Take their bows and hunting equipment and "disappear" into the mountains? I have often thought about of taking such a trip; I would love to wake up everyday and the only thing that was on my agenda was to hunt and gather food and live off of the land; I often think about letting my wife drop me off at the base of a vast wilderness and telling her I'll be back in 3 months; probably won't ever happen, but sometimes I get SO tired of the hussle and bussle of life that I want to get away from cell phones, t.v., the news,general public, WAL-MART, ECT ECT;
Like I said, it won't ever happen but it doesn't stop me wanting too............. :campfire:
If I wasn't on blood thinners, didn't need my med's and if I was still single... I would be in the Rockies Living off the land. making my own stuff, home (that area before moving on and rebuild just like the Nomads.)cloths, equipment...
Yup... quite often really... I think Peterson had the right idea building a cottage on a mnt in CO and subsisting off the land while making a 'living' writing... I respect and envy him greatly.
I have that idea a lot. It's a tempting one. My wife would want to come along, which would be fine. She's the forager/gatherer, I'm the hunter.
More and more every year. I'm tired of fighting traffic, partaking in road rage, and hearing sirens going off at all hours.
If not for my kids......bye, bye civilization!
When I lived in Washington State my buddy and I would take off for 10 or 15 days sometime to chase critters. When we got back to civilization there was a slight adjustment curve, don't know if I would want to do it for 3 months.....stabow
I'm getting older, 64, single, in good health for a smoker, (54yrs)because I haven't been checked out by any doctors or tests. I'm sure they will find something serious that I don't know about. Anyhow I think real seriously about, when it's my time, to do it like the old Indians did it. Just take my bow and knife and a fire starter and live off of the land until the Lord takes me. They'll never find my body.(I love beating the undertakers) Who knows, maybe I'll actually do it?? (sorry if this is off topic)
I think it would be a great way to thin the herd.
And yes! It crosses my mind frequently as do some other things that best be unspoken here... or anywhere for that matter...lol
God bless,Mudd
PS: I think there is a true story of a young man who went to Alaska to do just that.. they made a movie about his short life.
into the wild. Its the name of the book by John Krakaur and also the name of the movie. Both are very good. To me it seemed more motivational than Cautionary. LOL
I like to think we all have the best of both worlds. The time spent afield with our traditional bows kinda brings us back in time. Having a modern home, vehicle and such keeps us honest in knowing a fantacy is just that.
That being said... Reading history or seeing a movie does "set me off" wanting to spend time away from it all.
... mike ...
9 more years and the wife and I are gone. Gotta get my girls out of college first. Once that happens we are moving into the boonies. A nice log house in the middle of nowhere is definately on the list of things were gonna do. I hate the urban and suburban life.
QuoteOriginally posted by buckeye_hunter:
If not for my kids......bye, bye civilization!
Agreed x2!!!! Just another 20 years to get my youngest through college... I better stay fit to be a young 61 years old or something will eat me! :biglaugh:
Yes Mudd, "some other things left unspoken here or anywhere for that matter" is true. At least to me it is. I think we may think alike? I saw that movie about the young guy who did it, froze to death in an abandoned bus, if it's the same one?
:scared: Scary thought all you guys running around the backwoods in loin clothes! But I'm with you on the thought. I think every hunter dreams of such an escape, but then reality sinks in fast. It gets really, really cold up North of here in the winter. I think the outback of Oz is the place to pull this one off.
I'll bet it gets "really cold" in the outback of OZ too. Just a different time of the year?? The wilderness is brutal and unforgiving, no matter where one is.
Buckwheaties.... Yep! That's the one!
"I think we may think alike?" If I were you,I'd be afraid, I'd be very afraid....lol
God bless,Mudd
I may be wrong, if so please correct me, didn't G.Fred Asbell go hunting one time for 3 months somewhere? seems like I read that at one time..... :campfire:
everyday!!
Currently reading the story of Richard Proenneke who actually did just say no to all the crap and head out into the wilderness to live.....and he did it at age 50...in 1967.....and didnt get himself dead by being stupid.
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.
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...
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.
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. :campfire:
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..
Yes Mudd, I am scared!!!!! LOL The thinking like you part!!
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.
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?
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.
better than I do people. (we need an edit post ability)
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.
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.
i think about it every morning on my way to work.
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..
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.
QuoteOriginally 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
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.
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.
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.
Yup, but only a dream. In reality, I don't think I possess the skills that would be needed to live off the land. I guess I would learn real quick. I catch animals for a living, so that would be the easy part. I'm not a carpenter, farmer, etc. Heck, half the time I can't even get a knife sharp. LOL.
Alone in the Wilderness is the Dick Preonekee story. Outstanding to say the least. I would enjoy being out in the wilderness. Problem is, I have too many obligations to other people. True, I could enjoy the solitude, but what kind of man would I be if I just left the folks that need and depend on me to fend for themselves. It is a selfish idea, although a tempting one.
Nope, no interest in that at all. I enjoy the comforts to much I guess.
My kids think we ALREADY live that lifelstyle because I won't let them have texting on their cellphones.
Yes, everyday. My dream has more of an Aquatic aspect to it though. In 3 1/2 years when my daughter in the Philippines is done with her college I plan on taking-up the adventure again. I will sell the sailboat I'm living on, and with just the few things I really need in a little trailer towed behind one of my motorcycles I'm heading to the West coast of Mexico. I'll poke around some fishing villages until I find one that feels right, them hire a guy that knows his way around hand tools. We'll build a TiKi 26 catamaran, (a James Wharram Design), that I have the plans to. After a shake-down and some coastal exploration, I'll head off across the southern Pacific, always seeking the most remote Islands. I'll fish, bowfish, and bowhunt all the way across to the Philippines, unless I find the perfect place on the way. I'll end-up in some sleepy beach village where I can while away the rest of my days sailing, fishing, reading, and shootin' arrows to my hearts content. I'm so sick of crowded places, angry people, the Rat-Race in general.
Have to admit that I think about it occasionally. However, I also realize it's a rather romanticized, unrrealistic view. There's a big difference between spending a few weeks in the boonies with gear and supplies (which I've done a lot) and living off the land for several months or more. Depends on the climate, vegetation, fish and game abundance, etc., of course, but in the mountains in winter, most of us wouldn't survive.
I too share the same thought , when my the times comes , I think I might take you up on that, for real!!
With Gods grace I have nine more years and I'm out of this dump of a State. And movin West to the Rocky Mountains :pray:
you buy the plane tickets and i will go with you.i've always wanted to do that.i'll stay as long as you want.i'm not kidding.has to be somewhere in the rockies.no loin cloths.
Everyday about 3pm!
As long as I could get a hot shower.
Sounds like a TradGang "Colony" is starting up in the Rockies. I would love to try and live off the land I am hoping to try it some day. Gary Paulsen writes about it. I have started writing a story about it. I told my my that when I get ready to go, I will tell her I am leaving and the general area I am going. Then I want a pyre built the old way or to be sent on a small wood boat and the boat be shot with flaming wood arrows, the old way. Tyler
Like hvyhitter said, check out Richard Proenneke's videos and you will see one tuff,intelligent individual.
I did it, well sort of. Divorce and than lost or sold most of my material goods. Lived along the river in a cabin until the floods of 2008 took it, than a small ten foot camper/outhouse/campfire cooking/and no people. Health prevented me from a job so hunted and fished and got to love living outside and away from the material world. Now in a nice apartment in town and were about ready to walk away from it back to nature. And the mountains sound really nice..
I disappeared during the first three weeks of August in 1977. I was in the Buffalo Park area above Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I didn't see another human being for three weeks. Elvis had been dead a week before I found out.
It was my job to conduct timber inventory (private contract) for the US Forest Service. I slept in my truck or under it and was in the mountains just below timberline all day, every day. Earned $50/day doing this.
One of the reasons I came out and went to town was to buy a mule deer license for the opening of bow season at the end of the month. I could only afford either a mule deer license (I belive it was $90 Nonresident) or an elk ($140 or so). I chose mulie. You know what walked by within 15 yards on the first day I hunted don't you? The only time in my wildlife management career that I was tempted....
Jeremiah Johnson
OOOO yes i think it allmost each and every day i would just do it
QuoteOriginally posted by Bowwild:
I disappeared during the first three weeks of August in 1977. I was in the Buffalo Park area above Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I didn't see another human being for three weeks. Elvis had been dead a week before I found out.
Elvis is dead??
:scared:
One Mans Alaska, was a great and true story I saw on PBS some years ago. Wish I had more info on it for you? The guy lived many many years alone in Alaska, he did have bush planes come in.
I did some looking it was the Dick Proenneke's video, it was a good one.
Heh, I'm kinda attached to things like all my teeth, penicillin and central heating.
It's fun to daydream, but I have no illusions that "living off the land" waxs any kind of picnic. Watching your kids starve because the hunting wasn't good pretty much fits my definition of hell on earth.
I've discussed this on another forum based here in the UK rather than USA. Yes Dick Proenneke did it, but we were under no illusions that that would be tough. The USA has more true "wilderness" areas than the UK and you guys can bow hunt. However the 1 thing that became apparent for all countries is that we had considered from posters points of view is that a homestead (Amish style) would be the most acheiveable, and sustainable.
A true mountainman style existence is do-able, but only for a short period of time. Before long you are back to the Amish style existence albeit on a smaller scale if your only providing for 1 or 2 people.
Personally, the smallholder / Amish existence is more appealing to me, its still governed by the seasons, but would allow you to have a small sideline of income to pay for stuff you cannot make yourself reliably (broadheads and arrows etc cost money).
I have seen Dick Proenneke's program but I know its not for me, it would be very hard work and I do take my hat off to him. Please remember though, he was having staple supplies flown into him though.
two words - "Michael Oros" - thats all that needs to be said.....
QuoteOriginally posted by BobW:
two words - "Michael Oros" - thats all that needs to be said.....
Which one?
Michael Oros ... Michael is President of Scheck & Siress and an American Board Certified and ... Graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Iowa, Michael then completed the orthotic and prosthetic program at ...
The killer, a Michael Oros, age 33, had lived in the northern regions of Canada for several years. He proclaimed himself a prophet and......
God bless,Mudd
funny Mudd.
ah, the ever confusing Google search...
somehow I think it was the second one I was suggesting.... though the first one would twist this thread up a bit....
I think for most people its not about going into total survival mode but more like being able to isolate yourself with minimal contact with others and then only contact at your own choice. Go "off the grid" with no outside electric,water,sewage,internet or phone. Many places in the states where that is possible just depends on how remote you want to be and how extream the weather you are willing to live in. I personally am looking at the U P myself or maybe Alaska.
Its unfortunate that all the work is in the populated areas. Until that changes, I am doomed to civilization. There is something to be said about money. It might not buy happiness, but it sure does buy a lot of the things that make me happy.
Think about taking my hunting gear and disappearing? Every day I wake up...I'd probably take the fishing gear too. No sense wasting it.
QuoteOriginally posted by Spectre:
Its unfortunate that all the work is in the populated areas.
:laughing: