A mountain man in the 21st century.

[BigDaddyCaine]

I thought i would post this here cause it really has no home. Has anyone read The Last American Man? Well during my reading of this book, my girlfriend left me. She was about the only thing keeping me connected to the real world. Like David Allen Coe said, "My woman done left and took all of the reasons i was working for". So here i sit wondering whats still keeping me from doing what i always wanted to do since i was a kid, live like they did 200 years ago.

Can it be done? I think i can do it. Just head out on the prairie and not return for a bit. However i think the laws would be against me. I couldnt hunt out of season or without paying the state and federal government to hunt and fish. I wouldnt have a permanate home or state so how would that work when buying a license if i crossed my states border? Would i be able to leave and survive through the winter? Or would i need to wait till spring to begin planting crops that will sustain me through the hard times?

Native american survival has always interested me and if i am reading a book, its usually closely related to that subject. I have made fire from nothing but a bow and drill.(i keep a magnifying glass usually) I have made my own bows and arrows. I still do this to this day, and i hunt with them. I know i can survive, i just wonder if i would be arrested for something like this. Eustace Conway had trouble in his state of North Carolina because they believed he was poaching.

All land is owned by someone. Most people wouldnt want a traveling bum from the backwoods to be camping on their land. I am still thinking about trying this for the month of Novemeber just to see how it goes. Does anyone have an opinion on this? Is it possible to live like the old days in the modern world?

[Maple]

1. Why would you want to do so?

People led short nasty lives then.

21st century dude.

Upgrade yourself.

There is no 'past' to go to

[phantom power]

2. before you do, you might try reading "Into The Wild" as a chaser

I don't doubt it's possible, but it can be dangerous, too.

Jon Krakauer's book "Into the Wild" is a very interesting case-study on a young man who did pretty much what you are talking about. He had a lot of very interesting adventures. And eventually got himself killed.

[BigDaddyCaine]

3. everybody dies

dying young isnt the worst thing in the world if you die happy. I will read the book though, it sounds interesting.

[amazona]

5. wow what a great book that was...however...

I wouldn't let it discourage me from going into the wild. It was a tragic happenstance but you can also stay home and get run over by an SUV just as well and never live your dreams.

[amazona]

4. why not give it a try

A friend did this for a year as an experiment, and he said he lost an awful lot of weight! (I didn't know him back then.) Actually, there are many National Forest lands where it is legal to camp and you aren't charged. But, please, no illegal poaching. My friend did it without poaching and I bet you can too. Duck licenses, fish license, etc. in many areas are very cheap. As far as having a legal address, you have at least one friend or relative somewhere who will let you use their address, you just have to ask. The friend/relative/mom will also probably let you stick a shoebox in the attic containing photographs and other mementoes you don't want to let go but don't need to be dragging along the road. In my state, Louisiana, it is easy to get online for free at library computers even without a library card, and I bet this is true for many other states as well. So why not record your experiment on a blog such as diaryland.com? Lots of people would love to read about such a story.

Your dream is one I have often had myself. So-called real life will still be there if you change your mind after a few months of the experiment but why the heck not?

Winter is just a state of mind in many states from southern California to southern Florida, so I would not let time of year discourage me.

[BigDaddyCaine]

8. winter can be either

mild or a real bitch in kansas. But i work outside anyways so i will have to be in it no matter what i decide to do.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. Have you ever been to Newton County AR?

If so, you've heard of the fellow who has lived in caves, deserted houses, and currently resides in a chicken coop, I believe. He's an amazing artist, but prefers not to be too much a part of the system, so his wildlife sketches aren't widely known and distributed. He has a garden, hunts to some extent, and folks usually leave him alone now (though there was trouble, including a burnout, during the last confrontation between the environmentalists and loggers here).

A place like Newton County would afford you the opportunity to live the way you want to, and I'm sure there are other places like it.

[ochazuke]

7. I just watch "Jeremiah Johnson"

and live vicariously.

I would like to live a life closer to nature, but using modern technology to do it.

[snowFLAKE]

9. These are The Guys who could probably offer the Best Advice:

[BigDaddyCaine]

10. i wanted to live free

not kill people

[snowFLAKE]

11. OK, you have a Different Motivation for a Primitive Lifestyle

But, I stand by My Premise that they could Offer you some Valuable Tips

on edit: Nevermind - I just realized that I was suckered in by the irony of you posting on a Computer Website about getting away from it all. That's doubly shameful for me, considering that I so very keenly uncovered just this thing earlier today in this forum where a poster decried the used of non-peer-reviewed statements - BUT AT THE SAME TIME STARTED AN ENTIRE THREAD BASED ON NON-PEER-REVIEWED PRELIMINARY RESULTS.

D'oh!!!!

[BigDaddyCaine]

15. you lost me

nt

[amazona]

17. i'm lost a little too

I think the computer actually makes it a lot easier for a person of no fixed address to keep in touch and get their business done. Online bank accounts and bill pay have really made it a lot easier for the nomad. You can keep track of your own affairs online at the public library or an internet cafe, and you can keep in touch with people who care about you too. I don't see a need to be a purist about this. One of my friends travels around the world for months at a time. The internet makes it sooo much easier for him to do this and still be able to link up with people and get money and keep track of his bank accounts and get information about destinations. He actually goes around the whole world like this, just got back from Tahiti, so how much easier it would be for someone backpacking around the U.S.

[snowFLAKE]

18. Sure, if you have one of those Energy Efficient

DNA and Enzyme-based computers

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2003/02/25/b3.bz.dna.0225.html

- then Internet Access in The Wilderness is a breeze - you just have to grind up a few hedgehogs or mosquitos, rearrange their biomolecules, and VOILA - connection to DU.

For those of us stuck with more traditional, man-made material-based computers that suck down the energy (both during manufacturing and subsequent use) - the whole rejection-of-the-modern-world-get-out-of-society lifestyle does seem to present some intellectual conflicts if their use is not rejected.

[amazona]

19. i can't agree

I think the computer/internet service in the public library would be there and be taking up exactly the same amount of resources, whether a backpacker stopped by to use it or not. Indeed, when my power was out for some time during a natural disaster, I made use of the free internet/computer at my public library and I don't see any way that I harmed the environment by doing so. There were always computers free, so they were already manufactured and sitting there.

The people I know who are actually doing something like this, are not falling over themselves to be purists and to completely abandon society. Those who plan to give up society completely are, I think, not dealing with the reality that Homo sapiens is by nature social. Just my humble opinion but, if and when, I take an extended vacation like this to backpack around the country, I will most certainly be stopping by to use computers.

[gold_bug]

13. actually, Rudolph probably wasn't much of a survivalist

not in the sense being discussed here, anyway. He doesn't seem to possess much in the way of wilderness skills. Check out this article from the Christian Science Monitor:

...he clung to the fringes of society in a neat ridge-top camp only 200 yards from two strip malls and the high school - and a half-mile from Murphy's blue-marble courthouse. In winter, he could likely see the town from his camp; in summer, he could have heard the roar of trucks on the Appalachian Highway. ... Instead of retreating into the deep mountains or urban anonymity, he stayed in a "comfort zone" at the edge of society. Experts say that choice shows Rudolph's limits as a survivalist... "I don't believe he was a good survivalist," says Kevin Reeve, director of the Tom Brown Tracking School in Asbury, N.J...

How did Eric Rudolph survive?
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0604/p01s02-usju.html

[gold_bug]

12. it's an interesting question

I've wondered if it's possible. Here's an excerpt from "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer, it's about an experiment by Gene Rosellini in Alaska...

"I began my adult life with the hypothesis that it could be possible
to become a Stone Age native. For over 30 years, I programmed and
conditioned myself to this end. In the last 10 of it, I would say I
realistically experienced the physical, mental, and emotional reality
of the Stone Age. But to borrow a Buddhist phrase, eventually came a
setting face-to-face with pure reality. I learned that it is not
possible for human beings as we know them to live off the land."
--Gene Rosellini

By the way, I think subsistence hunting is legal in Alaska (but I could be wrong about that).

From what I understand, Tom Brown succeeded in living off the land with very little modern technology for a significant amount of time. He now runs a wilderness skills and tracking school,
http://www.trackerschool.com/

[amazona]

14. Stone Age peoples weren't individualists

They were societies. One person can't reasonably be expected to do everything from building fires, tracking down the beasts, knowing every possible herb for medicine, building shelter, and so on in true Stone Age fashion. However, I see no reason why a person who was unconcerned with being a purist and who wasn't afraid to use modern technology strategically couldn't do OK for themselves. My friend who lived off the land that I cited in a previous post had a goal of only eating foods that he found or hunted in the wild, and at that he succeeeded for a year, although he claimed to have lost 30 pounds. However, he was not trying to simultaneously build his own shelter, nor was he shy about purchasing rather than somehow crafting his clothes. Part of the time he was even receiving a small payment in connection with a study he was doing, so he did not fully step outside of the money system. I think an individual can have a goal, such as food self-sufficiency, and significantly cut down on their expenses and their need for a conventional job -- yet they need not completely return to the cave.

[GAspnes]

16. Eustace owned his own land,

was raised to be on his own since childhood and had a prediliction for independence and solitude. All those things contributed to his ability to survive completely in the wild.

There's a wonderful relaxation and soul-opening that comes from living in the wilderness and I highly recommend it -- but perhaps something a bit less extreme, like moving to a very small, rural town and living on the edge of wildness without leaving civilization. At least for starters.

[BigDaddyCaine]

20. I was concidering this option too.

I was gonna keep my truck to travel to work, but i may cut back on my hours i work. I was going to continue to work, and live my nights and weekends in the woods hunting, fishing, and gathering foods. Making my clothes, reading, building fires and just listening to the world when i have the time.

[amazona]

23. sounds like a great option

Worth a try and you still have a job if you decide you don't like your experiment. Seriously, a lot of people would be interested in this. You can get a free blog/diary at diaryland.com so if you decide to do this, why don't you blog your story and keep us up to date on how it goes?

[BigDaddyCaine]

24. i might give it a try

nt

[LastDemocratInSC]

21. It's all right, dude ... just do what I did

Take 5 of your favorite country music albums (vinyl that is) and play them backwards on your turntable one after another for 10 hours. Your wife will come back to you, you'll get your job back, your dog will stop scratching off fleas in your bed and your pickup truck will start without backfiring from now on. Guaran-fucking-teed, I say.

[BigDaddyCaine]

22. i dont own any vinyl records.