Well put!!!

Actually I wouldn't say you're opposite at all. My point was there are times in either situation when I am at ease and enjoying the view, and then there are times when I am darned glad that I brought along a firearm with me, just in case. I don't think one is any better or worse than the other, they are just different, and subject to change from one moment to the next.

I try to be prepared for the worst, and hope for the best, regardless of the environment.

In that respect, I would conclude you and I, and many others of us here, share a common trait my friend

I think most reading this forum have at one point been cold, wet, hungry and possibly even been lost in the wilderness at some stage, this is what being in the wilderness is about together with the peace and quiet and the feeling of being alive. Make sure not to bring any form of electronic communication as this will ruin the experience. In reality the wilderness is actually not that dangerous. It only feels dangerous because of the lack of comforts of modern day convenience living in todays towns and cities. As regard to the weather in general I am reminded of a quote 'Theres no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.' Dressing appropriately for expected weather conditions in the wilderness is not difficult. With regard to the threat posed by animals there is an unnatural fear of wild and even domesticated animals. The terror witnessed in some when a cow goes moooo is actually highly amusing. In reality wild animals generally fall into two separate states. Wild animals who are fearful of man because they are hunted and animals that have no fear of man because they are not. The first group will generally take all possible actions to extract themselves as quickly as possible. This second group generally have not had any interaction with man and although these animals are curious they are generally not a threat unless provoked. Of course there are some exceptions and suitable precautions should be taken. This is borne out by the facts, it is an extremely rare thing to be attacked and killed by a wild animal unless the animal is in a state of fear or believes the individual to be prey. An example, it apparently took the 'Bear man' Timothy Treadwell thirteen years to get himself killed by a grizzly bear, apparently the only recorded death by a bear in the Katmai national park for 85 years. The chances of being killed by a close relative or family friend with a firearm or knife are infinitely more probable with the probability increasing many fold when the assailant has consumed alcohol or drugs whether prescribed or for recreational purposes.
With regard to food and water, again this is not really an issue in the wilderness. As most modern urban dwellers have copious amounts of body fat that would make most pre-hibernating bears jealous, starvation in the wild is not really an issue. Going hungry wares of after a 3-5 days after the body becomes used to the routine. Water is another matter. Careful preparation should be taken in very dry areas such as desert and arctic areas. In general though water is not an issue unless it can be made safe. Just boil it. Surely it is all just common sense. No what is frightening is a 12 year old lad on anti-psychotic medication. Forget about the pharmaceutical companies trying to convince the majority of Americans they are suffering from clinical mental illness so that they can sell their wares. Just get out into the wilderness, dressed appropriately of course. You won't die, well only very tiny number of you will but they would have probably killed themselves anyway because of the fear and anxiety they are being force fed by the news media companies.

Amen!

The media loves to have us all petrified about leaving our homes, no matter what the destination.

Plus, I believe that some folks have no real interest in being outdoors, whether that's camping, hiking, fishing, hunting, etc. These folks must shudder at the thought of sleeping in a tent or having to start a campfire.

Survival of the fittest, I say.

Nature is indifferent to the presence of humans.

My ex is exactly like that. She sanot fathom the idea of sleeping under the stars. She often asked me "why do you like being outside, getting bitten by bugs, rained on, sleeping on the ground?" I usually just told her the alternative was plunking in front of a TV watching mindless drivel. He reply was "whats wrong with that?" Hence, she's an ex now

*giggles* I remember the first time I saw someone, freshly transplanted to my region, freak out when a cow mooed in her general direction. I don't think I helped when I told her that the only the brown and white ones were herbivores, the black and white ones where carnivores. She believed me.

Of course, it was a holstein that mooed at her. (For those that don't know cows, they are black and white.)

It got even better when I told her that cows were scared of deer because the only way to find out if it one of the rare meat eating deer to wait for it to pounce.


I admit it, I was mean as child.

Ignorance. Plain and simple. When I am in the wilderness, I sleep like a baby. Try doing that next to a city street at night!

I sleep well enough most nights regardless of the location, so long as I have my hand near my Glock or My Super Redhawk. This was not the case in Baghdad, though. You don't stop mortar rounds with a .44 mag.

One of the blokes here told me a story about being out in a swag one night and having a pack of hogs come through the camp. He woke up to the gentle nudging/rooting of one of the big sows trying to get into his swag with him apparently. He said he felt lucky she spooked instead of charged him, cuz there was piglets in the mob. He'd have been a lot happier to have had his hands on a gun or a big knife then, too. He said he darned near messed his swag (putting it in milder terms) when he popped his head out and was eye to eye with a 300 kg hog.

I never sleep very heavy anymore, even in my own bed in my home. It must be that silverback thing I reckon.

Humans are the learning animals - we believe and act on what we are taught. Mostly when we are young - though we can learn (just slower) later. By the time I was 12 I had shot much game and had killed, gutted and skinned my first deer. My father was an old-time, upstate New York hunter, trapper and fisherman. Some of my best memories were as a young boy, on an October evening, Dad would say, "Let's go get dinner." We'd each grab a .22 rifle, some bullets (I used his old single-shot Remington) and head to the woods. He would stick a salt and a pepper shaker in his "gunnin' coat." We'd go shoot two or three gray squirrels, skin them out, salt and pepper and jam onto a stick, start a fire and roast supper. I always carried my little sheath knife, a hatchet and the gun. He'd say, "Our great-great-grandfathers built this nation with no more tools than what you have right now - remember that." I remember that it gave me tremendous confidence that has lasted me my whole life! The wilderness has no troubling shadows for someone taught in that way - only provisions for those properly equipped - and you don't need much! It turns out that those experiences have also made me confident in the city. I can't say that the other way round works as well - for the "city" experts I know aren't worth a da*n in the woods!