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PART ONE

A TRAIL LESS TRAVELLED

The trail through the forest was rough and long unused. In spots the mosses and ground vines had so overgrown it that only the broad scars on the tree trunks, where the lumberman’s axe had blazed them for a sign, served to distinguish it from a score of radiating vistas.

— Charles G.D. Roberts from “The Heart of the Ancient Wood,” 1900

When you make a pact with yourself that you will never take a job that doesn’t entail some sort of wilderness travel, it narrows your options down considerably. It also compromises your ability to make decent money — if that’s what’s important to you. For me it was the quest for adventure, the open trail, and no boundaries. Money would eventually trickle in somewhere along the way. Survival had a dual meaning — surviving in the bush and surviving in the mainstream. Unfortunately, my wilderness skills evolved quicker than my ability to adjust to civil living.

It’s one thing to seek out adventure for personal recreation and satisfaction, but when you make a vocation of it, the dynamics change considerably. Suddenly there are clients to look after, and responsibilities and expectations, and it’s no longer a vacation. Well, it is and it isn’t; you try to make it as enjoyable as possible, sometimes against incredible odds. The one thing I’ve learned along the trail is that you will encounter the unusual, the unexpected, and the untalented. Through all of this, I remain a student of Nature, and recoil at the assertion that I may be anything better than this, or an expert in any field. I am a dedicated survivalist; however, I prefer not to be called that. My ultimate goal for myself, for my family, and inevitably for those who choose to travel in the wilderness with me, is to submit to the pleasures of backwoods travel instead of fighting the elements that define it.

There have been good adventures, and there have been adventures I’d sooner forget. Things happen that you don’t expect while wandering through paradise, and they have to be dealt with accordingly. The unwritten laws have not changed for the modern adventurer. Trails and Tribulations explores the more obtuse adventure, the senselessness of wilderness politics, and the sometimes psychotic behaviour of the self-seeker.