Wanting to disappear into the forest

bowieknifenick said:
I'm only 20 years old and I've Been thinking more and more about disappearing into the forest someday. Packing up my survival kit to the brim with my knives, hatchets, water, a rifle, some basic clothing items, food, and heading out into the wilderness and living off the land to get away from modern living.

Every day I hear about mass murders and people getting shot in the streets and terrorism. Even just walking out of my house I'm bombarded by people who have forgotten what it's like to actually live. People always having to be somewhere, cutting you off in traffic since their just so important, a world full of narcissistic attitudes and entitlement, I could go on. I would love to just pack up and leave for the hills.

Find a nice secluded spot near a river or a lake, build myself a cabin, hunt and trap for food, what little money I might need I could collect from recycling aluminum cans from the nearest town, only head into town if I needed to stock up on reloading supplies, and leave.

I wish I didn't live in such a modernized society. Here I sit writing on my computer but I could give this up, just like I have all of my other electronic devices. Phone only comes out if I really need it. I've noticed I've been so much happier and relaxed since I've cut most of the technology out of my life. The only thing I do is check facebook maybe once or twice a month, research interesting things on the internet and watch Netflix. That's about it, but I'd give this up any day for a bubbling creek and to hear the whistling of the wind through the tall, majestic pines. Hiking is about the only time I can really get some solitude, and I just enjoy sitting on a stump, looking up at the red pines stretching into the sky, closing my eyes and not hearing a single thing except for the wind and the occasional call of a crow.

I may be only 20 years old, and an odd ball out of my generation, but this is what I dream of.

Didn't know where else to vent/rant. Tell me some of your thoughts on the subject.
Sincerely,
Nick
Click to expand...

As someone that has lived in a backwoods part of the Pacific Northwest most of my life, how do you plan to do this without turning poacher? I've seen it happen many times over the years, a young person arrives from the city thinking he can just disappear into our local woods. He either ends up on private timber lands or Federal forest ground and neither want him there. They also usually feel they can go around shooting and fishing for a living by virtue of thinking they are a special throwback to another time. You won't find many of us locals that agree with that. Alaska might work but I guessing there isn't all that much open ground up there these days either.
 
Here is a guy who did just that. He ended up tapping out before the end.
[video=youtube_share;FPbz5TDy6fs]http://youtu.be/FPbz5TDy6fs[/video]

I would echo the other voices here and urge caution. Do a trial run with many backups. If that does not cure you look to securing a piece of land. Ideally something with all the modern convenieces already set up that you can fall back on.

Living alone in the boonies is a huge undertaking. You either need to go in with a boatload of supplies from society (with periodic resupply) or you need to get your subsistence farm up and running right quick. Trapping, hunting, and gathering are horseshit. You will not be able to meet your caloric needs that way. Humanity is too wide spread, there isn't enough game in them woods and there aren't enough hours in a day.

You can live rural on the cheap if you can find a rural trade. If you know your way around a diesel engine that is a start. Most office and civilized work is earmarked for the locals. Thems the breaks. It takes a lot more money to be rurally self sufficient than people think. Machinery and tools are not cheap to buy or maintain and you need to run them hard to make a decent salary.
 
My friend and I just had a talk about living in the Arctic in the winter.He had done some of that and I am knowledgeable about SAD [Seasonal Affective Disorder]. He had just seen a TV program about the "great physical and mental problems" caused by those long winters with short sunshine !! It's a major thing , not a minor one !!! Study it carefully before you make discissions.
eThe SAD is a study of the depression in winter but that's only one of the possible physical and mental symptoms that can occur. BTW there are some interesting recent studies about the dangers of anti-depressents for teen agers and especially pregnant mothers .The baby will be screwed big time !!
 
Last edited:
To be fair, Chris McCandless did not want to prepare. From his own journal, he was actually "forced" to take basic supplies with him. Most survivalist don't credit him for doing anything correct. I remember a guy who worked for the state park saying that basically he was on an old hunting trail. It was actually used quite frequently (relatively speaking for the Alaskan wilderness), and he basically just ignored the fact that he was still "on the map". In his head, the guy explained, if he simply ignored the map, then he must not even be on it. Of course that's not appropriate survival behavior, bc if he'd had a map of the area he'd have seen that there was a bridge right down the river and he wouldn't have been trapped, wouldn't have eaten bad plants, would have most likely survived..
 
I think your dream of getting away is something a lot of people can relate to.
One thing all The "Alaska" shows have in common is that all the people work extremely hard just to survive. Seems like every minute of every day is devoted to survival. Not a lot of time to relax. From hunting for food to chopping wood it seems that all their time is spent in hard manual labor. I suspect reality and fantasy are vastly different. I think it takes a determined, motivated individual to live that life. If you are that person, I admire you.
 
Danke42 said:
I have watched that so many times thanks to PBS.

A very important take away is he spent around 30 years preparing himself to live in the woods. Learning carpentry and other outdoor skills before he left civilization.
Click to expand...

VERY important point. :thumbup:

I'll echo what some others have said about trying a one or two week excursion to get a feel for it.
If you really want to get a feel for if you can hack it, do those one or two weeks while you're sick...you will definitely get sick at some point along the way, so find out first just how much that will suck.
 
Yup iv done 2 weeks in the bush with pack horses carrying most the supplies and its still a huge chore. It was a hell of a good time and could have stayed longer but needed to return as that is what we planned to do. Also done many other backpack trips up to 1.5 weeks

I live rural (to most) peoples standards and heat my hone with wood ex (no ear near off grid) and even that is a chore in itself never mind food concerns.

Don't let anyone hold you back though. No one here wants to read that headline but if that's your dream and your not leaving someone behind in hardship go for it.
 
Kwon Kwang said:
leghog said:
First read about Christopher McCandless. He met his end by starvation while living in an abandoned bus in Alaska. Survived all of 6 months. Weighed 66 pounds when he died. Twenty-four years old.
Click to expand...
There is no consensus on how exactly that happened. One of his journal entries stated he got some sort of affliction after eating some bad potatoes and began to starve.
Click to expand...
Yet the result remains the same. Voluntarily disappeared into the wilderness/off the grid, and six months later he was dead weighing 66 pounds at age 24. Civilization has its advantages.
 
I would think in prepper terms and having some land in a very rural area, probably adjacent to national forest or blm land. Build a house and set it up over time to essentially be nearly self supporting. It can be done. You don't have to be in Alaska or Canada to do it. But you need some way to make predictable money. You'll still depend somewhat on society. Making knives could be a reasonable option.

I agree with what some said, try a week or two alone and see how it feels or suits ya.
 
Bare in mind my friend, that summer is all the time you have to get ready for winter, and winter is something you hope to live through. It's all been said in the posts above; being able to stay alive out there takes a lifetime of learning and NO ONE does it alone for very long; people need people, to some degree. Remember, you are NOT at the top of the food chain in the wilderness. I dreamt of your dream for 50 years, but reality kicked me in the chops enough times to make my life around "town". This is not coming from a softened old man, but from someone who can wander off and survive. Not boasting, just a fact.
What most stories don't mention is that lots of indigenous people died from things you can't imagine, and they were the true experts. If you make this happen, I hope you touch base with us at some point. God speed.

Lots of good advice from this fellow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq0rZn8HFmQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF3qpIYQHEU
 
Last edited:
I think you will find that this is a common dream among outdoor lovers, adventurers, survivalist types, etc. It's a good dream to have, and I can certainly relate. Personally I tend to think about that sort of life when I am somewhat depressed, or ironically, feeling very comfortable. You might find as you get older that sometimes yours best chance at happiness is to have a dream that you dabble in, which remains largely a dream, and also a life. Sometimes dreaming is more fun that living said dream. This will be especially true as you meet people like yourself, people who share your interests, and especially other loners who become your friends, not Despite that characteristic, but Because of it. Like others, I wish you the best of luck and hope that you indeed start slowly and don't feel bad if you find that you enjoy a more modest balance of seclusion than what you're now imagining. Keep us posted as you "dabble" :)
 
I'd echo what the others have said and what seems to be the course that you've (wisely) decided on, do a lot of test runs and make sure you take backups even if you do decide to do it. I had very similar thoughts when I was a bit older than you are now. Played around with it a bit, tried to learn the skills I could, staying out for longer and longer periods. Then I was diagnosed with cancer. Anemia hit me like a ton of bricks and within 24-36 hours I was weak enough that I couldn't make it up a flight of stairs unassisted. Luckily I was at my folks house when it got really bad, but I can almost guarantee that if I'd been in the woods without a way to contact help I would have died pretty quickly. As it was I spent a week in the ICU at a local hospital. Society, for all its faults, has some very, very significant advantages.
 
I recall reading an article on the McCadless case that he also got bad information, At least in regards to those wild spuds, and that info came from both locals, and printed texts. So it can be that easy to make a fatal mistake. Even if there was no way to avoid it.

That being said, look at why you want out. Its not wrong to feel like your responsibilities are dragging you down. That's a valid thought, but its what you do with it that counts. If your parents need a lot of care, that's a burden that many will never know, and it can be hard to make the best of those situations.
Not everyone finds the job, or the life that makes them happy, most have to carve out that part for themselves. Many give up on it.

But sort that part out. Running won't help if you don't know what you are getting away from, and running is sometimes a legitimate strategy, but sometimes you need a different tactic. It sounds like you need to sort some things out in your own head. That's also pretty normal, but its often easier if you find someone who can listen. The world is a messed up place at 20, I'm still trying to sort that out and 20 was 10 years ago.
 
I am in my late seventies now, live on a little over a thousand acres. It is paradise to me, I'm in a county with only 15,000 people. Lots of fishing and hunting.I read the book "Walk Across America" and wanted to do like Peter Jenkins. Well, I did the next best thing, I moved to Spain and went all throughout Europe for a year. I would take little jobs here and there for money.
 
Last edited:
My great Uncle did this for a while, he left his home with his parents permission, and strapped on a pack and started walking. He walked and walked, camped further and further into the mountains. Till you couldn't go any further in this area. He stayed for a while, hunting deer and elk, birds and squirrels.

He eventually came back home, settling down into school and the army. BUT, the spot he found walking through the mountains in his youth is a spot we go to today, and where he taught me to hunt. You would have never known it was there, 4wheel drive is sketchy to make it close, it takes someone on foot to look around and find it.

I always wanted to do this, as he did, stay away for a few months, and then come back and enjoy the company of others.
 
A lot of men in their late teens have this dream of independence. It's probably a reaction to feeling trapped by society and adult obligations. In any case be prepared for what you choose to do.
 
I did allot of solo camping and hunting. Great fun but it does get old. No women and booze. :)

You can join the service, it will satisfy that desire, if you go in Special Forces. i.e. Marine Force Recon, Army Airborne Ranger, or the Navy SEALS.
 
bowieknifenick said:
I'm only 20 years old and I've Been thinking more and more about disappearing into the forest someday. Packing up my survival kit to the brim with my knives, hatchets, water, a rifle, some basic clothing items, food, and heading out into the wilderness and living off the land to get away from modern living.

Every day I hear about mass murders and people getting shot in the streets and terrorism. Even just walking out of my house I'm bombarded by people who have forgotten what it's like to actually live. People always having to be somewhere, cutting you off in traffic since their just so important, a world full of narcissistic attitudes and entitlement, I could go on. I would love to just pack up and leave for the hills.

Find a nice secluded spot near a river or a lake, build myself a cabin, hunt and trap for food, what little money I might need I could collect from recycling aluminum cans from the nearest town, only head into town if I needed to stock up on reloading supplies, and leave.

I wish I didn't live in such a modernized society. Here I sit writing on my computer but I could give this up, just like I have all of my other electronic devices. Phone only comes out if I really need it. I've noticed I've been so much happier and relaxed since I've cut most of the technology out of my life. The only thing I do is check facebook maybe once or twice a month, research interesting things on the internet and watch Netflix. That's about it, but I'd give this up any day for a bubbling creek and to hear the whistling of the wind through the tall, majestic pines. Hiking is about the only time I can really get some solitude, and I just enjoy sitting on a stump, looking up at the red pines stretching into the sky, closing my eyes and not hearing a single thing except for the wind and the occasional call of a crow.

I may be only 20 years old, and an odd ball out of my generation, but this is what I dream of.

Didn't know where else to vent/rant. Tell me some of your thoughts on the subject.
Sincerely,
Nick
Click to expand...

Do you have any knowledge of living off the land from personal experience? Or only from old books? I understand your thinking, I did something very similar for a time in the uninhabited areas of south Georgia and south Alabama in the Chattahoochee River Basin. I had taken my fill of things and needed a break from the modern world for a while. This was in 1986 when I was 21, pre-internet and cell phones. However I had grown up living off the land for the most part. We lived back in a holler in the Tennessee hills, not far from where I live today. My father having grown up in the depression then gone off to fight in Korea as a Marine, taught my brother and myself quite a bit about living off the land. We did fishing and trapping commercially to supplement his income which paid our bills and for the vehicles. Most of what we ate then came from the river, the woods, or the garden. Then later on from the bay, the swamps, and the garden when he and I moved to Tampa after he and my mother were divorced. I didn't write off society all together. When my father moved I stayed behind. I went up a stream as far as my small boat could go and set up a camp. I kept doing the fishing and trapping commercially, and came out for supplies. I had a friend who lived on the river whom I could do odd jobs for also for extra money, but for the most part I stayed to myself in the woods for about a year. It was a healing process for me, and it was very therapeutic. But the winter got pretty harsh. I eventually moved back to Florida and rejoined society looking at things through a different perspective. Who knows, if I had owned the land and had the rights to actually build a cabin there I may have stayed much longer. I would offer some suggestions, take a very extensive first aid kit, and plenty of cold weather clothing if you go to a cold climate. Serious injuries when the hospital is no longer just down the street put things in a different perspective, as do severe cold weather injuries that turn gangrenous when doctors start talking about which parts of your body they are going to remove in order to keep you alive.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top