The Dakota Fire Pit

[Helbrecht]

Stealth Camping : Cookfire

Stealth Camping: Cookfire

If you do not wish to be detected out in the country or the hills (maybe you just want some time alone), the rules are almost the same as those that they taught you in basic. Sound and fire discipline being paramount. Other things matter, yes, however the most jarring thing for somebody out on patrol or for a stroll is smoke and/or light in the night. A single lit candle can be seen from very far off in the night. A campfire does not sound like a very good idea in this situation.

Just because you would prefer not being detected does not mean you have to do without warmth and hot meals.

Those that went before came up with an ingenious solution to this issue. I give to you, that which is popularly known as "Dakota Fire Pit" or by other names in many other places across the world. I have seen jungle tribals in central India do this (it is almost like a chulha).

What you do is dig a pit 6 inches in radius, a foot deep. Then about a foot away from the edge of this pit (windward side) you start a six inch wide tunnel sloping towards the initial pit. Keep going till the tunnel reaches the pit. In the original pit, about 5 inches deep into the hole, start widening the pit at the bottom so it starts looking like a conical flask from chemistry lab.

While doing all of this, it is advisable to build this under the canopy of a tree, but not at its base near the trunk.

At the base of the main pit, put in your firewood. till it gets to the point where you started widening the pit (so about the top 5 inches of the main pit wont have firewood in it). Place three green sticks around the pit opening to rest your cook pots on. Light the fire in the pit and start cooking.

The benefits here are as follows:

1. The Dakota Fire Pit does not have a flame which can be seen from away, as the combustion is underground

• The Dakota Fire Pit has an inbuilt draft which ensures more complete combustion of the fuel (firewood) this eliminating a lot of smoke and a hotter burn, faster cooking and lesser blowing at the tinder to get it started (most times)

• Being under the tree, ensures that whatever little smoke does rise up, or steam from your pots, will get dissipated instead of rising in a column which can be seen for miles on a clear day.

A few Precautions:
Do not do this when :

1. The ground is peaty. The peat will catch fire and you will be in serious trouble.

• There are a lot of roots, you will damage the roots of the trees and cause ecological damage as well as risk an underground traveling smoldering fire which can break out someplace and start a forest fire.

• The ground is lose and sandy or otherwise wont create a proper straight pit and tunnel (the contraption will collapse in on itself)

• Waterlogged ground where water will collect in the pit.

• When it looks like it will rain, or when it is raining (that would be plumb stupid)

• Rocks and stones in the soil (difficult to dig a proper hole and rocks can explode when heated)

What do when you are ready to move on:

1. Ensure you put out the fire completely

• Back fill the pit and tunnel with the soil you set aside while excavating.

• The top layer of the pit and the tunnel can be kept intact (grass and debris and all) while starting them, these can be replaced on the back-filled pit and tunnel after the fire is done, to eliminate more tracks of you having been there.

EDIT:

^ image from http://thesurvivalplaceblog.com/2012/10 ... fographic/
- Guess the actual dimensions of the thing are not limited to the ones i have been using, however the image still explains the concept clearly.

Initial image used was http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn2/ ... 255083.gif was from http://www.fortressoffaith.org/wp-conte ... iagram.gif however it is not showing up on actual website anymore, only in google images.

[Mack The Knife]

Interesting method and thanks for posting it.

Have you tried this method and if so have you had the soil, above where the pit widens, give way?

Keeping that in mind it would probably be better to dig an inverted V rather than an inverted Y.

BTW, it is forum policy to credit information to the source it has been lifted from.

[Helbrecht]

I have used this method often, of all those times it was used just once for the reason of wanting to stay undetected. Mainly it is something that i had learnt a long time back and i find it interesting and fun to practice. To answer your question about the soil giving away the only time i had it happen was in my own backyard while i was demonstrating it to my kid (you can imagine my embarrassment). It was not sandy soil or anything like that, it was just garden soil, although a bit on the dry side.

About the inverted V shape, i guess that would work too, however you might find that you end up creating an inverted Y anyways since it is sort of difficult to maintain the uniform down-ward slope a V would need.

I could credit Capt. Sadangi from the NCC where i first heard of this (back in 1992, at college). Or Sudhir Kumar, the guide who helped us during our trip to MP, he made a wonderful masala khichdi on this (again back in 1993, first time i saw it put to actual use). The image i got off of google image search by putting in "dakota fire pit" Instead of hotlinking from the website which had it, i uploaded it to my Photobucket so as to not steal bandwidth from the original website.

[xl_target]

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[Helbrecht]

Interesting method and thanks for posting it.
BTW, it is forum policy to credit information to the source it has been lifted from.

Done