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Most people look out of their office windows and dream of going on vacation. For some, that means relaxing on a tropical beach. Others prefer tranquil mountains and the idea of “roughing it.” But very few have the guts and the brains to truly survive alone in the wilderness.
A couple of days ago, my wife and I were flipping through the TV channels, and she stopped on our local PBS station, where a man was paddling a canoe through a lake. “That’s the Alone in the Wilderness guy,” she said.
The show is simple: in 1967, a man named Dick Proenneke decided to drop out of the rat race of society. He picked a nice quiet spot by an Alaskan lake and built a log cabin by hand. He was an amateur videographer, and he taped much of his day-to-day life to share with his relatives. The resulting footage became “Alone in the Wilderness,” a mini-travelogue and do-it-yourself show.
Dick Proenneke was the picture of self-sufficiency: he effectively lived in balance with nature, using only what he needed and learning to live off of his surrounding environment. Watching “Alone in the Wilderness” makes me want to build a log cabin of my own. I wonder if a city slicker like me could make it in the wild, given the proper preparations. Probably, but I don’t know if I would like my solitude as much as Dick did – he basically lived alone in Alaska for more than 30 years.
Check out the clip of “Alone in the Wilderness” on the left. I’ve also linked to a book about Dick’s life, which was compiled from his personal journals.
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