A Long-Term Survival Guide – Improvised Camp Equipment:

Perspective view of camp latrine. Side view of camp latrine.

Camp Latrine: If you will be camping in one place for a long time, or if you have a large
group, you should make a simple latrine, like these examples. The shovel or paddle (shown in
the dirt pile), is used to cover up waste and toilet paper after each use. The footrest (shown in the
side view) helps keep the ditch from collapsing, so you don’t fall in.

This is another way to make a simple latrine, but you may have to dig through a lot of tree roots
with this design. Latrines should have a screen of cloth, reeds, brush, or sticks built around them,
to provide privacy.
Camp Beds: To make a bough bed, gather fresh evergreen branches 12 to 18 inches long,
and arrange them in overlapping rows, with the but ends against the ground. The boughs should
be framed with logs, to keep them in place.

To keep from getting pitch on your skin and clothes, the boughs should be covered with a layer
of old pine needles, grass, or leaves, or a woven grass blanket. Or you can use a ground-cloth,
tarp, or plastic sheet, if you have one of these available.

A variation on the bough bed is made by laying two logs a few feet apart, and then laying smaller
sticks across them, to form an elevated bed platform. The platform is then covered with boughs.
Elevated beds are best for use in snowy or muddy conditions, to keep you off the cold ground.
Another way to make an elevated bed, is to suspend two sacks on two A-frames, using two long
poles. Two coats with the sleeves turned inside out will also work. The bags or coats can be
stuffed with grass or leaves in cold weather, to provide extra insulation under your body.

Camp Mattresses and Bedding: Cattail leaves are full of cushy little plant cells, and
make a superior mattress, or woven mat. I will always pick cattail leaves over any other bedding.

Grasses can be gathered into bundles, and then tied together into mats, to make grass bedding.
Camp Benches: This is one of the simplest designs for an improvised camp bench, made by
driving forked stakes into the ground, and using cross-sticks for the bench seat, and back.

Here is a slightly more complex bench design, which has the advantage of being moveable.

Camp Chairs: I like this camp chair design. The length of the slanted upper framework stick
can be changed to adjust the angle of the chair’s back, as desired.
Camp Tables: Here is one way to make a camp table, with built-in
seating.

More camp table designs. These tables can be made with more than one platform, if desired.

Two tripods can be connected to make longer tables, and this style can also have more than one
shelf, or platform. This table design makes a nice washing station, by placing a wash basin in a
space, left in the center of the shelf. The design also makes an excellent fire table, by using a
mud-covered fire shelf, and a wire cooking rack above it.
 Tripod tables can be made as large or as small as needed.

Kitchen Utensil Storage: These designs are good for storing pots, dishes, and utensils.

Camp Shelf: A very simple way to improvise a camp shelf, is to tie two sticks between two
trees, and then lash on some cross-sticks, to make the platform.
Camp Kitchens: Kitchen tables for a camp can be as simple, or as elaborate, as you want.

Camp Grills: Don’t laugh, but you can cook food on a barbecue grill made from green wood,
or split green bamboo. Always split bamboo, or use a knife to make holes in each section, or it
could explode, from the heat.

Camp Can Stove: Any large metal can may be fashioned into a useful camp cooker.
Camp Fire Table: Here is an example of a well-built elevated fire table, inside a primitive
cabin. The whole thing is made from wood, and the fire platform is a mud-covered wooden table.
Note the overhead firewood storage rack, which is stained black from years of woodsmoke.
Wood stored above a cooking fire like this quickly becomes bone dry. The cooking grate is just
two metal bars set on two rocks, but it works to keep the pots elevated above the fire. Any type
of metal grating, or expanded metal mesh, or even the metal racks from an old oven will work.

Camp Water Heaters: These simple designs are one way to have hot water in your camp,
for your kitchen, washbasins, and showers. The same designs will keep water thawed in harsh
winter conditions, both for yourself, and your pack animals. The first example is intended to be
placed close to a fire, in the radiant heat zone, and the other two are set over a narrow fire trench.

Camp Clothes Dryer: A simple drying frame like this one is an easy way to dry your wet
garments, boots or gloves in front of a fire.
Camp Wood Storage: Every long-term camp should have a wood shed, like this one.

Camp Rain Catch: You can make a rain catch like this one, using split bamboo, sheets of
bark, or leaves and thatching. Every camp that is not right next to a water supply should have a
rain catch, and in areas where water is scarce, you should make several. The roof of your wood
shed, and the roof of your shelter, should also be used as rain collectors.
Camp Water Filters: Here are two ways to make camp water filters, using cloth, sand, and
charcoal from your campfires. The sand and charcoal are placed in layers in the cloths. The
example on the right is improvised using a cutoff pant leg.

Hide Filter: An animal hide can also be used to filter water, with layers of sand and charcoal,
by making a small hole in the bottom. You can even cook food in a hide container of this type
(with no hole), by adding hot rocks, until the stew boils.

Camp Tongs: Tongs are good for handling hot rocks, and adjusting wood in the fire.
Camp Wash-Station: Here is a design for a camp sink. Plastic tubs are used to hold water
for soaking, washing, and rinsing. This type of sink can be used to wash dishes or clothes. It is a
good station for hand-washing, and for sponge-bathing. The camp sink can be improved by
adding a stick platform at one (or both) ends, to hold soap, pot scrubbers, razors, and similar
items, or for use as drying racks for pots and pans. The towel rack can have extra bars added.

Camp Shower: Here is one way to make a camp shower. The enclosure could be thatched, if
no tarp is available.

Camp Hangers: Here are lantern hangers, fire bucket hangers, and camp sign hangers.
Camp Tool Rack: A tool storage rack can help keep your camp tools from getting lost.

Camp Gadgets: Here are some useful camp gadgets. The items on the right are trash bag
holders, but they can also be used to hold your laundry bags open, and up off the ground.

More Camp Gadgets: These simple items are also handy. The gadget on the right is an
improvised evaporative cooler. A hole is dug, lined with rocks, filled with food, covered with
cloth (weighed down around the edges with stones), and a leaky container slowly drips water
onto the cloth, so that evaporation keeps the whole thing cool.
Camp Pot Hangers: Here are some designs for pot hangers you can make; they are useful
for holding pots over your campfire coals. Small locking clips can be made from wire as shown,
to keep the hangers secured to a cross-bar.

Pot Handles: If your pots don’t have hangers, they can be made from wire, as shown here.

Camp Food-Drying Rack: This is one type of food-drying rack, which is useful for
making fish or meat jerky, in a long-term camp. Drying food should be moved inside at night, to
keep rain and dew off, or placed in an elevated cache, in bear country. If you use enough cross-
poles, your drying rack can also be used as a camp table.
Camp Jerky Makers: A small hardwood fire can be used to dry food, in cold or cloudy
weather. Fire speeds up the drying process even in summer, and the smoke helps keep bugs away
from your food, and gives it a smoky flavor. Don’t use softwoods (pine) to dry or smoke meat, or
it will taste like pine pitch. In wet conditions, food can be dried over an indoor fire, such as the
campfire in a survival teepee. Salt also helps food dry faster, if you have any. Meat can also be
hung in a box, and dried by placing it in the radiant heat zone of your fire, or wood stove.

Camp Meat Smokers: A food smoker is another useful piece of camp equipment.
Cooking Stakes: This useful camp tool is normally made from cedar, oak, or willow. The
food is clamped between two sticks that are lashed together, and small cross-sticks keep the fish
or meat spread out, so it won’t curl up, while cooking in the radiant heat zone of your campfire.

Cooking Planks: Cedar or oak planks are another camp cooking tool, used for fireside
cooking. Fish or meat is nailed or pegged to the planks, then placed close to the fire, to cook.
Cooking planks don’t have to be flat boards; the flat side of a split log will also cook food.
Triangle Hammock: Triangular hammocks are easier to make, than the traditional kind.
Camp Ladder: Here is one way to make a ladder, a useful item to have around camp.

Doors and Windows: If you want your camp structures to have doors and windows, here
is one way to add them. The frames can be covered with thatch, bark sheets, or tarp material.
Camp Fences: If you need animal pens, you can make fences from sticks, like these.
Improvised fencing is useful for keeping your livestock secure, at your camp, or retreat.

Camp Slab Furniture: Slab furniture, or log furniture, can be made in long-term camps,
using very simple hand tools. Here are some examples, to give you ideas:

Log beds, and railings.

Log stools, and swings.

Compare these lumber bunk beds and log bunk beds, and see how the frames are similar.
 Well-made log furniture can be multifunctional, like this futon bunk bed.
If you have the talent, log furniture can look a lot like art, while still being useful.

Camp Shaving Horse: An improvised shaving horse makes it easier to build camp
furniture, as well as things like improvised sleds and snowshoes.