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**Clanmaki** · 03-23-2017, 09:41 PM

Hello All, I am from the PNW. I am 51 years old and have been involved in relearning Primitive Technologies for about 40+ years. But I realize there is still so much more to learn about our Ancestors and their Primitive living Skills. I got Interested in this when I was about 10 years old and went on a 3 day "living off the land" backpacking trip in the backcountry of the Sky Lakes Wilderness area of the cascades in OREGON. My older brother (12) and my adult brother in Law and I were avid backpackers and ventured out 3 -4 times a year all over Oregon. This time however, arrogant in our "abilities", we decided to not take any food with us, but instead to try and live off the fish we knew we would catch (we knew of a great fishing hole in a creek that ran between two lakes where we had caught abundantly the year before) and from what ever else we catch or forage. On this occasion however, Although we did catch fish, they were infested with parasites all through the meat and we were afraid to eat them. We hiked back to camp and as I spread out my bedroll preparing to go to sleep hungry, I realized we were not the woodsmen we thought we were. Really without bringing food and gear with us we were helpless aliens in this wilderness we so loved. I thought about how the Native Americans who had inhabited this area weren't camping! They LIVED here and had to have known intimately the environment and technologies and owned the skills to do it. It was a very humbling experience but ever since then I was obsessed with trying to learn what they knew. I read every book I could get my hands on that dealt with wilderness skills and primitive technologies. I practiced in our back yard when we weren't in the woods. I have never lost that obsession. And I have never stopped trying to discover more. I am pretty slow to the internet but looking forward to learning from all of you also.