Stealth Camp, The Hide, The Mask, Spyder Hole

Stealth Camp, The Hide, The Mask, Spyder Hole

Strealth camp (ing), camping perhaps where you are not supposed to camp. Great exercise in really hiding, and covering your camping place for real. You can practice in parks, city parks, county parks, and other well chosen places. If you are on a dayhike keep looking for the chance to explore a “Hide” for your secret camp.

Trying to camp out and keeping out of sight is a skill set to set your sights on.
If you are making a primitive camp, say with a debris shelter it is even easier as the debris will be great camo and many experienced hikers would walk right on by the shelter without being aware of anything. You can help it along by diverting the path with stones logs, branches etc, that look like they they fell into place.

On a hike/trek you are following a path. The map says camp grounds are up along the creek. Once you locate the creek, backtrack several yards. Do a reverse fish hook, getting off the path, slip through the bush, you are a phantom, a shadow, find the “Hide” for your camp. First thing you will be alone, away from the all the other campers, thats way cool, because you want to enjoy the woods alone, and not be around a bunch of others. If you choose the the right spot no one will ever know you have been there. Of course one of the best ways to leave hardly a trace is to use a hammock and a tarp if needed. You can practice in the city and county parks. Lots of fun and if you are caught, they’ll tell you you cannot camp there.. Shame on you if you get caught. If you are caught it is mostly in the day time because no one really patrols in the shadows of these places, so you are just playing around , no harm no foul.

On a real trek there are many ways to make the “Hide” or to “Mask” your camping place. By thinking around the box, not just outside of it, you will start to see many choices as you explore beyond the norm. The hammock lets you arrive in locations that are not condusive to a camp on the forest floor, such as a slope, a drainage, over a small creek, rocky ground, some will even choose to go high. When I was younger I would climb a tree, if it looked good, and sling my hammock 10 feet off the ground. The trees have to be right but when they are, it is cool. Better trust your hammock and it is a good idea to sling one of those light net hammocks under your sleeping hammock just in case. When you wake up , remember where you are.

Camping out along a lonely trail is spooky for some, and we never know who is really camping around us. “Masking” your camping area from prying eyes just makes sense in many cases. Set up a cooking place that is removed from your sleeping “Hide”, try at least 100 yards away. Cook and eat, relax, and then let yourself slip into the woods like smoke, and fade to your sleeping place. Much more secure for many reasons.

We have covered the camping aspect of the “Hide” now lets look at the “Mask” or the “Spydie” hole that should be a part of your thinking as well. Depends on where you live. Even though you are in a city it is still possible to create this “Mask” . However, looking at the rural places first, we should all have a “Spyder Hole”, a “Hide” that we can access right damn now. This is a “set”  “camp”, and is well hidden, stocked with supplies to last at least a week or more. Not an eloborate setup but comfy, and allows for more than just sitting in a cramped space, cold , and wet or hot and sweaty. You have to pick the place with care. It needs to be a true “Hide” A “Mask” that no kids or big kids like us would stumble on to the location.
It has to be within walking distance of your home. That means what you and the family can really do in a short time.
The “SpyderHole” might take some work on your part, even to the point of training some of the brush, trees, etc.  to grow a certain way. I know of one place that was used for years and no one ever found it.

This place  took a few years for it to come together, but the brush and trees were tied by twine and were traind to grow together, up and over a small clearing. A path ran by the side of this place, and yet it was never detected.
They placed chairs, a table, and other items in the little meadow, stored food, water and tarps if it rained. Fire wood was stacked up inside. They cooked with a “Dakota Fire Hole” and a stove made from a large coffee can. The brush, some poisen oak as well, over the years grew so dense you could not see  a fire through it at night, the only giveaway was the glow over the top of the glen. This was a perfect location.
Wherever you live do a search with how you can bend nature to your advantage.Thats the place.

In the city it is a tougher game. It can be done. Look along the sides of roads and the freeways. Lots of “wild” spots waiting to be used. City parks might offer a place. Empty buildings might be an idea as well. Large estates have lots of places no one ever visits. The challenge in the city is one that will involve checking out the “Mask” and then moving into place with your gear like a shadow. Pre-placing your comforts in the city is a tricky one. I do not have any fast and easy answers , location is the key and then the placement of the gear without notice. Each location has its challenge thats for sure.

Some folks might think an abandoned car would be a good place. For the most part in the heat it will drive you out, in the cold it is like a freezer. Might work in the right conditions, though. Shelter in a storm is still shelter. A candle will add some heat.

The whole idea is a “Hide” A “Mask”, a “Spyder Hole” keep those foremost in your mind as you hike/trek/hunt, as you drive along look at what is around you.
All of our senses are about survival , your survival under all circumstances, we need to hone those senses and  prepare for the uncommon things in life to happen. In history some of the strange things happened to everyday peoples and they died, or suffered great pain all because it  was not going to happen here. Or to them.

The “Hide”, The “Mask” the “Spyder Hole” are all about “Stealth” . These are skills you can own.

Now look around. Check out new ground.

By Dude McLean, on July 20th, 2011