How exactly does one go about living out in the wilderness?
I've seen countless programs on TV about people who have decided to move to some remote corner of the Alaskan wilderness, build a cabin and live off the land.
It sounds so straightforward.
Like, if you have the skills, you can just do it.
Do people just go somewhere incredibly remote, set up camp and say "OK this is where I'm going to build my home" and build a cabin and live there? It seems as if there are huge tracts of land where someone can just settle down without worrying about buying the land, paying taxes, etc.
What is the reality of the situation? I tried to find information on the web, but my searches proved fruitless. Any help would be appreciated. This thing has been nagging at my brain for some time.
It sounds so straightforward.
Like, if you have the skills, you can just do it.
Do people just go somewhere incredibly remote, set up camp and say "OK this is where I'm going to build my home" and build a cabin and live there? It seems as if there are huge tracts of land where someone can just settle down without worrying about buying the land, paying taxes, etc.
What is the reality of the situation? I tried to find information on the web, but my searches proved fruitless. Any help would be appreciated. This thing has been nagging at my brain for some time.
Comments
<strong>There was a book I read a *loooong* time ago that was about a kid who did that. It seemed pretty plausible, but I can't remember what it was called.... dangnabit. The kid lived in a hollowed out tree, had a falcon.... Anyone know what the heck I'm talking about?</strong><hr></blockquote>
I think my wife read the same thing. The one she told me about the kid set up in some broken down school bus way out in the middle of nowhere. He lived out there for a year or two but then died.
My Side Of The Mountian
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My Side Of The Mountian</strong><hr></blockquote>
I loved that book! When I was a kid I read three or four times. And yes Scott, definitely fiction. As to the original question, sure it can be done. If you're talking about Alaska or some other remote place where the governmnent wouldn't come find you, you need three things:
1. Toughness
(the odds are, you wouldn't have electricity or running water, and unless you have family that went with you, you'd be pretty lonely too).
2. Wilderness Survival skills
(know how to idenitfy and fell certain trees, start fires with natural materials, hunt, fish, cure meat, plant wild crops, harvest and preserve berries, etc. etc.)
3. Building skills. You have to know how to build a cold-proof, water-proof cabin...an irrigation system, and any number of other things most people have no clue about. It ain't like building a tree fort.
[ 11-27-2001: Message edited by: Moogs ? ]</p>
You mean I need more than copies of On Walden Pond and The Catcher in the Rye?
But Holden Caulfield said it would be a good thing. . .
At this point go online, to the local library, contact survivalists and learn all you can. Be prepared to spend lots of money on survivalist gear sold by survivalists. (Everyone has to make a living.) Once you have read everything that you possibly can stomach, you continue to practice by camping with minimal gear as often as you can. Start thinking about where you are going to headquarter when you finally take the plunge to leave civilization behind.
Or you can do it the easy way - join the Army or Marines and volunteer for infantry. You will get all the training and they will even pay you to do it. :cool:
[ 11-27-2001: Message edited by: ac2c ]</p>
No TP...
You can count me out...
E PLURIBUS UNIX
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Aside from all the survival gear (medical supplies, hunting knife, good compass, clothes, etc.):
+ Kerosene Lamps and Fuel
+ TP (unless you want to walk around with a rash on your ass all your life)
+ Salt
+ Sugar
+ Possibly Corn Meal or Flour
+ Big Glass Jars for preserving food
+ Books (yes, I said books)
Probably a few others too. So it wouldn't / doesn't have to be totally neanderthal, but still pretty rough compared to modern living. Not at all bad though if you're cut out for it. Have to love the wilderness and love the prospect of constantly foraging / hunting for food, wood, etc. No different than any other creature in the wild.