Fires for cooking, cheer, cameraderie, songs, sure. There are a million reasons why fire is neat on a wilderness trip.
And then, there comes a time when fire actually counts for something more.
Like this dark, dank, wet night spent in a canyon of the South Fork Flathead in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex. We were wet and cold, darkness was approaching, and rain was falling.
This is a fire I'll remember for a long time. It was a big one, and warm.
Photo: Ryan Jordan, July 2009. Sigma DP2, f/2.8 1/10 sec.