Dick Proenneke in Alone in the Wilderness

[Music] it was good to be back in the wilderness again where everything seems at peace I was alone just me and the animals it was a great feeling free once more to plan and do is at least beyond was all around me my dream was a dream no longer I suppose I was here because this was something I had to do not just dream about it but do it I supposed to I was here to test myself not that I had never done it before but this time it was to be a more thorough on the lasting examination what was i capable of that i didn't know yet could i truly enjoy my own company for an entire year and was i equal to everything this wild land could throw at me i had seen its moods in late spring summer and early fall but what about the winter would I love the isolation then with its bones stabbing cold its ghostly silence at age 51 I intended to find out [Music] another hundred yards and I broke out of the brush to my pile of cabin logs I had got last July I sat down and leaned against them and while I chewed on a chunk of smoked salmon my eyes wandered over the peeling logs that had been a big job last summer hard work but I enjoyed it it was cool with the timber and there were mornings I could see my breath I had harvested the logs from a stand of spruce less than 300 yards from where they were now piled the logs were a great deal lighter now than they were then and could be handled easily enough it was in the late spring of 1968 the dick pronoun key decided to leave civilization behind to live in a pristine land yet unchanged by man and to roam a wilderness through which few other humans have passed while carving out a new life in this remote Valley known as twin lakes dick would not only keep daily journals but would film his Alaskan Odyssey with the help of a tripod mounted camera it was time to be moving on I was anxious to get to Spike's cabin to see if it was the way I had left it last September [Music] about 500 yards more through the spruce and the willow brush and there it was it's weather grade moose antlers spreading just below the peak of the roof a tin can on its stove pipe and its windows were boarded up the cabin had everything needed to set up housekeeping until my own cabin was completed a good stove two bunks and a roof that didn't leak I carved a mallet head out of a spruce chunk ordered a hole in it and fitted a handle to it this would be a useful pounding tool and I hadn't had to pack it in either the same with the handles are made for the wood augers the wide bladed chisel and the files much easier to pack without the handles already fitted to them I cleared the brush and hauled up beach gravel and spread it to a depth of several inches over an area roughly 20 feet by 20 feet I felt had made the best possible choice it would be 11 feet by 15 feet its front door would face northwest and the big window would look down to the lake a pile of logs which ones to start with to make a nuts fit properly you can't rush make several saw cuts an inch or two apart almost down to the pencil line and whack out the chunks with an axe until the notch is roughly formed then comes the finished work the careful Custom Fit I have just the tool for the job [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] one log in particular required considerable Ewing to straighten it I must say white spruce works up nicely with an axe and draw knife enough for the seats the job has begun tomorrow should see more working and less figuring [Music] [Applause] I glided silently along over a different pathway [Music] the cabin is growing 28 logs are in place 44 should do it except for the gable ends and the roof logs it really looks a mess to see the butts extending way beyond the corners but I will trim them off later you can't rush it I don't want these logs looking as though a Boy Scout with turned loose on them with a dull hatchet finally back to the cabin building I'm a better builder than I am a farmer anyway 38 logs are in place and I am almost ready for the eave logs I'll cut the openings for the big window the two smaller ones and the opening for the door five logs were very special these were the 20 footers which along with our gable ends would be the backbone of my roof two would be eave logs do would be purling logs and the last and straightest would be the race law as it stands now the cabin looks as though logs are sticking out all over it like the quills of a rhino porcupine I woke up this morning surprised to see four inches of snow on the ground looks like I finished my fireplace just in time it's a frosty morning at 23 degrees 35 degrees in my cooler box and the lake water at 42 degrees but the pressure is off the fireplace is built and what little there is yet to do can be done regardless of the weather

Channel: swererbob

Views: 12,619,622

Keywords: alone in the wilderness, Alaska, wilderness, build your own cabin

Id: iYJKd0rkKss

Length: 9min 33sec (573 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 27 2009

Reddit Comments

[u/Jack_Burtons_Elbow]

When I was a kid without cable this came on the local PBS station. I was mesmerized from the first moment on.

The amount of work he accomplished was truly amazing: "First thing I did was cut a few cords of wood and hauled it all back to the cabin, then I carved a door lock to keep out the bears, then I finished the window sills and weeded the garden and planted some tomatoes/onions/potatoes, took a hike up the mountain and found some berries so I picked the good ones, did a spot of fishing...then I had breakfast"

[u/Vroonkle]

This was posted here about 2 months ago, and posted on a couple other subs recently as well. Since then, I have watched all his videos several times. I also keep looking at land for sale in remote areas. This dude did something I think most men have on their bucket list.

[u/[deleted]]

link to full 1 hour version of the film

[u/Awesomnuss]

Oh man this reminds me of the sundays with the grandparents, grandpa falls asleep on the remote while "This Old House" was on. Didn't enjoy it much when I was a kid but once me and the wife bought a house I learned that I paid more attention then I thought! Fixed our toilet, installed crown molding, new water heater and carpets! Thanks grandpa! Haha

[u/[deleted]]

Oh man I love this documentary so much. A normal person would need to spend that much time out in the wilderness just to get the kind of shots he did. This absolute lad built an entire log cabin by hand at the same time.

I remember watching this the first time thinking how is this little guy hauling all of this wood around and cutting it. Then you see him with his arms out half way through and he's absolutely yolked. Not gym yolked, just fucking work yolked.

[u/puppehplicity]

The National Park Service has this video, the follow-up video, and a collection of Proenneke's journals available on their site. I really recommend checking them out!

https://www.nps.gov/lacl/learn/historyculture/richard-l-proenneke.htm

edit: It appears that the NPS no longer hosts the journals directly, and instead give the information to find the books at your local library. I will see if I can find their old link to the journals themselves when I get home from work.

[u/RamcoNorris]

His cabin is still there and preserved as he left it. https://www.nps.gov/lacl/learn/historyculture/upload/CABIN-3_stitch.jpg

https://www.nps.gov/lacl/learn/historyculture/proenneke-cabin-virtual-tour.htm

https://www.nps.gov/lacl/learn/historyculture/proennekes-cabin.htm

[u/RODjij]

My dad is a carpenter, and I stumbled upon this one day when he was watching it. It's an amazing documentary, very educational, and once in a while I'll put it on.

[u/feathersonfire]

I remember watching this with a friend on a lazy Sunday afternoon with a joint in hand. That combined with the music visuals made me serenely relaxed.

It also made me realize that I am hugely lazy and very unskilled.