my first night in a debris hut

RescueRiley

RescueRiley

Joined
Mar 22, 2006
Messages
5,944
Went camping with some buddies this pas tues (just an overnighter) I never bring a tent if I'm not bringing the family and usually rig up a shelter with a tarp or poncho, but this time I figured I'd try going all naturale....

So I constructed a debris hut, I've done this many times for practice but this was the first time I did so with the intention of actual using it...the only equipmetn I used to make it was my bk7 for cutting the frame pieces and 3 foot of jute twine for lashing them together...We had quite a bit of wind and some leaves kept blowing off so ontop of the litter I constructed a secondary frame of sticks which did a decent job of keeping everything in place.

It was fairly cramped, a little buggy, and everytime the wind blew, the leaf litter rustled and woke me up.. but other than that is was very cool...I'll be experimenting with more natural shelters and putting them to the test in upcoming months...

If You do make natural shelters for practice I'd highly reccopmend actually spending the night in one..it's a unique experience and it allows you to trylu witness and understand the strengths and flaws of each shelter on a real basis...

THe debris hut is a great simple shelter to make and can be done with a minimum or no equipment at all.. 1 disadvantage is that it is fairly time consuming as it takes a lot of leaves to get the walls as thick as you'd like..Also a pair of leather gloves is useful to have as there is alot of crap (literally) hidden among the leaves.

Incidentally I brought one of my city friends with me he had never been camping beforehe got realy into watching me build the shelter and I even got him playing with the bowdrill. today I caught him at the computer at work looking up knives...Someone's got the bug.
 
too bad no pics..
How thick was the layer of debris? it should be at least arm length deep. Its odd that the wind/leaves woke you up. They shouldn't.
 
that's pretty cool that you did that, and congrats on the new convert.

i imagine this time of year there isn't too much in the way of loose leaves on the ground
(at least around here)...in another couple of months i bet there will be huge piles of leaves and it will be alot easier to get the walls thick enough, and you probably won't need the gloves as much.
 
I couldn't get it quite that deep..( he he) I mean the leaves that is, as siguy ponted out there wasn't a super amount of usable leaves as the majority had started to decay..I'd say the walls were about 2 ft thick...(way to thin if it wasn't summer) as for waking me up..whenever I go out my first night i usually sleep really light, anything wakes me up..after the first night however a nuclear explosion couldn't wake me up.
 
Last edited:
I have made a few debris shelters but have yet to sleep in one. If I did I think I would have to rock a sleeping bag with some netting covering the face - the thought of bugs crawling on my face/into my bag wouldn't afford me much quality sleep. I'm a sissy like that =P
 
Nice job. wish you had pics.

Did you learn anything about shelters and comfort that you will change when making future shelters?

One of the girls on a Sar team near me works for NYC Parks and sleeps in a shelter in the park every summer as part of a class for kids

I have slept out in shelters a few times years ago but not recently, I may try it this fall.
 
yeah I didn't use a sleeping bag either I did use a mat however..and I did dream of ticks when I slept LOL
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top