11 years alone in the Idaho wildernss, 1930s, without a gun, or a home, or even an axe. The guy had a pocketknife, a skillet, a coffepot, a wool blanket, a tarp, some hooks and line, and the clothes that he stood in. He lived another 2 years like that, but had stolen a single shot .22 rifle and 50 rds. He got a deer a month with the .22, for the next 2 years and said that finding the .22 was the best thing that happened to him in 13 years. Moreland was small enough to be able to sleep inside hollow logs, or the cold would have killed him

reference or source? Sounds interesting...And no, I am not sure I could have handled it.....

Ragnar Benson, Living off the land in City and Country. Brad Angier mentioned Moreland's ordeal, too. He was so tough that he pulled his own teeth, using a springy branch and some fishline.

here's one link I found --

http://www.librarything.com/work/8332914
Tim

Geez. Not sure I could handle that. He also sounds a few cards shy of a full deck, putting up with that.

Was it a voluntary solitude? I get that impression, based on him stealing a gun.

Why would anyone want to "handle it"? Doesn't sound like this was thrust upon Moreland so much as stepped in and than actively maintained as a state of being in the face of many other much more civilized options. Essentially a lifestyle choice.

Can I live like an early proto-hominid; yes, if forced to. As long as there is some reasonable expectation that it is temporary and any hardship is simply a stepping stone to a better situation.

Can I "handle" choosing to live that was long term without some exit strategy and without any prospect that once chosen I will live like that for the foreseeable future; no.

Short term hardship chosen as a controlled adventure, camping or walk-about, or having such a situation forced on you in an emergency, or after an accident, I can do, and have done. But survival and deprivation is something I do to get to the other side where things are better. It is not, for me, a lifestyle I would choose and it is not a situation I would willingly stay in if I found myself there.

Stealing a Gun/Ammo,Deserves a MUCH Stiffer Penalty than he had to "Handle",Depression or Otherwise!He may have started out Innocently enough,But It all stops there before he decided to Steal!Anything Harvested with The Stolen Gun is Stealing,Period!I CANNOT Handle someone Stealing from Me,& If I were to Catch them in the act?They would Forever be Picking their Nose with their Toes!Can You Handle That?

No, I could not handle that.

Especially not the teeth-pulling part.

so he was a tramp,thief and poacher,in the 1930's the country was filled with guys like that, he got got his story told.i would suggest a reading of True North by Elliott Merrick.trappers in Labrador at the same time paddle and portage with what they can carry to the height of land and winter over in tiny cabins you can't turn around in.living on tea,bannock and partridge.after snowshoeing,they made those,and setting traps nite was spent in a "tilt" so small you could not stand or in the open wrapped in a blanket by a fire.in the spring they went back down river and sold the firs---so they could provide for their family!!..find and read the book if you want a dose of what honest people had to handle to make a life in the wilderness.

Sounds like a real fun time - NOT.

I can't think of a reason to subject myself to this type of supremely primitive lifestyle short of a life sentence in a max security prison. And even then, I would be figuring out a way to get the hell outta the woods to someplace better.

Idealized is the word that comes to me. Survival is hard work. It's 18 hour days, 7 days a week, 52 seeks a year. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you don't. It's not pretty, it's not cool. You are cold, tired, wet, hungry and just so stressed it's not funny.

Nah, I think I will stay in my house, not break any major laws, and be comfortable.

I think that I would suffer that situation only as long as it would take me to correct it. Its pretty obvious just reading the comments that after that many years he made a conscious effort to eschew enhancements rather not accept them as a means of providing comfort, safety or security in his life.

It didn't sound like much of a life. He sounds like some kind of a sociopath:

"No discussion of Mallard Larkins history would be complete without a mention of William Moreland, better known as the Ridgerunner. Orphaned by the age of 10, Moreland spent the next few years in and out of reform schools in the south. In the 1930s at the age of 31, he had left his native Kentucky home and was drifting around the Pacific Northwest. Eventually he ended up in Idaho and went into the mountains living alone and away from other people for many years in the North Fork Clearwater and St. Joe country. He did his best to live off the land, often in hollow cedar trees. Eventually he turned to breaking into cabins for food and shelter. He was especially active robbing the Mallard Larkins lookouts, cabins and Canyon Ranger Station. Authorities sought fruitlessly for years to catch him, but always lost the cat and mouse game.

"Moreland got the name, Ridgerunner after a series of remarkable travels and escapes that made him famous and legendary. He would break into cabins in the North Fork Clearwater and then next day break into cabins near Avery, Idaho far to the north. Making the 40 mile trip overnight over the rugged terrain was a stupendous feat, especially since done in the dead of winter with several feet of snow on the ground. He was also known to run backwards for many miles to throw the trackers off his trail. Eventually he was captured living like an animal in Skull Creek on the east edge of the Mallard Larkins. Eight months later on Oct. 4, 1945, he was given a five year suspended sentence for burglary and released.

"Moreland spend the next 18 years living the area, working for various logging companies, the Clearwater Timber Protective Association, private individuals the occasional unauthorized manning of vacant, remote Forest Service stations, declaring himself a government agent. His strangeness was tolerated but he got in trouble again after a falling out with Potlatch Corporation, which employed him for a time. He was seen sitting on a hill above a work camp eating Ritz crackers minutes before an explosion destroyed some heavy equipment. He was charged and hauled into court again. When asked about his presence eating Ritz crackers just before the explosion he admitted he was at the scene. When asked by the prosecutor what this proves, the Ridgerunner replied, “it proves I like Ritz crackers” to the thunderous laughter of the court room. He was acquitted but sent to the State Mental Hospital in Orofino where he stayed for a few years before returning to the mountains.

"He continued in his odd ways, but was generally tolerated, even liked by most people. However in the 1960s as logging increased in the area he complained to a friend that “there are too many people here for me now” and he would be leaving the area. That was on the road near Aquarius and it was the last anyone knows about the Ridgerunner. Whether he left the area or if his bones are in the Mallard Larkins country will probably never be known."

From an article on the Mallard-Larkins Pioneer Area of Idaho at http://www.summitpost.org/mallard-larkins-pioneer-area/288752