I Tried a Floating Shelter In The Woods

in a forest covered in Boulders and a rainstorm Brewing I found the perfect place to make a raised platform shelter armed with a pile of bushcrafting tools I started this build once I found the right grouping of trees to hold the structure up I got to work cutting the support poles I took my time and made sure my frame was very level so that I would be as comfortable as possible so I did a temporary lashing to the tree with some Bank line just to make sure it was right I then used half in ham rope for the anchor points and started the lashing with a snuggle hitch a couple of wraps around the pole and the tree and then two really tight fraps just to lock it all in I finished it with a square knot and it's not going anywhere I got the platform poles in place they are lashed in and now it's time to make the ladder and then the actual platform itself I'm going to put a bunch of sticks up here and continue to lash them right down to this platform let's see if I have enough daylight to pull this off okay I cut a bunch of these sticks now it's time to Lash these in and make a platform I'm out here today with my friend Alex hatlevig and he's about 80 yards away he's opted to make a ground shelter in a flat area in between the boulders which I lovingly refer to as ancient glacial [Music] excrement the work of continuous lashing is tedious but the result of taking your time with the lashing is a nice sturdy and safe bed my cordage of choice is number 36 nylon Bank line it doesn't really stretch at all and it makes for a really tight lashing one thing that's true about this design is it is very cordage heavy I've already burned through all of my number 36 Bank line and I'm going into my uh thinner Bank line now for this continuous lashing so if you're going to try something like this you got to go out with like a half pound half pound of cordage slight issue with my shelter right now I have one Ridge Pole right over here that is very strong like it's very sturdy not going anywhere not really flexing very much but this one is just a little bit thinner and it's got some give to it I don't really like that I don't like that give if I'm going to be up here I want to feel secure and like stable so what I'm going to do is I'm going to cut I'm going to cut a piece of wood that's going to go right here all the way to the ground and that's going to just give this thing a little bit of support right in the middle where it's sagging here's my support it's got a little bit of a notch in it so that that Ridge pole can just sit right on it and it's not going to go anywhere now I don't trust that this is not going to fall out in the middle of the night so I'm going to lash it in place and I'm also going to put some rocks right at the bottom to kind of hold it in place to keep it from going anywhere now that the platform is complete it's time to get the ladder built I'm thinking I'm going to build the ladder right here in between these two trees just like three rungs just enough to get me up onto the platform and then the last step is going to be putting the rainfly on that's going to be a little tricky and I need to do it quickly because it looks like I'm going to have rain at about 5:00 tonight yeah according to the radar the rain is going to hit at 5: and then it's going to stop for a little bit and then resume at 9900 p.m. and go all night long so I have to be really prepared for cruddy weather and uh as of right now I'm still a little bit Unsure how I'm going to rig this tarp it's going to be a very creative way of rigging it that's for sure this is not going to be easy because uh it's a raised platform but I really can't get high enough to Anchor the tarp where I want it so it's going to be a compromise of some sort [Music] so I got the tarp up uh it's a little bit interesting how I had to rig it but I think it's going to work out really really well we're supposed to get quite a bit of rain so this is going to keep it off of me I did put toggles in the gromets of the tarp it'll make it really easy in the morning to tear down Camp because those toggles are there I can just pull them right out it's a little challenging getting up in the Shelf and then getting the tarp back over me again and lashed down but I think it's going to be uh fairly comfortable actually and we'll see definitely not a practical shelter but it is fun all right it's getting cooler it's time to put on my Forest jacket I've had so many people ask me about this thing and uh where I could buy it and all that stuff and I I just tell them I made it I made it from a wool blanket and uh I love it it's perfect for keeping the chill off and doing little Bushcraft projects like this it's it's an awesome jacket so if you want one of these let me know maybe I'll start making them now I just need a Sleep System I think with the etherite extreme this is going to be a fairly comfortable experience as long as I don't fall off of this thing in the middle of the night that is a concern I might actually take some of my heavy rope and just make like a seat belt just to keep me in this thing cuz I don't know uh if I roll over I don't want to fall out of this thing it's like a 6ot fall so yeah now I want to take a minute to thank our sponsor Wicked Edge and show you the we40 and why it is one of the best sharpeners I've ever seen Precision knife sharpening is now not only affordable but it's also portable with the we40 I can sharpen my blades on the go because it's lightweight and the provided clamp gives me a bunch of different mounting options around Camp whether that's clamping it to a picnic table or even right onto my shelter the we40 comes with everything you need to get started and a YouTube instructional playlist to get you sharpening your blades fast Wicked Edge is known for their Precision knife sharpeners and now with the injection molded glass filled nylon the we40 is an affordable option for people who sharpen their hunting knives or their kitchen knives even just a few times a year for a good working Edge on my knives I like to start with the 600 grit and then sharpen them with the 800 and 1,000 grit Stones this gives me a working Edge that is perfect for most of my outdoor tasks that I do and if I really need a durable Edge then I use the dropping kit to achieve a strong mirror finish on my blades this is the best design of the standard Vice thus far and is easily able to clamp Blades of different styles and thicknesses and can even clamp blades up to A4 inch thick if you want a sharpener that's portable affordable and precise check out the we40 from Wicked Edge they also gave me a discount code for you so you can get even more off of this amazing sharpener thank you to Wicked Edge for sponsoring this video and now back to it after wrapp up my tarp setup I made my way across the boulderfield to check out Alex's shelter and see if he needed any help give me the grand tour of your shelter yeah so well first off it ended up being way bigger than I thought it was going to be and I was thinking about doing an A-frame thing but I figured this kind of like right triangle would be good but yeah it kind of Slants down that way cuz with the rain tonight trying to make sure that stays off of me um but yeah on the inside it's it's extremely roomy like you could probably fit wow at least a couple people in here oh no joke yeah no kidding I did add some extra support beams too I was afraid there was going to be a lot of weight so yeah it's nice having the piece of mind with those things there yeah no kidding yeah so uh do you think we can handle about an inch of rain tonight I think so I think we should be good I don't know it'll be on and off for a little while you said like maybe in like only a couple hours but I think we'll be just fine cool I think we're going to survive nice yeah nice yeah so he's got some debris he's piling up on the outside side of there to keep the cold away and the drafts away that's going to be nice and roasty toasty in there this side is covered over here tarp doesn't even go all the way down the tarp just covers like basically the top of it so underneath this is nothing but sticks so I loaded a bunch up to make sure no water is going to get through over here A+ this thing is awesome so we're really putting this whole thing to the test tonight with this rain situation there's going to be a lot we're going to get dumped on so I have a concern with my shelter that I'm going to fall out of it actually in the middle of the night so I'm like legitimately a little nervous about that I'm going to have to make like a safety belt or something um but uh yeah Alex what's yours so with mine first off there is you can just see there's a little bit of like the tarps dipping down in this side I'm afraid water's going to pull up like an inch of rain is quite a bit of rain and I'm worried that water is going to pull up and just kind of start dripping on me throughout the night but we'll see what happens my other main concern is that this tarp that I have here was just in my backyard covering a bunch of firewood and I grabbed it late last night what I didn't see was that there is a bunch of little holes all over the tarp so that's why I double layered it to hopefully have no drips on me but my my second concern is that those little holes are going to be having some water droplets on me yep yep we'll see what happens I think it's going to be okay but those are the main concerns so it's going to be a little bit cold tonight so main thing I thought about right away was what our value sleeping pad do I want to have so I decided I'm bringing my this is a 4 R 4.7 I believe it is the Big Agnes insulated aircore Ultra and they actually don't make this one anymore I bought it like right when they were going to sto making this one but I absolutely love it it's great I think like I said I think it has a r value of 4.7 so it be nice and warm um for my quilt I have the um storm Loft 0 degree from outdoor vitals and I have not tried this one so I'm starting testing tonight I'm very excited to use it um like I said it's a quilt 0° it's super lightweight and yeah it'll be hopefully very comfortable last thing um I brought a pillow with I'm going to try out this one for the first time it is the triology alof Pro Se right yeah never tried this one yet it feels very squishy and comfortable so we'll see how that goes yeah Big Agnes pad storm Loft and the tracky pillow that storm Loft quilt is awesome so I don't think you're gonna have any issues whatsoever it is fantastic awesome all right everybody I'm behind Gordon's camera now so I'm here at Gordon's campsite and with the rain coming let's see what he thinks about his his whole setup here if there's driving rain if there's any sort of wind at all that it's going to just soak my head and so I'm going to have to like kind of like shimmy downwards to get coverage on the tarp so that's my other concern I might have to modify my uh my point up there and just make it a little lower we'll see we'll see but other than that I think it'll be pretty cozy well the Sun is setting and we have about 20 minutes left of light light I think I'm going to get a fire going and then cook some dinner because I'm already really hungry this was a big calorie burn today but I want to give you a little bit of a grand tour here real quick so I've got my backpack hung up right here this is the Granite Gear 60 and I'm just using that to get materials to and from my vehicle I've got my rain poncho right here this is my red ledge rain poncho this is going to be essential uh pretty soon here when it starts downpouring I've got my my food bag from Backcountry exposure this is a 4 and2 liter Food Bag I adore this food bag it is perfect if you uh don't have a Food Bag already get this one from Devon Backcountry exposure his Etsy is in the description and uh I got my trusty trusty Nene bottle I've got my tool roll this is my rope lad to get me up in the shelter just two steps two big steps the these are my pillows I got my outdoor vitals pillow and I got a flex tail pillow got my headlamp ready to go for Nightfall up in the shelter I've got my Claymore light that's going to give me a nice big area light so I can film and Vlog and all that stuff this is my outdoor vitals Summit down 15 sleeping bag so that's going to be nice and warm I got my C to Summit etherite NXT extreme this thing is going to be really toasty as well as my wool blanket underneath so I'm not in contact with these bars as much so that's the grand tour now uh time to make a fire this fire is not essential it's just a little bit of a morale boost right before it starts to rain and I know that as soon as it rains this fire is going to be gone so this is just a temporary quick fire all right I'm enjoying the fire before it rains here a little bit making the pork chili verde from ready wise I did this on the last camping trip and I just loved this meal it is a very delicious meal highly suggest if you're getting backpacking meals go for one of these really nice and I mixed up some chocolate element uh electrolyte drink here and this is uh yeah the chocolate the chocolate one is really good actually now it's just a little bit of a waiting game until it starts to rain hopefully I'm sheltered well underneath my tarp here I shouldn't get wet so we'll see looks like Alex has got a fire going over by him as well so we are just enjoying the night here before it gets too dark and too cold and too rainy to do anything else I think I am going to make some tea I found a tea bag in my bag of goodies here a modern Earl Gray sounds good it's caffeine free oh wait no it's not caffeine free it has caffeine in it this might keep me up tonight but uh I think I'll probably be awake anyway so we're going to make it pork chili verde oh so good so this uh suspended shelter thing is um is pretty interesting I found the idea for this in a Dave Canterbury book Bushcraft like 101 or something like that he had a picture in there of something similar to this but it was suspended by ropes and I was like wow that's complex I'm totally going to try that since there aren't any trees here with like horizontal main trunks I couldn't do this shelter suspended by ropes but I did kind of pivot and do this platform shelter which I thought was pretty interesting in this area there's so many Boulders and it's so uneven the ground is very uneven and there's a lake right here across from me and um well because of the lake right across from me the ground is very very soggy so it's kind of tough to find a suitable spot to make a ground shelter now did I have to go 6 feet high no I did not have to go 6 ft high so if you're going to do this don't make it so high make it more reasonable something like a foot off the ground or something like that there's no practical need to go 6 and 1/2 fet up in the air but I thought it'd be fun now it might not be so fun at 3 in the morning when I have to go to the bathroom yeah I have to crawl down with darkness in full effect dinner consumed and Camp ready for weather all that was left was to wait wait in the cold getting reacquainted with silence can be uncomfortable with our busy non-stop lives as the fire gave up the last of its heat I decided it was time to head up into the Treehouse and see if I could get comfortable enough to sleep I made it up into the Crow's Nest not the easiest thing to do but uh you know what this is cozy up here it's pretty cozy rain is start starting to fall and uh I'm going to see if I can at least take a nap up here I'm not going to commit to the whole night I'm just going to take a nap and see what we can do here if worst comes to worst and it starts to rain and storm really really bad I can just bail out to the car no big deal all right uh going to hit the hay we'll see you guys in the morning and not long after I got an alert on my phone saying we would be getting much higher winds and rainfall than expected so we took shelter in our cars and waited out the night with the high wind and loose wet soil the chance of blowdowns was high not worth getting crushed by a tree in the morning when I tore down Camp the area near my head was the only place that rain had gotten to which is what I had thought earlier in the day in the end it was super fun to make a treehouse shelter and practice some of these bushcrafting skills I hope you found that useful or at least entertaining we'll see you later [Music] [Music]