I was walking my lab last night (smoking a fine Padron and sipping on Canadian whiskey) when I started wondering if there was such a thing as a modern day �Mountain Man�.

Now I know there are people who live in remote cabins year round, isolated from most human contact, but that is not what I am referencing here.

The �Mountain Man� I am envisioning heads into the wilderness for months at a time living only off what he is able to pack in via horseback or some type pack animal. The �Mountain Man� will remain in the wilderness, sleeping in a tent or bivy and only come out of the wilds when forced to by severe winter weather. Once winter weather is over he heads back into the wilderness.

Do you believe there are any individuals in the U.S. or Canada who actually do this?

I would like to meet such a man and buy him a drink.

Jeremiah Johnson - Some say he's out there still.

Maybe in Canada. There's not many places left in the lower 48 that you wouldn't get arrested for tresspassing.

I believe a true mountain man would not move into town in the winter. It seems what you are describing is a "hermit" rather than a "mountain man". Google "Noha John Rondeau" sometime to read about a true Adriondack hermit. He led quite the life. Very interesting fellow. Always a step ahead of the Game Wardens too.

I knew a guy named Gene Alford from Idaho who used to pack into the Selway river country and spend the winters hunting Cougar. He spent a lot of time in the Idaho back country packing, hunting and fishing. He passed away a couple of years ago. I think he still holds the BC #2 Cougar.

Fred Rungee-

He goes out to visit one of his nieces in CT during part of the winter.

Otherwise, 84 years old ex-concert pianist who played at Carnegie hall from NYC lives on Lake Loraine. He got tired of the city life and came to Alaska. He taught Duncan Gilchrist how to hunt and survive in the backcountry. Dunc has since passed on to the sheep camp in the sky. Fred worked for the forest service for 20+ years. He lives on his homestead 4 miles off of the highway near Slana. Fred has been formally adopted by the Mentasta Tribe. He has been mauled three times. He carries a pre-Model 70 338 Win mag Alaskan that he bought new.

He has a huge two-story house on a lake with his piano that he pulled over the mountain on a skid. He packed his propane stove(+200lbs) over the mountain on a packboard when he was 65 years old.
BTW he probably weighed 160lbs wet when he did it.

Fred is entirely old school throwback.

Sincerely,
Thomas

No internet connection up in the hills.

Alan

Google "Claude Dallas". I don't think they allow alcoholic beverages in the Federal Slammer though.

Claude's not in the slammer anymore.

I'm not sure she qualifies for what you are asking about, but there is a lady in the Thorofare country that spends most of the summer in there with only a backpack. I see her once or twice a year along the trail. She usually steps out of the trees onto the trail to talk. Usually the horse or dog picks up on something and then there she is. From what I can gather she only goes out to get a few supplies or for winter.

Mountain men were, for the most part, trappers. They were trying to make a living. Mountain men today would be trying to escape.

Yes!!!!
We have one on here..

He goes by the Handle Lee24.

Give him a shout.

He's awesome!

Years ago one of the better known outdoor mags ran an article on an older man in Idaho who lived out in a wilderness area most of the year in a cabin by a river. Tourists floating the river would stop to chat with him. I think the article said he used a Hawken type of rifle also; and made a lot of his stuff for living. This was years ago though; like 35 yrs. ago or more.

Qtip
Soli Deo Gloria!

Bill Wharton,Speculator,NY,check the NYS guide website,he is a true MT. Man.
VN vet,gave up a big bucks job in the 70's to go live the old way.he is my uncles best friend and one of the few people I would trust with the lives of my children.
he's forgotten more about living in the woods than I'll ever know.
I know that isn't much of an endorsement coming from a NJ guy,but I've followed him in the Mts. since I was a kid and he always amazed me,any guy that can out hike a 14 YO kid while smoking an Old Gold and smell bear is a high ranking Mt Man IMHO.
he holds the state record for Black Bear,over 700 lbs.

Sylvan Hart, Backeddy Books published a book on him, called "Last of the Mountain Men", good read.

In one word, the best.

BIGFOOT

My wife's uncle would have qualified a few years back.

He basically lived entirely off the land for 3 straight years. Made his own clothes, tanned his hides, panned for gold, made his own knives, possibles bags, you name it.

He's the real deal, though he found a crazy squaw, got her pregnant, moved to town, crazy squaw left him with child and now he's running heavy equipment for the state. Remarried and seems to be pretty content, though he misses the life he says.

Three words....


Bob Marshall Wilderness





I've been thinking about the Bob Option lately

You gonna team up with Bigfoot?

We have a few people in the area who are not far from it and more who are capable. Many of us live in circumstances which would be called "rustic" although we are now saddled with all those modern convenienbces like a telephone, computer, and electricity to run it. I often long for the days when we were "off the grid" (up until 1997). It was really peaceful.
When I lived up in the North Thompson country, we knew a bunch of these types. Some were older, long time, trappers and ranchers; others were younger, hippie types who were moving "back to the land". Hippies or not, some of these were pretty self sufficient kids and very capable.
When I was in elementary school, we had a substitute teacher who, along with her husband, spent every summer prospecting and panning gold in the area upriver from Taylor B.C. (where we lived at the time) and, if they found good color, would spend the winter developing their "mine". She told us of the year she got in the winter meat by killing a moose as it struggled to climb up the steep bank in front of their cabin. An impressive story made even moreso when she described killing the moose with an axe! Her husband was angry with her for taking the risk but she said she didn't have time to go back to the cabin for the 303. This seems quite recent when I think of it but I guess it was over fifty years ago so, perhaps, not modern day by the reckoning of some. GD

The man I knew who closest resembled a Mountain Man was a guy I worked with down in Ohio by the name of Lynn Calvin. Lynn was the consummate professional trapper and outdoors man. He pretty much quit bow hunting because it came so incredibly easy to him. Put a shotgun in his hands, and he just didn't miss. He was as strong as an ox, and just about the nicest guy you'd ever want to meet. He was single his whole life, never needing the company of a good woman to be happy, and lived off the land. Lynn ate the healthiest diet I can think of. Mostly just fruit and veggies, unless he took some fish or shot a deer, but he still managed to die of cancer. I think there's some folks out there that are just "connected" to nature on a whole different plane than the rest of us. Lynn "knew" critters and their habits. He was just a remarkable man. 'Shame to see him and his kind fading off into the sunset these days.

I would think that most of the mountain men even had a wooden leanto or a teepee to work out of in the worst of winter.

I know one.
He's an Alaskan fur trapper.
Spends all winter deep in the bush checking his snares & trapline.
The real deal.
One tough [bleep]*kker.

That mud puddle Flathead Lake is the largest freshwater lake west of the missippi, BTW... (about 188 square miles)

A guy can flat out dissapear in there if you're so inclined. I spent some of my youth there, helping with stock, and fly fishing. My Great Grandfather was a good friend of Howard Copenhavers.

Truthfully, there's better places to hunt around here, and with better access.

Just sayin' Thats all...

largest natural lake........ive got a bigger one just 40 miles down the road thats twice as big

If you want to read a great mountain man/trapper story, round up a copy of "Journal of a Trapper" by Osborne Russell. Real good reading.

They are called homeless people.

I'd probably be in the same mind of Albert Johnson.