Using your poncho or a trash bag as an Emergency Shelter ©

Imagine it is January, and the sun is going down, it is 35^o Fahrenheit now, but you know that it will drop into the 20s  tonight.  It is starting to snow, a wet heavy snow and the wind is picking up.  You need a shelter and you need a shelter now…

How do you make an emergency shelter from your poncho or a garbage bag?

Before you start, you need to find shelter from the wind and build a bough bed to insulate you from the heat robbing ground.

You can find a video on how to make a bough bed on my YouTube channel at Bandanaman Productions [HERE]; also, you can find an article with more in depth information on how to build a ground bed at the Woodsman’s Journal Online [HERE].

I always bring a poncho with me when I go into the woods, unless I am already carrying a tarp.  Also, I always have two heavy-duty contractor-grade garbage bags with me in my minimum item survival kit.

  

I am wearing a Swiss Military Alpenflage Rain Cape

While sitting next to a log, rock, tree, or other shelter from the wind, put on your poncho, button it up, pull the hood up, snug it down, and then sit down on your bough bed.  Now tuck the bottom of the poncho under you to reduce the “chimney-effect”, as the body-warmed air escapes up through the hood and draws in cold air from below.  Bring your arms in and button up the arm slits, if there are any, to prevent heat stealing wind and weather from entering.

I am wearing a trash bag-shelter bag and another trash bag over my legs

If you don’t have a poncho, you can use a contractor grade, heavy-duty 55 Gallon, 3.0 Mil, 38"W x 58"H, trash bags.  These are great because they are large, thick, strong, and puncture-proof and they fold up into a small package and only weigh 5 ounces. 

Children and small adults will only need one, however if you are an adult, you might need two garbage bags; one for your legs and one for torso, which should go on over your head and over the bag covering your legs. 

They tell you not to put a plastic bag over your head, and rightly so, so how do you make a trash bag-shelter bag?

First, cut or tear a slit or hole just big enough to pass your head through if you get too warm.  The slit should be about 5 inches below one of the bottom corners of the bag and it needs to be about 5 to 10 inches long, depending on if the trash bag will be worn by an adult or a child.

Often small children’s fingers are not strong enough to tear a hole in a heavy-duty trash bag, so before placing a trash bag into a child’s minimum item survival kit, pre-cut the face slit, and then carefully re-fold the trash bag.

  

Making the hood

This face slit makes a hood out of the corner of the trash bag and provides protection and warmth for your head.  Remember, your face should always stick out of the bag, so that the water vapor in your breath will not condense inside the bag. 

You may consider cutting or tearing arm slits into the bag, so you can use your arms without uncovering your head and torso.  Arm slits are cut or torn through the trash bag about 10 inches below the bottom center on both sides of the trash bag and should be about 5 inches long.

Making arm slits

However, armholes create two entry points for heat stealing wind and weather.  In bad conditions, it might be best to skip arm slits, if the weather is less severe, arm slits might be worth considering.

After making your trash bag-shelter bag, put it over your head and body, and over the bottom bag covering your legs, if you are a large adult, and while sitting, tuck the bottom of the bag beneath you.  This will reduce the “chimney-effect” as the body-warmed air escapes up through the face slit and draws in cold air from below. 

With either the poncho or the trash bag-shelter bag, you can put an insulating layer of debris or branches over your shelter to stop the loss of heat due to radiation and the wind.

That is the basics of using your poncho or a trash bag as an emergency shelter.

However, before you decide to practice this outdoors, first let us talk about safety.

The first time that you practice this, you should do it in a controlled setting, like in your back yard or just off the trailhead within 100 yards or so from your car.  In addition, whenever you go into the wilderness you should always take a buddy with you.

The most important thing to remember when sheltering in the wilderness location, location, location: always check the wind, the water, the widow-makers and the wildlife.

At night, the winds will reverse and will flow downhill and down valleys and gullies.  Whenever, possible, find a spot that has a windbreak on two sides one to protect you from downhill breezes and one to block down valley winds. 

It is never a good idea to shelter in valley bottoms and low spots since they can flood.  Always try to build your shelter half way up the valley wall or the hillside as the cold air will settle in valley bottoms and other low spots at night and hilltops can be cold as well.  If you have to shelter near creeks or rivers, look for grass and debris caught in the branches of shrubs, as this is evidence of past floods.  Also on the trunks of trees near the creek or river, look for chipped bark and other damage, as this can be an indication of ice jams and flooding. 

Always look up before you set up your shelter, to make sure there aren’t snags, broken limbs or other widow-makers hanging in the branches above you that can come crashing down on your shelter.

Use common sense when it comes to wildlife, don’t camp on a game trail, near beehives or near mosquito breeding grounds, or you might have unwelcome visitors.

A video presentation of this article can be found [HERE].  Look for me on YouTube at Bandanaman Productions for other related videos [HERE].

That is all for now, and as always until next time, Happy Trails