what got you interested in outdoor survival?

The show "Survivorman" got me interested. I think I like survival because it would essentially be me, alone in the wilderness, far away from the stupid society we live in. Some of you guys were REALLY lucky to grow up where you did...
 
I started carrying a knife at age four. (I bought it at a resort gift shop. It was a tiny, 2", fixed blade with a pearl handle and a wee leather sheath. I used to carry it on an beaded leather belt. I wonder if it's lying around in the back of a drawer somewhere???) At age five, my best friend and I ran away from home to "live off the fat of the land." The search party found us later that evening.

Things kinda took off from there.

Come to think about it, I used to watch an awful lot of Gilligan's Island too. Hmmm...
 
I used to go to Colorado every year in the summer for 2 months when I was a kid
Mostly camping not really survivalism

Then I saw FIRST BLOOD when I was 13 yrs old
I instantly became a survivalist!!!!
I got some "survial" knife from Sportsman's Guide (They same place I ordered chinese throwing stars (delivered to my house) at age 12....Oh the good ol' days)
Turns out it was some plastic handled, foreign made, POS
I was devastated
I still have the knife

After FIRST BLOOD I went to library and got books on survivalism
I got the Army Field Manual book
Started making spears
Lean to's
Simple traps
Etc

I been sorta a survivalist ever since
Thanks John Rambo

ALL I WANTED WAS A CUP OF COFFEE!!!!!!!
 
Wow, when I was a kid, I used to sneak out just to get in the woods, climb out my window and I was gone. Camped every chance I got, it's only been the last little bit that I haven't spent as much time in the woods. But as to what got me interested, I honestly don't know, I've been in the woods along time, and many terms I know now, I knew then but just not the term for it, batoning, fuzz sticks, A frame, tinder, all the little things like that would have meant nothing to me, but now It just adds to the awsome time I have in the woods.
 
My parents were avid hunters and fisherman. Like many others some of my earliest memories were from hunting trips or catching smelt or clamming, or from some other trip gathering food. My parents lived through the Great Depression and never took anything for granted and lived frugally. My dad had one sheath knife, a Marbles Woodcraft. It is the only knife I need but I have never had the good sense to know that
 
Hatchet, huh? For me it was My Side of the Mountain, about a kid who just got sick of living in the city and ran off into the woods. I read it when I was about ten and that was it for me.
 
mainly my dad.... he spent 21 years in the army.... i grew up fishing and hunting with him as much as possible... at a very young age i realized, thanks to my dad, the importance of a good knife...

out of all 4 of his children, i am the only one who continues to love the outdoors and be outside as much as possible....:) the only one who also likes to kill/catch my own food...

RAMBO and RED DAWN also had a lot to do with it....:D
 
yooperman said:
Went to college in the UP (upper peninsula) Loved the area, graduated from college, married local gal, and we both wanted to live simply and sanely. We have 120 acres that we live on and live as self sufficiently as we can.Yooperman
Click to expand...
He Yoop, I will soon be a fellow Yoop. Can I email you with questions about the area? I'm going to Soo.
 
Went camping for the first time at age 1 month and have been camping every year since. Typically, I go to the U.P. just off of Lake Superior. I can't tell you how beautiful and remote it is, but I'm sure I'm being biased here.

Some great memories there. Some memories really stand out! My mom, brother and me went for a hike. My dad couldn't because he had broke his leg just before vacation. We knew enough to stay on the trails, but there was another factor present that was fighting us. At the head of the trail was a wooden DNR sign that showed the trail and the general idea of what you were going to be hiking. What we didn't know is, the sign was wrong!

We spent 10 hours hiking, sometimes in the rain on a trail that DIDN'T loop. Instead it just kept going to the West. After about 4-5 hours and we hit Lake Superior and the thunderstorm, we knew we were in trouble. Wet and exhausted, we didn't know if we should go to the west or east. We deceided it would be best to just go back from where we hiked from. Another 5 hours though! About half way back coming down a hill, my mom's knee locked up. Now I had to walk with her with my arm around her to help support her.

My father is going nuts at this time we know for certain. He's been coming to this area since he was a little boy and knows the threat of bears in this area.
We send my brother ahead of us, basically jogging, so that he can tell our father what's going on.

We make it out eventually, wet, tired, hungry and my dad wanting to spank all of us :-) My mom writes to the DNR a long letter about of plight and they respond saying that they KNEW of this sign error, but lacked the funds to correct it. Anyway...with the help of my mom's letter, new signs were made and posted. We had to take a group picture of all of us in front of it the following year. We PAID for that sign!

So I vowed to never be put in a situation like that again, and so began this survival and being prepared journey. Thanks for all you help and company!
 
a lot of stuff over the years ..

A lot of it is natural for me , my mum is native :) long story , but they "owned" land and a car , her father married a white woman ... all pre 66 , before natives were recognised as human and given rights ...

From them I learned a LOT including a lot about bush craft and survival ... tribal way

my Father was a refugee , from him I learned survival european way what his family did to survive the german and russian soldiers .. and what they did as kids growing up here in a land where people treated anyone with a remotely german sounding name as the enemy and therefore fair game regardless of age or size etc ..

I hitch-hiked around a bit and ended up going on walkabout with a tribal "witch doctor" or Maubin and his family for a few months , and learned a LOT

in the last couple years or so , I found online resources as this and began reading and learning more even tho the majority of it isnt australian oriented , its still useful to see things thru anothers eyes for a bit ...

Im interested in how people do stuff when they dont have the mod cons we do now , have been for ages , one thing I remember my dad teaching me when I was tiny "watch how they do it , ask about it , then you have an idea how to do it if you ever need to "

that got me interested in a whole lot of stuff as well as survival .
 
James Fenmore Cooper and even though As a child in 1950's Houston TX there was a bayou (we pronounced it Biu) close to mwhere we lived and it eas a real jungle down there my uncle gave me a matchete when I was 8 and it has been growing ever since with the aid of some real god bok along the way a special thanks to Mel Tappan.
 
I've always been interested in nature and the outdoors. As a biology student in college I met this guy, who was also a bio major, who had a lot of experience with wilderness camping and survival. He showed me pictures of his kayak trip along the Alaska coast with the whales coming up next to his kayak - really beautiful stuff. We did a bunch of camping and he taught me a lot about survival - building shelters, winter survival, staying hydrated, finding food, etc. Personally I think this guy could eat Bear Grylls for lunch. Although I don't camp out much any more, I still maintain my interest in outdoor survival.
 
I gotta say it was all the hot chicks who are into survival. Man those girls really make bushcraft and workin on your survival skills fun.

Other than the honeys I would have to say my dad got me started in it by taking me hunting and fishing etc. Then he had me do a 3 day "survival" deal where he gave me a knife, a flint and some cordage and I had to make do for the time. I made a leintu(forgive spelling) got my own fire. Caught fish, set snares and had a good time with it. Of course i could have quit at any time but doing it was really fun. I learned that I could do alot on my own and entertain myself and that if it came down to it I could do it. So I started practicing more on my own and just reading and learning and working on it.

But now I think I just do it for the girls.
 
When I was 8 years old I stumbled upon the 1963 Boy Scouts Handbook. I read that thing frontwards and backwards for years all the while pestering my parents to let me join the Scouts. They said, "No," to Cub Scouts, but finally I was old enough to join the Boy Scouts. I loved it! I later joined Army ROTC in college. I took up hunting a few years later. It was while I was reading up on hunting that I learned the importance of dedicated survival kits (although, being a former Scout, I already lived by their motto, "Be Prepared" and I always had equipment to take care of myself in the woods). I like analyzing gear and seeing what really works.

I read My Side of the Mountain, but I never hear of Hatchet. I'll have to track it down sometime.

Midnight SCOUT :thumbup:
 
Where I grew up there was not many people around if so they where acres & acres away,had a wandering creek and woods all around and I would get up and wander all over and build little shelters and fish and hike and just explore the land and the animals that where there,been doing it ever since.
 
I am interested in survival, period, whether urban, suburban, wilderness etc. The wilderness part is just one component of it. I'm generally paranoid. :thumbup:
 
I've always spent a lot of time in the mountains back east. The idea of navigation and such has been a natural progression.

However, once I moved to Colorado I realized some serious training was in order. These mountains are beautiful, but can be unforgiving. Many people die in them every year. Some during the summer. They hike 14,000 feet in their shorts and sneakers, only to find out it can be cold and snowing that high. Of course, they have no extra clothing, equipment, or knowledge how to survive. Never wanted to be that person.....
 
Hmmm...Always into being out in the woods. Spent most of my time there as a kid. Was a boy scout. Did lots of fishing with dad. Couple family camping trips. Liked the survival shows on tv. BUT...I actually didn't really get into the whole survival thing until I found this forum. You guys really got me interested in it. Now that my son was born I'm trying to learn as much as I can so I can share things with him. This shat is cool!
 
How did I get started ? I grew up in a town of about 60,000 where I could walk out my front door downtown and, in 15 minutes, be in a completely isolated ravine whose head came out in scrubby grassland. I used to spend every summer day there as a kid. Wanting to know what it could provide was just a natural progression I think.

Some of my least favorite memories are of living in the center of a city of almost a million people. An hour on a mountain bike, just to get off pavement! Now I'm a 1/2 hour ferry from said city in a town of about 7500 with 'the bush' almost at my back door...I am indeed home.

Ever since I was a kid, I wanted to go out, taking as little with me as possible. Then, after joining the army, it became a quest for a group of us to be able to leave our rucks in the rear and still function and live out of our webbing (LBE) for a few days at a time.

Fortunately, we truly are geographically blessed: summer temps~25degC, winter about 5, and on average 44 inches of rain a year. About the worst that the animal kingdom throws at you around here: bees and wasps. Sure we have bears and cougars, but you're more likely to be bitten by a raccoon or squirrel or chased by a rutting grouse (that's ALWAYS funny!)...Who wouldn't want to spend all their time outdoors in those conditions (besides my wife) ? I guess that's why I see skills like fire lighting as bushcraft skills more than 'survival' skills per se.
 
I grew up in the St. Louis area, but spent a lot of weekends and summers at my grandparents cabin in the Ozarks. I guess when I saw the movie "My Side of the Mountain" it really sparked my interest.
We had a book by a George Herter called "A Professional Guides Manual" that was full of great info, I found one a couple weeks ago online and got it and was astonished at how much that I learned from it as a kid and use to this day 35 years later.
About 20 yrs ago my grandparents felt they were getting to old to use the country place so I bought the land, built a log cabin from the timber and lived in it without electric or running water for a while. It is remote so it was just a natural progression I guess.
My 11yo daughter and I watch the Survivorman and Man v Wild together and like to critique them. She is a chip off the block and loves the outdoors, killed her 1st deer at 10. And has been river camping since she was 3.
 
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