Take a drive to Abbots Mill Pond and take the trail across the road from the Nature Center.
They built a replica of an indian longhouse back there. It is a semi-permanent type shelter/base camp.
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Wilderness Survival:
Surviving a temporary situation where you're lost in the wilderness
Definitely!Originally Posted by pete lynch
This is one I built using no tools. Just what I could gather with my hands including roots for cordage.
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I did not sleep in it. I had a nice warm bed a couple hundred yards away. Lol.
What's so crazy about standing toe-to-toe saying I am?
~Rocky Balboa
I have always used a tarp lean to configuration with a fire as close as possible to get reflected heat from. And have also built a small shelter to keep the rain off the fire at times. I honestly try not to camp if it's going to rain!
Cool looking! Are those pine needles for insulation?
I may try a tarp over the lean-to frame, then cover the tarp with debris. Good thoughts.
Yep. The frame is wood limbs with woven roots and pine boughs weaved in. Then a thick layer of pine needles. The inside had pine boughs, miscellaneous weeds and then cedar for an insulation bed.
What's so crazy about standing toe-to-toe saying I am?
~Rocky Balboa
It will work as where you are but not where I am.
I'm a Gramp who is not computer savvy, give me a slab and the rock ages tablet..I will do fine!
Sounds good. I'm going on an overnight soon and that's most likely how I'll do it. The area I camp in has a lot of tall grasses and large pine trees.
I use a lean to, with a plastic tarp over the front l, it's called a super shelter. I found it on youtube. Mine is a semi permanent camp, and is 6 miles from my house. It's main support bar that's latched between the trees is about 6" in diameter, and the sticks on the back and sides are about 4"-6". I built it to last, and I hope it does. Once the snow goes, I'll get some pictures of it. I haven't tried any other type of shelter, but would love to at some point or another. I'd also like to build a 10x10 cabin eventually, but for now the lean to is great.
No tarp no tent? got a blade?
Typically I carry a SilNylon tarp that compresses down smaller than a 500ml water bottle, about the size of a 12 oz soda can less than 1/2 pound. This is all I really need, enough space to sleep, cook a meal and hang out for many hours or days if it rains, sleet, snow.
BUT if that was lost, destroyed (falling tree) or a wild animal ran off with my rucksack, or it fell into a ravine, or kayak got pinned in a rapid or whatever. THAT is what your are asking. So hopefully I would have a blade and not just need to break off branches and find wood laying on the ground etc.
Then like Tokwan said find a area of high ground that will not flood when (not if) it rains, don't lay down on the ground if you don't absolutely need to. Make a raised bed of branches, leaves, dead debris, above that a long pole between two trees (saplings perhaps) with branches to support it just barely high enough to crawl under but above debris bed. stack poles, branches on side(s) cover with leaves for insulation and to shed water. "Embrace the Suck" It is going to be wet, humid, cold and depending on the weather bugs, snakes and skunks may come to join you. This ain't no **** hotel. The "Four Season's" Hotel Concierge will not be calling to see if you need anything. LOL
If it is very hot and humid I prefer to make a small thatch roof between two trees about chest height and makeshift hammock out of cordage (natural vines) and hang from that, but if you have no insulation this is just to cold at about 2-5am.
Last edited by TXyakr; 02-24-2015 at 11:49 AM. Reason: no concierge in debris shelter
Thanks for the idea. Good luck with the cabin.
That's some sound advice. I think that for recreational use, a natural shelter is a fun project. Knowing how to build one is never a bad skill to have in case you lose your gear. Thanks for the advice.
In grade school my friends and I used machetes and hatchets to build little huts in a small 3 acre section of 2nd growth jungle near our school on the weekends. My father had purchased about 20 acres long before I was born this was all that was left it is all gone now. These were just poles or trees in the ground with some poles across the top and palm leaves woven to shed water as a roof as some of us had learned from indigenous people during the summer. If we had time we would use palm leaves for walls but often a strong thunderstorm would blow it all down before that. Even the neighborhood girls made huts and slept in them on weekends. I assumed all kids in rural areas did this.
When we got a little older we used scrap lumber to build tree houses, the winds blew these down as well. Usually not with us in them. Once we built a tree house between 3 trees that slid back and forth to allow it to move with the wind as the trees moved, but even it got blown down. Then some people who lived near by collected all our scrap lumber and had a large bonfire. We were not happy. So a thatch hut hidden in the jungle was probably better only very muddy sleeping on the jungle floor. Therefore, poles or trees strong enough to support hammocks and nets to reduce the mosquitos made it better. Some of us bought army surplus "jungle hammocks" leftover from the Vietnam war, today you can buy much better camping hammocks.
Last edited by TXyakr; 02-25-2015 at 06:05 PM. Reason: added details, childhood fun
Sounds like you know how to have fun!
@ Zack it is best to try these skills on private land. Generally if you build something on National Forest or BLM Wilderness you must remove it all and return the land to its original condition when you are finished. At most State Parks it is forbidden to cut anything, pick up a stick, stone or mess with wildlife of almost any kind. Only limited fishing is about all that is allowed and pitch your tent in very restricted areas. I rarely camp in State Parks, usually only if it is a big group event. Sorta feels like a straight jacket to me.
I am not complaining about State Parks, these are very limited resources and must be shared with a LOT of people so these rules are very important. I try to be very respectful while staying at State Parks. I have trimmed away green briar (Smilax) to make space for my camping hammock and cut back cat tail reeds (canoe access to lake) but only after getting permission from the employees there. I know my native plants very well and am very careful to protect all plants in danger of survival whatever their classification.
Last edited by TXyakr; 02-25-2015 at 06:13 PM. Reason: State Parks are important, need rules
Yeah, I like state parks as well. You're right about the rules though. But, all in all, I can't complain about my local state parks. They're pretty clean and you're usually alone.
But we also have state forests, which are an entirely different story. They are managed through the Dept. of Agriculture, rather than the Dept. of Parks and Recreation, so the rules are different and a little more relaxed. I haven't camped in any yet, but I have read the rules. It seems like as long as you're respectful to the plants, wildlife, and landscape, you can do just about anything. I am really trying to get an overnight in one soon, but with all the sub-zero temperatures, I don't want to risk hypothermia. Maybe in March...
I know we did! We scrounged lumber, tin and nails to construct out "cabins".
One time the adult males helped us out with a tree house, boy were we the coolest kids in the area!
When all else fails, read the directions, and beware the Chihuahuacabra!
I was lucky enough to catch a few episodes of "Fat Guys in the Woods" on the Weather Channel. I don't know how realistic it is, but they've done a couple shelter builds that are interesting. Does anybody have experience with a wiki-up?
Another one I saw didn't have a name, but I liked it. It was a three walled structure, made of rocks and spars, covered with a woven mat-type roof of vines and pawpaw leaves. I think that it would be good too...
It seems to be a rather well regarded show. Not a lot of "dramatics", just simple skills being taught to folks who have little to no experience out in the bush.
When all else fails, read the directions, and beware the Chihuahuacabra!
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