Nothing lasts forever, not a human life, a culture, or even a star. It’s hard to predict cosmic events like the end of our sun with any accuracy. However, we can certainly make some educated guesses about when our society or even our current world economy might end. I’m not saying you should go underground today, but when I started looking at the issue seriously, the results were pretty alarming.

How close are we to SHTF? We’re already there. Realistically the world as we know it could end quickly on any given day. Some ends are fast, like a nuke or an asteroid. Others are slow, as the downfall of a society that slowly collapses under its own lack of progress. We live in an era of the latter.  

The Time We Almost Died

Being prepared for emergencies is all about doing what you can. Sometimes the right choice in a disaster is just listening to your instincts, and nothing can prepare you for that. Worse still are the times when there’s nothing you can do at all. Humans almost disappeared once before.

Catastrophic events happen all the time. Mount Vesuvius blew, and no one had any clue what to do about it. However, that was only threatening one city.

More frightening is the time, about seventy thousand years ago (give or take a couple thousand), a supervolcano named Toba blew in what’s now called Indonesia. The explosion was so massive Toba laid a six-centimeter thick layer of ash, which can be seen to this day over South Asia, the Indian Ocean, the Arabian, and South China Seas. Best estimates say that the earth probably went six years with little to no sunlight.

Rage Against the Dying of the Light

Toba could have killed off the remains of humanity except for the fortunate fact that we’re opportunistic omnivores. The people of that age probably ate dying animals for a long time before the sun came back. Is it any wonder that we have a fear of the dark ingrained in our species consciousness?

Studies say we dropped as low as perhaps a thousand people left on the planet. One study even says we might have come closer to extinction than that. We may have only had about forty breeding pairs of humans left on earth for a while. If that’s true, then you, me, and every one of the seven and a half billion people alive today come from a long line of lucky and motivated survivors.

You have to start somewhere if you want to have a chance at surviving a horrific event. The plus side is that it’s in your genes to be a survivor. Unfortunately, a lack of preparation can kill you. I suggest you try the Sustain Supply Co. Premium Family Emergency Survival Kit form Amazon as a first step. Sadly, you won’t make it six years on one bag if you need to get out of dodge. luckily, surviving the initial seventy-two hours in relative comfort will help you get organized for the long haul.

The Doomsday Clock

Hopefully, you’ve heard of The Doomsday Clock, a symbolic representation maintained by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. In 1943 the international group of scientists, known as the Chicago Atomic Scientists, developed this potent image to help people understand that unchecked science and technology are putting us at serious extinction-level risk.

Doubtless, the decision was influenced by their time working on the Manhattan Project and the nuclear weapons that would go on to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The clock first saw a physical format in 1947. Since then, the Doomsday Clock has been a physical and symbolic representation of danger based on what the scientific community feels are genuine threats to humankind.

The likelihood of a global catastrophe caused by humans is shown in the familiar form of clock hands. Midnight is the time we never want to see the hands reach. It represents any hypothetical event that’s catastrophic on a global scale. If no one takes action to avoid the issues they identify, these events are almost inevitable. The setting is based on factors like global nuclear war risk, climate change, progressive scientific advances like AI, and politics.

Wherever you are on your preparedness journey, there’s always more you can do to help your own survival. I suggest strongly, in light of things like the Doomsday Clock, that you work as hard and fast as you can to be better prepared. You may want to invest in a ninety-day emergency ration kit like the Eden Farms Emergency Supply Kit on Amazon. Even a nuclear bunker wouldn’t do you any good without food inside.

Two Minutes to Midnight

Since 2018, the Doomsday Clock has stayed at two minutes to midnight. The time is based on the state of the world and how at-risk we are to end our species. Members of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists meet twice a year to determine where the hands on the clock belong.

Since it’s first physical setting in 1947, seven minutes to midnight, the clock has changed twenty-three times. However, the time didn’t change last year, and it hasn’t changed this year either (so far). According to these scientists, humanity is very nearly at the point of no return, and no one has taken sufficient actions to change that in some time. They believe “the probability of a global catastrophe is very high.”

Surely You Jest

Far too many people have delusions about why no disaster will ever strike them. Perhaps you don’t live near a fault, ocean, mountain, stormy area, or another likely catastrophe. You’ve stayed away from nuclear facilities and big cities, and every problem you can see. Good job. You’re ahead of the game, but that doesn’t mean you’re safe.

Even if you don’t know that you’ll need it for sure, stocking up on emergency supplies is smart. If you’re alone or only have one other person to help care for, then I suggest checking out the Everlit Two-Person Disaster Preparedness Kit I found on Amazon. Take the steps you need. Be prepared for any disaster and raise your chances of being among the lucky survivors.

The world has almost ended due to humans more than once. It will happen again whether we dodge the bullet or not. Here are a few people who saved the entire planet from a TEOTWAWKI event that could have killed us all.

People Who Saved The World:

• Stanislov Petrov prevented a nuclear war in 1983 when he followed his instincts. Instead of reporting a missile warning to his superiors that showed the USA was attacking Russia with nukes that would have provoked a nuclear response, he turned the alarm off. Petrov told his superiors there had been a malfunction in the new system. It turned out to be true.
• James Blunt, yes, the singer, once refused an order that could have led to a significant altercation, or even World War III. Instead of forcing a conflict with entrenched Russian soldiers when the order came down, he saw the risk of attacking and refused though he risked a court-martial in so doing.
• Vasili Arkhipov also saved the world from a major nuclear war in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. When his submarine dove out of range of surface communications, American forces were shooting (non-lethal depth charges) at it. Arkhipov was the commander who refused to fire a nuclear weapon at Americans. Meanwhile, the other two commanders wanted to fire the nuke. The decision was later hailed as one that prevented a third world war.

From Copernicus to Gott

Pinning down the exact expiration date of humanity is tough at best. How do we determine the chances that things will fall apart in our lifetime? J. Richard Gott, an astrophysicist from Princeton, thinks he has the answer.

As a student of the Copernican Theory, Gott believes that, as the Washington Post explains it, “We are not privileged observers of the world around us. We don’t occupy a unique place in the universe. We are profoundly ordinary. We are not special.”

Copernicus was a brilliant scientific mind and great mathematician who created the heliocentric model of the galaxy. In short, he was the first to tell people that Earth is not the center of the universe. Though people called it blasphemy, his theory was proven right over and over again. This idea inspired Gott to create his formula.

The Gott Formula

In 1969 Richard Gott visited the Great Wall of China. It was there he first thought of applying the Copernican Principle to things and events around him. Basically, his formula assumes that since we’re not special, we aren’t standing at the beginning of the end of anything. Instead, we’re in the middle ninety-five percent of its lifespan.

The thing that makes this equation unique is that it doesn’t account for fluctuations like human behavior. Gott’s Formula is purely statistical. He’s applied it to everything from the Berlin Wall (before it fell) to how long Broadway shows will run with stunning accuracy.

By Richard’s calculation, humanity has somewhere between about 5,000 and 7.8 eight million years left in its lifespan. That may seem like a large window, but it’s not. In terms of the lifespan of a planet or universe, it’s not even a blink. Alarmingly, this calculation only gives the space program another forty-eight years at most. Hence, we probably won’t be expanding our empire to the stars unless we get on the ball right now. Hopefully, he’s wrong about that.

Optimism Quashed

Looking at this optimistic view, you may think that even five thousand years is a long time, and you have no worries. However, the end of the last surviving member of a species is not the same as the most substantial part of its decline. In short, the SHTF scenario we all fear would happen long before the final human breathes their last breath.

Global Warming & Climate Change

Unless you are a non-believer in science, then you understand the threat of Global Warming and Climate Change is very real. What you may not realize is that in spite of the enormous damages it’s doing to our planet, you can help stem the tide.

Preventing an inevitable global catastrophe that is likely to destroy all life as we know it requires everyone to give up things they don’t wish to go without. For example, half or more of the time you spend in your car. More on that in a moment.

As a prepper, you know you have to do everything you can to be ready. Going a step further and actually preventing your small part of an extinction event is just the natural progression of being prepared. Once you have all the equipment, you need to survive, like this AuricampEmergency Survival and First Aid Kit from Amazon, look into other ways to save yourself. 

2030

The risk of extreme drought, wildfires, floods, and food shortages for hundreds of millions of people will only increase as time passes if we don’t make serious changes. Specifically, fossil fuel emissions and other pollutants need to be cut out of our future plans. We have to reduce 45% of the global emissions by 2030 to stop this from getting worse.

Failure to make these changes is the same as signing yourself and every living human up for heatwaves, superstorms, flooding on a near-biblical scale, and other side effects. Famine, drought, flooding, and wars for the remaining resources are going to happen if everyone doesn’t change the way they live. Unless you die soon, these things will happen in your lifetime. Some are happening now.

In short, to answer the question again, I can say this. According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we’ve already reached one frightening and far-reaching plateau with a 1.5-degree temperature rise globally. It will get worse. That means that we are already in the midst of an SHTF scenario. It just happens to be the slow version instead of the rapid easy to see variant.

Final Thoughts

There are a million articles that argue, from a personal standpoint, when the author thinks that society will end. I wanted to take a broader and less personal approach here. You can watch the news for yourself to see the concern of the day. Instead, I looked into what the great thinkers of our era have to say about the whole world. Regardless of whether any given event causes our extinction as a species, we’re dealing with a massive SHTF scenario now.

No one said it had to happen all at once. People watch too much TV and expect a neat two-hour package of special effects to be included in a catastrophe of global proportions. Humanity is doomed. Whether we go out with a bang, or a long drawn-out whine that lasts centuries, all species end. With commitment and good emergency preparation, you can help prolong our lifespan and your own.

It doesn’t matter what you believe, or which scenario you find most likely. Something always happens eventually. Are you ready?

Life isn’t working out, and you’ve decided to run away and make a go of it in the woods. This is not something to be taken lightly. Nor should you disappear without a trace if there are any other options. Choosing an outdoor life can be pleasant and peaceful. Alternately, without access to medical care and other essential services, many people simply won’t make it.

I can tell you from experience that while most people do just fine on a quick camping trip. Sadly, even those who think they have the skills can quickly end up hurt, sick, or dead. Living in the woods should never be a go-to option. Instead, consider it only as a last resort unless you’re the sort of person who dreams of (and works toward) becoming a self-sufficient hermit.

Can you run away and live in the woods? There are two questions to answer here. Firstly is it possible to run away and live in the woods? The answer is yes. It can be done. Secondly, is it legal to run away and live in the woods? The answer is usually no because other people or the government own the land. It’s not legal to live off someone else’s land. If you own property or have permission, then it’s okay. 

Legal Issues

The most troublesome problem with running away to the wild is ownership. While it’s a beautiful dream to believe that people cannot own the sky above or the dirt below their feet, in reality, you can still end up in jail for trespassing or stealing from a person or entity that owns the land.

If you are fortunate enough to own a parcel of land or have a friend who will allow it, then you’re fine. The problem with this approach is limited resources. You cannot legally leave your land you have permission to hunt, fish, or even find water. Those who have abundant water, space, resources, and skills would be fine living this way.

Indeed, our ancestors lived for longer than you might expect without modern conveniences. However, it bears noting that they also typically lived much shorter life spans. Nevertheless, Australopithecus, one of our earliest ancestors, began living in forests, among other regions, as much as three million years ago. Housing and permanent settlement weren’t even common until about ten thousand years ago, and there are tribes of nomads living on the Earth today.

Laws

Most often, if you’re caught ‘squatting’ on public lands, you’ll be asked to move along. Though they may be understaffed, forest rangers do check over the areas under their charge regularly. If they find you on national land, they’re obligated to ask you to move along.

The laws are clear about other people’s property, including the vast tracts of land owned by the government. However, there is no particular law that requires you to have a job or live in a house.

Should you plan to raise children this way, you may run into some issues that have to do with schooling, beds being off of floors, and adequate shelter. Know that you could lose your child custody for truly living wild, free, and homeless with a kid. I’m not going to weigh in on that issue personally. I think kids need survival skills, too, but that sort of risk is up to the parents and children involved. As a single adult, couple, or group, things are different.

Places You Can Live That Aren’t Quite The Woods

Sometimes people consider this option because they have a genuine need to escape the place they live now. That’s perfectly valid. In a perfect world, no one would ever need to escape, and I wouldn’t have a reason to write these articles. Instead, it would all be camping tips. Meanwhile, back here, in reality, life isn’t that smooth.

Whether the world has ended, or yours has fallen apart, people have plenty of reasons to want to live wild. Choosing an outdoor life may simply seem like the only choice you have left. Before you go full mountain man (or woman), there may be some other options.

Not The Woods

• A Homeless Shelter- If you’re losing your home, then perhaps a less extreme way to get on your feet is to get the social services of a shelter. If your situation is abusive, consider calling the police or a shelter. There are places to go, whether you’re a man, woman, family, or child.
• Join a Commune- Not every commune is a crazy cult. There are plenty of people out there who wish to live together on one piece of land that is jointly owned.
• Consider WWOOF- The Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms always need more hands tending their lands. You can trade the sweat off your brow for the chance to learn useful skills along with room and board.
• Search Out Opportunities- Many employers offer room and board. Likewise, if you have a degree and skills, there may be chances to join the Peace Corps or a similar organization.
• Job Corps- If you’re between eighteen and twenty-four years old, you can go live and work at Job Corps and get a career started.

These are just a few ideas. There are plenty of other solutions if you look for them. Often people may feel they have no other option than to run away. Wild-life isn’t easy, and most people have no clue how much effort it will take to truly make it work.

There are always other options. Carnivals and magazine sales companies hire people to travel around with no roots and no previous experience required. Just make sure you want a wild life, not just a different life before you try running away to the woods.

How To Survive Wild Life: The Beginning

Naturally, if the world has ended, and there are no more boundaries beyond what a person can enforce with their own strength and skills. Those who have the desire, skills, and need can absolutely manage to live wild. In fact, people do it all the time. We’ll assume you’ve found a legal place to live your life out in peace and quiet.

Get yourself an excellent internal frame backpack like the TETON Sports Explorer 4000 you can get on Amazon to pack all your gear inside. You may want to stash a few emergency rations inside, but mostly you need equipment and skills to use what you have. 

What should you pack in your forever bug-out bag? Well, Some needles and a lot of well-waxed thread that will stand the test of time to fix the bag or your clothing would be one of my first picks. You’ll also want a way to start fires for cooking and warmth.

Eating & Drinking

I suggest you get a handful of these Uberleben Zünden Fire Starter sets from Amazon. Each one is good for twelve thousand sparks or more. You don’t want to run out of heat in winter, or the ability to sanitize water, even if you’re a hundred percent okay with eating raw foraged food the rest of your life. 

Just surviving long enough to start to do better is the important thing at first. You’ll need something to cook food inside. Despite the weight, it’s probably worth carrying a cast iron pan and/or cooking pot with you. They last forever.

Add a good canteen. Choose a durable but lightweight metal, and some water purification tabs to get you through at the beginning of your journey.

Other Tools You Need

Assuming that you’re not a tool-making guru, then you may want to grab a couple of good axes or ax heads as well. You can make a good handle with some patience, but most people wouldn’t be able to create a forge in the wild and make their own steel tools.

I like the CRKT Woods Chogan Tomahawk Axe that I picked up from Amazon. It’s differentially heat-treated, which means the edge is harder, and the body has more flexibility to it. The hickory handle is solid and well made. Plus, it’s a tomahawk style, which means I can throw it for self-defense and entertainment or cut wood with it. 

You’ll also need:

• A good knife or two for whittling things you need.
• A metal cup that won’t break.
• Paracord, and lots of it for making things you need or just stringing your food up in a tree, so bears don’t get it.
• Some fish hooks would be a good addition. I suggest you put them in a metal tin, so they aren’t loose.
• Bring a wild plant identification guide and a mushroom identification guide for foraging.
• A sleeping bag so you don’t freeze the first time it gets cold would be smart.
• Pack a good hammock. This will get you up off the ground, so you don’t need to worry about bugs or rocks.
• Some fishing line makes an outstanding snare for small game and will help you fish so you can eat.
• Bringing seeds to plant a few things you’d rather not live without is wise. Herbs can be a real treat if you’re living without modern conveniences.
• Salt is necessary for life. Without enough salt, in your diet, you won’t survive, so bring plenty and make sure you can find more wherever you plan to live.
• Extra shoes will keep you from needing to make your own for a long time. Don’t wear them, but keep them dry and secured.
• Take a compass in case you get turned around.
• Get a map or map book that shows you any areas you may want to travel to. While you’re at it, make sure it has topographical charts. Plus you need to know how to read maps.

Honestly, if you have the right clothing and skills, that’s about all you’ll need. Some of these things are luxury items you can do without.

Making a Permanent Life in the Woods

Once you reach your destination, you’ll need to start setting up a permanent shelter. Get familiar with what lives in the area, and where possible, choose a spot far from any large predators. Bears, wild cats, and wolves will make a meal out of you in a heartbeat if you’re not wary. You can learn to live with them or eat them in a pinch, but it’s better to avoid the problem in the first place.

Focus your energy on finding water, sources of food, and a place to set up camp. Your first camp doesn’t need to be your permanent home. Stashing some of your duplicate items near your first campsite is a very wise plan. Make sure you bury them in a waterproof container somewhere you won’t forget. This will let you come back years later to resupply.

Whatever you do, don’t bury any food with your long-term resupply cache. Wild animals will smell it no matter how well concealed it. They’ll dig up your stash and make a meal out of it. Items they can’t eat will get scattered to the four winds, and you won’t have them later.

Shelter

It’s a good idea to set up more than one place to shelter. Moving around to three or four different spots helps you avoid trouble. You’ll need a fire pit at each site, and a shelter of some sort. An unoccupied shallow cave would be ideal, but if you need to build a shelter, you’ll be glad you have those axes.

Use each site as a spot to stash some of your necessary and duplicate supplies. Equally important, whatever food you have needs to be hung in a tree, away from camp on a branch too high and thin for a bear or other thief to reach easily. There’s not much you can do about humans who encroach and take your stuff unless you catch them in the act.

Be Invisible

Dig your firepits down far enough that the light won’t be seen at night unless someone is close enough to see inside your camp anyway. Don’t light fires in the daytime. The smoke will give you away. If you plan to disappear into the woods, you need to disappear completely. Live quietly and unseen by people.

Learn to enjoy the natural sounds, and identify anything out of the ordinary immediately. Rather than confronting people who may pass through your space, make sure they don’t see you. This is why you need more than one campsite. Instead of taking the risk involved in meeting new people, just pick up and walk away before they get near enough to be a potential threat.

Final Thoughts

Living in the woods can be delightful and enlightening. You can do more than merely survive. You can thrive and live a wonderful life among the trees if you genuinely wish to do so. There is an uncountable number of people doing precisely that right now. They stay away from towns and cities. In fact, they rarely see other people at all.

When you think about running away to live in the woods, scan your motivations, skills, and needs very carefully. Choosing to forego society is fine, but it’s not something you should decide carelessly. If you have medical needs or a lack of skills, then you won’t make it very long.

People who choose a wild-life are rare these days. We, as a species, enjoy our conveniences, like indoor plumbing and heat in winter. However, you don’t need these things to have a good life. You can run away and live in the woods if you’re determined and skilled enough.

The US government owns about 30% of the land in the US while the rest is privately held. The BLM alone cares for more than 247.3 million acres. That’s about one-eighth of the country’s landmass. Surely they wouldn’t mind if you set up a little spot somewhere out of the way, would they? It seems sensible enough that you should be able to take over a small unoccupied corner of the wilderness and call it your own.

Can you live on federal land? The short answer is yes, but the longer answer is complicated. There are several ways to live on federal land, but none of them involve grabbing your tent and going where you want to stay forever. I’ll detail the ways to live (legally) on Federal land below.

The Unfortunate Truth: Illegal Camping

Homelessness is a horrible problem. Sadly, since all the land in the USA is owned, simply living somewhere unoccupied can get you in a lot of trouble if you get caught. The biggest problem for the government isn’t that people want to live for free.

Most federal land allows for disbursed camping, meaning people are free to camp as they like. There are time limits that vary by state. Long term campers pose a problem in terms of cleanup. Many campers leave trash and other waste. Additionally, ninety percent of all forest fires are started by people. Most of these are campfires that weren’t appropriately tended.

Indoor Plumbing Not Included

There’s also the issue of sanitation and human byproducts (poop and pee). When people occupy a place long enough, there’s a risk for disease and illness. The land doesn’t heal, and plants do not regrow. In short, it’s a mess, and the government spends millions cleaning up.

Even if you aren’t ‘like that” and plan to clean up your mess, the laws are made to suit a more extensive sampling of the population. The government isn’t big on losing profit from your taxes. However, it’s the working hours, materials, and expenses for the mess that is the real issue.

Whether you’re on vacation or staying forever, I suggest you seriously think about getting your hands on an excellent camping commode. Just burying your waste leaves a biohazard behind that other people may have to deal with. I like the Alpcour Portable Toilet you can get from Amazon because it folds up easily and has a carry case. Always try to leave your campsite better off than when you found it, instead of filling the area with little ‘unpleasant surprises.’ 

Finding A Better Way

If you’re determined to find a legal way you can live on federal land, there’s good news. You can do it. Here’s a quick list of how to live on property owned by the Fed without going to jail.

• Camping: You can camp on federal land for limited periods before you need to move a few miles away. The duration and distance are up to the state agency that regulates the local area. Campsite hosts are less limited in the duration of their stay.
• Rangers and Firefighters: Becoming a park ranger or wildlands firefighter affords opportunities to live on federal land in some places.
• Stake a Mining Claim: There are lots of places where you can stake a mining claim, which affords you the right to work and camp on site.

You have to use your own best judgment to decide if any of these are the right lifestyle choices for you. Fortunately, you can change your mind if things don’t work out. With the exception of becoming a park ranger, BLM employee, or wildlands firefighter, you haven’t got any commitment to fulfill.

The bonuses of having a paid position are obvious. However, quitting a job if things don’t work out will impact your work history. Especially if you may want to be employed by the forestry service or some other government agency in the future, it’s better if you make sure to put in an appropriate form to give notice if you do decide it was the wrong choice for you.

Mining

Staking a claim to mine is my favorite option. Much of the BLM land in the US is available for miners and potential miners to stake their own small claims. You can’t erect any permanent structures, but you can camp and work on your claim. Prospecting for gold or digging for other precious and semiprecious metals or stones can be a lot of fun.

Make no mistake; mining is hard work. However, for those who enjoy their freedom and know a bit about the earth, mining a small claim is a perfect way to live off-grid. Of course, you’ll need some tools like the Rockhound & Rock Mining Kit from Amazon to get started, but it can be a very profitable way to live if you put in the effort. 

Camping

The BLM site has guidelines for how to camp on federal lands. Disbursed camping is legal. You don’t have to camp in a developed spot. There are some restricted and protected areas where you can’t pitch a tent. Otherwise, it’s generally okay.

You can only stay fourteen nights out of any twenty-eight-day period. The nights don’t need to be consecutive, any fourteen nights count, and the period begins as soon as you arrive on site. You must move twenty-five miles from your original site when your time is up.

Camping at developed sites is a different story. Per the BLM website, developed camping works like this:

Permits, Fees, and Limitations:

• Most BLM campgrounds charge a first-come-first-served mandatory fee. In some places, you can book ahead at recreation.gov.
• Occupants must obey the posted rules.
• Fees vary, and you have to check with the local area website for the campground.
• The maximum length of stay varies by location. In most places, it’s about two weeks out of each month.
• You have to drop off your fee within thirty minutes of arrival.
• “A campsite is rented ONLY once it has been paid in full with the pay-stub properly completed and displayed on-site, and the site is occupied by campers.”
• Don’t leave your personal property unattended for more than 72 hours.
• Some campgrounds are only open seasonally, so check for availability before you try to camp.

Developed facilities may include some or all of the following: picnic areas, tent pads, potable water and restrooms, garbage cans and dumpsters, group shelters, fire rings, and even electrical hookups.

Long Term Visitor Areas

There is an exception to the fourteen-day rule in the form of LTVA’s. Because of snowbirds, older people who wish to winter in warmer climates, and other increased demand, the BLM has established a few longer-term camping locations. Check-in advance to make sure there’s space where you want to stay.

Generally, people travel and live there for a few months in a camper. The fees are more than a standard campsite, but less than rent on an apartment. It’s a perfect solution for outdoor enthusiasts. You can find current information on those areas on this BLM long term camping site.

For the motivated DIYers; I found plans to build my own 8′ Teardrop Trailer Pull Behind Camper on Amazon. The instructions detail the step-by-step process to make a tiny camper. It has an indoor kitchen space and an enormous trunk. I take mine everywhere when I travel, and it’s been amazingly useful. 

Campsite Hosting

Volunteer campsite hosts have relatively few duties. You won’t be paid for your time, but hosting gives you the opportunity to live on BLM land for six months to a year at a time. Your duties might include trash pickup or other minor time investments.

It’s not a bad way to live rent-free if you have the right equipment, and you don’t mind a little work exchange. The most choice spots likely fill up pretty quickly, but there are a whole lot of campsites in the US. You can fill out a form and apply to host a campsite anytime. However, the BLM isn’t required to say yes. Be aware that they may do a background check or otherwise verify your identity.

Gettin’ Paid To Live in the Wild

The most rewarding and committed way to live on federal land some or all the time is to apply for work as a BLM Employee, Park Ranger, or Wildlands Firefighter. Different jobs have different requirements and perks. In general, you have to be able to pass their pre-employment screening, background checks, and physical requirements to get these positions.

Sadly, in recent years, cuts to federal funding for these programs make these jobs a bit harder to get. Still, with sufficient determination, you can work and live in the wild parts of our country and make a decent living.

Final Thoughts

Some of these options may cost you a little bit of money, plus the time it takes to do the paperwork. The job opportunities are far more involved. Then again, if you’re willing to move twice a month for the rest of your life and clean up after yourself, you can camp on federal land for free. At least until the laws change.

Even in our modern era, there are legitimate and fun ways to live off the land. Federal land could be your ideal home. You just need the right information and paperwork to live wild and free.