotter fires with less wood. In many areas firewood is scarce or requires a large amount of time and expenditure of energy in foraging to obtain it. Once you build a fire, efforts are better spent attending to your other wilderness survival needs rather than in the constant gathering of firewood.

Making a Dakota Fire Hole - To make a Dakota Fire Hole first remove a plug of soil about 12 inches in diameter and dig down one foot.

Other advantages of the Dakota fire hole are that it creates a kind of woodstove with a stable platform that is very convenient to cook over.

Should you need to conceal your fire, the fire hole will limit the amount of visible smoke that rises from the fire, since the fuel wood is burning hotter and more efficiently. The pit will also help conceal the light emitted from your fire, especially at night when even a single candle flame can be seen from miles away.

Where to Build a Dakota Fire Hole

Before you start to dig your Dakota fire hole you should scout out an area where soil conditions are conducive to its proper construction. You will want to avoid areas

• that are rocky and difficult to dig.
• with thick tree roots that require cutting.
• that are wet or where a dug hole will fill with water.
• with soil conditions such as dry loose sand that will not hold shape as it is dug into.

The usual requirements related to general fire craft and care always apply. As always, treat the wilderness areas you enjoy and count on to survive with respect. Be sure you do not make a Dakota Fire Hole in conditions where out of control wild fires are a possibility and avoid ecologically sensitive areas. Try not to injure the roots of trees and plants.

Follow local ordinances regarding the making of fires; these rules are in place for good reason.

Making a Dakota Fire Hole

Now that we have the introduction taken care of, we can make a Dakota Fire Hole. As shown in the picture, I am using an army folding shovel to dig with. Many wilderness survivors carry a small hand trowel for the burying of human wastes and this also works well. A strong stick or part from your mess kit can also be utilized for digging holes in a pinch; survival experts are experts at innovation so use whatever means you have available.

Making the Fire Pit Chamber

Having selected a likely area in which to dig the fire hole, first remove a plug of soil and plant roots in the form of a circle about 10 or 12 inches in diameter. Continue digging straight down to a depth of about one-foot being sure to save the plug and the soil you removed for replacement later on.

This part of the Dakota fire hole will serve as the main chamber that contains the fire. I prefer to extend the base of the fire chamber outward a couple of inches in all directions so that it can accommodate longer pieces of firewood. This saves time and energy in breaking up firewood into suitable lengths, and also has the effect of allowing larger and therefore hotter fires.

Making the Airway - Starting about one-foot away from the edge of the fire pit, dig a 6-inch diameter air tunnel at an angle so that it intersects with the base of the fire pit.The prevailing wind is moving from in back of me in the upper left corner of the picture.

The effect is a jug-shaped hole at the base of which you place firewood. The neck of the jug will serve as a chimney of sorts the function of which is to increase the draft and concentrate the heat of the fire into the small opening.

Making the Fire Hole Airway

Now comes the key component of the Dakota hole that makes this fire making method so effective; the airway.

Before you start on the airway tunnel, determine the general direction of the wind. If the wind is too light to easily ascertain its direction you can often lick a finger and hold it up, being sure it is away from any obstructions. Evaporative cooling on one side or the other of your appendage will be felt from which direction the wind, however light, is blowing. That is the side of the fire hole on which to construct the airway.

Dig a 6-inch diameter airway tunnel starting about one foot away from the edge of the fire hole. Angle its construction so that the tunnel intersects with the base of the fire chamber as shown in the diagram and picture. As when you made the fire hole section, be sure to save the plug containing the vegetation and roots as well as the loose soil you remove.

Using the Dakota Fire Hole

Light the Fire - Using a firesteel from FireSteel.com, I am lighting the fire.These firesteels always work, no matter how wet the conditions. Able to start thousands of fires, you can buy your own firesteels at FireSteel.com

Now that the Dakota Fire Hole is properly constructed, you can partially fill the fire pit chamber with dry combustible kindling materials and light the fire.

To start the fire I am using a FireSteel, the kind Survival Topics highly recommends to be included in every survival kit. These firesteels from FireSteel.com work even when wet and will literally light thousands of fires before wearing out – try doing that with matches or a lighter! We sell high quality Firesteels at the lowest prices in the Survival Supplies section of this website. Help support this website and buy them here – I guarantee a quality product.

Once the flame is going strong, drop it into the fire pit so that it catches the kindling on fire; gradually add sticks so that a strong hot fire is maintained.

How a Dakota Fire Hole Works

The accompanying diagram shows the secret of what makes the Dakota Firehole so effective. As the fire burns, the hot air that is created goes up through the fire hole “chimney”. This creates a suction action that forcefully draws air down through the tunnel and into the base of the fire. The draft is increased even more by your having constructed the tunnel on the side from which the prevailing wind is coming.

Acting as a kind of bellows, the flames are continuously fanned and the fire burns hotter and more efficiently than a fire that is simply made on the surface to the ground. Hotter fires mean less smoke. In addition, the heat of the fire is concentrated into an upward direction where you can better capture it for use. This allows you to do more with less wood – an excellent survival fire by any measure.

Fire Hole Improvements

Once you have made the Dakota fire hole you can easily set up a cooking surface for pots and pans by laying several parallel green sticks across the fire pit as show in the picture. Lacking camp cooking gear you can also find a flat rock that only partially covers the hole – and use it as a sort of hobo frying pan.

It is also an easy matter to set a “Y” shaped stick into the ground onto which is rested a green pole with bannock dough, fish, or other outdoor meal. For more information on the wilderness survival staple known as bannock.

Dakota Fire Hole Diagram - This is how a Dakota Fire Hole works. As hot air from the fire exits through the top of the fire pit, a suction is created that draws fresh air down through the tunnel and into the base of the fire. This brings in plenty of fresh oxygen for combustion. A cycle develops: The hotter the fire gets, the more air is drawn down into the fire pit – making the fire hotter.

Campfire Cleanup

When it is time to leave the area, be a responsible wilderness survivor who values the land you need for survival. Fill in the Dakota fire hole with the dirt you removed and saved when you were constructing it. Then replace the cap of vegetation. Doing so serves the double purpose of extinguishing the fire and leaving as little trace of your visit as possible.

In summary, the main advantages of using a Dakota Fire Hole include:

• burns hotter
• with less fuel
• producing less smoke
• less light visible to reveal your position
• providing a stable cooking surface
• easy extinguishing of the fire
• easy removal of evidence you have been there when you are preparing to leave.

The Will to Live Makes All the Difference

The LAT has three stories from this amazing 2003 event you can access through the link below.  When you think you are having a bad day, this story should provide some perspective to raise your spirits.
Los Angles Times

* Aron Ralston was described as in good spirits, recovering after self-amputating arm pinned by a boulder in the Utah desert.

Ranger Awed by Hiker's 'Will to Live'
May 04, 2003
By J. Michael KennedyTimes Staff Writer

ASPEN, Colo. -- Law enforcement officials gave a more detailed account Saturday of the rescue of the trapped mountaineer who severed his own arm to save his life, even as hospital officials in Grand Junction upgraded hiker Aron Ralston's condition from serious to fair. Ralston, 27, was described as being in good spirits.
An accomplished mountaineer, he was trapped in the Utah desert for five days after a boulder wedged in a narrow slot canyon shifted just enough to pin his right arm.

After he ran out of water, he began rapidly losing strength and knew he couldn't last much longer. So Ralston used a pocketknife to cut off his arm below the elbow and then somehow managed to rig up a rope so he could rappel 60 feet to the canyon floor and hike to help.
Since the story came to light on Thursday, Ralston's ordeal has been the subject of national attention, complete with news conferences and live national television appearances for those involved in the rescue.

Ranger Stephen Swanke, who helped coordinate the search, said on Saturday that after officials had narrowed rescue efforts to the Blue John Canyon area of Utah's Canyonlands National Park, a helicopter was immediately dispatched. The helicopter apparently set out at about the same time Ralston had finished severing his arm and began rappelling down the sheer cliff.

Swanke said the canyon was so narrow, the helicopter pilot would never have spotted Ralston. After walking about five miles, Ralston came across a Dutch couple and their son and together they hailed a helicopter flying overhead. Swanke said that Ralston was picked up within a mile of his car.
"If we didn't find him he would have hopped into his car and driven to Green River and reported what had happened himself," Swanke said. The ranger quickly drove to Allen Memorial Hospital in Moab, arriving just in time to see Ralston walking out of the helicopter under his own power. He was also shocked to see Ralston was missing the lower part of his arm.
"When Aron hops out of the helicopter, he tells me very matter-of-factly that he has lost a lot of blood, that he is going to need assistance, that he has amputated his arm and that he has put a tourniquet on it," Swanke said. "He's telling me everything I need to know, as if he was trying to save me the trouble."
Swanke said Ralston's first request was that his mother, Donna, be notified. Then, as the medical staff stabilized him, the two men talked for almost an hour before the drugs given Ralston made him incoherent. Swanke knew that if he didn't get the story then, it might have been days before he could nail down the facts.
"I didn't want to wait that long to find out what's going on here," he said. Among other things, Ralston asked whether the rangers could recover his mountain bike and some climbing equipment left at the slot canyon.

"I've been doing search and rescue for 23 years and I've never seen anything like this," Swanke said. "He was just a phenomenal individual with an unbelievable will to live."
The search began over a much broader area because Ralston, as he often does, set out without telling anyone where he was going. Finally, worried friends filed a missing persons report on Tuesday night after he had failed to show up for work for two consecutive days.
Aspen Police Officer Adam Crider began looking into the case on Wednesday, sending out e-mails to surrounding jurisdictions as well as beginning a trace on Ralston's credit card charges to track his movements. The charges indicated that he had purchased gas in Glenwood Springs, Colo., about 40 miles northwest of Aspen, and that he had then purchased groceries in Moab.
At the same time, rangers in Utah's Canyonlands National Park were also mounting a search for Ralston's maroon Toyota pickup truck. On Thursday, one ranger said he remembered seeing the truck near Blue John Canyon in an area where many people leave their cars when they go hiking and camping. Searchers then narrowed their rescue efforts to that area.
On Saturday, all anyone in Aspen was talking about was Ralston's ordeal, though with outsiders many were protective of him, not wanting to say anything that might be taken in the wrong way.
"Just think about the incredible presence of mind he must have had to just stay in the moment when he could have given up," said Michael Yoder, the operations manager for the all-but-empty Innsbruck Inn. "Is this incredible or what? What kind of strength of character this guy must have."
But over at Bentley's Bar and Restaurant, local Tina Baar took a more practical point of view: "He should have someone with him," she said. "Things like cell phones don't work out there."
Ralston is an expert outdoorsman, comfortable in almost any terrain and weather condition -- the more extreme the better, many noted.
"He understood the risks and knew how to deal with them," said Brian Payne, one of Ralston's four roommates in Aspen.
Payne said Ralston showed him some pictures he took a couple of weeks ago while climbing Pyramid Peak near here. What the pictures showed was that the normal route was impassable because of unstable snow.
"So he told me he just went straight up," said Payne. "And I thought, no one does that."

Hiking Around in Circles? Probably, Study Says

New York Times August 21, 2009     By HENRY FOUNTAIN

With countless thousands of Americans hitting the hiking trails this month for one last summer adventure, it is a sure bet that some of them will get lost along the way. Those fortunate enough to make it back may be convinced that they spent hours walking in circles.

Scientists in Germany reported Thursday that this often-described sense of lost-hiker déjà vu, of having inadvertently backtracked while wandering in the woods, is real. “People really do walk in circles,” said Jan L. Souman of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen.

Dr. Souman, who studies multisensory perception, and his colleagues tracked the movements of volunteers sent into the wilds of a German forest and the desert sands of Tunisia. As long as the sun or moon was out, the volunteers were able to walk in a straight line, more or less. But on cloudy days or when there was no moon, they looped back on themselves, often several times.

Field First Aid Kit

Apropos of yesterday's post about a scary field injury; when did you last review your first aid kit contents?  If you research the topic "wilderness first aid kit" you will be offered a variety of lists and products that vary tremendously.  A quick search found an "entry level" "wilderness medical system" kit for $169.00 with a $15 shipping charge comprised of 35 items and weighing 4 lbs.. At the other end of the spectrum was a basic kit recommended by one of the Backpacker Magazine writers containing 12 items that would weigh less than half a pound. And there are all sorts of pre-packaged kits available between these two examples.

Most of the items common to all lists are available in most every household.  You could put together your own kit for far less money than a commercial one and customize it to your needs and concerns, e.g., for me it is blisters.  Remember, if you need one of something that is expendable, like a bandaid or antihistamine, you will probably need several of them.  As meds and bandages are small and compact, don't stint on these.  Keep in mind that some of the items in your kit will have a "best used before" date on them and periodically review and replace old meds and anything that looks "tired."  

Be sure to include meds you normally take at home.  Not just the Rx ones, but things like antacids, if you use them. Everything in the first aid kit should be packaged together and in a water resistant, if not waterproof, container.  A first aid kit is likely to be something you would want to use on a grab-and-go basis.  It isn't wise to consider things packed separately to represent parts of your first aid kit that you could assemble on an "as needed" basis.  For example, you might want to grab the first aid kit and put it in a day pack for a particular task where you might not want to take your 72 hour bag, e.g., going over the cliff on a rope on a scouting mission. ;-)

Here is my idea of a basic kit.  The indented items are secondary items.  For example, if you know how to suture and think you would do that in the field, add those things; if not, don't. A few items might be best kept both in the first aid kit and in also in a handy spot where you put snacks and stuff you expect to use, e.g., sun screen and Deet (or whatever you use for bugs).  If you don't have an appropriate zip bag, consider something like a tupperware container.

Bare Essential First Aid Kit

Your Rx meds
Your usual OTC (over the counter meds), e.g., antacids

Aspirin (for cardiac chest pain)
Tylenol (acetaminophen)
Motrin (ibuprofen)
triple antibiotic ointment
antihistamine
    hydrocort cream (allergic skin rash)
insect sting relief
    nasal spray for colds
blister treatment (pads, tape, moleskin)
tweezers
magnifying glass
PPE (disposable gloves)
safety pins
scissors
Sam splint®
bandage 4 x 4, sterile, several
assorted bandaids
waterproof tape (duct tape or equivalent)
    mesh-knit, flexible tape
iodine or alcohol wipes (antiseptic towelettes)
     steristrips
    ace bandage
    sling bandage (bandana, clothing)
    sutures
    needle/needle holder
5 hour energy drink
     Bag balm
CPR mask (you REALLY don't want to need to do CPR and not have this)
Hand sanitizer

If not in your wallet, your pocket first aid/CPR card of instructions

Be prepared to improvise and to use other parts of your hasty pack, e.g., your bandana as a pressure wrap, tourniquet, clean (if not sterile) large bandage (over sterile one).  

Got a better list?  Differ in your priorities?  All opinons and ideas welcome.

A Field Injury: How would you have handled it?

"So a walk in the woods, a blunt stick and you get 1.5 inches on a side.  25 miles from now where.  I patched her up.  She lived."

Actually, she did really well.  She walked out of the wilderness several days later on her own, carrying a heavy pack with no overt infection, no significant blood loss and she says she had no significant pain (calf injury).  OK, she was lucky and pretty stoic, but the results speak well to how this potentially nasty injury was handled.  It is dangerous out there and this could have happened to any one of us.

This is a graphic example of why you need to think through some of the "what ifs?" as you assemble a good first aid kit for your hasty pack.  Would you have known what to do with this injury?  

By the way, when is your first aid re-certification due?

Compact Survival Essentials

No two lists of "essentials" for a hasty pack are the same, but this survival kit is thoughtfully put together and is a good bet to give you an idea or two to use in improving your own kit.  He uses 20 items which total 4.5 lbs. and puts them into a small pack weighing 1.5 lbs (could use a lighter one) for a self-contained grab and go bag for many purposes beyond SAR uses.

The small container of bag balm was my favorite idea to add to my pack.

Reenforcing Survival Skills

More survival info reinforcing what you should know with some new twists.  This video hits some points well worth reiterating: setting priorities properly, picking a shelter site wisely, figuring out how long till the sun goes down, etc..

Wilderness Cold: About Heat Loss

More survival stuff.  Jim McNutt covers this material very well, but some of us learn better via different media and most of us need repetition to fix information in our memory banks.  Here is a video on survival themes- especially heat loss  when in cold weather conditions.

How About A Silken Base Layer?

I recently used some blog space to wax rhapsodic about wool and fleece as clothing base layers, but there is another option to put next to your skin that is so old it is almost new... and overlooked by many.  Here is some hype on it:

Silk long johns take up almost no room in your pack or under other layers, they weigh next to nothing, feels WONDERFUL, and wash easily.  Silks are perfect as a base layer for any outdoor activity - it is light, compact, and it dries fast.  Silk means warmth without weight or bulk and its insulating properties retain body heat more effectively than any other natural fabric.  Silk can soak up to 30% of its own weight in moisture and still feel dry as it gets locked away inside its structure.  This enables the 'wicking' process that takes perspiration from the bodies surface into the next clothing layer, effectively keeping the adventurous sportsman warm & dry!

                  

Thermasilk underwear can be washed over and over again because of its strong natural composition ensuring maximum comfort in the harshest weather.  Source  

Campmor has long john tops and bottoms for men and women that are merino wool with a silk lining —doesn't that sound divine?  They retail for $65.00, but you can get them from Campmor for $39.99.  The plain silk undies are not as warm as the combo wool and silk ones, but they are also considerably less expensive.

While talking about silk, Karen McNutt put me on to using silk as a perfect summer outer layer. By the time you take your pack off and get a drink of water you could have hung your shirt on a bush in the sun where it will dry in minutes.  You can machine wash it.  It is a layer that is cool, but will warm amazingly for its weight.  Don't buy a new one for hiking, get one at the Goodwill or Salvation Army.

Keeping Your Feet Warm

A low tech way to keep feet warm and drier.  The video quality isn't great, but the idea is worth a look.