Alone and unafraid in the wild

golok

golok

Joined
Oct 20, 2000
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An office officer who used to double up as survival guide is the only person I know who can be "alone and unafraid in the wild."

He retired about a year ago, and in all probability is right now brewing coffee for himself deep in the jungle.

Now he told me: "I feel uncomfortable if I stay in the city for too long. The jungle calls out to me. I feel at home there."

I asked him: "What about the wild animals, and other hidden dangers?"
"What other dangers? I have never encountered any wild animals that may threaten my life. These creatures normally avoid humans," he said.

I guess the part about the dangers of the being in the outdoors are greatly exaggerated.

So have you been alone for long periods out there in the wild?

kutilang_03_3_mh087.JPG
 
No, I haven't been out alone in the "wild". There isn't much real wilderness left in the US. But, I used to walk all over the place in NYC, at just about any part of the day, or night. It comes down to what you are use to. You are always most comfortable and safest in your home environment. As long as you know what to poke with a stick and what should be given a wide berth, you will be perfectly safe, relaxed, and comfortable.

n2s
 
Not2, two years ago I stopped my car on I 80 east to eat a box chicken dinner I bought in Green River, Wy. No vehicle passed me from either direction for over forty minutes - I had 80+ miles of Interstate to myself.

We don't have jungle in the U.S., but there are some pretty lonely places out west where your body will never be found if things go seriously wrong. You must be looking at the "Map of the U.S. as Seen by a New Yorker" - the one with Phily on far western margin and Chicago is only a rumor over the edge of the known world.:D
 
i have been dropped of by bushplane in alaska alone, and indeed you are really alone. i find it somewhat peacefull.


alex
 
To many, the bush is a scary place because it is unknown to them. It is a place of true wonder if you just sit and watch it for awhile. It is GODs place and is just as GOD intended for it to be and being affraid of that just doesn't register with me.
 
"There isn't much real wilderness left in the U.S." What? Go out west, millions of acres of NOTHING that's as wild as when Lewis and Clark slogged through it.

Mountain Lion attacks have risen through the roof as well as bear attacks. There are scary things in the wilderness that want to kill you, I think we should all be aware of the dangers.
 
No real wilderness HAH go to Big Bend national park and you'll see that even in the middle of a park you can be surounded by nothing. Hell I can walk about a mile down the road and be in the middle of miles and mile of bush and I live close to San Antonio TX. Walking and staying in the woods for me is better than anything I can think of for clearing your mind out. Me and my friends when we were younger would walk so far out in the woods that we would have to stay there overnight, most times that was the plan anyway. I havent been out for longer than a week at a time but I always felt kinda sad when I had to come back. As far as predators no problems I see them they see me we leave each other alone, coyotes and rattlesnakes dont tend to bother you if you dont bother them.
 
When I worked as a forester, I used to spend a lot of time alone in the woods. Mapping, stand typing, cruising timber... I miss those days, especially in the spring when the weather was good and a cool breeze would blow, trees leaving out with the most beautiful green...

Now I am married with children and have a desk job. I have promised myself to teach my children what is important, and it isn't "getting ahead."
 
First, you don't have to go "out west" or Alaska to find wilderness in the US. A small exapmle is my old stomping grounds. Over 11,000 acres, the Mountain Lake Wilderness Area located in Virginia. I spent a huge amount of time here before going to Alaska for 3 years. Once yer out in it you can truly begin to appreciate just how isolated it can be. The longest unbroken stretch of time that I spent here was in the fall of 1989, it lasted from late Sept until the end of October. Me, my tent and my skills.

A designated wilderness area. A designated wilderness is defined by the US forest service as:

…hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are
untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. An area of wilderness is further defined to mean in this Act an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which (1) generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's work substantially unnoticeable; (2) has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation; (3) has at least five thousand acres of land or is of sufficient size as to make practicable its preservation and use in an unimpaired condition; and (4) may also contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value…



National forests in this country encompasses 191 million acres (77.3 million hectares) of land.

One of the true gems isn't even "out west", most people don't know this by the Adirondack area in (gasp) New York, will blow your mind concerning the sheer vastness of the area. It encompasses 9,475 SQUARE MILES!!! More than 1,300 lakes, millions of acres of unbroken hardwoods and evergreen forests. There are 46 mountains within the area. There are 6 million acres of land within the park known as the Blue Line. That area is larger than Yellowstone, Yoemite, Grand Canyon, Glacier and Olympic National Parks! The park is about the size of the entire state of Vermont. There are nearly 3.7 million acres of privately owned land within the park however. The ballance of the park being state owned is called the Adirondack Forest Preserve.

So yeah, there are quite a few "Wildernesses" left in the US. Here is a link to a good place to start researching:
http://gorp.away.com/gorp/resource/US_Wilderness_Area/main.htm

I spend about 200 days a year in the "field", I spend weeks at a time without a break within the months of Oct to Jan. Most of the time I do it alone. There are things that happen within a mind when it spends large amounts of time alone and far from "syphilization". Other senses that we take for granted become more acute. I hear better, I notice my sense of smell is better. The way I see actually changes. While in the "real world" my vision works a certain way, splatter vision etc, a lot of visual input is simply greyed out. I notice what I need to notice. In the wild that changes for me. It becomes sharper, I find myself looking through walls of folliage and between things. I look for pieces of animals and objects rather than whole physical objects. I see deer and other animals as parts first, whole critters second. I can smell water long before I come upon it, I can smell rutting bucks, elk wallows. As the body spends more and more time encapsulated within that realm old sensory abilities that man seems to have no more use for begin to re-emerge. So yeah, going wild does have effects on a man.

Here are some links to some of the animals I've taken over the years. 95% were taken with a long bow and home made cedar arrows.

http://smokinonion.bravepages.com/pics/loft.jpg
http://smokinonion.bravepages.com/pics/9.jpg
http://smokinonion.bravepages.com/pics/struttin.jpg
http://smokinonion.bravepages.com/pics/double.jpg

Here is my Freezerfiller
http://smokinonion.bravepages.com/pics/hmm3.jpg
 
While we're certainly becoming a spyhilization state, I think you might mean "syphilis-ation". Both work.

Phil
 
LOL, I first heard the term "syphilization" around Edward Abbey author of The Monkey Wrench Gang and his partner Ralph Newcomb. The term stuck in my vocabulary. Sort of a one word definition for how some folks feel about civilization. Thanks for the catch Phatch.
 
My niece went to NY state this past summer and she saw a black bear in the woods,something we don't see much here in our part of TX. There's also the Piney Woods area in NJ.
 
Fankly, I think fear gets too much of a bad rap. i think fear is good. Not that paralyzing fear, but what I call a "healthy respectful fear". It's that kind of fear that gives you enough caution, to keep you from acting like a stupid jackass in the Pine Barrens of NJ
 
I tried that this summer. The stretch of the Pacific Crest Trail I was on at 9 or 10,000 feet was totally deserted for several days.

Except for the bear tracks in the rocky paths' baby-powder dust. Wider than my size 12 boots, with claws as long as your fingers. You could see every pore, crease and "fingerprint" in that fine dust.

That whopper never found nor bothered me, thank God.

It was summersaulting down the western talus slope of Olancha Peak that had me excited. Just a single miss-step.

----------
The thing is, if anything bad happens, then you are the only one who can save you, or you just have to die.

The mountains just don't care whether you live or die.
 
Golok,

The most dangerous animals on the planet measure less than 2 cm and weigh less than a gram, insects. What they lack in mass they make up for in numbers. They have killed us off by the millions over the course of history.

All of you warm blooded animals and your reptiles combined won't create nearly the threat that the black flies,mosquitos,biting ants, and poisonous caterpillers can do to you. Dramatic? No, but it is reality. Mac
 
It's the understanding of Nature, our surroundings and how we fit into them and can use them to our benefit, that give us the edge. I agree with what Big-Target pointed out, that a healthy dose of respect which leads to a state of alert awareness will help to keep you on your feet and breathing. However, animals can respond to fear in unpredictable ways. For instance, you meet a bear face to face and the fear wells up inside of you. The fear changes your scent and the bear reads this as a defensive/aggressive response and responds to it. They will usually run, but there have been instances where the bear will attack. It's the same with most other predators and many insects. If a swarm of bees sense your fear, they can and will attack because your fear causes a chemical reaction within the bee that causes it to become aggressive.

In our area, Black bears, Lions and wild Hogs are the main predators along with the smaller cats, foxes and yotes. Most will avoid humans at all costs, yet I've been stalked by Lions a couple of times as I still hunted for game. I've surprised bear several times while scouting and hunting the Sierra's. I've watched as coyotes formed a circle and slowly closed that circle on myself and a friend while we walking our archery range in the Sierra's early one evening. Seen wild hogs fake charge and then retreat while I hunted them. Was doing some small game hunting in the Sierra mtns and came face to face with a very large and very pissed off Black animal that looked a lot like a wolverine. But as the DFG told me, the giant California Wolverine is extinct. Yeah right. I found a nice tree to sit in until it left the area. Eagles have swooped me, coming within a few yards, as I got too close to their nest and with all of these close encounters, I've yet to be hurt in any way by any creature, other than biting flies and the occassional tick.
 
I am not afraid of the wilderness at all, and I like being alone in it.

Now, I might have some reservations about being in, lets say, the amazon by myself because I am not familiar with the jungle. With the right skills and tools, I am sure I'd be fine.

My wilderness is here in Michigan. There are areas around here where you can get lost still (thank God).

When I was young, there weren't many kids in my neighborhood to play with, so I used to play in the woods. Behind my house when I was growing up was woods for about a mile, then a dirt road, and then more woods for more miles. I used to sneak out by myself at night and play. I've slept out there with no shelter or protection many of times. So...I am completely comfortable in my wilderness here in Northeastern America.

Now, I am not the ultimate survivalist or anything; I have a lot to learn. But...I would say still that I am pretty unafraid.
 
Cities bother me, nature is comfortable. I've been thru the Smokies and Mojave, would rather be there, but its awful hard to make a living in the middle of nowhere.
Maybe Alaska, some day, when I can enjoy it.
 
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