glocker36
05-25-2008, 11:08 AM
I just finished spending a week in the woods with my shelter. It rained for 7 days and was in the low 40's during the night. Several observations:
It takes WAY longer than you give it credit. My debris hut took me over 5 hours to construct, including one tear down because I realized it was too big the first time around.
A lean to will keep the weather off, but it will not hold any heat, so my lean to was only made to keep the rain off while I worked on tasks during the day and to keep some wood dry. I slept in the debris hut.If it had been really cold, I would have built a reflector behind the fire, as it was, the fire was more phychological and for cooking.
Click on the pictures for a larger version.....
306
Most people build them WAY too big, as you can see, mine is only long enough for me to fit and I had to slide in flat on my belly to get under the log. Remember, you are using body heat to warm this thing up and you are only good for about 6 BTU/Hr (I think this is the number)
It is critical that you put some type of barrier between you and the ground to reduce your heat loss, I used pine branches and it seemed to work well.
I slept in my shelter in pouring rain and 40 degrees at night and did not die, not comfortable, but tolerable.
First the ribs went up
307
Then it took several hours to mound the debris
308
Here is the finished debris hut, still kind of skimpy on the debris, but it was not extremely cold, otherwise another 18 inches of debris would have been called for.
309
Here you can see how small the interior actually was, just enough for me to wiggle into and pull bebris in behind me to close it up and when I rolled over, my shoulders almost touched the ridge pole.
310
It takes WAY longer than you give it credit. My debris hut took me over 5 hours to construct, including one tear down because I realized it was too big the first time around.
A lean to will keep the weather off, but it will not hold any heat, so my lean to was only made to keep the rain off while I worked on tasks during the day and to keep some wood dry. I slept in the debris hut.If it had been really cold, I would have built a reflector behind the fire, as it was, the fire was more phychological and for cooking.
Click on the pictures for a larger version.....
306
Most people build them WAY too big, as you can see, mine is only long enough for me to fit and I had to slide in flat on my belly to get under the log. Remember, you are using body heat to warm this thing up and you are only good for about 6 BTU/Hr (I think this is the number)
It is critical that you put some type of barrier between you and the ground to reduce your heat loss, I used pine branches and it seemed to work well.
I slept in my shelter in pouring rain and 40 degrees at night and did not die, not comfortable, but tolerable.
First the ribs went up
307
Then it took several hours to mound the debris
308
Here is the finished debris hut, still kind of skimpy on the debris, but it was not extremely cold, otherwise another 18 inches of debris would have been called for.
309
Here you can see how small the interior actually was, just enough for me to wiggle into and pull bebris in behind me to close it up and when I rolled over, my shoulders almost touched the ridge pole.
310