Sleeping off the ground in the wild!

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DocBurN

Joined
Feb 25, 2010
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I am looking for ideas for a bushcraft bed that would keep me off the ground.. i have another wilderness survival trip with my brother and we got 1 knife, a water bottle and a metal cup each and thats it.. for 3 days. no food, no shelter material, no match, no lighter, etc.. nothing else. Its in the Canadian Wilderness so, we usually cut a bunch of "branche de sapin" (pine branch?) make a springy comfortable bedding material with a bottom layer of a few branch so the "branch" doesn't touch the ground directly.

What are your suggestion to build a bed for 1 person raised from the ground with only natural material?

Thank you for your input

I decided to leave my ESEE Junglas at home since an ESEE5 will be more challenging and difficult as my only tool to build a shelter :)
 
Normally I just ignore what Bear Grylls does and just watch the show for pure entertainment, but that hammock that he built out of a bamboo tree in the last episode was pretty slick.
 
storl said:
Normally I just ignore what Bear Grylls does and just watch the show for pure entertainment, but that hammock that he built out of a bamboo tree in the last episode was pretty slick.
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Canadian bamboo, eh? :D
 
with my 6'2" - 250 pounds frame.. that would have to be a pretty strong bushcraft hammock.. and i love my Warbonnet blackbird for camping..
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Those kind of bush hammock got too much possiblity of failure for my taste, and eat a lot of time to craft

but since its wilderness, so far, its gonna end up with a classic structure like
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on rocks or on 4x 1feet tall "Y" in the ground

Im jealous every time i see survival shows with bamboo.. thats stuff is so versatile.. never found the Canadian one yet :)
 
Without cordage ( unless you dig up spruce roots) a bough bed is the best bet. Even with cordage ,it's a lot of work to build a frame. That's why I always carry some, usually twine or mason's line, as it's a lot cheaper than paracord. Seeing as you're not , you're choices are limited and effort expended greater.

No matches or lighter in the Canadian bush ? Hope you have a firesteel ;)
 
no firesteel either, if its raining, we are in trouble indeed... fire by friction only.. I may be tempted to carry 50ft of paracord wrapped around my knife sheath. Lets say that i have 50ft on me, what would be the best solution for a bedding off the floor. if i find 4 rectangular perfectly positionned tree i'll just build a platform on it (no need of 4x stones or 4x "Y" bed legs into the ground. once the bed platform is built, i could built a lighter one on top to serve as a roof.

Adding paracord to the equation .. and material is the same country that i am from.. :rolleyes: any suggestion ?
 
Maybe you could find three trees, two of them some where around 2 to 3 feet apart, the third an equal distance, about, from the first two. Two long poles, both lashed to the third tree, then lash the other end of the poles to the first two, so you have a V. Take the cord and using a larks head, to keep the line from shifting, zig zag it back and forth between the two poles, tightly. Lay your pine branches on top of this. Kind of close to the ground so a fall wont hurt too much :)
 
DocBurN said:
no firesteel either, if its raining, we are in trouble indeed... fire by friction only..
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:eek:Mind you if we split up your gear when you die?:D:D

Just kidding. Have fun and stay safe. Just a thought... being this what I see as a training survival trip, why don't carry some stuff "just in case" but with the promise of not using it unless things really get nasty? And when I mean nasty I mean deadly nasty... Do yourself a favour and leave some room for error.

Mikel
 
Mikel_24 said:
:eek:Mind you if we split up your gear when you die?:D:D

Just kidding. Have fun and stay safe. Just a thought... being this what I see as a training survival trip, why don't carry some stuff "just in case" but with the promise of not using it unless things really get nasty? And when I mean nasty I mean deadly nasty... Do yourself a favour and leave some room for error.

Mikel
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Well, im not really affraid in the wild anymore since i have spent the last 20 years doing survival expedition with minimal gear sleeping in bear country. I have started fire by friction in heavy rain, constructed shelter with 10$ cheap flip knife so dont wait for my gear too long pal. I got my own ways of building bedding but was curious about new idea, maybe better ways.
 
Mikel_24 said:
:eek:Mind you if we split up your gear when you die?:D:D

Just kidding. Have fun and stay safe. Just a thought... being this what I see as a training survival trip, why don't carry some stuff "just in case" but with the promise of not using it unless things really get nasty? And when I mean nasty I mean deadly nasty... Do yourself a favour and leave some room for error.

Mikel
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They'll be dead. They won't care. By the rules of acquisition, isn't it the one that finds them the one that gets to keep the goods? :D

Have a good adventure. I hope you learn much. ;)

BTW, whatever happened to that guy that was setting out for a week with minimal stuff, more that this. Did he ever come back? Or was that on the BushcraftUSA forum. Gotta go look for that thread.

Just found it, it was Modoo. He left on the 3rd, which was his last post, for 4-5 days??
 
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hushnel said:
Maybe you could find three trees, two of them some where around 2 to 3 feet apart, the third an equal distance, about, from the first two. Two long poles, both lashed to the third tree, then lash the other end of the poles to the first two, so you have a V. Take the cord and using a larks head, to keep the line from shifting, zig zag it back and forth between the two poles, tightly. Lay your pine branches on top of this. Kind of close to the ground so a fall wont hurt too much :)
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Im not sure if i get it right but a V shape could do it. I dont mind spending so time making myself comfortable but i like to keep it simple when we are on the move and have less then an hour of sunshine to build it. Thank you for your input
 
I was thinking a cross between the blanket with two staff stretchers we learned about in the Boy Scouts and the tavoise the Native Americans hauled their lodge hides with but lashed to trees to get it off the ground. Having only some paracord also brought to mind the rope frame beds that were common in the 18th Century.

Quick lameo picture done in MS Paint;

2172655840033885154S600x600Q85.jpg
 
hushnel said:
I was thinking a cross between the blanket with two staff stretchers we learned about in the Boy Scouts and the tavoise the Native Americans hauled their lodge hides with but lashed to trees to get it off the ground. Having only some paracord also brought to mind the rope frame beds that were common in the 18th Century.

Quick lameo picture done in MS Paint;
Click to expand...

You know what, this is what i wanted to hear hushnel.. i would probably still gun for a set of 4 trees but 3 with a V shape is totally doable and easier to find.. and the best part.. i have to cut only 2 poles, lash them to the trees and lace the rest of the bed with the rest of the paracord i carry.. throw some pine branch on the paracord for a more springy feel.. sleep.. wake up, unlash and go.. portability at its smallest (unless you are sleeping on the floor without nothing)
 
i would probably still gun for a set of 4 trees but 3 with a V shape is totally doable and easier to find
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That's exactly my thinking too, four trees would be harder to find but the advantage would be the poles could be shorter and less line would be needed.

Good luck and have a great time.
 
Well if you brought a lot of cordage (or are able to make some good stuff on your own) there's Bow's Bush Bed, looks awful comfy. With all the spruce boughs on top though you might as well just make a platform of sticks.

Now about the whole no lighter/matches thing... You sound like you know your stuff so I don't want to patronize you but things can go wrong even if you're the best woodsman around and they only need to go wrong once for you to end up dead so I think you should really think about taking along some just in case items like Mikel_24 mentioned. I don't see how it could hurt.
 
first, i am talking short term survival.. not long term.. i would never go on long term without a firesteel.. sometime, friction just don't work, no matter the skills.. i have spent way too many nights without fire and its not fun at all..

ending up dead if i dont get a fire runing this weekend ? well its gonna be dark that for sure, maybe it gonna rain, probably would cause to have a sh*tty night sleep sure.. but its still gonna be around 25 degree celcius at day and lowest 18 celcius at night.. im not gonna die from that kind of condition.. i was ok in a snow shelter at minus 11 this febuary this year and expect way better condition this weekend.. im only going to spent 3 days, 2 nights with minimal gear.

now back to the subject.. i enjoyed the Bow's Bush Bed link.. the concept of having my back against a cordage netting instead of row of branchs is really interesting.. the only answer i missed from this is how much feet of cord is needed for such a project.

thank for your input
 
Neat idea DocBurN. I'm getting pretty confident with bowdrill now but I had a hell of time with some impromptu bowdrill trials on foraged materials (cedar) this weekend just shy of UP Michigan. It was raining the previous night and humid as hell. Cedar is normally easy for me, but this time it was tough. In fact, even the basswood I took up for demo's and teaching kits were kind of hard to do. That wood will suck up moisture and make life difficult!

Making lots of cordage on the fly isn't that easy unless you have ready access to spruce roots which I gather you do. Still, even with spruce roots, I wouldn't want to be gathering much more than needed to build a set of tripods for posts and then lay some boarder poles between them. I'd then simply rest some thumb sized twigs on the frame rather than try to weave it with cordage. Maybe tie every forth one or so to keep it secured. Place pine boughs on top of that. Like Hushnell's picture, simply lash a couple of the frame poles to the tree to save some foraging.
 
kgd said:
I'd then simply rest some thumb sized twigs on the frame rather than try to weave it with cordage. Maybe tie every forth one or so to keep it secured. Place pine boughs on top of that. Like Hushnell's picture, simply lash a couple of the frame poles to the tree to save some foraging.
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This is what I was thinking as I read through the thread. I was imagining larger crossbar sticks, but same general idea. That would allow you to use more of your cordage for other things... maybe like another pole higher up for a lean-to frame for example.
 
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