Almost everyone's idea of camping involves pitching a tent somewhere and sleeping out in the woods. But you can camp out in the woods without a tent if you want to do some tentless camping. Tentless camping doesn't mean you won't have shelter from the elements if yo need it. Tentless camping doesn't mean you will always be sleeping under the start, though that is a great option if the weather is good.

What tentless camping means is that you won't be buying an expensive tent and hauling it on your back out into the woods. Also what tentless camping means is that you won't be fooling with all those crazy confusing stretchy cords and plastic sticks when trying to figure out how the heck to put together that eight room, family size, jumbo tent that you just had to have and that looked so good in the showroom. Tentless camping means that you won't be regretting you trusted that salesperson when they assured you that pitching you new tent would be a cinch.

Tentless camping means that you will do for yourself what every person should know how to do and that is build you own shelter from the materials that are available at hand. Tentless camping can mean that you dispense with shelter altogether and just sleep out under the stars. This type of tentless camping is great, but only if the weather holds and you get no rain during the night and the wind doesn't pick up and start to blow through your sleeping bag. So while you might want to start out under the stars, you may want a little shelter to retreat to before morning so it is best to prepare something in advance.

A simple lean to will suffice for this type of tent camping. You should pick a spot that is sheltered by boulders and then lean some good sized fallen trees that you have dragged into your campsite, up against the boulders. You can let it go at that if you are fairly certain it won't rain too much during the night and that you might just need a little shelter from the wind.

Tentless camping doesn't have to mean that you don't have adequate shelter thought. If you are committed to tentless camping and will be staying in the same spot for a while, then you can build a pretty elaborate lean to that will provide you more than adequate shelter from the wind and the rain. All you need is a sharp axe and some rope to lash things together and you, with a little help from your friends could build a shelter that will mean comfortable tentless camping for a whole group.