How tough are the mountain men?

[peterbh]

Even Louis & Clark had touble in the Oregon country. They could trade with the Indians upriver but got deathly tired of salmon and were trading for dogs. Later, on the coast, the never ending rains over the Winter was a real downer and game was scarce. Luckily they had a master hunter, George Drouillard (they sometimes spelled it Drewyer, whose decendant, Darren, I know and who was at one time a state hunter for problem animals like cougars who attack domestic animals. I can remember living on the coast and not even getting a momentary glimpse of the sun for 3 whole months. At least I had a good house with lots of dry wood. Everything L&C had was damp all Winter. It was the most hellish time of the trip for them.

 

[rdillion]

My GGGrandfather was severely wounded at the Battle of Chickamauga. According to his pension papers he had a hole in his head the size of four silver dollars (probably what they used to close the wound) and lost the sight in his left eye. In the pension papers he filled out he said he could only work a half a day in the hot sun. At this time he was 78 years old. He was shot and killed by his neighbor at the age of 81. Guys these men were a lot tougher back then. You had to be.

 

[mingo]

I'm 62 and grew up on a farm that had been the family homestead.
I was raised by grand parents who had seen all the changes-electricity, sending the horses to the glue factory, etc.
I was surrounded by old guys who had done everything by hand up to that time.
I remember one old feller in particular saying "They weren't any good old days."

I spent a significan portion of my young days around truly tough guys, career combat soldiers who spent their most of their time in dangerous places, many you'll never hear about.
There is a certain kind of person who will face danger and tribulation routinely. They'll come out grinning like possums.
Then there's some who will sit there and cry and you're stuck tending them.

At least the guy in question was nowhere near a survival situation and nobody suffered because of him.

 

[ohio ramrod]

While it is true Grey Owl was born in London. He moved to Canada, fought in WW1. And then adopted the native ways, lived as a trapper and guide. He wrote three books that were published in England and be came an international spokesman for conservation of wildlife and forests ,touring England and Europe. As it says in one scene at the end of the movie where he meets with an old native american chief who could have exposed him: "A man can become his dreams, You have dreamed well my son"( quoted from memory ) .
The only thing fraud about him was where and to whom he was born! So many of us buckskinners "dream" of the old ways, but how many of us learn to live our lifes from the lessons the old ways can teach us? Example: buying cheap goods made in China and wondering what happened to the good jobs. Native Americans trading with the English trading posts to get cheaper goods.

 

I saw a ordnary man who was an outdoorsman set down in the wilderness.It was not long he was crying and missing his family.He had a rifle to hunt meat and he lost 30 pounds.This was not a person from the city.He could not last more that 15 days.So Jeremiah johnson must have been a super man.Dont get me wrong,I wouldnt last a couple days.

I have taken a number of survival classes/courses over the years. Don't ask me why, have never been able to answer that one. Even while being alone in the wild - couldn't come up with an answer to "WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING HERE".

You would be surprised what you can do if in that type of a situtation. One thing that will settle you down is build a fire, it gives you warmth, protection, a place to cook, a home. While feeding your fire you gather your thoughts, you prepare for evening, the next day and so on. After a while you starting thinking about shelter, a means of protection....

 

[tg]

I suspect the numbers game as mentioned above helped them a lot, also just getting to the jumping off point so to speak probably thinned the herd a bit.

 

[peterbh]

When I went to work as an engineer at a Navy base in 1971 I met a fellow who would nearly cry if he broke the point on his pencil. I then found out he went through the Bataan Death March and lived for years as a Japanese prisoner. When I asked him how he was able to adapt, he simply said he decided the very first day to do WHATEVER was necessary to survive.

 

[rabjr]

I saw a ordnary man who was an outdoorsman set down in the wilderness.It was not long he was crying and missing his family.He had a rifle to hunt meat and he lost 30 pounds.This was not a person from the city.He could not last more that 15 days.So Jeremiah johnson must have been a super man.Dont get me wrong,I wouldnt last a couple days.

I have taken a number of survival classes/courses over the years. Don't ask me why, have never been able to answer that one. Even while being alone in the wild - couldn't come up with an answer to "WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING HERE".

You would be surprised what you can do if in that type of a situtation. One thing that will settle you down is build a fire, it gives you warmth, protection, a place to cook, a home. While feeding your fire you gather your thoughts, you prepare for evening, the next day and so on. After a while you starting thinking about shelter, a means of protection....

I would have loved to have had the chance to try this for a while. Oh I'm sure I would have come up for air once in a while to regroup but to have the chance to get away and forget everything but live off the land for a while would have been something I would have wanted to do for sure. :thumbsup:

 

Even while being alone in the wild - couldn't come up with an answer to "WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING HERE".

I would have loved to have had the chance to try this for a while. Oh I'm sure I would have come up for air once in a while to regroup but to have the chance to get away and forget everything but live off the land for a while would have been something I would have wanted to do for sure. :thumbsup:

Years ago we were into moving up in the AMM (to highest degree), one of the tasks was to spend 4 or 5 days alone living off the land. You have your rifle, knife and a blanket along with what you normally carried. The biggest problem was not so much eating but getting good drinking water and dry tender for a fire. Figured I had enough fat to survive the time, just needed to keep warm and have liquid. :bow:

 

[J.D.]

I may have seen an episode of the Brit trying to survive in the Yukon. He broke down and cried after a bush plane that was supposed to check on him flew overhead without acknowledging his presence.

Ever feel totally alone? I have and it is an unpleasant experience that can, in some situations, be totally demoralizing.

Someone once wrote a rule of threes. One can survive three minutes without oxygen, three days without water, three weeks without food, and three months without human interaction.

When that sense of isolation is thrust on someone, as it was in this case, it can leave one feeling very desolate.

I suspect that, given the circumstances, most here would react in the same way as the would be survivalist, on the tube.

God bless

 

[Russ T Frizzen]

People with military experience might very well react differently. Having a good knife and hatchet and gun with you is a great mood booster, too. Add a warm blanket and a coat and knowing how to build a shelter and a fire rounds out the basics. Once you have a fire you have a home. Food and water are there in the forest. And some folks just enjoy being alone....

 

As you have stated and mentioned before - "One thing that will settle you down is build a fire, it gives you warmth, protection, a place to cook, a home". I know the different times I have stayed out for more than just a few days you become aware of how loud the forest is. A chipmunk sounds like an animal 10 times its size, a deer can scare you when moving at night in the shadows, must be the stuff you dreamed when a kid? Or the stupid Hollywood movies with Freddie !@#$%^ :cursing: :rotf:

 

[Extranero]

As you have stated and mentioned before - "One thing that will settle you down is build a fire, it gives you warmth, protection, a place to cook, a home". I know the different times I have stayed out for more than just a few days you become aware of how loud the forest is. A chipmunk sounds like an animal 10 times its size, a deer can scare you when moving at night in the shadows, must be the stuff you dreamed when a kid? Or the stupid Hollywood movies with Freddie !@#$%^ :cursing: :rotf:

BOOO!!! :grin:

 

[jbg]

I think we all tend to forget that the Mountain Men were working with a collective knowledge that we have to look for, while they lived it. They were brought up learning how to make a fire with flint and steel, how to hunt and live off the land, and even then the majority didn't survive, from Indian attacks, starvation, freezing, any and all the bad things that could happen to them very often did, and most if them didn't surive their first mistake. I think under the right circumstances most of us could be taught what we would need to know to survive, most already know how, we just need the right set of circumstances.

I guess the best example I could give is our young men and women in uniform. They had little or no knowledge of what it would take to survive a firefight, fly a plane, or drive a tank. Many go into harms way every day, and they don't just survive, they succeed. And I seriously doubt any of them went inot the service prepared for what they face. It is the training they received, and the teamwork they learned they need, that helps them pull through.

 

[Lostrifle]

must be the stuff you dreamed when a kid? Or the stupid Hollywood movies with Freddie !@#$%^ :cursing: :rotf:

Sorry; Freddie is the urbanized dream monster. The woodland monster you want is Jason, from the "Friday the 13th" series. :hmm:

 

must be the stuff you dreamed when a kid? Or the stupid Hollywood movies with Freddie !@#$%^ :cursing: :rotf:

Sorry; Freddie is the urbanized dream monster. The woodland monster you want is Jason, from the "Friday the 13th" series. :hmm:

Or how about that bad grizzly from the movie "Night of the Grizzly" with Clint Walker.

 

[John Wasmuth]

Ya ya ya, that one! Night of the Grizzly!