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How would you survive if you had to live by hiding in the woods?
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this post was submitted on 07 Dec 2023
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I knew a few survivalists who walked the Appalachian trail. The first hurdle is... humans are not meant to be solitary. We do best in groups, with division of labor, which multiply force. But that's not the question. As many already said: calorie-dense food is really hard to come by in the wild. You have to know what to eat, when to eat it, how to prepare it, and how to avoid depleting it. You also compete with other forces of nature: not just wild animals, but bacteria and insects. You have to know when to rest (most of the time), and how to plan ahead, and plan ahead flexibly.
Me, personally, I know a LOT about how to survive. Enough to know I'd be dead in a week at most. Part of the problem is I am dependent on insulin and other medications to live. But even if that wasn't an issue, I don't know enough to survive alone. I know enough to know that. "Hiding in the woods" means "I am prepared to die in the woods very soon, but was too cowardly to jump off a precipice or something for a quicker end."
The biggest challenge is that the woods aren't what they used to be. 150 years ago you could walk into the forest and see animals and berries everywhere. Nowadays, you'd need to hunt for days on end to find something like a deer, or a beaver, and you'd be lucky to find a source of naturally growing berries. You can still survive in the wilderness, but it's a lot harder than it used to be, and it was never easy.
Edit: forest animal depletion at 53% 1970-2014. That's just in that time frame. Before 1970 was an even more dramatic drop in forest population, to the tune of 90%. We're on our last few animals now.