Firestarter: Cottonballs with Vaseline

Sawdust was flying everywhere at work, as a huge Oak tree was being chainsawed to pieces. The old Oak started to tip over the main golf cart path. Therefore we had to fall the beautiful tree!! The sawdust covered the path along with the grass around the path. The short curled pieces of oak dust reminded me of the coming backpacking season and i didn't have any firestarters. I never have backpacked firestarters up the trail. Usually moss, twigs and other debris finds it's way into my hands with my trusty lighter.
In 2013 i wanted to experience with firestarters. After asking a couple fellow employees about how to make sawdust firestarters the conversation turned to a new firestarter i hadn't heard of before. COTTONBALLS with VASELINE! I became curious!!!

Here's where my curiosity took me!!

In my mind firestarters should be cheap, easy to make, lightweight and conduct a long lasting flame!! Agree??

My experiment:

Cheap??
For $3.69 I bought 100 cotton balls and 13 ounces of Vaseline. By the time I used all the Vaseline i had produced 35 cottonball firestarters. Therefore i used all 2.69 of the  cost of Vaseline. Not using all the cottonballs, only 35 of the 100 would be 35/100. Because they only cost $1.00, 35/100 meant i used 35 cents of the $1.00. The sum would then equal 2.69 (vaseline) + .35 (cottonballs) = $3.04!!
Which would put each cottonball firestarter cost at $3.04/35= .086 cents.
Less than 9 cents per firestarter.
So far so good huh!! Agree??

Easy to make??

Its really simple!! Take your Vaseline and spoon it out into a old sauce pan. Turn the stove top to low heat, which was number 2 out of 9 on my stove top. If the pan gets too hot you can burn off the Vaseline and lose fuel before you can soak it up with the cotton. This will make your cost per firestarter go up as you lose fuel. I made sure to stay in the kitchen in order to know when the petroleum jelly was mostly melted.
Next take your cottonballs, the amount depends on how big your pan is, and place them in the melted jelly. I took about 5 or 6 at a time, rolled them in the jelly with a spoon and watched the cottonball soak up the fuel. Its easy to notice once the cottonball has soaked up it's full capacity. Next remove the balls from the pan and let them cool down. Repeat the cycle a couple of times. This is key. Dont put all the Vaseline in the pan at once as this also will cause loss of fuel from evaporation. Instead place just enough for 5 or six cottonballs. Once they have hardened you can store them away for later use.

Lightweight??

I don't have any info about how heavy each final cottonball weighs. I don't own a digital ounce scale. Someday i will! Its not a need , just a want. Cottonballs are small and all you need is one per fire. Therefore a small Ziploc back with 2 to 4 cottonballs is relatively light and doesn't take much space. If you have a problem with the weight or size of these for sake of room then your probably brought to much gear!!

Long lasting flame??

Yes indeed!!! With my stopwatch i timed the life of the flame a total of 4 times. 3 of those 4 times i burnt the balls as one normally would but the 4th time i placed a cottonball in a plate of water. The water in the plate covered half of the lower portion of the cottonball. The normal burn times were two 16 minute times and one 18 minute time. Therefore about an average time of 17 minutes. The 4th time while placed in the water the burn time was 22 minutes. Go figure!
The properties of Vaseline does not allow water to penetrate up through the cottonball. Thus making this firestarter perfect for the PNW as our climate is wet.
I also blew on the flame as hard as i could from a foot away and couldn't put out the flame. Next i poured droplets of water onto the flame with the same result, with flame remaining. Next i poured 8 ounces of water on the flame all at once and finally the flame was quenched.

The flame from the normal burn ranges from 3 to 5 inches which is very siginicant!!
In the wilderness the lightweight vaseline cottonballs are easy to hike with! The flame will catch most tinder and wood on fire with an average of a 17 minute burn time. Plus making these cottonballs are easy without breaking the bank. There's potential to save money depending on what you use normally!! Its a win win situtation.
Next i need to use them on my next hike and backpacking trek!! i will keep you updated on how they work out in the field!
Now stop reading this blog and head outdoors!!!!

 

Grand Valley

Looking Southwest at Mt Olympus

Three weeks ago I became enamored with the majestic Grand Valley as I hiked through the area on my 42 mile trek. You can see my 4 posts for the whole backpacking throwdown, called 42 Miles 4 Passes in 4 Days.
Grand Valley is the perfect backpacking hangout trip. You will see why... read on! My best amigo and I ventured out to see what Grand Valley could offer us and we definitely came back with our noggins full of good memories!!
Thursday was a full day of work for me but 2pm finally rolled around. It seems that work days take longer when your leaving for a trip that same day.
I met my buddy in Shelton and off we drove arriving in Port Angeles about 6pm. After a stop by the Ranger station to pick up our wilderness permits we headed up to Hurricane Ridge.
Hurricane Ridge holds the visitor center with marvelous views of the Northern Olympics.

Looking south at Grand Pass area

The forest road to the trailhead starts at the beginning of Hurricane Ridge's parking lot. After winding up and down the forest road the trailhead appeared. It sits just below Obstruction Peak at about 6,000 . It was 7 pm and the sun almost had it's arms around the western Olympic mountains as i pulled the e-brake. I had hiked in the dark a couple times before but never as the sun set at 6,000 feet. Simply amazing!!! We started to hike and two girls followed suit with the same idea, or with the same issue of being late.

Views like these are mesmerizing

The first part of the hike treks along a ridge. After about  1 1/2 miles the trail starts to drop into Grand Valley. The sun was hiding behind the mountains at this point. Darkness was pressing in but we combated it with our trusty headlamps. Never ever forget headlamps. I've used my headlamp countless times unexpectedly as hiking never goes exactly as planned. We trudged on doing our best to stay ahead of the girls behind us!!! They weren't gonna pass us!!!!!!!!!!!!



Switchbacks guided us down off the ridge into the lake valley. The trail straightens for awhile as it became treed for the first time. Soon we came to a "y" and took a left up to Moose lake. We wandered around trying to find a nice campsite in the dark. We first came across a group site but decided to wait on it and find a single site. We looked and looked and came across a trail with a sign at the start. We hiked up to the trail and smelled something nasty. The trail came to a clearing in the trees and suddenly laying in front of us was the outhouse!!
We ended up setting up camp back at the group site. Dinner was tacos with pre-made taco meat. Delicous!!

Moose Lake Brook Trout

Morning woke us up as sunlight descended on our eyes. Breakfast was cranberry pancakes, my favorite. The deer smelled the salty bacon we cooked. Two families of deer circled around us finding our piss hole. They devoured everything growing in and around our hole. After breakfast we grabbed out trusty fishing poles and plopped them in Moose Lake. Instantly we had bites and the fish were flying everywhere. Rooster tails, wedding rings and spinners were all loved by the fish. I even threw out a fly on the end of my spin casting pole just to see what would happen. Instantly the brook trout darted up from the bottom, coming within inches of the fly then veering off.

Small but beautiful

The bite slowed, and we packed up camp and headed to Grand Lake, the bigger of the three lakes. Our backpacks plopped down as well as the lures sank into the lake. The action was less than Moose Lake but the fish were larger. All in all we caught 36 brook trout in 5 hours of fishing. Not bad huh!!!! All fish were released and we're hoping they will mature for next times casting.

Its what's for lunch!!

Between Moose and Grand lakes there's a river that flows from one lake to another. We decided to explore the river after hearing what sounded like a waterfall and knowing the elevation drop the trail held. As we waded into the thick brush we heard some movement coming from the brush 20 feet in front of us. We paused, listened and decided the brush was too thick for our fishing poles that we held in our hands. As we pulled out of the brush the commotion continued. We paused again as a young adult black bear meandered out from the brush 50 feet away from us. We stood and watched trying to take pics as he wandered behind a group of firs. No luck....no pic, but it's always exciting to see a bear so close!!! We headed back up the trail to Moose Lake warning other hikers to be aware of the bear!! It didn't feel right just letting other hikers find out on their own.

Guess who saw each other first?!!

After warning the others, we headed down to Grand Lake. We throw in our lures at the far western part of the lake where the a stream flows in. A deep pool existed on this side. A couple sat across the lake watching us as a young family with kids hiked in behind us. The father of the young family started asking me questions about how the fishing was going. Suddenly my pole bent and i jerked back reeling. All eyes were on me and i produced a nice brook trout. Its belly bright red with amazing purple and pink silver spots. The trout was the largest we caught about 10 to 11 inches. As i was holding up my prize fish for the young couple's kids to see and touch, i quickly realized this trout had sharp teeth. Letting go for one second i lost him and splash into the water he went. Embarrassed i finished talking with the couple but with no more bites after that.
Down to Badger creek we hiked. Before we reached the creek we came across a 10 foot waterfall on Grand Creek. Feeling like i needed a bath i jumped off the waterfall into the pool below. The pool ended up being only 4 feet deep, surprise! Still worth it though, as i cooled off.
Next we crossed badger creek and like its a perfect spot for a bear to hang out. No bears but headed up Badger Valley. The upper valley was pristine. Every time i hike through this valley i seems there's bear watching me. Yeah i know that weird but it seems  one stubborn marmot chirped nonstop! Leadership definitely requires boldness and persistence and I'm always amazed how marmot are a good example of this!!!
Our hike was coming to a close as Obstruction Peak appeared ahead of us. After completely the final switchbacks around the corner the parking lot jumped out at us. No matter how long the trail is the parking lot always brings joyous pleasure that home is close and the trail has been conquered. But soon again the following day the trailhead is never close enough until the e-brake is pulled again!

Badger Valley

 

Mount Olympus

Moose Lake

The View From The Trailhead

Sunset Hiking Is The Best