One of the toughest scenarios you can face is being forced to flee your home. There are several survival situations in which you would need to grab your bug-out bag and hit the road. Unfortunately, your best odds of survival sometimes come by avoiding contact with other people.
Just use your imagination. As a prepared survivalist, you will likely have food, drinking water, and tools that other people could want to take. This is especially true in big SHTF scenarios in which everyone is struggling to survive. Even if nobody is specifically tracking your movements, you want to stay hidden.
Shelter is one of the four pillars of survival, so you will need to build shelters as you go. However, many shelters can take several hours to build. Some take days. You are going to want to travel as far as possible each day, so you can’t stop hiking to build a shelter at 2 pm. In this article, we will cover a variety of different shelters that you can build or adapt quickly in the minutes just before dark. These shelters will keep you hidden while also allowing you to cover a maximum number of miles each day.
Hidden Shelter Basics
When building a shelter for the night, there are certain points on which you must focus. First, your shelter needs to provide discreet cover. This means a roof that blends in with the surroundings. The shelter should be waterproof protecting you from wind and rain. It should also be insulated to provide warmth. Sleeping on the ground sucks the warmth out of your body just like sleeping under the stars. You should always have an insulated bed to get your body at least four inches off of the ground.
You want your shelter small and simple. This will allow you to stay warmer as there is less air inside to heat. It will be easier to build, so you can throw it together right before dark. If you truly want to stay hidden, you will also want to disassemble the shelter before you leave so there is no trace you were there.
On my first long-distance survival challenge, I was forced to stay hidden. I had mistakenly planned a route that would take me across private property from time to time. I thought the whole area was run by the Department of Conservation. On the first night, I was not sure if I was on private property or public land.
To clarify my concern, this was in an area where people get shot at for trespassing. Because of this, I built a lean-to shelter against a boulder I found. Then I covered the whole shelter in leaves. I was able to build a small fire inside against the boulder, and nobody in the area was able to see the flames. It worked out perfectly considering the circumstances.
Covert Urban Shelters
Let’s start with population centers. You may not think there are many preppers in big cities but just wait. In large-scale SHTF scenarios, there will be more people fleeing the big cities than any other part of the country. Unfortunately, many of them will not be prepared and will not make it out alive. Some of our biggest cities are large enough geographically that it could take several days to hike to what would be considered a rural or wilderness area. This means staying hidden and building quick shelters as you go.
One of the biggest concerns with sheltering in an urban area is being attacked while you sleep. Please keep in mind that thousands of other people are looking for shelter just like you. Ideally, you want to be in a spot hidden from everyone else. Be sure you carefully check every spot by shouting out. You do not want to surprise someone and end up with a gun in your face.
Will want to use structures already in place if possible. Dumpsters can work great as long as you don’t mind a few visitors looking for food. I would prefer to sleep between the dumpster and a wall with something overhead for the rain. However, jump inside if needed. The smell won’t kill you. If you need protection from other people, you can use cordage to tie the lid shut from the inside.
Abandoned buildings are great for hidden shelters as they protect from the wind and rain. However, if you can break in then other people can break in too. These buildings will be prime locations to run into other people. Abandoned cars can work for shelter, but again you will get some visitors. Buildings and cars will also draw people trying to find food and water. A less popular option would be to sleep under an outdoor staircase. Often these staircases act like a lean-to protecting you from wind and rain. People would rarely bother you there if you stay in the shadows.
You wouldn’t think that natural materials would make for a good urban shelter. However, there are many parks and overgrown properties that have enough vegetation to keep you hidden. If you only stay there for one night and stay hidden in the brush, you should be fine. You can use the brush to build a quick shelter.
In my early 20’s I had my car break down in an urban area about 40 miles from where I lived. It was going to take two days over the weekend to get it fixed, and I had no way to get home and no money for a hotel. Across the street was a closed-down factory with an empty lot. It was all grown up with trees and brush dipping down to a drainage creek running through it. I spent the next two days hanging out in that brush until my car was done. I did not see a single person the whole weekend, and this was in the busiest part of the city.
Sometimes you just need to get creative and find a way to get a roof over your head. Public parks sometimes have playground equipment that could work. Bus shelters can work, but you will end up dealing with other people. I have slept in the bathrooms of subway stations, but again you will run into other people.
If you find some junk lying around, you can blend in with a modified lean-to. With a couple of old mattresses, you can get a roof over your head and insulate yourself from the ground. If you position them properly, it will just look like junk. You can do the same with cardboard. Use whatever loose trash you can find to insulate your lean-to and keep your location hidden. You only need it for one night.
Naturally Hidden Shelters
The good news is that you will have fewer other people once you get out of the city. However, you must now look for different resources for fast shelters. You really don’t have time to build a teepee or a platform shelter.
Caves and rock overhangs are natural shelters that can keep you out of the rain and wind. They can get the job done while hiding your location, but you should try to throw a bed together if possible. Please remember that now your potential visitors are animals, so check for fur, prints, and scat. You also must be careful using a fire in a cave as too much heat can cause overhead rocks to crack and fall on you.
Trees themselves can be used as shelters in some cases. When in deep snow, evergreen trees will leave a ring of clear ground under their fronds. This area is packed with dry needles, so you get some natural insulation from the ground. The tree will shelter you from the snow but be sure to add a quick roof if you want protection from the rain. Large fallen trees can work as shelters as well. Just by leaning some debris up against a big tree trunk, you can climb under and be invisible.
If you are in an arctic area with no trees, you can use the snow itself to shelter and stay hidden. When you have a drift at least four feet deep, dig a snow cave. Just dig down to the ground, cut out an opening big enough for you to climb inside, and then start carving out the inside. If you put sticks about a foot long into the snow of the roof, it will signal you when to stop digging inside to avoid a cave-in.
Building Hidden Shelters in the Wild
The lean-to shelter is the fastest and easiest option to construct in a hurry. While it is not as fast as sleeping in a cave, you can put one together in about 30 minutes if you hustle. Start with a ridge pole and find two trees about eight feet apart. Clear out the area and shove the ridge pole in the crotch of some of the branches. It should be four or five feet off of the ground.
Next, you want to add support poles on the side facing prevailing winds. They should be about six to seven feet long and should be leaned at a 45-degree angle. Since we are in a hurry, you can leave gaps in between if needed. You then need to pile some kind of insulation on top and inside for a bed. If you have plenty of materials close by, you can accomplish all of this quickly. In addition, you are relatively camouflaged since you used all-natural materials. This shelter design also allows you to consider keeping a fire close by for warmth all night.
If you do not have a fire, a debris hut is another quick option. This one requires no supporting trees. You will need a long ridge pole and two support poles about five feet long. Tie these three poles with the shorter ones forming an ‘A’ to support the ridge pole. Add frame poles on both sides at 45-degree angles. Then pile insulation on top and inside the shelter. You need at least four feet of insulation on top for this shelter to work as a natural sleeping bag. If you have a good bed of insulation, you will be protected from the ground and your body heat will stay in the shelter.
If you bring materials with you like a tarp, an emergency blanket, a backpacking tent, a sleeping bag, a sleeping mat, or any other gear you can consider using it. You are in the wilderness, so the likelihood of coming across other people is less. However, you still want to avoid sticking out like a sore thumb. Any materials used should be colored with earth tones like green, blue, brown, gray, or camouflage. If there is a shiny, reflective side it should always face down.
You can also bring camo mesh to cover your shelter if needed. Tarps and emergency blankets add a waterproof layer to your shelter, so you do not need as much insulation. If it is warm out, you can just string up the tarp or blanket for a quick shelter. Just keep in mind that using these materials means you may need to leave them behind if chased out of your camp. If you use natural materials, you would be leaving nothing behind.
Staying Warm and Hidden
Fires are a difficult topic when trying to stay hidden. Fires during the day will create smoke. The smell and sight of that smoke will tell people miles away exactly where you are located. Fires at night create flames that can be seen for several miles as well if in the wrong location. Sometimes you need a fire to stay warm, purify water, or cook food. So how do you build a fire without being seen?
The only time you should ever build a fire during the day is if you will die of hypothermia before nightfall or if you are signaling for help. You should really never build a fire in an urban area as it will typically attract attention. Fires built in the bush and at night should use a Dakota fire pit. This is built by first digging two holes about six inches apart. You want them to be about two feet deep to be sure the flames are hidden. Then dig a tunnel between the two holes at the bottom. Build a fire in one hole and it will draw in oxygen from the other one. You can also put logs or stones around the fire pit which allows you to build a slightly larger fire.
In order to stay warm, you should always find a way to get up off of the ground as well. An insulated bed is vital as the ground will draw body heat away from you when sleeping directly on the ground. Your easiest option is just to pile up insulation, but you can build a bed frame as well. You need to be at least four inches off of the ground, so a pile of insulation needs to be thicker to account for it compacting from your body weight.
Just remember you have a few simple goals when on the run. Stay hidden. Cover as much ground as possible. Don’t die. It really is that simple. Shelter falls into that “Don’t die” category. You do not need anything fancy. Most of the shelters you see on survival television shows are much more than you want for this scenario. Keep it small, simple, and quick. If your shelter will keep you warm enough to see the morning light without being spotted, it will get the job done.
Please be sure you practice out these scenarios. You can always build quick and effective shelters in your backyard or on camping trips. Build blanket forts inside with your kids and structure them like tarp lean-tos. You can even practice in your mind by assessing your surroundings and deciding where and how you would build a hidden shelter. Any prepping you can do for this situation will help you survive and stay hidden when it matters.