Lessons from an Alaskan Trapper

[The Heretic]

https://survivalblog.com/letter-re-grub-and-gearlessons/

The "Rifle and a Backpack" Myth

I often get a chuckle from people that think they can fill a back pack and head into the woods and survive long term with what is in a back pack. Until recently I spent most of my life guiding in Alaska and in Africa. I spent an average 110 days a year living out of a back pack under a tarp or in a pup tent, and another 180 days each year living in a remote cabins without electricity or running water.

In an uninhabited game rich environment with a rifle and only a back pack of gear I could survive for a period of time. How long could I survive? I do not know as there are too many variables.

What I do know is in the case of TEOTWAWKI where many people would be fleeing the cities and overcrowding the wild places looking for food I could not survive trying to live off the land with only a back pack full of gear.

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[Siglvr]

Concur. I think the "I'll garden and survive that way" is generally a myth as well. My family eats every scrap we grow in a few days. Then what? Every animal in rock tossing distance , cats and dogs too, will most likely be whacked with in the first week or 2. There would be some long cold lonely winters if we didn't have cases of food prepped in the cupboards. Most people don't have jack stored up either. The other interesting false factoid is that most folks talk about heading up to the mountains to survive. Heading downhill to sea level is a better choice. First winter snow in the mountains and you would soon realize the errors of your ways.

 

[CamoDeafie]

most folks talk about heading up to the mountains to survive. Heading downhill to sea level is a better choice. First winter snow in the mountains and you would soon realize the errors of your ways.

Eh. All that means would be... more free real estate for the shrewd and devious ones

Even the Coastal areas of Oregon is gonna get crowded real quick with people leaving the I-5 corridor and not being able to go East.

 

[revjen45]

What I do know is in the case of TEOTWAWKI where many people would be fleeing the cities and overcrowding the wild places looking for food I could not survive trying to live off the land with only a back pack full of gear.

Maybe you eat the soyboys who make it that far. Running sores, total dental battery of 12 brown stumps, needle tracks, etc. are probably good indicators that you should pass or cook it quite thoroughly.

 

[The Heretic]

Maybe you eat the soyboys who make it that far. Running sores, total dental battery of 12 brown stumps, needle tracks, etc. are probably good indicators that you should pass or cook it quite thoroughly.

Or use for bait

 

[Decoy]

I always hear people talking about running to the woods and mountains and it always cracks me up. Living out here in the boons is not easy and most city people might have a hard time living here in good times

 

[revjen45]

I knew a guy who tried living off the land in the glory days of the hippie communes. They nearly starved.

 

[BroncoFan]

One only needs to read "Undaunted Courage"by Stephen Ambrose for a Survival Fantasy reality check. The Lewis and Clark expedition would have been a complete disaster were it not for a few generous Indian Tribes.

 

[Geardo]

Concur. I think the "I'll garden and survive that way" is generally a myth as well. My family eats every scrap we grow in a few days. Then what? Every animal in rock tossing distance , cats and dogs too, will most likely be whacked with in the first week or 2. There would be some long cold lonely winters if we didn't have cases of food prepped in the cupboards. Most people don't have jack stored up either. The other interesting false factoid is that most folks talk about heading up to the mountains to survive. Heading downhill to sea level is a better choice. First winter snow in the mountains and you would soon realize the errors of your ways.

Then what is one supposed to do. Best case we can store a couple years of food..... But after that, just starve or eat people? What is the point at that point.

 

[bbbass]

William R Forstchen had a pretty good take on the subject in his series about an EMP attack. Highly recommended reading. Start with One Second After

Harry Turtledove - Supervolcano Eruption... a story of how bleak things can get.

I don't plan on surviving the big one. Why would I want to?

 

[CamoDeafie]

Then what is one supposed to do. Best case we can store a couple years of food..... But after that, just starve or eat people? What is the point at that point.

Form new communities or reinforce the existing community you are a part of.

 

[revjen45]

Oh, yeah - And don't forget that all those city livin' Liver Eatin' Johnson clones will be causing fires til Hell won't have them and shooting at anything and everything they see.
The old and medically dependent are the first cohort to go after a TEOTWAWKI event. I'm in both, so I'm gonna need some good luck.

 

[titsonritz]

Did it for six months once, lost about 50lbs, back when I didn't have 50lbs to lose.