Using What Nature Provides

• 1). Cut the ridge pole and supports. Find a long, straight branch that's a few feet longer than your reach and cut it down. Look for two straight branches that are chest high and forked at one end and cut them down as well. Use your knife to sharpen the nonforked ends of the two support branches.
  
  
• 2). Use the ridge pole and supports to make an entrance. Drive your supports into the ground with a hammer or flat rock. Make the distance between them two feet less than the ridge pole's length and anchor them enough to support the roof. Rest the ridge pole on the forked upper ends of the supports so that it equally overlaps both sides.
  
  
• 3). Cut and place branches for the roof line. Cut down eight branches that are roughly shoulder high and lean them against the ridge pole at a 45-degree angle so they overhang it by about four inches. The distance between each branch should be about eight inches.
  
  
• 4). Cut and weave saplings, branches and foliage into the roof. Cut down a large number of flexible saplings and some branches full of foliage and weave the saplings over and under the eight sloping branches to create a tight lattice. Weave a few saplings over and under the ridge pole to anchor it to the sloping roof. Weave the whole branches into the roof in the same way and add additional foliage until you have a thick, multi-layer thatch.
  
  
• 5). Dig the fire pit and build a fire near the entrance. Gather quick burning tinder, longer burning kindling and heavier wood to keep the fire going. Use your camping shovel to dig a six to 12-inch deep dish-shaped hole a few feet from the entrance of your shelter. Build a tipi fire by piling the tinder in the center of your pit and leaning kindling followed by heavier wood around it in a pyramid shape.
  
  
• 6). Build a rock reflector wall for the fire. Gather and arrange large rocks around three sides of your fire pit with the open end facing the entrance of your shelter. Stack the rocks slightly higher than the fire to make a reflector wall that directs the fire's heat towards the entrance of your shelter.