Memory Lane, what started it all off for you?

[JonM]

5 years old, camping with my father and his buddies in Algonquin park... catching boatloads of trout and cooking on an open fire. Tons of wildlife.. We'd bushwack for hours, finding trails and old logging roads. Good times... still love it 35 years later.

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

Scouts, just getting out there on two week summer camps , lochearn, glen lednock, Fordell Firs, somewhere in angus, oban coast islands all great fun. Best was Ascog bay near Tighnabruaich. Mussels for brekky, lunch and dinner with bivys made on the beachside out of bracken and branches.

Nick

 

[crazyclimber]

John Fenna and Sleapy Weasel - same here! Enid Blyton (famous five / secret seven) when I was very young, later Swallows and Amazons. I always wanted to get a canoe and drift away down the river Wye... had several arguements with my parents when they refused to let me. Was probably a good thing considering I was maybe 10!
Got more into hillwalking, high altitude and climbing but still spent nights in the local woods under a tarp. Then started reading Ray Mears and another book called The Survival Handbook by Jim Aitken and John Muston - started putting those skills into action. All went from there really!

 

[crazyclimber]

and Nichola - The children of cherry tree farm! I'd completely forgotten about that one! Summer days stacking hay in the fields before the high tea... the adventures of milking cows and riding horses...
Brought back some memories

 

[Mike Ameling]

I grew up on a small farm out here in rural Iowa. So I have been "runnin' the woods" since I was old enough to run. Then I watched the old TV shows Davie Crockett and Daniel Boone. That got me interested the historical aspects. Now the Living History aspects are a major part of my life - from recreating the early tools at the blacksmith forge, to using them in the field.

So the main reason was growing up on the farm, and having access to fields, woods, and a creek. Then it was overcoming how real history is taught in school - that "memorize names/dates/places" stuff.

The Boy Scouts were never an option in my area - no close groups. But finding a book called Indian Handicrafts by Ben Hunt really helped. The rest has been moving from the "book larning" to "field experience".

Just my humble thoughts to share. Take them as such.

Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands

 

[locum76]

Scouts, just getting out there on two week summer camps , lochearn, glen lednock, Fordell Firs, somewhere in angus, oban coast islands all great fun. Best was Ascog bay near Tighnabruaich. Mussels for brekky, lunch and dinner with bivys made on the beachside out of bracken and branches.

Nick

i did my backwoodsman in the scouts too. amazingly i never got covered in ticks when crashing in the bracken bivvy. it was in the woods at a camp near Comrie.

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

Wait a minute, it wasn't summer 82 or 83 and with Moifieth scouts ? A PC was the leader and the fires were all built with stones from the river and we swam in the Lednock with wood collectionduty popular as there were two nude sunbathers at a pool near the river and they drove an old blue volvo ?

Nick

 

[locum76]

Wait a minute, it wasn't summer 82 or 83 and with Moifieth scouts ? A PC was the leader and the fires were all built with stones from the river and we swam in the Lednock with wood collectionduty popular as there were two nude sunbathers at a pool near the river and they drove an old blue volvo ?

Nick

Nope, it was 1988. it was chucking down with rain the whole time (enough to be able to shower outdoors). unfortunately there were no nudes and we had fires in barrels. and it was the Pittenweem scouts.

 

[suburban bushwacker]

I caught the bug for 'living off the land' as I called it then after seeing a report on Nationwide (probably in 1975) where James Hogg (one of the reporters) agreed to be marooned on a Scottish Island and try to survive for 14 days.

Wow i'd totally forgotten that! it was amazing i was totally enthralled.

What got me into the great outdoors was Forest School Camps.
did anyone else go?

 

[oilyrag]

I moved to the New Forest when I was 4, my Dad took myself and my brother out first of all until he was certain we could look after ourselves. My mother jokes today about standing on the step ringing a school hand bell to let us know tea was ready. A couple years later, when I was 9 I bought 'How to Survive' from the Puffin book club at school and only threw it out this year as the binding had totally gone, it lived most it's 26 years in a sac or bergen.

Those were the days when an 11 year old could be alone deep in the forest until 10pm without his parents worrying. I had a WWII gas mask bag, penknife I found at Poole Quay, home made catapult, matches, magnifying glass, empty jam jar, 2 lids (one with holes in), string, candle and cagoule. Every enclosure, clearing and trail has a memory that brings back a wry smile.

 

[fred gordon]

My biggest influence into the big out doors and the one who showed me how to enjoy it and not be afraid and still I have the fondest memories of all those times is....................MY DAD! The Worlds Best

No! That was my dad!!! I agree though. It was my father who took us out into the countryside showed us how to cook over an open fire in the woods and use a knife safely. How to tickle trout and hundreds of other things I've probably forgotten.