Building a Wilderness Survival Shelter

Near the lake the trees are just beginning to change colours, but a short drive up Carmi mountain and the landscape is painted in vivid colours of yellow and red. It reminds me of autumn in northern British Columbia, simply beautiful.

Wilderness survival is the theme our learning circle has chosen for this month. It was this reason that we gathered up on the autumn kissed mountain. We greeted each other and our lovely mentor by a small fire. We warmed our toes and discussed the attributes of a good shelter before separating into groups to build our own. Building a survival shelter is serious business. One has to pick just the right spot, preferable in a place that won’t collect water in the event of rain. Our group found the perfect place up on the hill under an outcrop of rock. Our spot provided good protection against the wind and rain which only improved with the addition of sticks and pine needles. The other groups also made some impressive and unique shelters but unfortunately my camera battery died and I wasn’t able to capture all of them. We finished our shelter building adventure with fire campfire baked apples, delicious.