Long-Term Shelters
Making the transition from emergency short-term shelter to long-term
shelter is necessary if you realize that rescue is not coming soon. Crawling
into a pile of leaves might work for a night or two, but it’s not going to keep
you alive for three weeks and proves particularly uncomfortable in the rain.
As you consider your long-term shelter, think comfort. Try to build
a temporary home that will at least allow you to sit up. Being able to
stand in your shelter is a luxury that few wilderness shelters can accom-
modate, so don’t make this your goal. The following shelters can be cre-
ated in many geographic regions, depending on the natural features and
materials available.
Finding a Long-Term Shelter: The ideal long-term shelter is one that you
don’t have to make at all, saving you an incredible amount of energy...
and potential grief. If you’re on the move, the key is to determine, calmly,
whether you should spend the night in the dry cave you just stumbled
across or keep moving, in which case you’ll have to make a shelter in a few
hours anyway.
In fact, in some parts of the world—especially North America—local
authorities construct survival cabins in strategic locations throughout the wil-
derness. These structures not only provide much-needed shelter in emergen-
cies, they are usually stocked with a small supply of survival gear and food.
As part of your trip planning and preparation, you should look into the
availability of such shelters and note their locations on your topographical
maps. I once came upon such a shelter in the northern Canadian region of
Labrador, after a long day of running a dog team and with bad weather clos-
ing in. Though the relatively new, 100-square-foot (9-m^2 ) cabin had no food
or supplies, it came with a wood stove and some split wood, turning my con-
cerns about staying dry and comfortable that night into non-issues.
Beyond man-made structures, your next best option is finding a
natural shelter that will serve your long-term needs, although these are
rare in some areas. The best natural shelter is one that you don’t have
to build, that is big enough, and that allows you to have a fire inside.
One of the few structures that fits these criteria is a cave. In Utah, I
found shelter in a small cave that had been used by Butch Cassidy and the
“Wild Bunch” during their desperado days.
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