Primitive and modern outdoor skills

Quiting my job to live outdoors

2013-04-01

It's official. I just emailed my manager  today with the dates I'll be leaving. As of May 17'th I'll quit working in tech to live outdoors.

I'm going to spend the next year taking classes in various outdoor skills, going to primitive skills gatherings, and hanging out and sharing with as many outdoors and bush-craft enthusiasts as I can. I'm slowly building up an itinerary, though I also want to play it by ear some. My goal is to find out what's out there, and experiment with ways to live with the environment.

I'm really excited both about spending a lot more time sharing my love of this stuff with other people and learning from them, and spending a lot more time alone learning to understand the natural world better.

I've got a couple of cool classes scheduled for this summer. I plan to camp in National Forests, do some backpacking, definitely do some trips with almost no gear. I'll be taking some classes in various search and rescue skills as well as primitive survival skills. I want to train for ski patrol. I'm definitely going to try and get my California hunting license.

I'm planning to stay largely near California, though wandering farther a field at times (particularly towards the end of summer and into early fall), and playing things by ear. Now that I'm finally involved in a SAR team here in California I want to stick around and get more involved, not less.

The planning and prep for this, combined with a bit more load lately at work, is part of why I haven't been posting as often lately. Too much time prepping and not enough actually outdoors :). I definitely intend to keep posting, hopefully more than ever. My goal is to find a new balance between technology and living with/in the environment.

If you want to hang out and share skills, go on a trip with me, or have cool suggestions for ways to spend my time let me know!