| Those familiar with my wilderness travels are aware of the fact that I like trees. Especially logs!
Trees provide me with warmth, cook my meals, supply materials for tools, and offer shade from the sun. Of course these are only a few obvious examples from an endless list. Perhaps my favorite thing I like about trees is that they offer so many possibilities for constructing shelters. From my experience, downed, dead trees, work the best. Not only do these types of trees offer large, sturdy limbs for shelter frameworks, hanging tarps, and building lean-to's, but they also provide a convenient, dry supply of firewood. Many times, these old trees will have shed their outer bark, providing ready made "shingles". These, trees in particular, are a real find because I've found that natural roofing materials can be real tough to come by in the wilderness, especially if time is an issue. A true shelter "treasure" is a large, level log that's been burned out from the bottom. Almost every phase of construction is taken care of with a good specimen. There's already a roof, walls, and insulation. With a little creativity, a door can be added and even a nice comfortable bed of pine needles. |
| Bark "Shingles" |
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| One time, while in the Sierras, I came across what had to be the perfect log shelter.
In this picture you can see the almost endless supply of bark "shingles". Even though the log had provided it's own "roof", I was still able use the bark along with a few limbs, to enclose the open end of the log. This "wall" prevented the wind and rain that occured during this trip, from entering the shelter. |
| Entrance to shelter |
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| All that was needed to enclose the end was to push a few limbs up through various openings in the log's root structure. The heavy bark "shingles" were then layered over this framework. Once I was inside, I used a large, single piece of bark as a "door" to seal the entrance. |
| Pine needle "mattress" |
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| A couple trips to a nearby stand of pine trees was all that was needed to make a nice comfortable bed. The round, inner walls of the log helped to keep the pine needles in place. |
| No vacancy |
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| Sleeping in the log shelter was one of the best night's sleep I can recall having under primitive conditions in the wilderness. The shelter was strong, warm, dry, spacious, and very quiet. Rent free too. Just about everything I could hope for in a shelter. |
| View of bark/limb framework from inside |
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| One of the nice things about this log shelter is that it didn't require any tools to construct. And because all the materials were close at hand, very little time and energy were expended, both of which are prime considerations when faced with a survival situation.
Whenever I'm in the wilderness and run across an ideal log shelter, I'm always sure to mark it's location on my map, adding yet another "spare bedroom" to my directory of wilderness shelter locations. Eric |
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Copyright © 2001 by Eric Stoskopf. Back to the Contents page. |