A bonfire somewhere between eight months and seven years in the making, depending on when you start the timer.
There is a fire pit adjacent to the ramp at Adams County Airport. I noticed this several years ago while collecting stamps in the Fly Wisconsin Airport Passport program. At the time I made a mental note that I should return for a bonfire; I spent the following seven-or-so years not returning for a bonfire.
That finally changed today. I had my bonfire and I even brewed myself a poor man’s mocha (coffee + a packet of Swiss Miss) in my fancy new percolator. I wanted to get this done while we had some snow on the ground. Everything came together just in the nick of time.
My initial idea was to try to organize an evening bonfire fly-in last summer. I cleared everything with airport management, took care of some basic logistics, and had an initial visit to verify that everything was in order. However, through several (I think at least four) schedulings and reschedulings, the weather never worked out for it. We reached the end of the summer with that box never having been checked.
At some point during the fall I realized that bonfires are possible in the winter, too. In fact, a winter bonfire might be kind of nice, preferable to a summer bonfire in certain ways. I decided I’d try for that, and I further decided not to try to coordinate it with anyone else. I’d go and do it whenever the weather and my schedule allowed.
It was important to do this with snow on the ground. A snowless winter bonfire wouldn’t feel complete in the moment and photos wouldn’t reflect the atmosphere afterward. You don’t fully feel winter, regardless of how cold it might be, unless there is snow on the ground.
This winter was mostly snowless. I waited and waited and waited.
Finally, in mid-February, we got a blast of snow and cold. It wasn’t a lot of snow, but it was enough to turn the ground white. I loaded the plane with firewood and the percolator and headed north. The rest is history.
Now that the concept has been proven, I’m excited to spend a night or two up there in the summer. We’ll make that fly-in happen this year.
Facilities
The airport allows camping and there is a shower in the terminal. I don’t know how densely the underbrush grows in the summer, but after a quick walk through the woods adjacent to the terminal, it would appear that there are lots of nice spaces to toss a small tent just behind the tree line.
There is good, fast internet, and a courtesy car for transportation into town (though I always prefer to ride my bike if payload isn’t a concern.)
The fire pit has a cooking grate but there is nothing to suspend it over the fire. That was inconvenient. I ordered a grill stake for future visits. I’ll probably leave it up there, donate it to the airport. If somebody destroys it or steals it I’ll buy another and keep it to myself. I like to give humanity a chance.
People who use small town airports like this are typically not the type to destroy or steal anything. That’s one of the reasons I love this stuff so much.
Appendices
- Taxiing with firewood (YouTube.)