Camping with pipe

[richie sauce]

I'm going camping this weekend. First time with a pipe. Anything I need to consider?

 

[hazmat]

I'm going camping this weekend. First time with a pipe. Anything I need to consider?

Just wind, pretty much. Also depends on what you're going to be doing while smoking. If you're fly fishing, might want to attach an extra arm or two. Working a pipe while working a fly rod is difficult for me. Some guys have it down, but I'm not one.

Other than that, there's pretty much nothing better than a good pipe after a good meal cooked on an open fire.

 

[Anonymous]

I'm going camping this weekend. First time with a pipe. Anything I need to consider?

Other than at least 2 pipes in case one gets lost or broken

and enough tobacco

you might get a windscreen from your local shop the wind will probably be blowing in your area

 

[richie sauce]

i actually grabbed a pack of 5 windscreens the other day....how do they work and how are you supposed to use them?

 

[oldtimer]

Hi Richie.
To your question,Just squeeze easy on the two knobs and set it on your pipe bowl after its lit ofcourse.Just be carefull as you remove it in order to pack your pipe during your smoke as the wind screen will get hot.

Smoking a pipe around a camp fire is the best,Its comforting and a wondereful way to relax and enjoy your free time away.Enjoy your trip.


Alan. ipe:

 

[Bulldog Bruce]

Afternoon Richie,

Depending on diameter of bowl, you may want to grab those little ears that fit inside the bowl with your needlenose, hemos., whatever you carry in your takle. Bend them gently in or out whchever way needed. Saves the 'cake', or keeps you from loosing it in the water. As mentioned, they can get hot, handle with care.

Bd Bruce

Never forget!

 

[richie sauce]

the ones i got don't have any knobs or anything. They are just basically round little screens. Nothing other than that.

 

[jeepernick]

Take a couple of cob pipes, they are easy and cheap to replace if broken or lost. Take a variety of tobaccos, which ever you prefer. Of course some of the extras, tamper, pipe cleaners, matches, lighter ...

Here is the most important thing

Sit back, relax, and enjoy.


Then come back and post about it.

 

[Natch]

Richie, I think what you picked up are the screens one puts in the bottom of certain types of pipes to smoke that there wackie tobackie (and having gone to college in the late 60's, I've heard of such things!). What Bruce and Alan are referring to are are pipe wind screens, thin, round sheets of metal with many little holes punched them, (more solid than a disc of window screening) and two small raised "ears" that are spring loaded to hold it on the top of the pipe. My experience is they work OK, but not great.

I backpack and canoe camp a lot, used to be a back country guide at several National Parks and have smoked thousands of bowls in the back country or paddling. Unless you're being active while smoking, such as hiking (which is probably a bad idea to smoke then anyway), fly fishing (which unless it's really windy and you're near shore, shouldn't be too much of a problem without a wind screen), of paddling a canoe (which I do a lot), I never find a screen necessary. The one exception is a situation like I encountered in Glacier back country last summer. High fire danger, so the rangers didn't want to see a any lit anything. One caught me, sitting on a rock in the middle of the Belly River (at least 20' from either shore) with my pipe and the wind screen on it, laughed, and said if he didn't have to get his feet wet to get to me, he would have given me a ticket. But he walked away chuckling, so I doubt he would have.

My experience is my pipe is my best friend around the fire in the morning with coffee and sunrise, or at dusk watching the sun set with a splash of bourbon or a hot toddy. If I smoke a bowl during the day, I find a peaceful place out of the wind, sit and smoke, and put the pipe out before moving on. But then, I don't generally smoke when I'm moving around or doing physical work. So I don't really feel the need for a wind screen.

I do have, however, two different types of pipes that seem to work epically well in the woods. One is a pair of cheap Santos pipes I got on eBay, and both have the snap top metal lids that allow smoking with the lid down. The bent one hangs perfectly in my mouth when my hands are busy paddling through some riffs and smaller rapids, and the straight one is perfect for my day pack or backpack. However, 90% of what I use the lid for is to load the pipe in the morning, snap the lid down, and it's ready to go when ever I want, no tobacco falling out all over the pack. If I only smoke half the bowl, I wait until it goes out, wad up a corner of a tissue, stuff it over the top, snap the lid shut, and I've never had ash leak out when carried that way.

But my best traveling pipe is a Kirsten stem, (I like the large straight Lancer model) and two or three custom made bowls by Mike Brissitt that fit perfectly in these little Tupperware containers I have (the hight of a shot glass but a bit wider with tight fitting snap lids). I can load them in the morning and seal them in the containers, screw them on the stem to smoke when I want, put them back into the containers when done, and they're so convenient and light. If I ever figure out how to post pictures you'll see how efficient they are for both weight and size. Also, because the bowls screw off and their is no tenon to hold moisture, I find the bowls dry out much faster than standard pipes do, so they can be used more frequently.

Last summer we had a ten day back country permit in Glacier to do Stoney Indian Pass. My Kirsten pipe body, three different bowls and their containers, lighter, pipe cleaners, and seven different baggies of tobacco weighed just under 7 ounces. That's three good size bowls a day for ten days, and all together is was just about the size of a 16 oz beer can.

Sorry to be so verbose, but puffin my pipe in the woods is basically what I live for.
ipe:

Natch

 

[Muddler]

I fish & hunt quite a lot. A bunch of my pipes - the lower quality ones - are set aside for these trips. I do lose the odd one. Actually I lose lighters more often, always Zippos. Because I'm always in camp in the evening, I pack a few pipes & a pouch of tobacco in my day pack. Back in camp I'll have pipe cleaning stuff. Fire risk is something to watch for. And lighting up in the rain can be a pain - but it's worth it, of course. To my mind, smoking my pipe is an indispensable part of the trip. You get to stop & look - & that makes for good hunting & fishing.

 

[Anonymous]

Take a couple of cob pipes, they are easy and cheap to replace if broken or lost. Take a variety of tobaccos, which ever you prefer. Of course some of the extras, tamper, pipe cleaners, matches, lighter ...

Here is the most important thing

Sit back, relax, and enjoy.


Then come back and post about it.

We are in agreement here. I have a couple of briars that I would consider taking into the brush with me but for the most part I take cobs (at least two and usually three). If I lose one or break it I'm out three or four bucks.

 

[Bulldog Bruce]

Natch, are Kirstens similiar to a Falcon or Porsche(hopefully more reasonably priced) ,or am I totally way off?

Bd

Never Forget!

 

[docwatson]

Love this thread, and I must add that I carry cobs with me into the wilds also. A good Peretti' s burley, a couple cob pipes and the old zippo. I've yet to find a better lighter when it's windy than a zippo or an old Nim Rod lighter. Cobs seem to be the rule of thumb here, and as for a wind screen, they are a must and even help quite a bit when the showers start.

 

[Natch]

Natch, are Kirstens similiar to a Falcon or Porsche(hopefully more reasonably priced) ,or am I totally way off?

Bd

Never Forget!

Bd,
No, all three are quite different in appearance, cost, and most important, how they function. I won't go into my 3 1/2 hour long monologue on Kirstens in this thread, (too many have suffered though it on other boards!) but I believe they do a better job in removing moisture from and cooling smoke than any other pipe. Their weakness, in my opinion, is their shallow, wide, graduated bowls, which while good for some flakes (in the bowl end, not at the puffing end!) can be corrected by Mike Brissitt's (pipemaker) custom made bowls.

Natch

I've attached two pix of my "light" traveling Kirsten. Fraim, two full bowls ready to go in their Tupperware containers, enough tobacco to fill at least ten more bowls, cleaning tool, mini-bic, and pipe cleaners. The second pix is all of it loaded and ready to travel. That's a 5 1/4" Robusto in front for sizing.