what got you interested in outdoor survival?

A little off topic, as it certainly didn't get me "into" survival or bushcraft skills, but the movie The Edge is a must have addition to the library as well.
 
nemoaz said:
A little off topic, as it certainly didn't get me "into" survival or bushcraft skills, but the movie The Edge is a must have addition to the library as well.
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I just saw that one on cable last Monday night. I can't believe I had never heard of it. I was glued to it. Anthony Hopkins plays a great survivor-- inexperienced and unskilled, but intellectually prepared, calm, thoughtful and methodical.
 
Combination of things for me. Cub Scouts, Red Dawn, and growing up on hearing about the "Cold War" & anything related to fallout shelters.

What sparked my reinterest in it is 9/11, Survivorman(first airing on the Science Channel), and my fathers death. I realized I have not gone out & done things I've always wanted to do like hiking and camping.

I have yet to take the deep plunge and go out in the middle of nowhere to camp or hike, but I'm working on it.
 
Big woods deer hunting is a 365 days a year passion for me. As is camping, fishing, and spending any time in the woods. Every time I go out I go a little farther off the road. At one point in time, I figured I better learn how to survive if something goes wrong. It kind of happened when I was going through my hunting gear when I was about 18, and my grandfather said " You don't carry any matches or a lighter? What are you stupid?". That kind of woke me up.
 
My grandfathers. My family is from a very rural part of the Southern Appalachians, my father and grandfathers are truly mountain men, most of what the used was made themselves and what they ate was grown in their gardens, or butchered by them. I have too many storys to relate but I honestly think my life has been saved many times by what they taught me, and what they taught me to always have with me. They are gone now and so much knowledge died with them, I try to pass on what little they taught me but not many people now days care or think it is important, sad really. Chris
 
Well, my family spent 20 years in Alaska, and we were always hunting/fishing/camping, but the single biggest influence on me was a book I read when I was a kid:

My Side of the Mountain.

That book got me into the outdoors/survival and falconry.

EDIT: Boy Scouts came after the interest was formed.
 
When I was in my early teens I met a young and very amorous Big Foot female. This hairy lass dragged me into her cave for a few days and rattled my bones. When I came back out I saw nature in a whole new light. Oh wait, that was Liam (kidding):D

Actually I grew up in the open countryside of southern Ontario, which was very different in those days. From about the age 12 on I could be seen everywhere in the fields/trees/along the rivers with either a 22., 12 gage or fishing rod. I still find hunting/fishing very interesting and it also brings me peace of mind in an increasingly complicated and troubled world.
 
I'd been running around the woods out here all my life and often went with my folks into the high Cascades.

I read the Tracker, byt Tom Brown JR. and wanted to be able to move through the land carrying very little.

Clint Hollingworth
The Wandering Ones webcomic
http://www.wanderingones.com
 
I grew up in the woods, so I always had a love and respect for them, nothing major, its just "home". My parents divorced, and I moved in with my grandparents, in the burbs. I grew fat and lazy, and then, 3 years later, my mother took us back to the house I grew up in when I was 11..I started school and ran into an old friend, he was wearing camo, and didn't trust me...lol. Thats the truth, I was confused by his behavior, and then he told me that the Russians where gonna nuke us anyday, and everyone was gonna die except him...it peaked my interest, I went over his house after school the next day, he had books from paliden press! I was blown away, I was so happy that I wouldn't have to go back to school soon, and that all the rules would be gone any day...I was thrilled..my life sucked, my dad was gone..I loved the idea of the world coming to an end. I was about to find out that life takes care, and that it also chugs on...even if it shouldn't. I am older, and you can imagine the course of thought that my mind has taken, I no longer want the world to end, my daughters are way to awesome, and my friends and family are way to special to me...but it stuck...I was hooked, survival, and all that, that it entails..is just hanging around in my head. When I was 21, I hiked a portion of the Appalation trail and found out that all the crap I had bought for camping was useless weight. and learned about going light. I am currently learning about all the really impotant things, like firestarting, and food prep, edible plants and medicine in nature. Gene
 
Did lots of camping with Scouts and my dad when I was a kid. Read every book on camping and backpacking that I could get ahold of. There were always small blurbs in those books about getting lost and what to do. This always got me thinking that I wanted to learn more.

One day I was browsing the bookstore and found Tom Browns wilderness survival book. I was hooked. I went into the hills every day after school and practiced the things in that book.

I eventually bought more and more books, and studied them all. Then came the internet and all the forums. Found Hoods Woods and ordered those videos, which was a huge jump in my learning.

Found out about Christopher Nyerges, and took several of his classes which are amazing. He's a cool guy and a great teacher.

I like being outdoors, using knives, hiking, camping and practicing primitive skills. Just feels right somehow.
 
I am a SFC in the Army and in my early years took part in POW/MIA Search and Recovery Ops in SouthEast Asia. Bad weather got my team stranded on a mission and I ask around about survival supplies and we were kinda sucking, so I picked up an Army Survival manual after we returned to Fort Shafter and started putting a kit together. Not long after that another team got stranded for several days in the Mountains of Vietnam so the unit started putting kits together for each team to have when they were at remote sites.

RickJ
 
spending time w/ my grandpa in out in the country(plaines of KS), boy scouts(always be perpared), and honestly, Hatchet.
 
I read my side of the mountain as a kid, and then couldnt stay out of the woods. :D
 
I was always playing in the woods with my mates as a kid and I have also always had an interest in wildlife. When I was about 10 I bought a book on survival by a man called Brian Hildreth ( I think ) from the school book club and I have never looked back !!!!





Just realised this is an old thread and I have already replied on it.....Doh !!!!
 
Myakka said:
I read my side of the mountain as a kid, and then couldnt stay out of the woods. :D
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I loved this book and always wanted my own hawk and to live in a hollow tree.

Until I was five my parents rented a house that was on a 40 acre Boy Scout camp in Michigan. So I grew up in the woods. My youngest brother is 7 years older than me so I was roaming by myself all the time. I'd make forts and rubber band guns, play in the creek and explore. My brothers and old man always dragged me fishing and hunting. In the summer there was always an indian pow pow that was lots of fun. I'd help make leather pouches to sell and trade for fry bread. Yum! :D
 
markhait said:
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.
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My family vacation every year was camping in the UP. Usually by Carp River first, then up to Luce county. Culhane Lake, Horseshoe lake and the Big Two Hearted River near the shores of Superior were my favorites. When I was 8 my old man got me a cheapo inflatable raft that a paddled around Horseshoe Lake in for hours.

Seeing backpackers pop out of the woods near Lake of the Clouds got me hooked on backpacking.

What a great thread, really brings back old memories. :thumbup:
 
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