This may feel obvious to some people but one of the greatest things to do when you are outside in the evening is to huddle around a warm fire and share conversation and hopefully s’mores. It is easy to forget how much of human history did not have artificial light. If you were up at night it was either moonlight (which is also incredible) or fire. Fire is probably what created civilization (along with beer).
There are many safe places to have a fire around Lake City when the fire restrictions allow. Please make sure you are careful to follow essential campfire safety and put it all the way out when you are done. Forest fires are an important part of nature but please do not start one.
Before I close on this topic, I would like to discuss the perfect mallow. When you are roasting a marshmallow, you are welcome to cook it however you would like. But I hope you will understand that there is a right way. First, you need a reasonable length stick that is preferably thin, straight, and fresh. Do not go destroying trees but borrow from a weedy bush or an inconvenient branch. Then, with the mallow on the end of the stick you slowly rotate. Preferably to the side of the flame. You want all heat and little flame. As you rotate the mallow will expand. It should expand significantly before it starts to brown. It should brown significantly before you are done but never burn. The perfect mallow is not an object but a point in time. The mallow is perfect at the first moment that you rotate the stick and the mallow stays perfectly still. The stick is now spinning free inside the wonderfully gooey interior. You may now eat it straight or in the sandwich style of your liking. You may want to try it between cookies or with peanut butter cups or in a tortilla or maybe ritz crackers or perhaps dark chocolate or with honey or cinnamon or peppermint bark… Go nuts but respect the mallow and the wonderful community it is created in.
