The Woodsman's Journal Online: How to Choose a Campsite, Part One©

Author’s note -- I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource! To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE. Thank you and Happy Trails!

There is no such thing as a “perfect” campsite, but all “good” onea will share few simple qualities. You can call it the “Shelter-Water-Wood Formula” or the “Five W’s”, but I prefer the “Five S’s”.

But First...

Setting up a camp, whether it is pitching a tent or building a survival shelter takes time; start at least two hours before dark, eight fingers, since daylight will help you look for the “Five S’s”.

Five S’s

Before you decide on a campsite, think about the things that make a campsite a “good” campsite: Safety, being the most important, followed by Shelter, Supply, Space, and Slope, in that order.

Safety

First and foremost a camp site must be safe! That means there are no “widow makers”, leaning trees, dead standing trees or live trees with dead limbs, just waiting to fall on your camping spot. In mountain country, stay away from avalanche zones, either of snow or stone. And don’t pick a spot by that babbling brook or sweetly flowing river, because if rains upstream, it will flood downstream, and your campsite and you might get washed away! If you do camp near a brook, camp on the outside bend where the bank is higher, rather than on the inside bend where the bank is low. Also, check to make sure that your campsite isn’t already occupied by ants, bees, stinging insects, snakes, etc. Don’t camp on trails, whether game trails or people trails, it is no fun to have bears, moose, or people traipsing through your camp at night. Pick a spot where you can safety hang a bear bag in a tree at least 10 feet, 3 meters, high and 3 feet or 1 meter away from the trunk – NEVER keep any “smellables” or food in your shelter at night.

· Camp about 75 steps, 200 feet or 60 meters, away from the water’s edge

· Camp about 75 steps, 200 feet or 60 meters, from trails

· Hang your bear bag about 75 steps, 200 feet or 60 meters, away from your camp site – DOWNWIND from your camp site.

Shelter

The winds you must worry about are the prevailing winds, and mountain and valley breezes.

Prevailing winds which in the mid-latitudes, between 35° and 65°, blow from the southwest to the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the northwest to the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere. In the north tropics (north of the equator) the winds blow northeast to southwest and in the southern tropics (south of the equator) they blow southeast to northwest.

Mountain and valley breezes are winds caused by the daily heating and cooling of the ground. At night, the higher elevations cool first and the colder dense air flows downhill and downstream into valleys and collects there, filling the valley bottom with cold air. This is known as “cold air drainage” or “temperature inversions” and can create a fog. Fog such as this is most commonly seen in the autumn and spring months and is thickest around sunrise when surface temperatures are at their lowest. Where temperature inversions occur most often, you will find cold-adapted species like spruce (Picea spp.) and balsam fir (Abies balsamea) at lower elevations, and warm-adapted broadleaf species, such as sugar maple (Acer saccharum), red maple (Acer rubrum), and American beech (Fagus grandifolia) at the higher elevations.

If you can, pitch your tent with the rear or if the wind is strong one of the rear corners perpendicular to the wind. This means the door of the tent will be in leeward (downwind).

· Don’t camp in a valley bottom, because cold night air settles there, or on a hilltop because of storms, lightning and wind, but on a flat bench halfway up the valley wall.

· Do set the front of your shelter to the lee (downwind) of the prevailing or nighttime winds. This prevents mosquitoes from being blown into your shelter.

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “How to Choose a Campsite, Part Two©”, where we will talk about the last three S’s -- Space, Supply, and Slope.

I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource! To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE. Thank you and Happy Trails!

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site. I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

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

Sources

Department of the Air Force; Air Force AFM 64-3 Survival Training Edition, pages 3-6 to 3-8, https://books.google.com/books?id=Ywad0WT1rO4C&pg=SA3-PA6&dq=picking+choosing+shelter+camp&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiF0byKjJSMAxULFlkFHSjvGCYQ6AF6BAgNEAM#v=onepage&q&f=false, accessed March 22, 2025

Green Bar Bill; Boys’ Life, November 1948, [The Boy Scouts Of America, New York, NY, 1948], page 18, https://books.google.com/books?id=np-xlH1i_zcC&pg=PA18&dq=The+old+formula+for+a+good+camp&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi2k7CAv5yMAxXdD1kFHW2OBfQQ6AF6BAgEEAM#v=onepage&q=The%20old%20formula%20for%20a%20good%20camp&f=false, accessed March 21, 2025

Seaton, Scott; “From Our Duffel Bag”, Boys’ Life, March 1952, page 42, https://books.google.com/books?id=STKNgoQa1hgC&pg=PA42&dq=%22four+s%27s+of+camp%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj76OD01JyMAxVnFVkFHY4lFG0Q6AF6BAgGEAM#v=onepage&q=%22four%20s's%20of%20camp%22&f=false, accessed March 21, 2025

Shane, Herbert E.; “Beds and Bedding”, Hunter-Trader-Trapper, Vol. XLIX, No. 1, April 1923, page 72, https://books.google.com/books?id=vQ_OAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA72&dq=Tarp+as+a+shelter&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi-rb2CvZyMAxVSFmIAHbHBJw04ChDoAXoECAYQAw#v=onepage&q=Tarp%20as%20a%20shelter&f=false, accessed March 21, 2025

Author Unknown; “Housing in extreme survival conditions”, https://pochta-polevaya.ru/blogs/1288/312235.html, accessed March 22, 2025