John Michael Musselman Naomi
Lynx Vilden
JT Beggs
Photographer - Eric Valli
The
“I awoke from a version of sleep to feel snow on my face! My only comfort was that snow meant the rain had passed. I had escaped from our cave, escaped from the only thing offering us any protection from the storm. After the fire had gone out and the stories had finished, the cave had seemed so much smaller. The people next to me had become not so much „comforting friends‟ but more „claustrophobically close‟. My pillow transformed back into a log and was not the charming piece of bedding as it had been an hour ago. I ran to the fire, desperate for air. It had seemed like a good plan. Now, there was just me under a looming sky of snow, my felted blanket just about covering me. Grateful for the small fur rim on my buckskin hood I held it close to my neck hugging my heated jagged rock for warmth. Even though I was cold and shivering I couldn‟t help but feel blessed to have the chance to feel so close the elements”.
Bushcraft Magazine
22
Although I try, it is hard to truly express what the experience meant to me, how it affected me, changed me, even. It was the most intense and incredible journey of my life so far. For four months we had been learning primitive and traditional skills, in Eastern Washington state, right on the edge of the North Cascades and working our way towards living an entirely Stone Age existence for the final month. We had heard about the course after a chance meeting with our teacher, Lynx and her colleague, Rico, in a park on the outskirts of London. They just happened to be visiting family in England. The last thing we expected to see was a couple walking through any part of London dressed from head to toe in buckskins! Prior to that, Dan and I had been learning bushcraft and outdoor skills for four years or so. Then, a short while later, my partner Daniel and I found our-
www.bushcraft-magazine.co.uk