The type of shelter I prefer to build in the desert environment is called a “wickiup.” All wickiups seem to have two features in common: a frame or skeleton of poles, and some sort of covering. It is a spontaneous shelter that is time-tested and remains open for improvement by anyone.
Naturally, the size and materials used vary greatly with environment and culture. For instance, Apache wickiups were often thatched with grass, while Ojibwa wickiups were pole domes covered with sheets of birch or other bark. Plains Indians used animal hides to cover their rendition of a mobile home, which was warm, secure and easy to move as they migrated with their game. (For information on wickiup construction see ‘The Wickiup’ by Jim Riggs, The Best of Woodsmoke, Horizon Publishers, 1982. p. 22.)
Regardless of what shape or type of shelter you build, some factors should always be considered. For instance, build shelter that is sturdy enough to withstand the worst weather you plan to encounter and you will never worry about having it collapse in the middle of the night during a storm.
Determine the size of your shelter before you start. A little preplanning can make all the difference in how well your shelter protects you from cold or heat, which is why you are building it in the first place. Especially in cold weather when you need to heat the interior, don’t make it bigger than necessary. But do allow room to stow your gear and some dry firewood inside the shelter in case of rain or snow.
Whenever possible, face the opening of your shelter to the morning sun and keep the prevailing night wind at it’s back. A large doorway left open can capture reflected heat from the night fire, yet provide shade and allow plenty of air to circulate during hot afternoons. If rain threatens, the doorway can be closed by a thatched grid, or a pre-fabricated panel can be used as a moveable closure and windbreak.
A small fire pit can be used inside an enclosed shelter as long as you leave an opening in the top for smoke to escape (like a tepee), burn non-resinous wood and keep the flames low. It’s pretty obvious why you shouldn’t use resinous woods that spark like Juniper or pine in an enclosed shelter. Soft woods like cottonwood or sage are good for a quick start up, then add some hardwoods like oak or maple for long-burning coals.
Spark reflectors are made with a few upright stakes or by piling up a few green pine boughs about six inches high around the fire pit to catch flying sparks and prevent burning up your dry bedding or your entire shelter for that matter. Bedding should be kept at least a foot away from your fire pit or reflector fire.
Shelters are relatively easy to build in a rich forest environment. That’s why building one in the desert where marginal materials are available is a real test of ingenuity. But forested areas provide their own unique challenges. The main concern is moisture from both the ground and from above in the form of rain or snow, so it’s important to insulate well. Moisture also indicates a fire within the shelter for warmth. So, you must build your shelter large enough that a sleeping fire will not set it on fire, yet not so large that you will lose valuable heat.
Among the many types of shelters that are quick and easy to build, the “A” frame takes the least amount of work and materials: Three forked stakes are wedged together or lashed to form a tripod, a long pole is stretched backward and rested on the ground, then logs and snags are leaned against the main pole to enclose the sides. The end can be closed or left open as you like, depending on the weather. Add a layer of insulation to the outside, then dry pine needles for bedding and you are finished. In heavy snow areas the snow will eventually pack to form insulation over the shelter.
A quickie shelter can also be built against a rock for added protection from wind and rain and the rock base holds heat from your reflected fire.
Another common mountain shelter is a lean-to. It is similar to the “A” frame but can be enlarged for more people. I like the lean-to because the design allows me to have a sleeping fire the length of my body. A lean-to is especially vulnerable to wind when one side is left open, but it is easy to enclose quickly in case of a storm. It is also inclined to collect winter snow drifts, so be sure to face your shelter so that the prevailing winds blow crosswise rather than directly into or behind it. If you plan to stay in an area for a week or more, excavate the floor a few inches and use the dirt to pile up around the outside for better insulation.
Obviously, the rule to building an adequate shelter is improvise, improvise, and improvise. Each geographical location will demand different structure and materials, each season of the year will mean more or less insulation.
You can use your own ingenuity to devise various types of shelters suitable for the circumstances at hand, but a good shelter is like a work of art, it should be built with pride in workmanship and an eye to utility.
The majority of my trips take place in the desert, a strange country where you can shiver all night in the cold and swelter in the heat of day, all in the same 24 hour period. And the first night is generally the worst for most students, probably because they don’t know what to expect. Most of them wake up several times during the night. I can almost set my watch by it.
In an open wickiup, the fire is built just outside the opening of the shelter, not inside, and banked with rocks or logs to reflect heat into the shelter. Once you get a good bed of coals going, you can add a log about as long as the shelter doorway. The reflected heat keeps you warm most of the night. And you can keep a few extra pieces of wood within arm’s reach to add in the coldest hours of early morning. A good pit fire surrounded with stones ashes over rather quickly and can remain alive for many hours to provide relatively safe heat.
I recall one particular morning, about 2 a.m., I heard some rustling and one of the younger girls crying. She was sleeping about 5 feet from the fire, her wood pile was too far away to reach and she was using her wool sweater for a pillow. We made a few adjustments, I put some warm rocks from the fire trench into the bottom of her blanket to warm her feet, and we both got a good night’s rest.
Most of us sleep with all our clothes on, including our boots for maximum insulation. This keeps us warm, but it can also create problems. Soles have actually burned right off the bottoms of boots while the wearer snores contentedly. Hair can also catch a spark if your head is too near the fire, so the best and safest way to sleep is lengthwise to the trench. Of course, this necessitates one fire for every couple of people, so we have devised other ways of maximizing our heat in really cold months. We huddle up on draft beds. But that’s another entire chapter (see “Primitive Comfort—The Hot Draft Bed”, Primitive Outdoor Skills, p. 131).
The wickiup is a spontaneous shelter that has two two common components: a frame and some sort of covering (Photo by Richard Jamison).
On the trail, everyone begins with equal advantage: blanket, knife, the clothes they are wearing, extra socks, a hat and a jacket. They don’t always end that way, as was the case for one careless fellow. It was early spring and the weather was unpredictable with fluctuating cold nights and warm days. Each morning he shed his jacket and shirt and just left them where he took them off-generally scattered all over camp. I took him aside and explained that, since his clothing was about all he had in the world on this trip, he should take better care of it. Peeling off a layer in the heat is one thing, whipping up a sage bark robe before the evening chill is quite another.
To some, sound advice lasts a lifetime, to others it disappears in the wind. The weather was mild until about the fifth day when I noticed gathering black clouds that signaled a possible front coming in. By the time storm clouds loomed on the horizon and darkness rushed in to close the day, temperatures fell rapidly and it was too late to build shelter from the bitter winds and cold. I suggested that we move our camp to an area with better shelter options, just in case. After the move we settled in, started new fires, staked out our sleeping positions and commenced to find firewood and set new traps for our meal the next day.