Tent surprises

diamond hitch

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Joined
Feb 9, 2020
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751
Location
Western Montana
Life supplies you with a vast range of knowledge if you just live a little. I would usually set up camp in September and hunt through vets day when the weather drove us out. We enjoyed the warm falls, cut camp wood, scouted elk and even shot a few arrows at them.
Our hunting was confined to weekends but the camp was so far back in the pucker brush, it, like the rest of the camps in the area stayed in all season.
On the opening of rifle season, my father, a coworker and myself settled in to chase elk in the north jungles. On second day while I was cooking breakfast my coworker stoked the yukon stove. A note to remember is: "all things in moderation". Suddenly over the smell of cooking bacon a new odor became apparent. With my senses aroused a started to search for the cause. About the time I came to the conclusion that something was on fire I heard my father exclaim "oh oh". I looked in the tent about the time my coworker rushed out yelling "where's the bucket".

Some larch needles had stacked up above the stove pipe and with the heat burst into flames. The tent was a cotton canvas saturated with parafin and it burned like a candle wick. It turned black over a five ft area and just as my coworker rushed in and threw his bucket of water straight up the ash roof collapsed into the tent. A split second later the water came back down on us turning the contents and us into soggy black victims. Them the effort was to put the remainder of the burning tent out with a wet rag.

The replacement wall tent was custom, fireproof and a serious effort was spent keeping the larch needles from near the stove pipe.

After all that it rained, we didn't see an elk and breakfast had kind of a "candle wick" after-taste. Another memorable weekend!
 
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