On Living in the Wilderness

Thoreau: 'I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.'

What is it that draws a man into the woods?

Some cultures and religions believe in past lives. Perhaps there is some remembrance from ancient times, some spiritual connection that like spider webs sticky with morning dew has its pattern ingrained in us. We cannot help but to try to build webs. Perhaps there is some sort of genetic tape machine that records imprints of everything that ever was for each of us, everything we ever experienced along our many lives and at opportune times, those memories flow forth as if from just yesterday.

Perhaps those of us drawn to uncover the deep mysteries of the forest in the modern day were once like Ayla in Clan of the Cave Bear. It feels natural to long to return to the simplicity that defined our hunter-gatherer lives.

Maybe it is simply too much of being inside, in the four walls that make up our homes, then the four walls that make up our offices, then the four walls that make up our cars, our supermarkets and the drugstore where we stopped to buy the Advil to dull the pain of the headache we've had since yesterday.

It is simply an act of eliminating time, of extending ourselves into so much formless space that walls cannot contain us, and in so doing rediscover that part of our minds and souls which we used to roam so freely with when we were young and which we dare to allow to roam freely now despite our age and aspirations toward agelessness.

Have you ever meditated in the manner in which you just daydream, plan, pursue your thoughts and questions unflinchingly for hours? For me, being in the wilderness elicits that same sort of exhilaration.

A few weekends ago, I set off to a nearby trail camp, Valley Forge, to reconnect. I've stayed there before, but I went there specifically because each time I go out, I set myself up with a few tasks. I needed a place I knew would allow me the essentials I needed to work on the four tenets of survival : Shelter, Water, Fire and Food. In order, these four categories encapsulate how to prioritize any survival situation. In thinking about them, I've come to realize, they also mirror the essentials of life.

My goals for this weekend were to build a shelter I could sleep in, to test out my new pump water filter, to continue practicing how to make fires efficiently and  to identify as many edibles as possible. I also planned to practice tracking animals--getting a feel for their habitats and identifying their prints--and I planned to roast some acorns as well.

After arriving late on Friday, I made quick work of setting up camp, as Saturday morning was when the real work would begin.

At sunrise, I awoke, chilly and ready. After lighting a quick fire, I set about to make my first shelter of the weekend.

Wow!  If you have never owned a Bahco Laplander foldable saw, and you regularly have to bushwhack in the forest, do yourself a favor and get one. This little gadget cost me all of $20, but I got more than my money's worth in only one weekend. I sawed logs up to 8" in diameter with more ease than the bigger hand saw I have in my garage. I cut down various branches, long, short, thick and thin, filled with leaves and also some barren to make my shelter. 

Using the giant sized picnic tables as my backdrop, I set up a long pole horizontally from the benches, about 3 feet off the ground, and anchored it at a diagonal on the other side with a branch shaped like a Y. Deciding on a basic A-frame style, I got to work, spending about 4 hours cutting trees, sawing logs, weaving branches in and out, then finally laying loads of debris, leaves and vines over my temporary abode, I created a basic structure that I was excited to test out for the night.

Laying the foundation for the A-frame.

Here's the view from the front door looking in.

Shelter represents sanctuary, safety and a place to call home. It protects us from the elements, other animals as well as sets the stage for building the family structure from whence our personalities begin to emerge. Shelter, in our daily life might also represent our career, our calling, that which we base our view of ourselves upon.

After I finished building my shelter, I set about getting enough fire wood to be all but set for the weekend. I take tremendous pride in setting up my campfire. Spending a great deal of time peeling off small ribbons of bark to create my spark "bird nest" material, I second that with dozens of sticks no thicker than standard cordage put in a neat little pile. Next to that, I place pencil thickness sticks, then finger thickness twigs, wrist thick sticks, then calf and thigh sized logs. Loads of wooden body parts lay organized in the order in which they will be needed to fuel my fire. After several hours of work,  I had many bodies worth of wood laid out. I'd need to do very little extra wood gathering over the weekend.

To light my fire, I used cotton balls soaked in petroleum jelly, as they are the world's easiest fire starter. Once that was set up, I put on a pot to boil water adding about a cup of diced pine needles to make a tea.

Fire. The obviously physical correlation is warmth, but I also believe emotionally, fire represents adventure, daring, a lust for life, a quest or something that impels each of us forward. Fire represents our soul's thirst for discovery and the great unknown.

My campsite was set up next to a stream, which made for easy access to water. I'd accidentally ordered the "mini" pump, but despite having to refill its tiny bag over and over, it worked extremely well. Personally, I don't mind the taste of iodine, but sometimes it is nice not to have to use yellow water.

Water. Without it, you will die in a manner of days. It is that critical to your body. Thirst manifests itself as tiredness, then exhaustion. As we dehydrate, the tiredness also negatively affects our mind. To me, water is akin to the need for spirit. A daily dose of life infusing joy, beauty, love, excitement and enthusiasm helps keep us happy. Without those, our spirit stars to deaden and dry up--forcing life to lose its luster. Too little water and we wither and die.

My next step was to pre-set up my bear vault line. I found a tree easily 200 meters away and at least 20 feet up from which to hang my food. After the close call I had a few weeks ago, I would prefer any curious bears not be close enough to my tent to hear, and losing my food this time--forcing an early end to my glorious three-day weekend--was simply not an option.

Now it was time to forage the area for food. I set about to gather as many identifiable plants as I could. Buckwheat, horehound, chickweed, acorns, dandelion, curly doc and yucca were plentiful. I chaffed the buckwheat to make a porridge, and cracked open the acorns to begin the long process of blanching away the tannins to make them suitable for eating. The chickweed and curly doc I used for nibbling on, but I made a nice side of boiled dandelion greens to go with my dinner.

I also gathered dozens of acorns. I've read that acorns have as much protein as a hamburger, but according to Wikipedia, that is fallacy. Acorns, per 100 g (3.5 oz) have about 41 g carbs, 24 g fat and a mere 6 g of protein--about as much as one egg. However, considering they are plentiful in any part of the country, they seem a viable food source to learn to consume. The only issue is they contain massive amounts of tannins, which can cause kidney issues if consumed in great quantities (not to mention taste horrible) so they have to be boiled multiple times to remove these, then roasted to make them more palatable. 
I blanched mine six times, and some were still a bit tannic, but all in all they were fine.

For the buckwheat porridge, I simply rinsed the buckwheat, then boiled it in a pot of water. It kind of came out like a cross between cream of wheat and grape nuts. It was actually pretty good, but don't put ANY of the white buds in the mix, as they are very bitter and will ruin the entire batch.

Food. Food is the daily grind, our need for routine and regularity. As important as adventure, routine is also a sustenance we must have in order to have prediction and to plan and build our futures and lives.

I then set up my tent, got out the books I had brought along, and made myself comfortable by my fire until nightfall.

Valley Forge Trail Camp is fantastic. if you're looking to enjoy the beauty that is the San Gabriel mountains, in a not too far out of the way place, I highly recommend  Valley Forge. It's a short two mile hike in from the Red Box parking lot adjacent to the Hahamonga visitor's center off the Angeles Crest Highway. The path is well marked and almost entirely downhill on the way in. You'll pass a cool leaf tunnel with blackberry vines for ground cover, loads of oak and pine trees, rolling hills, a trail that looks like it belongs in a movie and loads of shade. The zillions of flies that dogged me the last time I was here were now gone due to the colder weather. 

I couldn't find any history on the area, but there are several small old stone houses that are abandoned-- appearing to have been used as lodging in the past. I don't know if the forest service uses them now, but they seemed to have been vacated long ago. I daydreamed of buying one of these homes and living here or one of those tiny houses near Chantry Flats. Even the thought of living without running water or electricity did not deter my fantasy.

After about 11 o'clock, I decided to call it a night and test out my new abode. Sleeping in the shelter was okay, however it was not as warm as I would have liked. I decided to try to improve upon my design the next morning, so I awoke early and got to work. As I lit my morning fire, I came across a very unusual discovery. Inside a giant pine cone, which I had grabbed to use as kindling, I discovered hundreds of lady bugs huddled together to keep warm from the cold. There was frost on the ground this morning, so I'm assuming this was what they do to survive. Later in the afternoon, as it warmed up, that same pine cone was found empty, and ladybugs were swarming everywhere.

A-frame plus tarp

Finished Shelter

As the morning progressed, the sunshine dwindled and ominously dark rain clouds started to threaten rain.  I decided to set myself up a stiff deadline to get my new shelter built. I figured I maybe had an hour.                            

View from the front door

I set about tearing apart my old shelter with great fervor. A nearby log presented itself as a viable option for one of the walls, but the sticks I had already cut would make my structure too low to the ground. I hauled a few bench tops from one of the other sites to create a raised platform for my bed. If it rained, I didn't want a small river to create a freezing bathtub under me. I placed the one long tree I had cut down at an angle to create the apex of the roof, then created a shallow tent-like structure with the remaining sticks and logs. I placed a tarp that a visiting troop of boy scouts left for me over the whole structure, then piled it high with tree limbs filled with leaves, debris, more leaves and vines from nearby weeds.

It was so small, I could barely roll over in it, which I figured would be all the better to keep me warm. I was looking forward to seeing if the stories I'd heard of shelters like these being so warm, one would sweat all night in them to the test. At the very least, I was looking forward to a not-so-uncomfortably-chilly night's sleep.

As I put the finishing touches on my new abode, the rain started coming down. I had thought ahead to move all of my firewood under the gigantic picnic table which fenced in my campsite, and I also was able to move my tent under there. As the winds picked up and the rain came down, I holed up in my tent to wait out the storm. 

It was interesting to note that a steady light rain was not enough to put out my fire. I realized how it must take something akin to a flash flood to put out a raging blaze.

I spent the rest of the day reading, studying, then walking around once the rain stopped.

After a dinner of acorns, pemmican (not homemade), dandelion greens and Cliff Bar's, I decided to call it a night early about 10 pm, eager to try out my new cozier shelter.

My second shelter was warmer, but not by much. It didn't help that the temperature had dropped into the 30's, and the winds howled ferociously all night long. I'm confident that sans wind, this shelter would've really done the trick. As it was, I had to stoke the fire all night to maintain a bit of comfort and warmth.

Sunday morning found me awaking earlier than planned, so I decided to make the best of it. I had found a major animal thoroughfare the day before, so after my morning cowboy coffee, I decided to take a walk to see whatever animal tracks I could identify. Wow! There were deer tracks everywhere in the wet sand as well as raccoon tracks. I was thrilled to even notice them, much less be able to tell what they were. Someday I want to build a tree stand and camp out all night in it, videotaping all the animals as they pass me by. I have a feeling I am going to be completely enthralled.


Building two shelters taught me what worked and what didn't. The larger one, while more comfortable, was cold and drafty. The smaller one, although less roomy was warmer by far.

Building a fire with care allowed me to be warm without giving it much thought. That freedom allowed my sleeping alone in the wilderness to stoke my need for adventure and the great unknown.

Having water nearby infused me with joy. Quenching my thirst and starting my day squatting next to a cold spring could not help but bring a daily smile to my face.

Enjoying the food I gathered was fun and interesting. I realized how much food it takes to sustain a human for one day. It makes me appreciate the laws we have in our great land to protect our many species and helped me realize how invaluable our farmers and ranchers are to our survival.

About 1 pm, I decided to call it a day and I headed back home to my wonderful business. Singing to the birds from a place of pure joy, I felt refreshed, high on life and stoked to see what opportunities the week would bring. I can't wait to go on another adventure!