How many people are living in the wilderness?

[Sccritterkiller]

Probably not the same vein in which you are talking but I know a few people in West Virginia that don't have electric in their house and use a spring as their water source. They aren't necessarily hiding per say like alot of the examples here, but they own a farm, raise pigs, goats, cows etc. and hunt. About as close to "living" off grid as u can get, without being homeless i guess

X2.....

 

[FLATHEAD]

Mrballen on YouTube has a story about a man that was living off grid, if I remember correctly he was doing it for 20+ years before getting caught.

Living down here without AC would be miserable.

I've got my AC running NOW, Dec. 29th.

 

[Sourdough]

Sourdough is, just ask him.

"WRONG"

 

[Button]

I've got my AC running NOW, Dec. 29th.

Same here. Getting a cold front Saturday that will cool things off for a few days

 

[FLATHEAD]

Be next week till it gets here.

 

[Carpenterant]

Western society is more about getting ahead in the world then isolation and living off of the land. People are definitely not as tough now as they used to be. Reminds me of an old saying about how sailors used to be iron men on wooden boats and now they’re wooden men on iron boats. I don’t even think the people who were tough enough wanted to be that tough. I think it was done mostly out of necessity.

 

[Sourdough]

I don’t even think the people who were tough enough wanted to be that tough. I think it was done mostly out of necessity.

A large inducement was the free land from The Homesteading Act. They required that you live there for a set amount of time to get the 160 acres. That program closed "roughly" 1974'ish. At least that was roughly the last you could stake you land and file your paperwork. Fifty years ago homesteaders were still "Proving-up" (what we called meeting the requirements) on Homesteads all around Anchorage, Alaska.

 

[SWOHTR]

Reminds me of an old saying about how sailors used to be iron men on wooden boats and now they’re wooden men on iron boats. I don’t even think the people who were tough enough wanted to be that tough. I think it was done mostly out of necessity.

Isn’t that the truth…I witness it every day.
“I’m cold!”
No…the Marines at Chosin were cold…

 

[*zap*]

Back in the day of sail ships of the line there were a few that it took 250+ men working together to get the ship to the anchor and then the anchor up to the ship..none were cold after that.

 

[Jstumbaugh]

A good book to read is "Life with Noah" about a legendary hermit in the Adirondack mountains in NY.

 

[KHNC]

Da hell with that off grid crap. I need my starbucks mocha latte and a powder coated donut every day before work! Even when i hunt, i have the guide go to town early and get them for me before we go out each day. And i dont get up early while its still cold to go either. And no way im sleeping on the ground with bugs and spiders around. Im always afraid a black panther will eat me , so i dont use tents.

 

[Nickofthewoods]

There are squatters in the woods all over the place outside of Boulder and Colorado in general. Was turkey hunting up by Peak to Peak Highway north of Nederland and walked in to someone's camp, they are everywhere, doesn't matter if anyone can spot them, if they get chased off by LEO they just go somewhere else.

For several years I was one of the guys that had to contact these transients on a regular basis. If they were kicked out of West Magnolia they would just relocate to Gordon Gulch or Winiger Ridge and start the cycle over again. Some would just push deeper into the woods or onto private property and hope to not be noticed. During the day they would often be gone, having taken the bus or carpooled with other transient types into Boulder to panhandle, returning late at night. Writing them tickets for camping violations was a complete waste of time. Needless to say this is not a very romantic scenario of living in the wild. There was this one guy that I would occasionally see and find his camp but he packed everything on his back and moved locations frequently without leaving a huge mess. I imagine there are more like him that figured out how to not get harassed as much, and are able to live fairly normally out there, at least in the warmer months. Talk about a lonely existence though.

 

[FLATHEAD]

I think it all took a sharp downward spiral when men started getting waxed.

 

[Tesoro]

If any of you start thinking along these lines, which is tempting these days, then forget the woods and think about a cabin cruiser with a 4 banger diesel on the Mississippi river!

 

[mtnbiker208]

Dick Proenneke did it for around 20 years with a supply plane coming in a few times a year at a remote lake in Alaska. He built his place by himself from trees he cut down......he ate a lot of oatmeal. He also wore a tracker one year and walked 3000+ miles around his lake that year. Moved there at around age 50. ​

One man’s wilderness is a good book, for sure

Dick Proenneke is at the top of my list of people I'd like to meet in heaven! His homemade movies are some of the best I've ever watched. I couldn't make a movie like that as every other word would have to be bleeped out, not Dick, would just smile and move on

I went to his cabin in lake clark national park in august. My wife and i then rowed twin lakes to the chilikondrotna and mulchatna rivers. roughly 100 mile float. fun times for sure.

 

[mtnbiker208]

inside the cabin

 

[Sourdough]

I would sometimes talk to him at Port Alsworth, I build a cabin on Lake Clark in the 80's just down from Bella and Jay Hammond.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Kent Bonar in Arkansas.

Even in AK not to many people who live a solitary subsistence lifestyle and most subsistence living is a village affair.

Even the village “subsistence” stuff is nothing more than a hobby. Go out to the villages, they will talk about how they need meat to survive…then a plane lands and they get their 10 cases of Mountain Dew and buy all the candy from the school stores.

 

[Marbles]

Even the village “subsistence” stuff is nothing more than a hobby. Go out to the villages, they will talk about how they need meat to survive…then a plane lands and they get their 10 cases of Mountain Dew and buy all the candy from the school stores.

Mountain Dew and candy alone will lead to profound malnutrition. As your statement clearly implies that they do not need the meat, are you saying everything should be shipped in, like the Mountain Dew; or that people should just live off of Mountain Dew and candy?

 

[2531usmc]

For several years I was one of the guys that had to contact these transients on a regular basis. If they were kicked out of West Magnolia they would just relocate to Gordon Gulch or Winiger Ridge and start the cycle over again. Some would just push deeper into the woods or onto private property and hope to not be noticed. During the day they would often be gone, having taken the bus or carpooled with other transient types into Boulder to panhandle, returning late at night. Writing them tickets for camping violations was a complete waste of time. Needless to say this is not a very romantic scenario of living in the wild. There was this one guy that I would occasionally see and find his camp but he packed everything on his back and moved locations frequently without leaving a huge mess. I imagine there are more like him that figured out how to not get harassed as much, and are able to live fairly normally out there, at least in the warmer months. Talk about a lonely existence though.

It’s not just in the western states. I live on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and there are very significant numbers of people living out in the woods. Parents of young kids are no longer letting their kids play out in the woods like we did as kids.

It’s the opiates and probably fentanyl in particular. Just an explosion of homeless in the last few years.