Pine Tree Shelter

Over the summer between my junior and senior years of highschool, I went for the fifth year to a summer camp called Cottonwood Gulch Expeditions. At this camp, I completed several projects which may be less technically impressive than others listed elsewhere. However, I believe they demonstrate a different type of aptitude, namely the ability to work from scratch with limited resources and time to create a functional item. There are three total projects I will be writing about, and I intend for them to be understood in this sense.

I made this shelter on a “solo”, which was a 24-hour period where I was completely on my own without contact with anyone else. I decided I wanted to build a shelter in that time, and this is what I came up with. Most of the labor involved was menial, mainly gathering pine needles to serve as the walls and ceiling. Gathering the small sticks that served as the support for the pine needles also took a significant amount of time.

The main design was inspired by a small stump of a branch on a big tree. I balanced a log on that, and braced either side with more logs. I then took the largest logs I could find (maybe 30’) and ran them between the balanced log and another nearby tree. After that, I used more logs as large struts between the ground and main beams as well as between the main beams. I also braced the main beams in the center of their span to avoid them snapping.

On top of the struts, I used small sticks to loosely fill the gaps. The was the trickiest part, as the sticks kept falling off on the sides. When I went to cover the sides with pine needles, the addition of the needles resulted in the small sticks shifting and sometimes falling. However, I eventaully managed to get the whole thing built.

This project definitely gave me more pratical skills than technical ones. I had to exercise perseverance, resourcefulness, and planning to get it done, and I think those skills will serve in life in general.