Shelters You Can Take With You
More Articles Related to Survival GearA very important piece of survival gear for those who venture into the outdoors is shelter. Specifically the kinds of shelters you can bring with you.
Depending upon conditions, your shelter will have to protect you from wind and rain, heat, cold, the sun, insects and animal pests. If your mode of transportation is human powered, the special considerations of shelter weight and bulk come into play.
Whether or not you are planning to stay outside overnight, there is always the chance you may find yourself doing just that. Taking the wrong route, underestimating the time it takes to get from point a to point b, or perhaps becoming injured can make it necessary to hunker down for awhile. Changes in weather can also force you under cover. For this reason at least a basic shelter should always be included in your kit.
There are a wide variety of shelters available. If you are handy you may be able to construct a shelter using only natural materials. The debris hut is one example of this kind of shelter. Drawbacks to relying upon this method are many and include lack of time, storm, darkness, being injured, or not having suitable natural materials available.
There are many manmade portable shelters on the market today. Some, like tarps and space blankets, can be inexpensive, light in weight, and easy to pack. This makes these kind of shelters an excellent choice when you want to cover your basic survival needs. You may not want to take along a four pound tent wherever you go, but a 12ounce 5ft x 7ft space blanket can easily be stashed in the bottom of even a day pack and forgotten about. Should the need for shelter arise you will be very glad you have it.
A disadvantage to open shelters like tarps is that they may allow varying amounts of wind, precipitation, and insect and animal pests into your living area. In addition, the heat from your body will not warm the inside of a tarp as efficiently as in other types of shelters. Setting up tarp shelters correctly so as to minimize these problems is something of an art.
Next in line are bivy bags, which are basically weather proof sacks into which you can climb. Add a good sleeping bag and you should be all set to weather any situation. Some bivy bags have a raised area in the head section with an added screen mesh, allowing you room to read or see outside the bag and still be protected from insects. Bivy tents take it up a notch and give you a little extra space in which to move around in.
Tents are generally the heaviest and bulkiest of the portable shelters, though modern materials and tent design have reduced the weight and bulk of tents considerably. In exchange for these drawbacks you are rewarded with relatively spacious interiors. This allows you the ability to move and stretch out a bit, as well as store your gear and even cook meals. If the weather is bad or you are otherwise forced to spend considerable time in your shelter, a tent may be the best choice. There are single person tents on the market that are ideal for the soloist.
Another type of shelter that is becoming increasingly popular are hammocks. There is something to be said for hanging comfortably off the damp ground, above insect and animal pests, swinging in the breeze. Hammocks can be more environmentally friendly than other types of shelters since your body is not pressing against the earth and its resident population of vegetation and other living organisms. Many people who have slept in hammocks swear by them and claim to have slept even better than in their beds at home.
Shelter is an important consideration for any survivor, making Portable Shelter Types a must read.
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Badlands of PA
Very informative website with a few things I've not seen elsewhere, but I could do without the nature coddling. Digging holes while avoiding "damaging tree roots and fragile plants"? Hammocks which are desirable because "your body is not pressing against the earth and its resident population of vegetation and other living organisms"?
Survival Topics - It's like I say: "Earth, love it or leave it!" Tree roots, fragile plants, and all living things serve an important purpose in the world and are tied to the survival of yourself and everyone else on the planet. This understanding has been lost to many people and has lead to some of the great problems we face today. Treating nature with respect is the ultimate survival skill - and could very well save the lives of everyone!