Hey Mike. Just curious. What's the thickness of your steel door? That bear obviously got in the shed so I was wondering what you consider is a safe thickness. I'm sure humans are more troublesome than bears.
Hey Mike. Just curious. What's the thickness of your steel door? That bear obviously got in the shed so I was wondering what you consider is a safe thickness. I'm sure humans are more troublesome than bears.
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Mike do you have a wide shot of what the inside looks like?
The dimensions of the black steel door are 7x3 feet and 3 inches thick. It is a specially made door I obtained from a factory I worked at a few years ago. It is made of two 1/4 inch thick steel plates and is hollow. I would have filled it with concrete but would have had to use a cutting torch to open the top and it must weigh now at least 150 pounds.Originally Posted by Rick
I can also put bags of concrete in front of the door if necessary which I have many hardened bags I got from a landfill. I also was able to get both steel doors, several steel beams, much rebar, bricks etc. for free from that factory in CO which is now torn down.
I would like to have a bank vault door but doubt I will ever find or be able to afford one of those.
The bear got into 3 of my sheds tearing the plywood off two of them. And another shed the bear opened a screen door without damaging that door fortunately.
A couple years ago someone did try to break into my bunker. They did Not get inside. There is only a bent piece of metal as evidence of their trying to break in.
As can be seen in a pic, I have two chains, one is a large logging chain and two strong locks. When inside I have the bars to bar the door. I plan to put long dead bolts for more security.
I keep the back trap door bolted shut when I am not up there. But I will add another strong covering made of several sheets of plywood and using some farm discs that look like shields. Also I will add more dirt, rocks etc. and also If I get more time and energy I would like to dig twenty or more feet into the mountain. Even connect the bunker by a tunnel to a future cabin....
Hopefully this next summer I will get better pics. I have quite a few but just of certain views. It does not seem too small to me but for most people I am sure my bunker would seem too small.
It is a little over 20 feet long. The front part is at least 8 feet long and 7 feet wide and 8 feet high. The main room which is at an angle is 12 feet long and 7 feet wide. i mostly followed the plans from the following book but also used my own ideas such as putting in a strong plastic window which i can cover with bags of concrete if necessary but I keep it covered most of the time with plywood.
I had to make the bunker no more than 7 feet wide according to the plans and to make it as strong as possible. Any wider and the roof would be weaker. So no more than 7 feet wide but as long as I want. Would like to dig through the mountain and come out a couple miles on the western slope of the Continental Divide.
Probably won't happen unless I can find a hundred cheap "undocumented" workers.
Here are the plans I used to build the main room >
My bunker-underground shelter, is a pole shelter and I have dug into the side of a hill-mountain. The main room especially was made from these plans from this excellent free book > http://www.ki4u.com/free_book/s73p933.htm
From the above link which shows the main room plans >
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This design is told about in detail in the above link. It is Extremely strong since it was tested in nuclear tests in Nevada in the sixties. Pics of that are also in the above link.
Below is the pic I have to show the main room and below and to the right is the bunk bed in the bunker. Which I also use a small tent to sleep in on this bunk bed for there are some mice etc. that are hard to keep out.
A porcupine likes it under the bunk bed and I think he especially spends the winter in there. The bear hopefully will never get in the bunker but he has his own den which I showed a pic of that in a previous post.
There is also a pika which lives mainly in the ceiling of the bunker. There is a 4 inch space between the log roofs which the pika fills with plants, flowers etc. In the pic I showed of the 3 layered roof maybe people can see the plants etc. around the skis which the pika packed those plants there.
He also fills a shed although maybe there is more than one pika. I like to call them rock rabbits and usually only see pikas above tree line. This one must like forests and bunkers. I also had a pika ten years ago stay in my A-frame shed for 4 years.
Below is the pic and not sure if I can post anymore for it seems filled up. I will probably go put more pics on photopail and show them here someday in the future.
Very good Information and Pics. Thank you
And while the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.
Fear of destruction and imminent danger are those that will ultimately drive us forward onto survival in the future.
Thank you Chiefman and everyone else who has posted.
I try to make useful posts and I think many like pics especially about survival topics.
Hopefully someday I will post many more pics but here are some experiences I have had, of which I could go on for hours but here are some of the best ones >
A few have read the good experience I had with the wapiti > http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=73868
Others can also post their experiences If they have any, since this thread is supposed to also be about survival experiences. Mainly survival Retreat experiences but actually any experiences related to survival. I am very interested in hearing and even seeing some pics of anyone's BOL, homestead and/or survival retreat. I am sure many will not share, that is If they have a place, but it is nice to see others pics or stories and know that I am not tooo unusual.
One of the first and one of the worst survival experiences I had was in 1986 when I was climbing Long's Peak, a 14,000+ foot high mountain in N. Colorado. It was the middle of October and there was 2 feet of snow at 11,000 feet.
I liked hiking and climbing on that high mountain in October since I was the only one up there. I had went up in August and there were hundreds hiking - Long's Peak is in Rocky Mountain National Park.
I had a small backpack with a small pup tent and light but warm sleeping bag. Also some food such as food bars etc. & about a gallon of water since I was up there two nights and got back to the trailhead the 3rd day. No water above 10,000 feet, just lots of rocks and short grasses but in Oct. there was much snow and wind.
Seems like the most critical piece of equipment was my sleeping bag, for I could have made a lean-to shelter at tree line and above the trees where I camped the first night at 11,000 feet I could have sheltered in rocks. But the tent worked fine with the sleeping bag. It was nice to be up there at 11,000 feet alone and at night see the bright lights of Denver far to the SE 50+ miles away.
And in the morning waking up to the sound of white snow birds - ptarmigans flying over the tent.
I then tried to go to the top of Long's Peak but it was too snowy and windy. Would have had to climb along a ledge by myself to get to the top and I thought it was not worth the risk. I did climb a smaller mountain next to Long's - which was about 13,000 feet and could just climb up the sloping side. I thought I would take a short cut and go down the east face of this mountain. It was not too bad but soon got steep and slippery on a snowfield.
I slid quite a ways down that large snowfield (seems like it was more than 300 feet) and finally stopped using the aluminum tent stakes, jabbing them into the snow, stopping only a few feet from rocks at the end of the snow field.
But I was in my mid twenties then and did not know better. That was one of my first close calls in the wild.
I could wish I had a lot better equipment for I only had cheap stuff but it worked and I am here today to remember and tell about it.
I have had quite a few other hairy survival experiences some of which I try to forget such as getting hurt a few times ( spraining my ankle and having to lay in my tent for at least a week until it healed enough to walk on) getting hypothermic, having my hands and feet so cold that it hurt to warm them back up at a fire etc. and hiking back to my vehicle in a blizzard and even getting my various vehicles stuck in mud to 3 foot snow drifts.
Your place is great! Could it be used year round if it needed to be?
It would be difficult to use my mtn place everyday & year round but If I really had to I could. I have been up there in January, March and April. By the end of April there is at least 12 feet of snow pack. My A-frame shed is 14 feet high and only the top 2 feet were showing in late April when I was up there a couple years ago.
The deep snow pack is good to make snow caves though as I have shown in a pic on my homepage.
But I hope to move up there and stay full time for even 10 or more years without hardly ever leaving except to go to the nearest town 12 miles downhill, which is Encampment, Wyoming.
I have to get much more firewood cut and split and stacked in the large woodshed also. And get more food etc. I do have two 55 gallon drums sealed and packed with much food such as 180 pounds of wheat, fifty pounds of pinto beans etc. etc. plus much canned food also.
I plan to build another cabin into the hillside and have started to dig and build some already. Maybe I will have pics of the progress of that next project. If/when I build the new small cabin then I will be even more ready to stay year round up there. I am unfortunately in the stinkin city of Greeley, Colorado right now until June trying to make money to pay the taxes and get more supplies.
More later....
what is the purpose of this exercise?
Gorgeous place to retreat
Hi Mike,
I don't get to retreat for months at a time like you do, but I live here in Encampment and love it. I know where you are at up there on the mountain, it's a lovely place to be, even in the winter. I envy you.
See you next year!
When you get a chance, how about retreating your way on over to the Introduction section and tell us a bit about yourself. Thanks. http://www.wilderness-survival.net/f...splay.php?f=14
And I would like to know what is the purpose of your question? Or hopefully you will explain what you mean exactly. I mean, I truly wish to know if you mean what is the purpose of my showing pics of a remote mtn survival retreat?
I think I tried to answer that in post #1 when I said I am not bragging but just sharing some experiences and how it is possible to build a retreat with little money.
I have seen many say they would need many thousands even a hundred thousand or a million dollars to build a survival retreat with bunker etc.
I have heard of some such as Tom Cruise who built a Ten Million dollar bunker near Telluride, Colorado but my bunker cost around $2,000 mainly for the many bags of concrete mix. I got most of the wood free from dead trees on and near my land.
This is not the first forum I have posted pics and told much about my survival retreat. Most say they love it and it helps inspire them to also build a retreat or get busy building a homestead etc.
I also want to say that if I can do what I have done with little money then possibly most should also be able to do it and even better and fancier if they wish to spend even more money.
I get tired of seeing many posts in several survival groups where people say "they Wish they could buy land and build a retreat etc." I also wished for a few years but in 1987 I just Did it! I knew I could not build too fancy but i wanted to build what I needed to build before I got too old or before it would be too late.
But If you mean what is the purpose of my building a remote survival retreat and wanting to Live in the woods and wilderness? Well, I could write a book. But possibly some of the posts and the pics show some of my reasons for that. Maybe I will go into more of my reasons in later posts, if any are interested.
Anyway, I truly am interested in what you mean when you posted: "what is the purpose of this exercise?" Thanks for asking but please explain.
Last edited by Mtnman Mike; 12-28-2009 at 02:57 AM.
Wow, this is your very first post in this wilderness forum? And you just joined today, Maybe even to post in this thread?
But if you live in Encampment, Wyoming everyday, year round then you are doing a little better than me. Many in big cities might think that living in Encampment would be living a survival scenario. I might possibly even get a small place in Encampment for the winter although more likely and hopefully I will just stay on my mtn retreat with a cabin, bunker etc...
The only grocery store in Encampment closed the end of August. Although there is a couple "convenience" type stores on the edge of town, actually in Riverside (pop. 50)
So you know the private road and have even been down that road? Although you also know that in the winter it is very difficult to get to and would be best to use snowshoes. Deep powder and much snowpack from Nov. to the end of May up there.
But hope you will message or email me as well as anyone else who wishes to also. And I hope to see you on my mtn place and I most probably would show you around.
But If I do not recognize a vehicle or someone looks possibly unfriendly they will not see me unless I come out of the trees. I never wear camo in a city but do wear natural colors and even woodland camo on and near my mtn place.
And for those who don't know, the population of Encampment, WY is around 450 people. So it seems extremely rare to hear from someone from that small town. First time and this is also one Big reason I post the pics in the hopes of finding a very few good survivalists who might become my friends even in real life. I used to be hermit like and could still be if necessary but with pic threads and sharing I am reaching out....
Mtnman Mike - don't feel bad. None of us have been able to figure out Stony or what he means.
MtnMan Mike, I would like to offer you the massive kudos for for actually creating your vision. I know how hard it is, congratulations on living "YOUR" dream.
Mtn man, I am very much interested in finding a low cost, low tax alternative "retreat". I would be very interested in knowing what the total cost and maintenance costs are including taxes and such, if any.
I find it extremely interesting to see what it's like in different parts of the world.
There are so many little things that some tend to not consider when picking a place to "bugout" or whatever you like to call it.
Thanks but I don't feel bad. I have been posting some about my mtn retreat in various survival groups for at least ten years and 99% of people are nice and make good comments and ask all kinds of questions.
I welcome even criticism if it is possible to criticize or ridicule my mtn place.
One guy in alt.survival a couple years ago called me "just a camper" which he meant as an insult. I might be a camper on steroids maybe but not Just an average camper.
I also call myself Mtnman Mike not just because I like some mountain man rendezvous sometimes which Encampment, WY had a good one last July but because I spend more time in remote mountain areas, than anyone else I know.
And I am not talking about those who live in towns such as Aspen etc. but in primitive remote wilderness type areas. And Not in "mountains" such as those east of the Mississippi River but Real mountains like the Rocky Mountains. Hope I did not just pzz off everyone east of the Missisissippi.
I just hope Stony will clarify what he means although I might have answered his question in the above post.
Thanks Sourdough, rwc and everyone. Sourdough you are one that I know from the few posts of yours that I have seen, who knows how extremely difficult it is living in wilderness or even in the country without modern conveniences.
About everyday I am on my mtn place I say to myself even many times a day: "Nothing is easy!" such as carrying everything up and down the mountain at 9,500 feet such as 80 pound bags of concrete over the spring and thru the woods uphill to my bunker. Which I can park only up to a little over 100 feet and before I got the large powerful Ford 4x4 I had to park 200 feet away and carry everything up hill.
Plus even cooking is not especially easy. And showering is over rated which I have went 2 or more weeks with only a little washing. I am alone though and have to keep up my mtn man lifestyle.
But no matter how difficult it is Living on my mtn place is infinitely better than any other "real" and "civilized" job I have ever had especially working for others.
And rwc, there is a lot across the private road from me that has been for sale for two years but they are asking the ridiculous price of $49,000 for 3 and 1/2 acres although there is a good spring and many trees. I can give links about that lot if any are interested.
I think they should come down much more though to sell it. Also my property taxes were only $50 a year 10 to 20 years ago but this past year they were $208 for my 3 and 1/2 acres that they still say is vacant land. Guess they are too scared to come up to see my bunker. And my woodshed is not seen from the road also.
Planes have flown over and heard that they can check for new buildings by flying over but my buildings are well camoflaged, especially the underground cabin/bunker.
And my maintenance is low although I try to add more concrete to the bunker every year. And paint some although I am going to go even more primitive and not buy so much stuff but use things more from the forest such as more logs etc. etc.
Just hope everyone will build and do what is needed before it is too late and I also mean before people get too old to do what they want and need to do.
Sorry if my posts are a little long but I am trying to hold back for I could type for hours....
He won't - he does not respond to questions. I have it on good authority that he will not be around too much.
I hadn't seen this thread before .. What prompted it to show up now .. And What the heck ever came of this project??
... "Inquiring Minds Want To Know "
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