All you gotta do is load up and head towards glow, at the bonfire!

[LongIslandCamper]

We don't always do a fire at night. A lot of times when we do it's just a duraflame with a piece or two of real wood. I took down a bunch of tree limbs about 3 years ago so I had a bunch of wood laying around. I can't believe it, but we used just about ALL of my wood up this camping season and that was using it sparingly. We also bought a few bags from Home Depot from time to time.

I decided enough was enough with those little bags so I finally had a 1/2 cord delivered today for $95. I've spent the last few hours stacking it in my yard and tool shed. I've counted as I went along and did 4 trips at 100 pieces per trip. Id say there are 200-250 pieces left in my driveway that I'll move tomorrow.

So in case you were wondering, there's about 600-650 pieces in a half cord. That equals about 52 of those little orange bags and at about $9 per bag, that's about $450 if you got a 1/2 cord of wood in those little bags. That's about $0.75 per log. Compare that with buying in bulk and a half cord is $95. That comes out to be less then $0.16 per log.

Oh, and here's a pic.

[Jagiven]

For at home, I pickup about a ¼ cord of wood, that is all my little utility trailer will haul. We live in an area where we are banned from transporting wood out of our seven county area due to the Emerald Ash Bore. The DNR now restricts the fire wood that goes into the state parks too. They only allow DNR approved Heat Treated wood into the park. We have spent a lot on fire wood, because of these restrictions.

[LongIslandCamper]

We have the same restrictions for state campgrounds. You are only allowed to bring it if the wood was collected within 50 miles of the state park. We only have 2 state parks around here and one only lets you have a fire in the off season which we usually don't do.

We spend a lot of time at a local county park on the beach and there are no restrictions there as far as I know.

[dewey02]

Being a Forester, I do understand the idea of not spreading the emerald ash borer by transporting firewood.
But what really makes me unhappy is that the state parks put prohibitions on bringing in wood, and then they sell you the cheeziest thin slab wood (usually aspen or some other worthless firewood) in a bundle that disappears 5 minutes after you light it. And they charge you and arm and a leg for it.

The wife and I love to do our cooking over a campfire, and I'm not talking about roasting weenies here. We cook real meals. For that you need a lot of coals and they need to last a long time. Impossible with that crappy State Park wood. Also, having an evening campfire costs a fortune with their wood because you can easily go through several bags in a short time. While the overall objective of preventing the spread of insects and disease and therefore also preventing their killing the local trees is good, I believe many State Parks managers see this as a way to make money. If they were REALLY serious about this, they would contract with someone who would deliver good oak, hickory, etc, well dried and a decent quantity for a decent price. No slab wood, no popple, no wet wood. They were actually selling green wood at one state park. No one in the campground could get their fire started and everyone was complaining.

[tlhdoc]

Originally Posted by dewey02

The wife and I love to do our cooking over a campfire, and I'm not talking about roasting weenies here. We cook real meals. For that you need a lot of coals and they need to last a long time.

X2

[Jayco 228]

Here in Alberta our Provincial parks use to provide free firewood. Then in our governments infinite wisdom they decided it made more sense to let private operators run the parks. Free firewood went away, first year wood was $4 a bag for a decent amount of quality wood, next year it was $5, next year it was $6 for less wood less quality....so on and so on. Now it is anywhere from $9-$11 a bag and the wood is absolute crap and the bag has about 5-6 pieces in it. I have had weekends where I have spend $200 on wood, that was not being crazy with the wood and not real late nights. Camp fire is the best part of camping and I think it is awful that the governments are making it so cost prohibitive. We can bring our own wood in however I pull my trailer with an SUV so it really is not an option. Makes me angry when I think about it because it was my grandparents and parents tax dollars that paid to build these parks years ago and now they are allowing someone to take advantage of all the people that deserve to enjoy these parks for a reasonable fee.