wildWoman

As this seems to come up every now and then, here's my opinion. There's other ways of doing it, but this is what worked for us.
This is for people who want to go and live somewhere in the bush (= no road access) longterm, in northern Canada. Not for someone on a quest to survive with a knife, loincloth and tarp.

For anyone who didn't grow up in a rural setting that enabled them to learn such country skills as living without electricity and running water, who is unfamiliar with building cabins, cutting their own firewood, but most of all unused to not having professional help for all problems just a phone call away...

The best way to make your dream of living in the woods come true is to pick up the necessary skills, mindset and tools gradually by moving close to the area where you want to be. It's not rocketscience you're after but the life you're aspiring to is so very different that you'll want to adjust to it slowly, to maximize your chances of succeeding and really enjoying it.

Find a small village and rent an off-grid old cabin some 10 miles outside the village for a year. Get odd jobs that teach you the new skills you'll need and ask lots of questions. The people in the area are experts at living where you want to be and will give invaluable useable information that you won't be able to find on the internet or in books. You'll ease your way into living in isolation - no more dinners with your old friends, no good movies, no trendy coffee shop, no professional services for any of your problems.

When you decide that you are ready to move really out into the bush, you might be able to make arrangements with someone who owns land or has a lease in the area, or else find a way to get a lease for land yourself. Squatting somewhere is not a good idea, it will be highly unpopular among the locals and you'll find yourself run out of the area pretty quick. What looks like so much wilderness on a map is a multilayered web of all sorts of human useage, from traplines, outfitter concessions, mining claims, woodcutting blocks to grazing leases. Pilots will spot your illegal cabin in the woods in a matter of time. So make it legal.

Living in the bush requires a different mindset than living in the city. You need to be humble. You pay for your freedom by becoming a slave to the weather and the seasons. Don't overestimate your abilities, it can cost you dearly. Safety will become a prime concern because help will not be just a phonecall away anymore. This means that every day, with everything you do, you need to be equipped to deal with injuries and accidents, from the cabin burning down to twisting an ankle way out in the woods. When you live in the bush, it's impractical to always leave the details of where you go with someone unless you have a partner.

You will still need some money, so how will you go about making it way out in the boonies? This is perhaps the greatest challenge of it all.

How will you deal with the isolation? If you're by yourself, it will be very tough and it will affect your mind in some way or other. If you have a partner, it can be tough too, because it is a much closer, more intimate relationship than anything in the city. You'll depend on each other for absolutely everything. If you're alone, who'll cheer you up when things don't work, who'll listen to your ideas and worries, who will you share your joy with? How will you meet someone to share your life with you when you're tucked away in the woods?

These are all things that don't seem to get addressed in the popular books about people living in the woods and that you need to figure out for yourself.

The best way is to take the first step, move to some small village, and the ball will keep rolling from there.