The tarp shelter is a simple but effective means of keeping you comfortable and your gear dry when away from civilised shelter. Backpacking tarps are generally light, compact, and adaptable to a number of different purposes. The featured video demonstrates, with explanations, 15 different tarpaulin shelters that can be constructed to protect you from the elements if trekking or camping. How to Sleep Under a Tarp in the Rain - Section Hikers Backpacking Blog
I can think of so many times when I used my Army poncho for a quick shelter in bad weather. A nice trick is to carry a bunch of bungy cords..... flexible yet sturdy to give quick set up when on the move.
Best practice is to boost your tarp with the real deal space blankets, those are the best thing to ever happen for out door survival!
Cool thread. I didn’t look at all of them but with a little creativity you can get your drinking water delivered right to you as well. Our future perhaps, yikes!
I've set up my tarp many different ways. And unless I'm solo, somebody tells me I'm doing it wrong. My dog never does. Guess that's why I take just my dog a lot.
Started thinking about Bug Out Shelters and what I would be able to make, whether I would want it to be portable or permanent, Above ground or in-ground and then thought about concealment. In a SHTF scenario I would not think you would want to be real visible, so I thought about camouflage and found a few examples. This is what is referred to as a tent shelter. Relatively easy to build in a wooded deciduous environment, not real practical in a conifer forest. It lends itself to one of @chelloveck 's tarp shelters in design though.
Each of the basic tarp designs can be adapted to using poles, branches, leaves, mud and clay, and other suitable found objects. The same considerations of ground water diversion, camouflage and concealment, heating and cooling, etc etc apply.
I saw a YouTube video about how mountain men used wool blankets as a shelter in cold weather. The guy spread one out at the base of a tree. Sat down with his back against the tree and folded the blanket up and over his head. Tucking it around his legs. Then he lit a small candle. Holding a temperature guage he showed the temperature rise from IIRC about 20 something degrees to 50+ in just a few minutes. Found the vid
I lived under a tarp for a summer when I first came to Colorado in the early 1970's, head full of big-city hippie plans and ideas. Reality disabused me of most of those notions over time, but I will always remember that summer under the tarp and sky with some nostalgia. The tarp, fwiw was a heavy-duty truck canvas that measured about 12'x20'. Now I have a big ol canvas wall tent set up for a stove to use for extended stays in the mtns... for more useful endeavors, a nice mtn tent with extra fly, for 2 and dog... but then it doesnt rain much around here (usually)..
Wow! These diagrams are amazing! I was proud of my 4 different impromptu shelters, but these have expanded my horizons even more.
