How to Find Shelter in the Appalachian Mountains

Video Transcript

Hi this is David Jackel on behalf of Expert Village, and I am here to talk to you about finding shelter in the Appalachian Mountains. So here is the scenario. You are out in the mountains, you are going for a hike, and all of a sudden it starts to rain. What are you going to do? Well, if you have tent, you could put the tent up, but even that takes some time and in the process the tent is going to get soaked on the inside as well. You need to find shelter right away, and finding shelter can be very difficult if you do not know what to look for. Shelter is there to protect you from the elements, that include heat, the cold, rain. Shelter also protects you to a certain extent from animals. The most important thing about shelter is keeping you dry, because once your clothing gets wet it could take a very long time for it to dry out, especially during the colder seasons, and then you are stuck with cold clothing or cold equipment that could make you sick if it is on you for too long, will not provide you with any warmth and the rain in general is going to ruin your stuff. One thing you can do is look for natural caves. They are everywhere in the mountains. Hunt around, and you will find them. But be careful. Once you find a cave it is important that you explore it properly. You have to make sure there is nothing loose in the cave that could come crashing down on you if the weather gets rougher. You have to make sure that there are no animals living in the cave, because if there is a bear inside the cave, even if it is a really nice cave, it is not really good shelter anymore. In general, you want to avoid spots where you would be susceptible to thinks falling on you from above. So if you are going to be up against the side of a hill, which can be a good spot for shelter, make sure that hill is not too steep so you do not have to worry about rocks crashing down on you, or snow in the colder months. If you find shelter but it is not big enough for you, but it is big enough for your stuff, by all means put your stuff in there, because you really want to keep your equipment dry so that afterwards when you dry off from the rain you can put your clothing on again.

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