Has anyone ever had a sudden feeling to.......

[Hud]

Certainly would like to disappear into the backcounty, but probably wouldn't go over big with the rest of the family and grandkids. So, I am thinking about finding a place off the beatin path, within a days drive.

[K. Mogensen]

It's weird, I'm reading Into the Wild right now. To me, the guy in the book (Chris McCandless) was ill prepared for what he faced. There was also another guy just recently who thought he could survive in the wild by watching Survivorman. He died from Hypothermia.

I think about it a lot though. I feel like I'd be better prepared and could make it. It's easy to say you could make it from my comfy chair behind the computer though...

[Eric S]

Dick Proenneke is quite an inspiration. I saw his story on PBS and would recomend watching if you get the chance. He truly was living the dream.

[twitchstick]

I find myself always feeling like I'm crawling out of my skin until roam in open country. It is the only place I truely feel at home with myself. I find my ideals and thoughts drifting to books like "My Side Of the Mountain","Into the Wild","Desert Solitaire" and great wanders like Everett Ruess,Jim Bridger ect... I find it scary sometimes how easy it would be for me to just melt away into the canyons around here and never return to society.  

[Buckwheaties]

I second the Dick Proenneke story, Simply amazing what he did!!! A real inspiration to anyone who wants to say F IT with modern society..

[Buckwheaties]

Yes Mudd, I am scared!!!!! LOL The thinking like you part!!

[bolong]

Yeah I have the same thoughts all the time, we're both from Arkansas so we might run into each other in the mountains some day.

[Pete Arthur]

Good topic.
I have dreamt of this my whole life. I have read many books and articles written by people who have tried it.
The long and short of it seems to be that although there are many who are "called", few could ever actually do it for any length of time.
The main reason for failure seems to have nothing to do with inadequate survival skills(Mother Nature will weed those people out right quick), rather most people fail due to the mental affects from having no contact with other people.
Sounds good to me, but I don't know if I could really do it?

[Buckwheaties]

That why God made "man's best friend". Hell I get along with my dog than I do people.. But I think you're correct in the "isolation" being a big problem for most people.

[Buckwheaties]

better than I do people. (we need an edit post ability)

[Jim Wright]

I was fortunate enough to live in montana in 1973&74. I have spent quite a bit of time in the unlimited Bighorn Sheep Permit areas northeast of Yellowstone Park for up to 11 days at a time. I cherish the memories, the solitude, the beautiful country and the fine quest but it was ALWAYS nice to get back and take a bath and enjoy the comforts of home. The previous post from a tradganger from Ontario mentions the winter and I will readily admit I don't want to even think about "living off the land" where I was from November through June.

When i have been in the wet wilds of Canada on long canoe trips I have a reoccurring dream of finding an orange extension cord across a portage trail.  At the end of that orange extension cord is a pop machine full of RC Cola and I have no change.  If you are going to take the jump, make sure that you ween your self off of the modern vises before you leave.

[Doc Nock]

Pavan, you crack me up! My bud had a dream he was living out of his backpack but when he opened it, everything was in heavy bubble packaging and he'd lost his knife and starved to death! Serves him right being a boom stick hunter!

I lived in MT for 6 years... several of those in dire straights looking for ways to survive and found a few "different" venues to try.  Living in a wall tent at the base of a high mt, doing long-line trapping with gale winds every night off the peaks was quite an experience in "reality check."

I realized that while I always dreamed of being a Mt. Man, my lilly white behind was always close to "3 hots and a cot" except for week long soujourns. Living it day in and out for long, long periods is a different reality, at least for me.

[LoneWolf]

i think about it every morning on my way to work.

[ridgerunner_sc]

I think that this sort of simple life would be quite ideal...i think and have thought of this type of exsistance for a long while...i dont know about the loin cloths as one poster said
but you never know..

[SourOwl]

I think I'm capturing the best of both worlds.  Grew up on an Indian reservation in poverty, was on my own by age 16, went to the city and finished high school on my own while working swing shift at a glass factory.  Needed a career so got into the  Cost Guard, became a rescue swimmer and aviation metalsmith; survived three plane crashes, then into law enforcement for 28 years, survived being shot once and stabbed three times; went back to college when I was 58, finished and taught Jr. college to prisoners in jails for ten years. Now I own eleven acres in the woods, grow a lot of my own food, built my small but snug home far enuf from a road that I can't hear any traffic, have my own well and septic system that I put in myself, no T.V., a large shop where I build stuff (built my own boat, all my own bows and arrows) and lots of peace and quiet.  Have two dogs and grand kids that come to the wilderness to visit just often enuf.that's as much of society that I want, and I love my spot here.  I can hunt and fish when I want, and I'm happy.

[Mudd]

Originally posted by Buckwheaties:
better than I do people. (we need an edit post ability)

hehehe!!!! It's already there buddy! Look for the paper pad and pencil icon and click on it.

God bless,Mudd

[Mike Most]

Always thought I could follow the Chisolm Trail, or the Oregon Trail, and into the mountains by horseback at least for the summer(if not eternity). living off the land,Then I kinda remember two things, my butt would be sore as all heck. and looking at hay in the field and being there stacking it is two different apples.

[John Scifres]

What's the saying?  Something like "We are all just 4 meals away from barbarism."  

I'm absolutely positive that I could live off the land, at least for a while.  But the past 2 weeks of 90+ and then remembering back to the winter when we had a 12" snow makes me think that, even in moderate climated Indiana, I don't really want to.

I like a weekend here and a week there with adequate supplies but to make it my job would be a bit self-defeating.

Still, it's fun to dream.

I fully intend to "take a walk" when the time comes.  Please stick a Ribtek 190 through my carotid before you stick me in a nursing home.  Either one of 'em is gonna kill me.  One's just quicker.

[NorthernCaliforniaHunter]

I did it for 6 months in the back-country of Maui. I didn't hunt back then but it was one of the best things I have ever done. Soul food.