A Good Place to Train in the Wild

If I was frustrated with life I'd be asking for a good way to kill myself, not for a nice place in the woods to live alone.

Thanks for the military suggestion, but I would never join the military, ever. So that's sorta a bunk option.

 

there's plenty of hermit colonies out there, most of them religious. but i wouldn't know how to go about finding them.

you could always be a monk (somewhere). they're not bothered by anyone, ussually.

but i think someone above posted it right, you'd probably have to buy some land. and it'd have to be a pretty large chunk of it, if you never planned on running into another human being. there's supposed to be someguy who's featured in black belt magazine, who became a hermit and all he does is train.
Bokata knows more then i do about this. but he lives pretty close to where we live and apparently stay's in contact with our karate teacher from time to time. but i don't really know too much other than he lives in the mountains.

i'm not sure wether or not he owns the land he lives on. but he only lives there with his wife.

you could always join monastery like i said. as for training. there's tons of ways you can condition your body without weights. my advice would be to save up some money first, buy some land, and while you wait. get some good info on survival, first aid, navigation, and way-finding. also you may not want to completely cut yourself off from people. because if you live a long ways away from a hospital...for obvious reasons.

my step father owns 100 sq. acres. of crappy land. he (and my mom) never get any visitors. me and my friend used to do all kinds of things out in the woods: shooting, bow hunting, fishing, some training. ussually if you privately own land, you'll have plenty of alone time and hopefully be close enough to city limits for emergencies. you might also want to get an animal companion, i'm sure you've heard of people who isolate themselves. people are social animals and hermits tend to go crazy after too long. so my advice: don't completely isolate yourself.

hope i helped.

 

In Hebei my extended family has a compound on a lake that feeds into Bohai gulf (you know, where there's a dip in China in the northeast on the Pacific). There's a beautiful family shrine overlooking the opposite side of the lake that the house is upon, and it's surrounded all about by trees and little streams. When I was last in Hebei my family gave me the job of cleaning the shrine and repairing some of the basic stonework on the path leading to it. I did that and then spent the night in the shrine's courtyard beneath the sky. When I awoke I trained in solitude for probably four hours until my uncle came to get me. Next year I'm moving to the Chen village, and apparently they have a lot of open space around there. Looking forward to it!

 

Socrastein if your serious then there is tonnes of ways to go about living in 'solitary' even I know of a good few meditation centers that allow people to go into solitude for 6 months at a time. But as I've said before have you ever been on your own before? Ever lived somewhere that doesn't have modern convienances? If not you really should be a bit more realistic, lots of people talk about going off to live in the wilderness but how many people actually do?

 

Mas Oyama did, but thats Mas Oyama. I give you a week at most, if you ever go through with it.

 

Get an atlas... there are thousands of places where people do not live in any significant numbers. And there's a good reason why.

LOL! Just a few miles eh?

Lookin' for the soft-option are we?!

I think your operating from some pretty big assumptions here. If you can't afford to travel very far I suggest you try to get to Alaska. Having all those things that you mention and be able to utilize them are two very different things. Most of these kind of areas that contain the animals that you're talking of do have harsh winters. You could always go jungle - but that's got problems all it's own.

Others have tried this and many of them have ended up dead. Once your out there you may not have much time to 'train' - you will find that most of your time is spent just trying to feed yourself and maintain your shelter.

I suggest you get some real backcountry experience under your belt before traipsing off into the woods. Spend 2 weeks solo up in the Sierra Nevadas... it's much harder than you think. Now try that with just the tools you can fashion from what's around you. A very steep learning curve indeed.

Your biggest problem will be ingesting enough protien to build your body back up from the wear and tear it will take from living outdoors 24/7. Small things like splinters and blisters can become potentially life threatening problems when you are in remote areas. One nightmare in particular is misquitoes. Try an Alaskan spring. LOL!

Ask yourself a few questions first:

1) ever trap squirrels (harder than you might think)

2) do you know how take down a buck or doe with no weaponry?

3) how will you hang it to clean it? are you familiar with rigging a z-pulley system to do such? And will you be able to bring enough rope/biners and tackle to do that?

4) do you know how preserve all the meat you've just gotten? And how will you fend off bears, varmints and insects once you have preserved it. Your mom will bum out if her tupperware dissapears!

5) how versed are you on poisonous plants and plant based toxic substances?

6) how will you filter water?

7) how will you deal with chronic giardia when you get it? what about snake bites? poisonous insects? poison oak/ivey?

8) do you know how to suture? can you do it on yourself with no anasthetic? what if you get a wound that you need to disinfect and suture that is somewhere you can't reach with your own 2 hands? What about a fracture? Or how about a dislocated shoulder? What about a torn knee ligament?

9) do you know how to handle chronic diarrhea? how will you get enough electrolytes back into your system? If you end up with a fever then what? Who cooks or catches food?

10) how will you deal with your excrement so that it doesn't contaminate your water supply and become a draw for flys? Not to mention bears and other animals that will pick up on the human scent?!


As you can see this is just of the top of my head... and the realistic list can get much much problematic.

I suggest before you get some real backpacking exp. under your belt to fully understand what it takes to live in such a remote place. There are a few books out there of people who have tried and ended up dead from seemingly small mistakes that spriral out of control when in remote locations.

Look at the people around the world that do live in the remote places.. they haven't got much time to train - they're too busy taking care of the basics of survival.

 

I don't recall saying in my opening post anything about having a complete lack of survival knowledge, skill, or experience. I also don't recall saying that I live my life surrounded by technology and toys (My room is a bed, a computer (Which I use to read mostly), some practice weapons, and about 50 books). I don't remember saying that I have social dependency issues and I can't cope with being alone. Yet, even though I never said any such thing, nearly everyone is assuming that the above is the case.

Why did I say I don't want a place with harsh winters? Because I am building my own shelter, I'm not bringing a tent, I'm not buying a cabin, I'm building my own shelter. A -20 F winter would kill me if I didn't have an advanced form of shelter, and I don't want one, so I don't plan on Northern Canada - that's not a soft route, I believe a cabin is the soft route just so you know.

Slipthejab

Dear God I'm not going to answer every single question you posed in detail, but I can say yes to them all except: I do not know how to kill a buck with bare hands, no. If you could tell me and add to my knowledge, that would be not only useful, but extremely interesting I'm sure.

Ckava

Could you give me some information on the meditation centers you mentioned?

Ikken

What on earth would make me return in less than seven days? That's the most ridiculous thing I've yet to hear you say on this site, especially considering you know zero about me - none of you do. Of course it's not like I expect you to know me and my personality/capabilities, but I do expect you to be smart enough not to assume you do and can tell me I need experience (Which assumes I have zero) or I'll run back in a week or I'll go crazy or get depressed, or any of the other crap you people have just pulled out of your butts.

For the people who've actually been kind enough to stay on topic and answer the original question, which was "Does anyone on MAP know of ANYWHERE where one can live alone, unbothered, in the wild these days?", it was not "Who here would like to speculate out of complete ignorance on whether or not I could cut it alone in the wild?", I thank you and if any of you could give some more specifics, I'd be very very grateful.

Let me repeat, this is not about placing bets on whether someone you don't know a single thing about can live in the woods, this thread is about me trying to find people with information on potential places one can live in solitude.

*EDIT*

I just reread that and it made me smile - where on earth do you find these people that you speak of? Cause I have surely NEVER met another person who has sympathized with my ambition in the least bit. NEVER. Everyone around here talks about going to college, getting a "nice job", so they have "nice stuff" like was mentioned above.

 

Mount Wundang in China, live with the Hermits, some of them havent seen a human for years.

Luke

 

lol.

nothing like side steppin' relevant questions to your thread eh?!

ok jackson - so you want to get somewhere you can be alone and train... it all sounds so full of mystique.

you might get some more helpful replys/pointers/answers if you could answer the following:

1) what is your budget to get there?

2) do you have a passport?

3) what other languages can you speak?

(is 3 too many for you?)

Or are we talking continental US here?

Help us to help you!

In the mean time...
I am eager to hear your explanation as to how you will suture a laceration that you can't reach with your hands, how you will treat chronic giardia in the wild etc. LOL! After all it was you answered yes to them not me.

 

i didn't mean to offend you if i have dude.

i support you 100% i was just suggesting what skills you might need. I was thinking about heading up to my grandfathers farm which is about 400 sq. acres for the summer and training/working.

agian i support you 100% i would love to do it also, but i wouldn't want to do that for the rest of life (....or would i ) . but i would suggest that you get a dog or at least a girl to go with you, cuz the insanity does set in when you isolate your self from all contact for a long period of time. boxers who isolate themselves for even a brief period of time, talk about it. oscar dela hoya (sp?) did it for six months and said he was going pretty crazy after like 5 weeks.

if that's what you want to do it, go for it man! maybe i could come out there and train with you sometime

finding a good piece of property to do it on is another story though, that's the only reason i suggested college.

good luck buddy.

 

They're not relevent at all. If someone asked where a good place to buy a punching bag is, asking if he knows how to use a punching bag, if he has experience with a punching bag, if he knows how to hang a punching bag, if he knows how to repair a ripped punching bag, if he knows how to even out a bulging punching bag is NOT relevent to the question. All that's relevent is what was asked - in my example, the only on-topic discussion is suggestions of where to get a punching bag. Regarding this actual thread, the only on-topic discussion is suggestions of where to go to live alone in the wild.

And let me worry about budgets and passports and all the crap - all I want to here are possible places to go and some information on them. If you have no such suggestions, what the hell are you bothering to waste my time for? Do you honestly have nothing better to do than NOT help me?

Smiff - do people just stroll up to the top of mount Wudang and stake a claim? Do you have to be Chinese to do so? What's the temperature like there (Do you live nearby or are you just speaking from what you've heard?) If you could add some specifics that'd be great, but if you've just heard what you said through the grape vine, I'll make sure to research the "lead" myself.

 

Also geves, I wasn't offended by your post, don't worry - and I'm glad to hear somebody supports me (Rather than laying down wagers on whether I survive more than 7 days). As for company - unless I drugged a woman and brought her against her own will, that will never happen. But I'll be fine, I'm sure I can find and tame plenty of pet rocks

*EDIT*

Also, where did you mention college?

 

out of interest, what exactly are you planning on training while you are out inthe wilderness? just do thousands of kicks every day or something? I mean if its the training you are after there are much better ways.

 

I doubt you're very interested Ikken. I don't want this thread derailing in the slightest; It's very important to me I get as much information as possible to help me out, because this is the biggest aspect I am struggling with in my plans - finding somewhere to actually go. So please, if you don't have a suggestion, then don't expect to parley with me.

 

Since your so adverse to answering questions relevant to the answer why did you bother to post?

I'd suggest you go jump in a lake - but since you are being such a whiner - I don't dare ask whether someplace damp is ok or not.

maybe I should suggest you go sit in the corner or the other side of the sandbox for being such a weenie when someone is trying to post something that pertains to your question.

Think about it... without getting your shirt up.... there are infinite possibilities one could post as to where you should go (some I wouldn't say in front of my mother.. lol) but they will all be useless unless you fill us your parameters...

In the US?
In your state?
In the world?

Kinda make sense don't ya think?! :bang:

 

Then stop with your paranoid assumptions that everyone is out to get you or make fun of you.

Ask a vague question and you may not get a very concise/useable answer.
Common sense no?

:bang: :bang: :bang:

 

Notice how I capitalized the entire word ANYWHERE. Yet, you still are asking me if I meant only in my state, or only in the US. It's not hard to figure out Slip, you seem to be struggling with it unneccessarily - I'm looking for suggestions on ANYWHERE I can live alone in the wild that meets the loose parameters I set out in my OP. So stop asking stupid questions, and either give me a good suggestion or leave me alone.

 

musashi trained (self study, by himself) and without his father (though it is debatable wether or not he got a very few lessons from him).

and he turned out to be one of the greatest duelists in japanese history. you don't have to have other people to study with, in order to get better. in fact many martial arts masters (namely those who inherit a grand master title of a style) go off and train on their own, until they feel they're ready to accept such an honor. even students (karate, kung fu, ect.) train by themselves when they feel they are promoted too early. until they feel they can live up to such a promotion.

how they train when they are by themselves? you'd have to ask them. i would guess that they practice form and balance as well as conditioning. all things you don't need another person for.

"don't fear the man who practices 1,000 techniques 1 time.
fear the man who practices 1 technique 1,000 times."

 

lol.
lighten up before were reading about the next Unibomber.

Now maybe you can see the validity of asking about a passport. It doesn't take too much brains to figure out that if it's in another country your gonna have to get a visa. And most visa's don't last that long... and if you're intent is to get far enough away from people then you don't want to punctuate all that mystical solitude with a trip into town to get a visa do you?!

As well some places/countries will not allow you to just go out and set up in the woods to train. Many countries have enough of their own problem with this kind of a thing.. terrorism camps, squatters and anti government rebels.
So unless your down with the NPA or MINLF - most of the Philipines is off limits. lol. In fact this kind of activity renders many such places out of bounds.

ok mr. grouchy... here's a random list of places that might suit you
(based on remoteness and smallest populations of humans per the given area)

1) Bhutan (one of the least populated Asian countries)

2) Namibia (get an atlas if you want to find it)

3) Suriname (hope you like jungle)

4) Canada (depending on where you go there may be polar bear crowding - lol)

5) Laos (watch out for landmines and ex-Khmer rouge)

6) Sweden (but wait you don't like cold)

7) Tristan da Cunha (off of South Africa)

8) Moroccan Dessert (not many people here)

9) Himalayas (ya know... big mountains, lots of valleys)

10) Micronesia (smack dab in the middle of the pacific)

11) Antarctica (oops - a cold thing again)

12) Bolivian Mountains (where else but in Bolivia)

13) Ethiopia (watch out for Etrians and landmines)

more to come.

 

Okay Socrastein I'll have a look for you and see if I can dig up some information about the meditation centers but in the meantime if there any Buddhist groups in your area it might be worth checking them out. Most Buddhist groups (even North American ones ) tend to have links to retreat centers... and even if they don't offer long term retreats they will know somewhere that does.

By the way I don't think you should take the problems people are posting so negatively. Off course people will be skeptical of this kind of thing because talk is cheap and even you would have to admit there is a certain irony in asking on an internet forum where you can go to find solitude. The problems that people are posting are problems that you would have to address if your serious about going. Also I think most people (including myself) are asking about how prepared you are because what you are talking about doing is not only practically very difficult but mentally it would be torture for most people. Its not a question of whether you are a sociable person or not, very few people have more than a couple of days experience of what its like to be totally withdrawn from contact with other people. Personally, I would suggest a good first step to seeing if solitude suits you would be attending a week long silent retreat and see how it feels.

Incidentally if you ever plan on doing anything that isn't in keeping with the status quo then you have to be prepared for everyone telling you its impossible. But if your truly dedicated to something then you'll prove them wrong. But I do think you need to think this through a bit more but what do I know .

There are plenty of them at my university (the School of Oriental & African Studies in London), I've met a fair amount at meditation sittings ehmm... where else oh yeah when I was bopping round hostels in Canada I met quite a few people who seemed quite keen on that idea. You haven't been looking hard enough .