Going into the Q where there's no fire grate, do you pack in a small grill for the fire pit?  We've done the balancing on rocks bit and used a handled grill for fish.  I was thinking about taking our small grill that fits in our charcoal Weber that we use at home.  What say ye - grill or no grill?

I take a grill. A rectangular job taken out of a refrigerator. Its more heavy duty than the grill on my weber and is long enough to reach across the average Q-firepit. (My wife doesn't seem to notice its gone.)
-YB

If you forget to bring a firegrate to the Q, just stop at every open campsite you can find.  I guarantee you'll make no more than 5 stops before you find yourself a firegrate.

Better yet, cook on a stove and you'll save a lot of time each meal.

Yeah, ditto on what Snow Dog said - lazy SOB's will hual them in, but its too much work to haul them back out.  I think came across two on this years trip.

Say Yellowbird - used to be, "they" warned people to not use refridgerator grates for cooking - cadmium? or some other heavy metal/carcinogenic kinda stuff.  Could be its safer now?
A small grill from a BBQ might be a better/safer choice.

Me, I "grill" on a stick.

Yea, take a grill.  You can take the weber one if you want.  I have two campfire grates.  One is small (6.5" x 12.5") that I use for solos or two people and a larger one for groups (12" x 24").  I got both, I think, from Campmor.

The other thing I have used are fire irons.  These are simply two angle irons about 18" long.  You just set them on rocks or logs so that they go over the fire, and space them apart so that your pot or pan can sit on it.

BTW -- I had my wife sew storage bags for these.  They are blaze orange.  Sometimes I think people just forget their grates accidently.  An empty orange bag is a red flag that I'm missing something.  Also, once in the bag, it is easily seen so I won't forget it/overlook it.  I also have blaze orange bags for my reflector oven and my saw.

And some just leave their grills there...hoping they will still be at their fav campsite next trip....the grill to heavy for any person to pack it out willingly.

I stayed at an unmarked site that from the water looks terrible on Russell.  I bet most people wouldn't even get out and look.  But once you're up in the trees...this place was somebodies home...heavily used...many amenities, obviously for future use, and I'd bet multiple times/year by certain groups.

I found it very homey!  Felt like leaving them a note to bring the fridge and TV so it be there on my next trip!

We do use stoves for the majority of our cooking.  The fire is a bonus.  It's used primarily to warm water for hot chocolate or to grill fish.  I'm hoping for my first laker in Sept. and want to be prepared to grill it using the recipes gleaned from this forum.   ;)

Ditto to Snowdog and others of like mind.
No need to bring a fire grate, theres plenty stashed already. If your favorite campsite doesn't seem to have one, it may be because you haven't looked hard enough. They can be found in the weeds or back in the trees. While it was quite a few years ago, what finally convinced us was the year we packed out several grates, took them to the office at French Lake, and were told that those grates were probably left intentionally by campers who would miss them on their return trips. We felt terrible :( :( knowing the hardship we had unintentionally inflicted on these poor souls ??? :( We briefly considered returning them, but decided to leave them in the rangers lost and found pile, where we found more grates. ;D
If we are frying fish, we do it on a stove. If we are foiling the fish, after we have fooled the fish, we do it directly on the coals. Haven't packed a grate in or out for several years, now I wonder why we ever did. Why did we Snowdog? 8) 8)

We did it because we were young and dumb.

....OK, maybe we were just dumb.

No cooking over the fire unless it's on a stick. I hate having to clean the pots and pans. Only over my stove. Call me lazy, but I hate scrubbing pans :'(

Q of the day-- How many grates will be found on Stumpy's Pond? ??? 8)

I carry one....you don't expect me to change, do you ?

Stumpy,

Do you have a decent recipe for Chub?

Jimbo   8)

Hey, now that you brought up this thread again I have a question.  Is searching for fire grates in campsites similar to "snipe hunting" here in southern Illinois?  I didn't find any grates stashed away this summer. ???

Stumpy might have picked em all up in preparation for his epic adventure!! Probably figured they'd be useful for swatting skeeters, flys, and assorted other vermin. :o Or he may strap them to his boots to use in transporting the swamps, not unlike snowshoes. ;D ;D ;D But he could've missed a couple or three. Did you check in the weeds?? Some veteran slobs are getting more careful about where they hide them, so they will be there next year. After all, one would hate to suffer the total indignity of having ones firegrate turn up MIA, especially when they are so versatile!! ??? ;D ;D

For what it's worth, I found a very serviceable grill already in place on my Cirrus campsite during my late September solo adventure.  The discovery was actually a bit of a "downer".  I had portaged my own grill for no gainful purpose.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.  C'est la vie, mes amis....

Jimbo   8)

So Jimbo, did you upgrade ??? ::) ;D ;D

That would be upgrate.

But it could be "ungrate."

I don't know about all that but surely it was left by an "ingrate".  Though I suppose one should not be un"grate"ful.

So gratified & grateful, was I, to the ingratiating ingrate who left the great upgraded grate, gratis, that baked my un-grated great trout au gratin for my good gray plate that I left a gratuity in lieu of my ungratified congratulations.

Gravely grasping for gray matter,

Jimbo    8)

GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGs, Jimbo!! ::) ::) ???

Something of a "G  Wiz", eh, Old_Salt?

Jimbo   8)

Grate Scott!  Where will it all end???

In a great grave under gravelly ground where the gray grouse groan.

Jimbo   8)


PS.  Sounds like the Badwater Lake area to me....

Good Grief . . . Genough Gis Genough . . .
-GB

YB -

Goodness, GRacious, aren't you the one whose identity caption (bottom of your posts) starts with:

"Let your speech always be with gr...."          ???


Jimbo   8)

Grate Gonzos Jimbo,

You caught me in an un-grate-cious moment.  :-/

Must have been the "Badwater" over the weekend.  ;)

Please somebody start a new thread - anybody.  :'(

-YB

Jib-Jabbing & Jabberwocky
***************************
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

 He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought-
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jaberwock?
Come to my arms, by beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did grye and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.



Graciously Granted by Lewis Carroll after his visit to an Ojibwe Indian village near Badwater Lake.


Jimbo   8)

Sorry, I don't have anythinG in Ojibway today
AnythinG in EnGlish??

Old_Salt,

Your wish (something in English... albeit "Olde English") is my command (complete with translation):
*********************************************
                                Beowulf


             1Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum,
          LO, praise of the prowess of people-kings
             2þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
          of spear-armed Danes, in days long sped,
             3hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.
          we have heard, and what honor the athelings won!
             4Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena/ þreatum,
          Oft Scyld the Scefing from squadroned foes,
             5monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah,
          from many a tribe, the mead-bench tore,
             6egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð/
          awing the earls. Since erst he lay
             7feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad,
          friendless, a foundling, fate repaid him:
             8weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah,
          for he waxed under welkin, in wealth he throve,
             9oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra
          till before him the folk, both far and near,
           10ofer hronrade hyran scolde,
           who house by the whale-path, heard his mandate

**************************************

I don't think this dude, Beowolf, ever did any grilling near Badwater Lake.  He'd fit in well enough, however.  Perhaps I'll invite him on my next trip and we can wax a few welkins together.....

Jimbo   8)
           

Jimbo -

Aye.  Ats grate. ::)

dd