A camp can be considered any area you take over for an hour, a day or occupy for a few weeks. If for whatever reason, you had to abandon your home during a crisis, then you need to set up residence elsewhere, and it may very well be outdoors in which you have to survive.
Keep in mind this type of camping is not the same as a camping vacation. Security will be a big concern, because displaced residents and others may very well be roaming about the countryside.
If you have to bug-out, which should be your last resort by the way, then being prepared is the key to survival.
When most people think of camping they think of tents. Tents make ideal shelters, but they do not always go hand in hand with security. Tents, however, can be used for daytime sleeping if there are personnel that can guard the area while one group sleeps. Tents obstruct your view once inside, block or distort certain sounds, and you can become entangled in one if your camp is overrun.
Lean-to shelters that provide overhead cover and allow visual coverage of a certain area are ideal. The back of the lean-to would be against an area that would be extremely difficult to approach along quietly. Building its backside to a bramble patch, a large rock outcrop, or an area with heavy vegetation would be ideal. The front would be for observation of the camp, and approach corridors.
More than one would be needed if you have the personnel and design them so all areas of approach and the camp itself can be observed. The typical camp setup where tent openings face each other in a circle or semi-circle would not be a good idea.
Do not cut trees or brush down anywhere near your camp. Cutting brush for camouflage only works for a few days until the leaves curl and turn color, so if other leaves and vegetation are green the cut brush will stand out. Tramping about breaking branches and cutting pine boughs for shelters is a giveaway that someone is in the area. Cut any brush you need well away from camp and the farther away the better.
To cover any trails or paths leading up to the camp you can dig spider holes 50 to 75 yards out from the camp. The spider holes provide concealment but not necessarily cover if there is a firefight. A spider hole is a depression big enough for a body to be concealed in so they can observe a trail, structure or monitor an area for foot traffic without being seen. Once inside the hole, you would pull leaves, deadfall, and other debris around you for camouflage. Any soil excavated would have been removed from the area or dispersed in such a way to avoid detection.
If you are worried about detection, then your camp would be a dark one. In other words, no fire, no talking, or lights after sundown, so all cooking, eating, and calls of nature would be done during daylight hours.
Ideally, your cooking fire would be 100 or more yards away from your overnight camp. If the smoke is spotted during the day you have not necessarily given away your actual camp and this would give you time to counter any moves if someone were to discover your fire. If the fire is spotted, and you are not, make your way back to camp and be ready to counter any moves or to move out.
When moving in and out of camp set off in the opposite direction in which you want to travel each time and make a wide circle as you leave and do the same coming back. This helps to keep you from forming a visible trail because you are not using the same path each time and allows you to observe the camp’s perimeter for signs of intrusions from two legged as well as four legged predators.
Do not cook more than you can eat in one meal, and bury all waste at least 100 yards from camp. Fresh meat is not ideal under these circumstances for a variety or reason and one being wild animal intrusions. Bears can be deadly, as well as rabid skunks and raccoons foraging for food.
Being prepared for something like this means you have foods that can be stored without refrigeration and require little to no preparation to eat. You simply cannot have fresh foods stored in camp.
Human waste will have to be buried so if you operate a dark camp you would not have a fixed latrine location. You would simply dig a small hole in a different area each time and then cover.
It’s important you plan properly so no one has to go out at night for a nature call. This will be difficult but with some training, willpower, and planning you can do it.
At night, have your packs on you or within hands reach, so if you have to move out you can grab and go. Make sure you know where every item is located within your pack so you do not have to fumble for your compass, ammo, or any needed item in the dark.