I’m sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written – in the last couple weeks I’ve done hikes to Comet Falls and Snow Lake on my days off (the former with a friend, the latter was an epic backpacking trip with my friend, mother, and brother). 🙂 Last week I also went home for a job interview (Lord willing, I’ll have a job for when I finish here and head home!).
Anyhow, main topic: on the ride home (I hitched a ride on a tour bus, as us Rainier employees are allowed to do for free) I read “My Side of the Mountain” by Jean Craighead George, the 177-page, Newbery Honor book. For some reason I had acquired a desire to read that book while on Mount Rainier.
If you’re not familiar with the story, it’s about a 13 year old boy named Sam who lives in the Catskill Mountains of New York for 2 years (fiction), taking “only a penknife, a ball of cord, forty dollars, and some flint and steel”.
He burns out a shelter in a large tree, traps and fishes, makes his own deerskin clothes, and trains a falcon named Frightful to hunt for him.
What 13 year old kid do you know that could do THAT? 🙂
As I was reading this book, I kept setting it down and staring out the window with a growing excitement. I want to do that! I want to catch fish and live in a tree and have a jolly good time doing it.
So one of my new dreams is to find a place in the woods that’s at least a mile walk away from any civilization, next to a stream or lake full of fish, and to live out there for at least 2 weeks. With friends. Sam might have been able to make it with just his falcon, Frightful, and the blue moon visitors, but I want to share this adventure with my mountain friends. I want to build a shelter and have a fire every night and catch fish and cook it… Oh I get excited again just thinking about it!
My pampered, spoiled self gets in the way when I start planning for this trip, however. When I think about what I should take and what I shouldn’t, the list of what I “need” could quickly reach to the floor if I let it. As a middle-class American, my idea of what I need is blown so out of proportion and ingrained in my very self, I don’t even know how to get down to the basics…
Common sense also worms its way in. When I think about how I don’t want to pack in any food (or very little), and just live on what I can glean and catch, my practical mind pipes in with “What if you don’t catch any fish?” “I doubt you could trap any animals…” and of course, images of eating the wrong plants and having to be carried out on a stretcher, green and sick.
Maybe that last image is a little drastic (I really should be a mom, I have such an overactive imagination of what could go wrong), but my American mind and “what if… and I die?” do hold me back a little. But my exuberance after reading this book will not be denied. I am determined at learn some wilderness survival and have at it… with company. 🙂
Let me know if you know of any land that would work!
P.S. The story ended rather sadly, as Sam was living happily on his own – but reporters showed up first, then his family. The latter built a home on his meadow and woods, disturbing his solitary wilderness. Rather a sad ending, I think, although I guess Jean Craighead George couldn’t have left the young boy out on his own. There would have been letters of complaint. If you haven’t read the book – or if the only time you’ve read it was when it was assigned in junior high – pick it up. 🙂 It’s a quick, inspiring read. Any suggestions for other wilderness survival novels?
cbevs
Sep 25, 2011 @ 21:48:31
Into the Wild. True story which was so exciting and fun until he did not have any help and problems came that he couldn’t handle. Then so sad.
The series by Dick Prenke , He had so many skills his videos are a pleasure to watch. There is a twinge of self reproach knowing that we each could learn to master more skills after watching him. He had a kind heart.
“Walden” by Henry David Thoreau. The work is part personal declaration of independence, social experiment, voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and manual for self reliance.
Published in 1854, it details Thoreau’s experiences over the course of two years in a cabin he built near Walden Pond, amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts
I like the independance the way Thoreau accomplished it. He built on a freind’s land and had visitors. He was independant but not lonesome and if he needed help, it was availble.
If you are wanting to build yourself a cabin, you might find a similarly interested person to learn with you or a person who will teach you. Lots of books on making temporary shelters, but not as much skill there.
Opa Ulrich
Sep 26, 2011 @ 05:09:52
Great book report, Sarah. I’m sure your Dad has recommended Henry David Thoreau’s book on Walden Pond, which he admired. You might also read a not so happy book, but a true story, “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer.
lilacandivy
Sep 29, 2011 @ 23:08:36
Yes I brought Dad’s copy of Walden with me and have just started to read it! 🙂 It’s chock-full of great quotes.
calebu
Sep 26, 2011 @ 15:38:29
Well, I do have the army’s guide on survival, it would tell you about plants you could eat and other stuff.
lilacandivy
Sep 29, 2011 @ 23:09:55
Wa ha ha, insider’s connections!
calebu
Sep 26, 2011 @ 15:39:50
Oh! And for wilderness survival I would recommend the Hatchet series.
kathy Ulrich
Sep 29, 2011 @ 01:22:57
Couldn’t help thinking how ironic your post is; I just finished reading Into the Wild. I can loan it to you! How about going to a fire lookout for three months? Isolated and great views. We will talk more soon. Love, Mom
Your brother that you couldn't possibly know the name of.
Sep 29, 2011 @ 15:50:14
Seems like you almost liked it as much as I did! If you really want to, there’s two sequels also! Can’t wait until you get back.
lilacandivy
Sep 29, 2011 @ 23:12:55
Miss you too, buddy boy!