Mountain Men, what are they doing up there?

reply to post by GreenBicMan


I would think that a mountian man is secluded for his own reasons, therefore I would not approach him. Not that he is dangerous, but I would respect his wish to be secluded.

reply to post by telemetry


Oh you stayed there actually? I see.

Our campsite was like I said about 20-30 mins away. First times out there so didn't really know what was going on etc.

i live in northeastern alabama, and i use to coonhunt alot.
1 night we were lost in the middle of nowhere and we met, "wildman" after we stumbled on to his territory. he appeared out of nowhere butt-naked with a .44 mag with the hammer back.
we were all around 16-to-20 at the time all egotistical so we mouthed off and "wildman" fired a round into the dirt about 6 feet away from us.
he told us we were trespassin and we had 10 mins to cross the creek. we tried explaing that we were just coonhunting and was trying to find our dogs. he said they havent been on his land and time was ticking for us to be gone so we scramed.

we found our dogs a lil piece later and left, we talked to some landowners near that area and they said he is a loner and a alcoholic and theywere afraid of him.
i will never forget that night i envyed him for having the cojones to run around the woods naked and just walk up on strngers in the woods and demand them to leave. but also remember the fear he put into us all in milliseconds and had us all shaking for the whole trip home

Originally posted by realboogyman
i live in northeastern alabama, and i use to coonhunt alot.
1 night we were lost in the middle of nowhere and we met, "wildman" after we stumbled on to his territory. he appeared out of nowhere butt-naked with a .44 mag with the hammer back.
we were all around 16-to-20 at the time all egotistical so we mouthed off and "wildman" fired a round into the dirt about 6 feet away from us.
he told us we were trespassin and we had 10 mins to cross the creek. we tried explaing that we were just coonhunting and was trying to find our dogs. he said they havent been on his land and time was ticking for us to be gone so we scramed.

we found our dogs a lil piece later and left, we talked to some landowners near that area and they said he is a loner and a alcoholic and theywere afraid of him.
i will never forget that night i envyed him for having the cojones to run around the woods naked and just walk up on strngers in the woods and demand them to leave. but also remember the fear he put into us all in milliseconds and had us all shaking for the whole trip home

Wow, that guy sounds pretty awesome.

He is kind of like the troll under the bridge. You always gotta pay your taxes to the troll.

at the time no he wasnt "awesome" but after the fear had exited our minds and bodies yes, i wish i had the gonades to man up and live life like that

Originally posted by space cadet
reply to post by GreenBicMan

 

I would think that a mountian man is secluded for his own reasons, therefore I would not approach him. Not that he is dangerous, but I would respect his wish to be secluded.

I think there's some cool mountain men out there, just like there are bad ones.
It depends what state you're in as well I suppose.

Originally posted by hillbilly4rent
reply to post by GreenBicMan

 

Most of us MnM will say hello or are you lost and be kinda nice but have you herd the term "I hear banjos paddle faster". It can get quite funny seeing city folk run. I had to take shellter one night under a rock ledge it was raining like a cow peeing on a flat rock so I hunkerd down for the night when I herd voices not in my head but real voices it was a young couple hiking the Appalachian trail that had gotten lost. I yelled and told them there was a dry place under this over hang. when they came down the mountain and crawled under with me the look on their face was unforgettable kinda like a deer in the head lite look. We exchanged names and pleasantries I told them if they wanted to stay there for the night I would move along and find some were ells to hunker down at.
They said it was fine there was enough room for everyone so the fire was going really good and we talked for an hour or two I told them my story of how I chose to live the way I do and so on. We started getn sleepy the lady's husband said he was going to bed and told his wife to come with him
to the other side of the over hang. they started whispering I couldnt hear all the conversation but I did hear "AX MURDER" the lady said "no hes not hes a nice guy watch this" she started asking questions who I was my brothers and sisters she asked me about my mom and dad I said they are dead I killed them with a ax just joking around and before I knew it I was under that over hang by my self never herd or seen that couple again.

They sound a bit too uppity and conservative, some people take the city with them when they go into the wilderness unfortunately...

You mountain men should get together on ATS and get some threads going.
Like what wierd and wild stuff you've seen or what tips and tricks there are for wildnerness living and so-on.

I think the world needs mountain men, it's so fcked up the way they (msm, ptb) are pushing this agenda of urbanisation, emasiation of the male and dumbing down people to dislike the wilderness.
It's not always obvious but it's there.

[edit on 13-7-2010 by WatchRider]

reply to post by GreenBicMan


I think the majority of these folks just want to be left alone. I grew up in New Jersey and there are many folks who live in the middle of the Pine Barrens, which is a large area, no roads, no utilities, etc. They are called "Pine Hawkers" by folks in NJ.

These folks live in shacks, trap, hunt and fish and make moonshine, etc. Some of them have actual jobs, but most of them just keep to themselves and live off the land. I've met a couple of them going to fishing spots and they were friendly enough.

I went to college in West Virginia and was involved in a club that went to Appalachia every spring to help the locals with various projects; digging wells, running plumbing pipe, patching roofs etc... This was out in the middle of nowhere! You could literally say that this occurred in a community of mountain men and women. No electricity save a few houses closest to the main roads. No plumbing. No telephones. Nothing! These people were dirt poor - but you didn't dare tell them that. No sir! Why? Because to them they were wealthier than anything any money could buy. They wanted to be there!

Also, because there are some seriously remote areas in WV, my buddies and I spent a great deal of time camping in the wilderness. One favorite area was outside of Paw Paw, WV (Yes, it is a real place!). We found it by accident one late night while we were commuting from my buddies house in Northern Virginia back to college and broke down (We're talking late '80s - no cell phones) in Paw Paw. This is a one stoplight town and the whole county only has 1 sheriff on duty at a time. We learned this when this 1 lone sheriff came to investigate what we were doing stopped in the middle of the road at 2:30 in the morning. He left and got a farmer from down the road to use his tractor to tow us off the road down to his driveway. Clarence, the farmer, told us he'd check out my buddy's pickup in the morning and that we could camp on his property until morning. Clarence, for all intent and purpose, was a mountain man.

The next day Clarence got the pickup running and off we went. Many months later while passing through on our way back to Virginia we stopped to say "hello" and to properly pay Clarence for helping us so many months earlier. In talking with him we learned he lived alone in a 2 room log home and had farmed the land by himself for almost 50 years and that he had over 700 acres that had been in his family for over 150 years. He invited us back to camp and fish his property any time we wanted.

Many months later we decided to camp Clarence's land and headed back to Paw Paw. After greeting Clarence we drove to a very remote part of his land - most of it was mountainous and wooded and only about 50 acres was actually farmed. We set up camp and decided to hike the creek and that was when we met him - a TRUE mountain man - who we later learned was named Grant. Turned out that Grant was Clarence's cousin who lived literally on and off the land. He was a man of very few words who had even less interest in the "real" world. He lived in a shack and wanted basically nothing to do with people, especially us, and Clarence included. He wasn't threatening or scary, he was simply a loner.

Over the course of my college career I had the opportunity to meet many mountain people and discovered that they are as diverse in character and personality as "City" people minus the materialism. I think that the "Fear" of mountain people comes from a lack of understanding what they're about. When one has had no experience with them they seem so foreign and one would immediately question their motives for being out in the middle of nowhere - and their motives are many. But more times than not I found them to be good spirited people who were as suspicious of us "City" people are we are of them.

Just wanted to share my experiences with them - for whatever it might have been worth.

reply to post by kozmo


Yeah, you are pretty much in the heart of Mountain Man territory out there. Sounds like good people though.

the Brokeback Mountain Men prefer seclusion too.
i was surprised to learn that Will Geer was gay..
i guess it dont stop you from talking a young blond pilgrim under your wing..
teaching him how to survive..
yep- grampa walton ..what a great actor. then there was those mountain men in deliverance. i dont wanna know what them boys is up to.
I imagine they're growing weed- poaching bears to sell the parts to the chinese.
big money... i'm sorry am i wrecking it for you?
they are fine - satellite images show that they are carrying a hawken gun.
and infared tells us they are freezin their ass off.

To each their own, is what I say. If someone is happy living off the grid, and they're not harming anyone, let 'em be.

There are times I like to "play" mountain man, escaping for a few days in the wilderness, but I'm way to ingrained in today's society, with all of its modern perks, to even begin to think I could survive off the grid for any length of time unless I were actually forced to. I'm way too used to modern luxuries.

If anything, I'm jealous and very respectful of people who can do it.