The television program “Alone”

  

I forgot to mention the part about the participants carrying cameras.  They carry several each.  Part of the deal is they have to film everything they’re doing.  It never shows on screen, but I think support crews come to exchange camera data cards and batteries regularly.  As the weeks go by, the survivors get regular medical checkups as well.  Finding adequate food seems to be the biggest hurdle for most in this adventure.  It’s not uncommon for people to get pulled from the game by the medical team before they’re ready to go because they’ve lost too much weight to continue safely.  I also forgot to mention that all episodes of the show are available streaming on HULU.  The first season is a little patchy, but it gets better after that, as the participants get better.

 

Watching this show takes me first back to the boy scouts (in the 1950s, learning to live off the land), then to the later backpacking days.  I never tried to live off the land like these people (leave-no-trace camping is generally more appropriate now), but I did carry everything I needed into the wilderness to live alone for a few days at a time in the Colorado high country and be completely self-sufficient hiking back and forth over the Continental Divide.  Now I suddenly miss that and feel the pull.  Matt is storing my old backpack.  Maybe I need to pick that up from him, assemble the rest of my gear, and make another hike over Pawnee Pass.

 

But back to food.  A lot of small animals, and occasionally big ones, are harmed in the production of this show.  I’m a little squeamish about that part.  I know this is where our food comes from, most of us eat animals, but killing animals for entertainment is a little off-putting.  Killing animals as a food source for people that are otherwise starving; completely understandable.  So where does this leave me?  It leaves me enthralled with the concept of being left alone and having to find my own way to fire, water, and shelter; but I think I want to be the survivor who brings their own freeze-dried meals and lives as one with the bunny rabbits and squirrels.  :)