Best wilderness shelter

[mamab]

If you're in a wilderness situation without gear, what would be the best type of shelter to make? What is the quickest shelter to put up?

[Chris]

It totally depends on the situation, the weather, and the geography, but in general a simple lean-to is best.

[Bowcatz]

I've heard of folk who piled up a dry leaf pile about six feet high and crawled under it to keep warm. Keep adding leaves till you get warm, I suppose. A couple of feet of dry leaves under you and a minimum of four feet over you to keep you warm, dry, and off the ground. You could pile dead tree branches and such over the leaf pile to keep it from being blown away by winds. It would be a sort of flattened wickiup.

In one of Tom Brown's (The Tracker) books, he mentions stuffing a couple of garbage bags full of soft, dry leaves, tying the ends together and making a primitive, leafy imitation of a goose down vest. Leaf piles work for squirrels, so it might work for a human, too.

Years ago, I read of a kid that was lost and found a hay field that had these huge round haybales in them. He pulled out the grass from the middle of one to make a hollow place. He crawled into the hollow place, replaced the hay that he could to block the wind and slept warm all night till he was rescued the next day. Smart kid. I've heard of coyotes doing the same thing with these hay bales.

If I could, I would widen out a coyote hole I find on my property from time to time, stuff it full of dry, clean leaves, and have a rain and wind resistant place to wait for a better time to move out.

[taiarain]

How would you be sure that the coyote hole was abandoned? Wouldn't you be a little concerned about one returning home?

[Bowcatz]

Coyotes are basically scared of people. Just holler at it or swing a stick at it. It'll run. If it doesn't, then be prepared for a lot of yowling as it tries to drive you out with noise. I wouldn't do this to a coyote unless it was a survival situation. If there were pups in the den, I would leave and find another place.

The call to a hunt of the coyotes is music to my ears when I am camping all night on the farm. Happens every evening a little after sunset down by the creek. I wish I could hear it more often.

[Symantic]

**NOTE**, ALWAYS SLEEP WITH HEAD UPHILL, you need to find out what way is uphill before you start working on it, or your gona have to re-do it, if you sleep with your head downhill your gona have one hell of a headache in the morning.

I live in the foothills and i practice wilderness survival, I have no neighbors behind me and 80 straight miles behind my house with nothing there but brush and mountains.

I have tons of brush back there and no real wood or trees and it may seem impossible to build a shelter with nothing but brush really, but i collect these long, soft, tree type things that grow to a point at the top, they can get up to 7 feet long, the problem with those are they grow out the center of a very spinkey plant and usuly up high on the side of hills. Also, the ground is dry and rock hard.

is what i do is i collect about 3 of those tree things and shave em, then i dig 2 holes as far as i can with a rock or knife (usuly 3 inches) and break one apart and notch it so they fit together, then i get another long tree thing and place it on it so its angled to the ground, usuly the highest point is about 1 and a half feet. i then break the other pieces and place them in a diagenal on the branch, so i have the basic frame of a sloped tent with supports. Then i collect brush (large sharp knife is usefull) and then start building walls on the shelter, if you place them prety flat and surround it good it will keep you warm, when i take people backpacking back there i bring a blanket, knife, food and water (and medic bag) and construct my shelter, and help with whoever is there also.

Sorry if this is hard to understand, i may get pictures.

**NOTE**, ALWAYS SLEEP WITH HEAD UPHILL, you need to find out what way is uphill before you start working on it, or your gona have to re-do it, if you sleep with your head downhill your gona have one hell of a headache in the morning.

[Bowcatz]

I guess the blood pools in the head when you sleep with your head lower than your feet and the lack of fresh oxygenated blood circulating to the brain causes the headache.

My sinuses close up when I sleep with my head lower than my feet, so I sleep pretty much on an incline with three pillows every time I bed down for the night. Beats living off Nyquil or other not good for you so you can breath easier at night medications.

[Tangent210]

Lean-to's are ok and the easiest to build but the best is usually something you can find and use in the geography. I actually have heard of the leaves in the garbage bags thing and I have heard it works quiet well. Garbage bags are possibly the best thing to carry with you when hiking. They are super lights and very very versatile.

[Wolf Creek]

I make I guess what you would call a lean over. I'll find a eight feet tall preferably with a thin trunk two inches knee high and bend it over and weigh it or stake it down depending on soil. I like to put a nice bedding down first this will same time later. The green tree gives you a good structure that will hold alot of weight. Layer some follage and cone shape it and crawl in the trunk side feet first just incase the tree snaps. I trim branches last so you get a better seal and don't do as much damage to the tree. When your done and release the tree it won't be near as bad as if you cut it down.

[wolf]

http://www.m4040.com/Survival/Skills...arpShelter.htm

[illinia]

longterm I would go with thach. Short term terrain . Have used leaves and garbage bags under bedroll snow did'nt melt under me good insulation

[Tony uk]

A Lean-To is a good all-round shelter to use but it depends on where you are and the materials available

[marberry]

i sleep on my arm so i dont have that problem, get (library or buy) a copy of pawl tawrells book 'camping and wilderness survival' it has tons of awsome shelters for any situation , desert ,mountian ,winter, arctic, swamp, tropics , woods , its just awesome

[tagou77]

I find that in most situations a lean-to is too technical to build. I would use a debris hut which requires little to no cutting tools and just as much natural resources.

[woodzman]

My favorite cold weather shelter is a dome shaped wigwam. For a one nighter I go with the lean to, but for an extended stay I build the wigwam and add a stone fireplace in the center. If you have the time and the stone, a chimney running up to about a foot from the smoke hole helps to keep the smoke down and the stone really holds the heat.

[FVR]

Here is a functional jungle shelter. Raised, took our skeeter nets and made walls, roof made of jungle leaves.

Kept us very dry through the jungle rainstorms.

[URL="http://Guests can not see images in the messages. Please register in the forum.[/URL]

[trax]

If you're in a wilderness situation without gear, what would be the best type of shelter to make? What is the quickest shelter to put up?

Everyone seems to have some kind of gear in their response, either for cutting or digging. I wouldn't go without gear, unless I was stuck somehow. It's easy enough to carry a small tarp and a small handax. Bend four saplings in toward each other in a circle, through the tarp over and you've got a basic wigwam style tent. Line the inside with pine/spruce boughts if available. Again, it all depends on your environment. A snow fort can increase your chances of staying alive by keeping the wind off of you

[wareagle69]

someone had mentioned about straw bales, this winter one of my experiments will be in building a straw bale shelter maybe about 20 just to see how warm it would be inside without anyone in it (thermometer)and then how warm with me inside, not much to do with survival shelters just something that has been on my mind

[Strider]

I think the easiest thing to make would be a simple lean to... use sticks and leaves and anything else you have I guess.

[RobertRogers]

A good winter survival shelter can save your life, and you can use the same principles in warmer climates.