Ultimate women's guide for starting a campfire

The campfire: it is the center of the outdoorswoman's universe; people have stared into flames under a starry sky for a millennia. The campfire represents all that is good and awesome about camping — not to mention the best food is cooked over the flames fueled by logs and twigs collected from the woods. But these days it's a bit of a lost art. So here's your ultimate guide on creating the spiritual center to your camping experience.

Create your own firestarters
Although purists would demand that you start your campfire with nothing but two sticks and some kindling, we at the OBC are a little more practical. Here are some of my favorites (gleaned from Pinterest):

• Cardboard egg cartons with dryer lint
• Toilet paper tubes
• Stick shavings using a pencil sharpener (not so much a homemade firestarter as an awesome camping hack)

Burn, baby, burn
Now that you've got your firestarters, it's time for the good stuff. First, you need head out and gather as much firewood as you can. Got it.

Great. Now go out and gather three times more. Seriously. Unless you've been building fires for awhile, you will never have enough wood. The info graphic to the right helps you figure how much of what kind of wood you need. Basically, you need three types - all of which should be dry. (Hint: Sometimes finding dead branches attached to a tree, rather than looking on the ground, are your best bet):

• Tinder: It should be about the size of a pencil, and about 6 inches long. You'll need enough to fill the circle of your hands.
• Kindling: Make sure it's no thicker than your thumb, and about as long as the tips of your fingers to your elbow. You'll need enough to fill your arms. I'm not going to lie - you need a whole lot more than you think.
• Fuel: This is what will keep your fire going long into the night. It should be as thick as your wrist and as long as your lower leg. Stack it about as high as your knee.

Second, decide how you want to structure the wood for maximum air flow. I like both the teepee and the log cabin methods (sometimes a hybrid of the two works best):

Teepee campfire  
The trick is to push a few sticks in the ground to act as a support for the the remaining kindling.

1. Put your bundle of tinder either on a small piece of bark or the ground.
2. Push 3-4 twigs of kindling in the earth, forming a "teepee" around the tinder.
3. Stack the rest of your kindling twigs against the tinder (downwind side).
4. On the upwind side, leave an opening all the way through to the center tinder. This is where you'll light your fire.
5. Keep leaning twigs around the circumference of the teepee.
6. Begin to add thicker, pencil-sized sticks. Leave plenty of breathing room between sticks.
7. Poke three or four pencil-sized sticks into the ground forming a larger teepee structure.
8. Finally, place smaller fuelwood pieces against the structure.

Don't forget to have backup fuelwood (small) and kindling ready in case you need to quickly feed the fire.

Log cabin campfire 
Use the same kinds of fuel, except now you want to place two large sticks parallel to each other on the ground, then turn 90 degrees and lay two more on top (like a log cabin).  Add another layer in each direction, but use smaller sticks, moving them closer to the middle. Add your tinder in the middle, kindling on top (you can add a large piece of bark over the top of everything to make it burn even better). Light the tinder/kindling in several different places. As it burns, make sure you don't add any large logs until there's a strong flame and a few coals.

Whatever method you choose, don't make the mistake of smothering the tinder with too much kindling, which prevents air from getting to your flabes, and usually results in too much smoke. Always leave airflow gaps in the kindling, light the fire at its lowest point, and blow gently if needed. Once it starts to take, sit back, relax and enjoy one of the oldest pastimes of human beings (I once heard a contestant on Survivor call it "Survivor TV").

And don't forget to have some way to put out the fire should it somehow get out of control - most people use a bucket of water, but heavy dirt or sand will work as well. Make sure you spread the coals around before you put the fire out for the night - a tedious job if you're tired and cold, but it's the most responsible thing to do. (And we're all about being responsible when out in the natural world.)

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