Foraging for coal?

[Avadon]

It dawned on me a few days ago that because I live near a state park that allows campfires (and their are always campfires going) that I might be able to go get coal from their campfires after they are burned out and they've left. Is this worthwhile or would the wood/coal be totally spent?

[inazuma_x]

spent charcoal = ash i believe
so anything that isnt ash should still be combustable...

[ironrosefarms]

If you do this in a clean fashion (not leaving or scattering any trash) I would think you will find yourself not only a source of fuel but will likely find park employees who will be quite kind and generous. Our scouts volunteer to help the workers out twice a year to clean out the fire pits in each campsite (386 sites). Our keeping the employees from having to do this job has brought a good relationship with the workers and they have been very generous to our troop.

I'm just ashamed that I didn't think about the use of the charcoal that is sometimes left... Thanks for the great idea!
James

[Avadon]

Well I got the idea from someone saying that if you don't have a drum to burn wood into charcoal you can alway make a fire and when the wood is glowing you can bury the combustable material and it will vent it's gasses and basically leave you with a decent amount of goal left over. Probably not the most efficient way of making charocoal but that is essentially what I think happens to most peoples firepits, when they try to bury the fire at the end of the night or when they use water to put it out prematurely.

At 7$ a bag for charcoal.. might not be such a bad idea to scavage some campsights. I'll let you know if I have any luck with this method. I also have ton of wood to burn up come burning season.

I often wonder if a lot of people burn their wood into charcoal at night as to draw less attention from the smoke?