Out of the Wild: The Alaska Experiment

If you're like me, about to start a long hike on the A.T. and don't have a lot of long distance hiking experience, I found the Discovery series "Out of the Wild: The Alaska Experiment" not only very educational but also pretty darn entertaining. At least educational from an amateur's perspective on what mistakes not to make. You can find it on Netflix if you have it. Here is a description of the show I that copied:

"Deserted in the harsh Alaskan interior, nine outdoor enthusiasts must rely on their resourcefulness to make it back to civilization alive, foraging for food, building makeshift shelters and battling plummeting temperatures along the way. Over the course of one grueling month, several team members give up completely while the others valiantly struggle to overcome their crippling hunger and exhaustion."

After reading a lot of treads in this forum, I found watching the series answers a lot of them. For example, those asking about what kind of pace you should start out with? It becomes very clear in the few couple of episodes that the trek they are going on is not a race. There is a guy who wants to keep pushing the group but in turn realizes he's forcing people to push themselves beyond their bounds and he ends up giving up. A slow pace is key. It also is presented in a pretty honest way that exposes the emotions of what you might go through. I don't expect hiking the A.T. will be nearly this difficult, since we don't have to hunt our own food, but the physical and emotional challenges will be similar. Also, you have to see the black guy who bear maces himself in the first episode. I laughed for days after that because I could see that happening to myself. :)

Just throwing it out there if you haven't seen it. I watched all 8 episodes in two days. I felt like this was the closest thing I've watched to what we will be doing. More so than Survivorman or Man vs. Wild. Good luck all.

Hiking the AT will bear little resemblance to the reality TV show "Out of the Wild" unless you're a drama queen.

I called one of my hiking buddies in NY to see how he was bearing the snow storm and whether he was using his wilderness survival skills and he said "yeah i just picked up one of those large iced honey buns i think i should make it"
There werent many times i was in "survival mode" its a walk in the woods

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Originally Posted by 4eyedbuzzard

Hiking the AT will bear little resemblance to the reality TV show "Out of the Wild" unless you're a drama queen.

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Pretty much agree. I will say, however, that this morning I watched some re-runs of Survivorman. The very first one was getting lost in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Not much different from the Appalachians except more exposed rock faces. Good information for the novice. I found myself almost quoting him and then giving reasons and additional information for why you need to do what you need to do. But you practically need to watch them all to get all the advice you need.

Dude, its just walkin' (a famous quote from Lone Wolf). Be prepared, have the correct gear/mindset, learn correct hiking skills and God willing, you will not only survive, but enjoy yourself.

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"I will say, however, that this morning I watched some re-runs of Survivorman. The very first one was getting lost in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Not much different from the Appalachians except more exposed rock faces."

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An interesting take; FWIW, they seemed quite different to me.
(I do agree with the emerging consensus on the original topic)

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Originally Posted by NiteRaven

If you're like me, about to start a long hike on the A.T. and don't have a lot of long distance hiking experience, I found the Discovery series "Out of the Wild: The Alaska Experiment" not only very educational but also pretty darn entertaining. At least educational from an amateur's perspective on what mistakes not to make. You can find it on Netflix if you have it. Here is a description of the show I that copied:
Just throwing it out there if you haven't seen it. I watched all 8 episodes in two days. I felt like this was the closest thing I've watched to what we will be doing. More so than Survivorman or Man vs. Wild. Good luck all.

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We just finished the series on Netflix too. I agree: very entertaining. At first I thought "hey, I could do that (and with my experiences hiking and camping I truly believed that). After all, why carry around 60 pound packs? In one episode (I think when Caroline left) they finally got rid of a 25 pound cast iron pot!
But then the snow, cold, and ice hit here last week. Maybe, I thought, trying to shovel around my stuck vehicle, I really don't want to do that afterall. Thanks for bringing this up.

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Originally Posted by freefall

Pretty much agree. I will say, however, that this morning I watched some re-runs of Survivorman. The very first one was getting lost in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Not much different from the Appalachians except more exposed rock faces. Good information for the novice. I found myself almost quoting him and then giving reasons and additional information for why you need to do what you need to do. But you practically need to watch them all to get all the advice you need.

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For all the survival shows at there I go for SurvivorMan. Intersting and somewhat educational when compared to the others out there.

As for the show itself:
I found myself shaking my head in disappointment on more than one occasion.
I just wanted all their nice expensive gear and to make out with the pretty Asian girl!

I watched that show and thought it was pretty good. I couldn't believe all the heavy **** they lugged around. You'd think after a week or so they would have figured out what they really needed... To top it off they were stuck using tarps for backpacks... That had to have sucked.

When I first saw the cute blonde jump out of the chopper on the first episode I thought for sure she wouldn't make it. And I thought the hunter/fisherman outdoorsy dude with the beard was going to make it all the way.. Boy was I wrong.

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Originally Posted by NiteRaven

If you're like me, about to start a long hike on the A.T. and don't have a lot of long distance hiking experience, I found the Discovery series "Out of the Wild: The Alaska Experiment" not only very educational but also pretty darn entertaining. At least educational from an amateur's perspective on what mistakes not to make. You can find it on Netflix if you have it. Here is a description of the show I that copied:

"Deserted in the harsh Alaskan interior, nine outdoor enthusiasts must rely on their resourcefulness to make it back to civilization alive, foraging for food, building makeshift shelters and battling plummeting temperatures along the way. Over the course of one grueling month, several team members give up completely while the others valiantly struggle to overcome their crippling hunger and exhaustion."

After reading a lot of treads in this forum, I found watching the series answers a lot of them. For example, those asking about what kind of pace you should start out with? It becomes very clear in the few couple of episodes that the trek they are going on is not a race. There is a guy who wants to keep pushing the group but in turn realizes he's forcing people to push themselves beyond their bounds and he ends up giving up. A slow pace is key. It also is presented in a pretty honest way that exposes the emotions of what you might go through. I don't expect hiking the A.T. will be nearly this difficult, since we don't have to hunt our own food, but the physical and emotional challenges will be similar. Also, you have to see the black guy who bear maces himself in the first episode. I laughed for days after that because I could see that happening to myself. :)

Just throwing it out there if you haven't seen it. I watched all 8 episodes in two days. I felt like this was the closest thing I've watched to what we will be doing. More so than Survivorman or Man vs. Wild. Good luck all.

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going slow isnt neccessarily the key, but rather losing expectations or dealing with dissapointing results. have no timetable. Have flexibility to take many zeros.

do not get caught up on keeping a schedule or mileage. you are going to be out there for 5 months plus a little more. injuries and illness could push this to 6 months plus. accept that.

set me down anywhere on earth anytime with any gear and ill outlast your wildest imaginations and in any case that dosnt end in death, survive well. their is a formula to survival that is exspressed as an art. but even the most rudimentry understanding comes long before knowing anything about dandylions or desalinization. and is the formost tool in mans bag.to be able to see the base ingreedients of a landscape or seascape at their most simple and then add the body of exsperience learned with a specific plan is the key to life. the shows show nothing of importance. they are a poor attempt to show what not to do with a limitation of entertainment value. in all of the shows, digging in the ground for food or collecting freash water by digging at the high tide mark to the seepage has never been shown. yet every inch of sandy coastline in the world contains all the freash water, sitting in a thin layer atop the salt water ever needed for a man to survive. never has saneing with a simple tee shirt and two sticks been shown.

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Originally Posted by mweinstone

set me down anywhere on earth anytime with any gear and ill outlast your wildest imaginations and in any case that dosnt end in death, survive well... never has saneing with a simple tee shirt and two sticks been shown.

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"matt vs wild?" I'd watch.