I have seen this several times, and it never gets boreing. He is truely a fine craftsman, I especially like his door hinges !
Alone in the Wilderness
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Pretty awesome dude. I've already watched the first movie several times, but I didn't even know about the other two. Seeing him as an old guy is really pretty cool. I'll have to take the time to finish watching them all.
When I was a kid, I used to think that was the lifestyle I wanted, but I now realize that guys like Proenekke are cut from an entirely different fabric than most of us. I'd love to be that amazing, but I'll have to settle for letting my grandkids believe I am.
When I was a kid, I used to think that was the lifestyle I wanted, but I now realize that guys like Proenekke are cut from an entirely different fabric than most of us. I'd love to be that amazing, but I'll have to settle for letting my grandkids believe I am.
Started watching and couldn't quit. Pretty amazing. Something lots of us dream about, but don't have what it takes to do. Kudos to him.
As I recall, the other amazing thing is that he shot all the film (not videotape) himself. Set up a tripod, planned the shot, rolled the film, then stopped it. If he was canoeing off from shore, he had to take the shot, then paddle back to get the camera.
Sad to say, but my kids are already complaining about having DVD's. "Dad, when are you going to get Blu-Ray?" I could see if I was old, but the kids aren't even double digits yetquads said:
The local PBS station had another prior video that was filmed and narrated by the same person that did alone in the wilderness. It was about a hunt up in the alaskan wilderness in the twin lakes area, they didnt have much luck hunting and got straded for a few days waiting to get flown out, so they interviewed Dick Proneke and filmed his lifestyle as part of the hunting film. The hunting film wasnt that interesting, so its obvious that they decided to go back and do one focused on Dick using a combination of Dick's footage and their new footage. I think the reason the voiceover on the film is so strange is that its the filmmaker reading a script, not Dick. When they edited the film, its obvious in spots where things are a bit out of synch to improve the story and on occsaion I dont think the filmaker was adverse to using stock footage.
Dick reportedly worked on the alaskan pipeline project for a few years and nearly got blinded from an industrial accident, as soon as he recovered thats when he decided to go off in the wilderness, so he had some experience surviving up north prior to building his cabin. If he did work the pipeline, it was a union job and he may have had some sort of compensation for the injury and disability checks as well as some cash saved up from working on the project for a grubstake and ongoing expenses (even though they were pretty minimal).
Still an incredible story and interesting film.
Dick reportedly worked on the alaskan pipeline project for a few years and nearly got blinded from an industrial accident, as soon as he recovered thats when he decided to go off in the wilderness, so he had some experience surviving up north prior to building his cabin. If he did work the pipeline, it was a union job and he may have had some sort of compensation for the injury and disability checks as well as some cash saved up from working on the project for a grubstake and ongoing expenses (even though they were pretty minimal).
Still an incredible story and interesting film.
This part is great. I was going to post it in the woodshed for all the cutters but I didn't want to break the post up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbXb6grt9FE 1:20-1:48 Love these videos!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbXb6grt9FE 1:20-1:48 Love these videos!
Mesmerizing video. He's gotta be part polar bear..."a toasty 40 degrees". I'm curious about cooking - you never see it. In Disc 1 Part 5 3:00 mins - you see a 4-6 inch pipe belching smoke. Anybody see a cook stove?
Yes, he had a small stove. He had some sort of tin oven that he put on top of it to bake biscuits. He made lots of stews and ate fish from the lake. The book is very good reading.
- Oct 3, 2007
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fishingpol said:
I've really got to get the book-I've seen the PBS show at least 5 times now. The thing that amazes me every time is that the guy made HINGES out of wood
I read a little about him on Wikipedia and apparently he was a diesel mechanic in Alaska and a damn good one-one of those guys who could just fix anything. I guess he just took to wilderness skills naturally. I'd love to go and see the cabin one day.
Great films and an admirable guy.
How do you think he would have done with codes enforcement? Funny how we all seem to admire that independent, do it yourself freedom but it's been restricted to protect ourselves from ourselves.
How do you think he would have done with codes enforcement? Funny how we all seem to admire that independent, do it yourself freedom but it's been restricted to protect ourselves from ourselves.
fishingpol said:
It is. If you liked that then check out (broken link removed to http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/lacl/proenneke.pdf), (Warning big PDF but also free). These are from Dick's actual journals rather than Sam Keith's treatment of Dick's journals. Very worth the time.
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