Alone In The Wilderness

If you find yourself with 57 minutes of free time in the next week, watch this: Alone In The Wilderness. Joel Muzzey told me about it when I saw him back in November—the story of Dick Proenneke, a 52 year old man who splits for Alaska's Aleutian Range in 1968 with plans to spend the summer building a cabin (just to see if he can!). One summer turns into the next 30 summers—he only rejoins civilization when his 80 year old body just can't take the trip back and forth from the lake hauling drinking water anymore. It's all footage he filmed himself to send back to his family as a means of keeping in touch. Anyway, Fuck errands. Fuck deadlines. Fuck paychecks. Fuck gas prices. Fuck making a living in modern society. Imagine work in its simplest form—not for money but rather for sustenance, warmth, and shelter. Free time is spent doing whatever, ever you want to: whittling giraffe’s heads from driftwood, spying on fox cubs, counting the stars in the sky. 

"It was good to be back in the wilderness again, where everything seems at peace. I was alone, just me and the animals—free to plan and do as I pleased."

He builds the entire cabin both interior and exterior by hand almost totally with wood using simple tools like a hammer, chisel, and saw. And he makes Christopher McCandless look like a real pussy.