Once upon a time in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, two curious young Californian dudes decided to fly fish the spectacular West Walker River. Sunny skies and 85 degree weather welcomed the two young men to the well known high elevation desert. The fishing was hot and grasshopper patterns attracted the most attention. As the day passed and the sun rose, the fishing slowed significantly and the two fishing dudes became unpleasantly bored. As the heat of the high sun baked on their underdeveloped heads, the two young men deliriously decided to build a shelter made purely from raw/natural materials provided within the surrounding environment. Their intention was to sleep in that shelter the upcoming night.
The two hoodlums thought the best location for the shelter would be on the river shore, where the sand was soft and the river near. They worked continuously for several hours, taking breaks solely for urinating and Little Debbie pit stops. The shelter was coming along very nicely and the two “bushwhackers” were excited to test out their “perfect” survival shelter. The sun began to set and night grew near.
With their sleeping bags in place and the cardboard box door closed, the two adventures were excited for their night spent under the stars. The sky was clear and the weather sat at 75 degrees. Couldn’t have asked for a better night.
The two boys passed out simultaneously and dreamt of rainbows and brownies. Or at least they would have if the sand spiders kept off their faces or if the temperature hadn’t dropped to 28 degrees in under three hours.
Accomplishing around 1 hour of sleep throughout the night, the boys abandoned the shelter at 6:00 a.m and walked 20ft. up hill to their vehicle were the abundance of spiders was far less and the internal temperature was far greater.
Lesson Learned: Survival shelters are for survival, not for fun! 
Twitter Updates
Written by Adam Reder
Topics: Informative