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Lucky's Trekking Tips - Muzzle Blasts March 2025

Shelters: With winter hitting us all around the country like a ton of bricks, I felt a re-visit of shelters was appropriate. Over the years I have seen so many folks, including me, buy and use a “diamond shelter or plow front”, which I believe is completely period incorrect. It is a shelter I have never seen first-hand documentation of and is in my opinion the absolute worst for warmth and rain protection. Sorry folks, you really should ditch the diamonds to be period correct. If you do not care about being period correct, don’t worry about it.

The diamond shelter is another product of the 1960s rendezvous era for folks looking for a man-packable shelter. One of the biggest mistakes I see in this hobby is people thinking that to emulate fur trappers in the Rockies or Longhunters in the east that they must be able to carry what they need on their back. The reality is that these men were all mounted and with pack animals for their gear. So, a lightweight, man-packable shelter/tarp was not a concern. We make things light weight to man pack because we all can’t have horses. But if you are just going from your car to camp, why not do it properly? 

When packing mules and horses you will always have pieces of canvas to cover your load and to double down as a shelter, not to mention the tents they carried in the Rocky Mountains at times. In fair weather I am sure they merely flat camped as a fast and efficient way to set up camp, I do. In foul weather, certainly more time would have been taken to provide shelter as security allowed.

My “go to” shelter whether alone or with a companion, is an “a frame” with a gap in the middle of 6-8 inches. By putting to pieces of canvas together as to lean-to’s facing each other you can get maximum protection from the wind when positioned properly and space in the middle to build a small fire that will more than keep you warm. The gap at the top allows the smoke to drift straight up like a chimney. You may have to cut branches or pine limbs to block one end if the wind changes, but I have survived extreme cold temperatures and a lot of snowfall very comfortably! When doing fur trade events, I use a buffalo robe along with my wool blankets and have never been cold. My close friend Bryan Knapp and I survived 6 inches of snow and extreme cold during a December hunting camp.

If you are traveling alone, you can carry two pieces of canvas to make the shelter or just one if you set it up with a good reflector wall of rocks or even deadfall limbs. Keep in mind the further away from your shelter your fire is the more inefficient it is. A smaller fire close in is more valuable and provides sufficient warmth while conserving wood. It is nice to be able to cook and feed a small fire that is arms reach away while in your shelter.

The two sketches show how to build the shelter I am referring to. Unfortunately, I have never taken pictures of one from the outside. I usually just take pictures of the inside especially when Sprinkles is with me since he is so cute!

Happy camping and stay warm! See you around a fire in the near future!

Written by Gerry "Lucky" Messmer. Reprinted with permission from the author.

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