6 years in the wilderness

[zzdexzz]

Aloha,

My name is zach and I have been in the wilderness for 9 months at a time for the past six years with my dog Bud(brittany spaniel). I don't do much internet stuff anymore but I just got back home and I came across an old post from this site where the poster wanted to go out into the wild for several months to find some peace in his life, and the responses): got me to write this up for those of you who want to dream a little and maybe find some peace.

My story would be too long so I will bit size it down for you. You can ask me questions if you want.


Seven years ago I had been married to a stunningly beautiful wife for 11 years, had an excellent job, and I owned my home at age 30. Life was good. On my 11th anniversary we decided to go out for a nice dinner in downtown Seattle and on the way home my head started to feel awkward. I had to pull over and walk around for about 2 hours until I was shuffled off to the emergency room and found out I had a rare brain disease that started when I was a child apparently. The next few months were terrifying to say the least because all hell broke out in my brain....I won't go into it. A few months later I lost my job, my wife and home. Thank God I didn't have any children.

What to do now? I can't function at any real job and now have to depend on my family for help. But for how long will they help me? Even family can do so much and I certainly didn't want to burn those bridges. I decided that I needed to try and fend for myself somehow so I started doing research on wilderness/bushcraft/primitive living. Mind you I had not ever even gone camping before. So I adopted a dog because I didn't want to be alone and purchased a bunch of camping/survival gear to go out into the wilderness. I found several places in Utah, Oregon and New Mexico. I won't say where I went and where I go now so please don't ask. Just know they aren't privately owned and I see very few people when I'm out there.

Peace is what I didn't expect. I fully expected fear and uncertainty which did happen the first few months I was out there. But peace is what eventually happened. I literally had to push through those first months with sheer grit and determination. I have a trusty ford ranger, my best bud with me and family I see about 3 months out of the year. During those three months I stock a ton of food with my dehydrator and stock up on rice, oatmeal, and trail mix....and a lot of milk bones for bud. Every july, august and september I am home doing this. The rest of the year I go to my real home....the wilderness.

Maybe It's crazy but it's what I had to do. And now I would never change a thing. I look forward to seeing my family for those three months but can't wait to get out again. I spend roughly 2-3 weeks in one amazing place after the next. If I stay any longer I might wear out my welcome in some places. I have never been approached by anybody yet so maybe I've been lucky. I take about 3 weeks worth of food and all my gear in a 110 liter backpack. The rest of the food and other stuff like toilet paper I leave in my truck. I have a gps tracker and cell phone with me at all times just in case. My other best friend is my Gransfors Bruk wilderness axe. What would I do without that? Anyway that's my life in a nutshell.


Zach
colossians 3 daily

[Rick]

I'll let you guys have a go at this. I'll just watch.

[zzdexzz]

Sorry, I guess I put this in the wrong introduction area.

[crashdive123]

Welcome. I moved your thread to the Intro section.

[kyratshooter]

There are statements, contradictions and irrationalities here the boggle the mind!

The first one I see is the possibility of taking advice from a person who has a rare genetic brain disorder that prevents them from functioning in the real world.

[zzdexzz]

I get your point after re-reading it. I can elaborate a bit. My post was mainly to give you guys the reason why I first went out. For the past 5 years I have taken medication that makes me perfectly able to function in the "real world" as well as anyone else. I work full time for the three months I'm at home every year. I now go out every year because it's part of me and I love it.

[Rick]

Seriously, I'm fascinated. I'm particularly enthralled about the stunningly beautiful wife that didn't last three months when he was ill. Must have been stunningly beautiful skin deep. Does this rare brain disease have a name?

[zzdexzz]

You all have a nice life.

[hunter63]

Wow that was quick.....
.
What was the point of that intro.....?

Anyway, you seem to have found your path.....

[Antonyraison]

hi welcome...
Something just comes a bit off about this. I cant quite put my finger on it.
I do not quite understand how its possible to fend for your self in the wilderness, drive a truck operate such things, speak somewhat almost sense.. yet not hold down a job.

I am not trying to be rude, but the story seems a tad off to me I duno.

[WalkingTree]

We can't know what's really going on here, and what things are like for zzdexzz, if it's all on the up-and-up that is.

But this v did make me think of something, though it probably doesn't apply to the original post:

I do not quite understand how its possible to fend for your self in the wilderness, drive a truck operate such things, speak somewhat almost sense.. yet not hold down a job.

I can actually understand myself how one might be able to otherwise be fully functioning, and even socially adjusted and socially capable otherwise, yet have major trouble holding down a job. One might end up citing the fact that I myself have succeeded in being employed all of my life, to contradict my point...but I understand the problem - though I've succeeded, it's always been a particular kind of challenge...I see the issues and how the next person might not be as successful. I've found that for some of us, holding down a job is more than simply being on time, being self-motivated, being responsible, having a work-ethic, etc. This touches upon one of the things that I was going to talk about more in my Walking Dead & Morality thread, but just haven't yet. I've had my next post for it in my head for a year now, but it's really long and I've just been too lazy. Anyway...I've developed the opinion that there really are big differences between humans, even more than is usually believed; It's false to say "most people are basically good". They aren't. So, when holding a job, there can sometimes be much more complication than just being a good employee who's easy to get along with. I've been around some very unscrupulous people who seem like your everyday decent people, and at times it felt like I had to compromise my own character or navigate all kinds of crap in order to keep the job. It's a razor's edge sometimes. There are many more plain old bad people in the world than one would like to believe. They are not the occasional exception. And the trick is being able to recognize them. Also, I suspect that at least some of the people who say things about "society has gone bad and they want to escape into the wilderness"...this may be some of what they mean but they just don't understand it enough and know that this is what's going on. But you can't "throw out the baby with the bathwater" - you can't see it as an issue of having faith in humanity...instead, it's just understanding how to know who's who and why, and identifying everyone for who they are. I'm pretty sure that even a great many in this site are people that I'd be very wary of and hostile towards in a serious long term large scale collapse. It's interesting to me, btw, that TWD has been like my final course in understanding people in the here and now real world: Of the people I know personally, I know exactly who I would and would not want anywhere near me out in the bush or in any kind of apocalypse; That's now one of the primary ways by which I judge people...would I want them around me out in the bush or in an apocalypse. And not according to bush craft skills or experience, but according to their psychology.

[kyratshooter]

Can you redo that to a one sentence "sound bite" Walking Tree?

Looking at the full post it appears more time than I am willing to invest in the thread since he is gone and wished me a nice life.

Based on my own past experience and career path I can see the makings of a good case study in that OP if I were on the path to a Phd.

[Antonyraison]

I don't know to be honest it's often hard to take anything at face value on this site from a new user with very few posts. So immediately it just kinda had a bit of an off feeling. I get that there could be other underlying issues..

[hunter63]

Walking Tree...
Just hit enter every once in awhile.....Thanks.
Too bad the OP talked a lot, but didn't explain too much.

Good luck on you journey.

[John_Yu]

I think it's easy to be naive or cynical, but difficult to be Discerning.

[kyratshooter]

Life is rough if you are born without a bull $h!t meter.



Now I am going to have to change my signature!

[hunter63]

I think it's easy to be naive or cynical, but difficult to be Discerning.

What does that mean?

[Rick]

I am very discerning. In fact, I once won an award for being discerning. No ship, I did. No, wait. that was for something else. Come to think of it, that wasn't even an award. It was a ticket for jay walking. Anyway. I discern this guy was troll through and through. Hows that for discerning?

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[hunter63]

Well was pretty soft skinned to a hardened survivalist in the wilderness "part time'....
Give away was TP left in the truck...and the don't ask where i've been.

[John_Yu]

What does that mean?

What I mean is it's easy to believe everyone is good, or become jaded and lose faith in humanity. But its more difficult to acknowledge the good and bad, and be able to tell the difference.