one man's wilderness
 

anyone read this? i picked it up the other day, and absolutely love it. basically it's about this engineer who did nothing but work his ass of his entire life, then decided to just drop everything and quit - move deep into the Alaskan back country and build a cabin with extremely primitive tools, all by himself. there's also a dvd built around video footage he shot while building his cabin called "Alone in the Wilderness". i'm just about to put it on, even though i haven't quite finished the book yet.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...756643-1144109

I saw the video on PBS a couple of months ago.

Amazing.

Wasn't he 40 something when he went up there and then stayed by himself for something like 30 years.

he was 51, and apparently he still lives there... truly amazing.

He died a few years ago just after they finished making the video. He got to see it before he died.

I think he was like 84 when he finally moved back to California.

ah, okay. from the what i'd read, and from the book it said he was still alive. one cool mofo, no doubt.

You should read "Into the Wild" by John Krakauer. Great book. It's kind of the same theme, except that it doesn't have as happy ending.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...230850-2262213

I loved watching him make all that stuff by hand.

Ripping boards with a hand saw, the door hinges, the spoon, latch and lock that he carved from the wood.