Keeping Warm “Survivalist Style”
By Ben Bailey
If you spend enough time out in the woods, sooner or later, you’re going to find yourself cold, or maybe, cold and wet, or maybe cold, wet and lost! You may be forced to spend a night in the cold, wet woods. This can become a life-threatening situation, but it need not be. With a little work and preparation before dark, you can spend the night in relative comfort.
First and foremost, don’t panic. People have been surviving in the woods since time began. Remember what Maslow said are our basic needs: food, clothing, and shelter. Well, we can worry about food tomorrow. You are probably wearing clothes, so that leaves only one basic need for tonight, shelter!
If you are cold and wet, the very best thing for you to do is to stay active. It will generate heat in your body and also calm your fears. The most basic shelter is a lean-to. Sometimes, you can even find one already formed or started by a fallen timber or maybe a shelf rock that leans out enough to create a dry spot. If not, two forked sticks with a cross bar and rafters of brush or fallen limbs on three sides, will suffice. Pine boughs laid over this in “shingle fashion, starting at the bottom and overlapped all the way to the top, will shed water.
Now, if you have a lighter or matches in your pocket, you’re on your way to a cozy night. First, look for logs and/or rocks to stack in front of your lean-to to act as a reflector for your fire. In all your wandering in search of material, look for dry spots that might hold small amounts of fire-starting material. You will find little protected spots under fallen logs and shelf rocks or hollow logs. Usually, the lower limbs of hemlocks and white pines will be dead and dry. You can tell if they are dry if they “snap” when you break them. Build your fire between your reflector wall and your lean-to and gather enough wood to last all night. A small fire is all you will need. I have slept comfortably, in my shirtsleeves, on a cold December night with a set-up like this. If, by chance, you do get cold, you can heat rocks in your fire and then place them around you or inside your clothes wherever you are cold. A hot rock will stay warm for hours. You can drift off to sleep or you can lay awake and figure how to spin this story to make you look as good as possible. After all, you are a survivor!