Far From The Madding Crowd: Modern-Day Hermits

[TheQuixote]

BBCi 26/1/04

Japanese hermit starts afresh

A man who survived for over 40 years eating snakes and frogs in the Japanese countryside has started a new life.
The man, in his 50s, was held on suspicion of attempted theft near Tokyo in September, police said.

"I was starving. I couldn't stand it anymore," the man was quoted as saying by the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper.

After the court gave him a suspended sentence, the man has begun working as a builder, under a fisherman he befriended while living in the wild.

The man "did not remember his name, age, or his parent's names," a police official told the AFP news agency.

If I have money, I can get what I want. I learned about the convenience of having money

The arrested man

He also had no idea about the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 or that Emperor Hirohito died in 1989, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.

'Caveman'

The police official said the man was arrested "as he was trying to get money from a soft drink vending machine in Tsukuba City," about 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Tokyo.

Prosecutors found that the man, who came from a very poor farming family, had run away from home at the age of 14.

He took his pet dog, Shiro, with him and began living in a cave in the Ashio copper mine, about 25km (16miles) north of his home, the Yomiuri Shimbun daily said.

He survived by catching snakes, frogs, snails and wild rabbits that he baked and ate, it said.

After his dog died two years later, the man moved to another mountainous area.

Despite losing all his teeth, the man had never suffered any illness, the paper said.

He later ended up living on the bank of a river, sleeping in a shed build by local fishermen who admired him for his fishing skills. He even started earning some money by selling fish to locals, the paper said.

 

[sunsplash1]

Hermit ends 40 years alone after fire extinguished
A Solomon Islands man lived as a hermit in a jungle cave for 40 years before returning home when his fire went out, a local media report said.

The man, identified as Philip Uduota, from the north-east of the island of Malaita had been living alone in a mountain jungle cave in the South Pacific island nation since 1964, the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation reported.

Uduota, who is aged about 80, depended on food which he gathered from the forest but he returned to his home village in search of fire after his own fire went out.

After reaching home, his relatives urged him to remain and he decided to stay with them in their village, the report said.
Last Update: Thursday, June 2, 2005. 11:18pm (AEST)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200506/s1383437.htm

There's something oddly human and sad about that.

 

[krobone]

Yeah, it's kind of funny and bittersweet at the same time. Hope the old fellow enjoys his new life.

 

[maximus otter]

The Leopard Man of Skye, once the world's most tattooed man, has left behind his remote hermit lifestyle to live in a retirement home.

Tom Leppard, whose entire body is covered in leopard-spot tattoos, lived in a ruined bothy on the Scottish island of Skye for 20 years, living with no electricity and no furniture.

The Leopard Man, who spent £5,500 on tattoos used to have to canoe three miles for his weekly shopping, but he has now moved from his remote stretch of shoreline near Kyleakin after admitting he was getting too old.

Now 73, Mr Leppard, an ex-special forces soldier, said: "I was perfectly happy in the bothy but I'm like everyone else - I'm getting too old for that kind of life.

"I had to canoe to Kyle once a week for shopping and it was getting too hard for me - I was one big wave away from disaster. It's a pretty nasty stretch of water.

"About six weeks ago a friend with a boat offered to take me off and I just decided there and then to go."

Mr Leppard, originally from London, held the title of world's most tattooed man until recently, when he was overtaken by Lucky Diamond Rich from New Zealand.

He said: "I've loved every minute and when you're covered in leopard tattoos you certainly get noticed - I became a bit of a tourist attraction on Skye.

"But all I want now is peace and quiet and just to relax a bit more. I can walk to the local shop instead of canoeing.

"I might go back to the bothy one day for a look around if somebody offered me a lift but it would be just out of curiosity - those days are behind me now."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3265474/Tattooed-Leopard-Man-leaves-hermit-lifestyle-behind.html

maximus otter

 

[ramonmercado]

Hermit caught after 27 years in Maine woods
Christopher Knight, who disappeared aged 19, lived by stealing food and supplies from woodland camps in Maine, say police
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/ap ... t-27-years
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 11 April 2013 08.30 BST
Jump to comments (547)

The woodland camp where Christopher Knight is believed to have lived for up to 27 years. Photograph: Reuters/Maine police
A man who lived as a hermit for decades in a makeshift camp in the woods and may be responsible for more than 1,000 burglaries for food and other supplies has been caught by a determined game warden who was fed up with the thefts.

Christopher Knight, 47, was arrested when he tripped a surveillance sensor while allegedly stealing food from a camp for people with special needs in a small town in the far north-eastern state of Maine.

Authorities on Tuesday found the campsite where they believe Knight, known as the North Pond Hermit in local lore, lived for up to 27 years. Knight's living quarters included a tent covered by tarps suspended between trees, a bed, propane cooking stoves and a battery-run radio, which he used to keep up with the news and listen to talk radio and a rock station, authorities said.

Some residents say they have been aware of the hermit for years, often in connection with break-ins. During questioning after his arrest Knight said that the last verbal contact he had with another person was during the 1990s, state trooper Diane Vance said. "He passed somebody on a trail and just exchanged a common greeting of hello and that was the only conversation or human contact he's had since he went into the woods in 1986."


Christopher Knight, 47, known as the North Pond Hermit, after his arrest. Photograph: Reuters/Maine police
He was so well known to some summer cottage owners that they left food out for him so he wouldn't break in during the colder months. But others were hardly aware of the hermit living within their midst without detection since 1986. "I was born in 1987. He was there before I was," Rome resident Melissa Witham said outside her home.

Paul Anderson, a town councillor, acknowledged local talk about a man living alone in the woods. "I've lived in the town for 32 years and I've never, ever met the guy," Anderson said.

Since vanishing from his Maine home for no apparent reason and setting up camp when he was about 19, Knight sustained himself on food stolen from dozens of cottages, but his favourite target was the Pine Tree Camp, where game warden Sergeant Terry Hughes, who had been trying to nab Knight for years, set up a surveillance alarm, authorities said.

Knight was caught on Tuesday as he left the camp's kitchen freezer with a backpack full of food, they said. "He used us like his local Wal-mart," said Harvey Chesley, the camp's facilities manager.

Ron Churchill, owner of Bear Spring Camps in Rome, said employees maintaining his camp's lakeside cabins had seen the man thought to be the hermit in the past. Churchill said his business has lost propane containers to thefts, the latest of which were discovered on Wednesday.

Despite Maine's harsh winters, during which temperatures sometimes struggle to get above -12.2C (10F) for a week at a time, Knight stayed at his encampment and avoided making campfires so he wouldn't be detected, and he used the propane only for cooking, Hughes said. To stay warm he would bundle himself in multiple sleeping bags, authorities said.

When caught Knight was clean-shaven and still using his aviator-style spectacles from the 1980s.

"When we went to the site where he has been living, it only took a few minutes looking around and making observations such as ropes that were embedded in the trees that had grown around them that he used to hold his tarps up, shoes that were under rocks that had been there for years, there was enough indication to me … that he had been there for a lot of years," said Hughes.


Christopher Knight, the North Pond Hermit, in a surveillance video during one of the break-ins he allegedly staged to sustain himself. Photograph: Reuters/Maine police
The trooper said that the case of the North Pond hermit sometimes seemed a "myth" that might go unsolved and bringing it to a conclusion is "amazing".

"I think it's still sinking in," Vance said. "I don't think I will ever be involved in such an incident or case it this magnitude."

Knight had been charged only with the Pine Tree Camp burglary, in which $238 worth of goods were taken, and was being held at the jail on $5,000 bail for burglary and theft. It was not clear whether he had a lawyer.

Knight had attended a high school in Fairfield, about 20 miles (32km) away. Why he decided to disappear in the woods remained a question on Wednesday. Attempts to reach relatives were unsuccessful.

 

[Tribble]

Not a Strange Folk, but a job vacancy for a Strange Folk...

A medieval sanctuary in Spain has put out a job advert to fill a vacancy for a hermit.

Our Lady of the Rock, in the north-eastern region of Catalonia, took to Facebook to list the job's requirements. It says that the successful candidate must "leave all uncivil or immoral activity outside" and will be required to perform "all the proper duties of a hermit". These include guarding and looking after the ancient hermitage, which sits atop a rock overlooking the town of Mont-roig del Camp.

Despite most people's idea of life as a hermit, this particular job involves little seclusion and actually requires the successful applicant to welcome visitors to the sanctuary. Customer service is "essential" and knowledge of the history of Our Lady of the Rock is encouraged. The year-long tenure comes with free accommodation and a stipend of 1,000 euros ($1,100; £730) to cover the whole period.

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-34075945

(Roughly translated : They want a dirt-cheap resident tour guide)

 

[Mythopoeika]

£730 for a whole year of actual work? Are they on crack?

 

[FrKadash]

Ailment Ends Russian Hermit's 70 Year Exile
January 15, 2016
A famous Russian hermit was finally forced to end her 70 year exile from society after authorities brought her to a hospital to treat leg pains.

The last remnant of a strict religious sect, Agafia Lykova was raised in the wilds of Siberia by her family who had abandoned civilization in 1936.

Their incredible story became known when Russian geologists found them in 1978.

The remarkable meeting saw Agafia introduced to the first people she had ever met that were not from her family and tasting milk as well as bread for the first time.

Despite the newfound connection to civilization and learning how the world had changed since their self-imposed disappearance, the Lykovas chose not to rejoin society.

Ultimately, Agafia outlived the other members of her family and enjoyed a solitary existence since 1988.

http://www.coasttocoastam.com/article/ailment-ends-russian-hermit-s-70-year-exile

Original source, http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...va-russia-airlifted-to-hospital-over-leg-pain

 

[FrKadash]

MYSTERY RECLUSE
Nudist hermit Peter O’Neill lived alone in the Wicklow Mountains for over 20 years
The 71-year-old was found dead in the Glenmalure Hills and is now the subject of an RTE documentary
BY AOIFE BANNON
10th December 2016, 8:24 pm

THIS is the mysterious man who lived alone in the Wicklow mountains for more than 20 years.
Peter O’Neill was 71 when he was discovered dead at his remote dwelling in the Glenmalure Hills, where he had spent the past two decades.
He’d been dead for several months when he was finally found after a local hotel reported he had not come to collect his post in a while.
With no friends or family, little is known about the English-accented man called Peter — or indeed if that was his real name.
A new RTE documentary, which airs tonight, explores who Peter was and asks why he went to such lengths to avoid human company.
As well as spending much of his time nude, herbalist Peter claimed he had moved to the wilderness as a last resort.
Retired Garda Richard Galvin said: “I used to visit him here. He was some kind of loner or hermit.

https://www.thesun.ie/news/280201/n...e-in-the-wicklow-mountains-for-over-20-years/

 

[Yithian]

The Strange & Curious Tale of the Last True Hermit
Press Herald via Getty Images
BY
MICHAEL FINKEL
August 4, 2014

For nearly thirty years, a phantom haunted the woods of Central Maine. Unseen and unknown, he lived in secret, creeping into homes in the dead of night and surviving on what he could steal. To the spooked locals, he became a legend—or maybe a myth. They wondered how he could possibly be real. Until one day last year, the hermit came out of the forest

The hermit set out of camp at midnight, carrying his backpack and his bag of break-in tools, and threaded through the forest, rock to root to rock, every step memorized. Not a boot print left behind. It was cold and nearly moonless, a fine night for a raid, so he hiked about an hour to the Pine Tree summer camp, a few dozen cabins spread along the shoreline of North Pond in central Maine. With an expert twist of a screwdriver, he popped open a door of the dining hall and slipped inside, scanning the pantry shelves with his penlight.

Candy! Always good. Ten rolls of Smarties, stuffed in a pocket. Then, into his backpack, a bag of marshmallows, two tubs of ground coffee, some Humpty Dumpty potato chips. Burgers and bacon were in the locked freezer. On a previous raid at Pine Tree, he’d stolen a key to the walk-in, and now he used it to open the stainless-steel door. The key was attached to a plastic four-leaf-clover key chain, with one of the leaves partially broken off. A three-and-a-half-leaf clover.

He could’ve used a little more luck. Newly installed in the Pine Tree kitchen, hidden behind the ice machine, was a military-grade motion detector. The device remained silent in the kitchen but sounded an alarm in the home of Sergeant Terry Hughes, a game warden who’d become obsessed with catching the thief. Hughes lived a mile away. He raced to the camp in his pickup truck and sprinted to the rear of the dining hall. He peeked in a window.

And there he was. Probably. The person stealing food appeared entirely too clean, his face freshly shaved. He wore eyeglasses and a wool ski hat. Was this really the North Pond Hermit, a man who’d tormented the surrounding community for years—decades—yet the police still hadn’t learned his name?

Continued:
http://www.gq.com/story/the-last-true-hermit

 

[RyoHazuki]

That's almost heart-breaking to read. It's not merely the fact he felt so alienated by society that he needed to escape in such an 'extreme' way; it's the fact that society itself apparently can't abide the idea of someone living outside of it. Yes, he could just as easily have had violent or destructive tendencies, but that's hardly the issue - when a court (in possession of all the facts, and without precedent) decides that administering a lengthy probational sentence is preferable to helping him learn better self-sufficiency, that's deeply sad.

 

[JamesWhitehead]

Less like Thoreau - who sent his laundry back to mom, throughout the composition of Walden - than Melville's Bartleby.

 

[Peripart]

I've read through the whole article, and I'm glad I did. A strange and sad tale, with no easy answers. He has his own Wikipedia page, but that tells us little else, other that he's still alive.

 

[gerhard1]

That's almost heart-breaking to read. It's not merely the fact he felt so alienated by society that he needed to escape in such an 'extreme' way; it's the fact that society itself apparently can't abide the idea of someone living outside of it. Yes, he could just as easily have had violent or destructive tendencies, but that's hardly the issue - when a court (in possession of all the facts, and without precedent) decides that administering a lengthy probational sentence is preferable to helping him learn better self-sufficiency, that's deeply sad.

With respect, I don't agree.

The fact that he wanted to be by himself is not wrong, and I don't think that society has a problem with that. What society has the problem with--I do too--is that he stole to do so. That was wrong, not that he wanted to live by himself.

 

[maximus otter]

Japanese authorities denied a man the chance his wish to die a castaway on an island he called home for three decades.

Masafumi Nagasaki was the only inhabitant of the kilometre-wide Sotobanari island but was forced to return to civilisation after being found unwell by police.

He lived in solitude since 1989 and became known as the 'naked hermit' after being discovered by a traveller who writes about castaways.

Nagasaki was evicted after someone found him on the island looking 'weak'.

Police were called and he has been taken to live in a government house 60km away in Ishigaki city.

Cerezo added his health is okay and he 'probably only had the flu' when he was found, remarking that Nagasaki's island life is 'over' as he isn't allowed to return.

Nagasaki's story first came to light in 2012.

He shunned mainstream society in the early nineties to set up base on the little island of Sotobanari where there is no running water.

The remote spot, which is just a kilometre wide, is in Japan's tropical Okinawa prefecture and located closer to Taiwan than Tokyo.

The currents that surround the kidney-shaped island are so dangerous local fisherman rarely cast nets in the area.

Previously he worked in the entertainment industry before 'retiring' from civilisation.

'I don't do what society tells me, but I do follow the rules of the natural world. You can't beat nature so you just have to obey it completely,' he said.

'That's what I learned when I came here, and that's probably why I get by so well.'

He would travel to a nearby island using money sent from his family to get water and his staple food of rice cakes, which he would boil four or five times a day.

Water for bathing and shaving comes from rain caught in a system of battered cooking pots.

Just a year into his stay his clothes were washed away in a typhoon.

'Walking around naked doesn't really fit in with normal society, but here on the island it feels right, it is like a uniform.'

He would spend each day stretching in the sun, cleaning his camp and trying to avoid insect bites.

The island was where he wanted to be his final resting place.

'Finding a place to die is an important thing to do, and I've decided here is the place for me,' he said.

'It hadn't really occurred to me before how important it is to choose the place of your death, like whether it's in a hospital or at home with family by your side.

'But to die here, surrounded by nature — you just can't beat it, can you?'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-deserted-island-29-YEARS-returned-Japan.html

maximus otter

 

[Mythopoeika]

Seems a bit mean to stop him living there. Doing no harm by being there.

 

[Bigphoot2]

There are times when I envy people who have gone off on their own

Why this man became a hermit at 20

• 13 July 2019

Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Many people don't like being alone. They feel lonely. For others, though, it can be a source of ecstasy. The BBC's Shabnam Grewal spoke to a hermit on the Scottish moors, and learned about an American who turned his back on the world when barely out of his teens.
In 1986, 20-year-old Christopher Knight drove into a forest in rural Maine. He abandoned his car, and taking just some very basic camping supplies, simply walked into the woods. He didn't come out again for 27 years.
After getting deliberately lost, Knight eventually found the site that would become his home, a small clearing in the densely wooded area surrounding a lake called North Pond. He stretched some tarpaulin between trees, put up his small nylon tent, and settled down. He was completely hidden, despite being only a few minutes' walk from one of the hundreds of summer cabins that dotted the area.

etc

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-...long-reads&link_location=live-reporting-story

 

[ramonmercado]

Rescued again!

A hermit living in an isolated Scottish forest was rescued after his distress signal was picked up in the USA.

Ken Smith made headlines when he was rescued in similar circumstances last February after becoming unwell but this time he was injured after a log pile collapsed on him.

Four members of Lochaber Mountain Rescue Team were airlifted by the Inverness-based coastguard search and rescue helicopter to Glen Nevis in Lochaber on Saturday afternoon.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/20...-distress-signal-coastguard-via-us-satellite/

 

[uair01]

An uplifting article about a mountain hermit:
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/...with-50-years-of-social-distancing-experience

 

[EnolaGaia]

This Italian caretaker / hermit is threatened with eviction after 31 years ...

Paradise lost: Eviction looms for hermit living alone on Italian island

For more than 30 years, Mauro Morandi has been the sole inhabitant of a beautiful island in the Mediterranean Sea.
He hoped to make it his life-long home, but that is now under threat.

Italy's answer to Robinson Crusoe faces eviction from the Isle of Budelli, off the coast of Sardinia, if he doesn't voluntarily leave -- which he has no intention of doing.

Local authorities are speeding up plans to restyle his ramshackle hut and turn it into an environmental observatory, putting an end to his blissful stay.

Morandi, a former teacher, arrived on the island by accident while attempting to sail from Italy to Polynesia 31 years ago. He fell in love with the pristine atoll's crystal-clear waters, coral sands and beautiful sunsets -- and decided to stay.

He took over from the previous caretaker shortly afterward and, at the age of 81, he's still there and ready to fight for his home, whatever it takes. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/budelli-hermit-eviction-morandi/index.html

 

[hunck]

He should be left to live there while his health permits. He's done amazingly well to live there 30 years considering there's no ground water. Why don't they build the new environmental observatory in another location & leave his hut? Could be the only suitable spot to build on the island I suppose..

There was a petition online to let him stay but it's now closed.

 

[GNC]

Have him make friends with Papillon the bear, he'd sort the authorities out.

 

[Saucerian]

I know there has been some reorganization of threads here on the forum, and some of the member inquires related to hermits. I suppose having an individual hermit's name might help, and in doing some searches of the board, noticed a mention by myself of the Florida Everglades hermit, Roy Ozmer.

One aspect of hermits is that some people believe hermits to be mizers who have accumulated great wealth, but I think that is probably a rare occurance.

I suppose that Howard Hughes was probably the wealthiest hermit known, although some people would claim that he was not a "real" hermit.

Here is a link to a case, which I do not know if it has been reported here on this forum or not, but this modern day hermit had millions of dollars worth of gold in his house, which was discovered after his death.

I will do more searches to find if this case is noted elsewhere, but for now, I will put any new posts about hermits here on this thread.

So, here's the link to a story of what I would consider a rare case of a Really Wealthy Hermit:

https://www.ksl.com/article/22197978

 

[GNC]

"The Really Wealthy Hermit" could be the title of a lucrative kids' book.

 

[ramonmercado]

This Italian caretaker / hermit is threatened with eviction after 31 years ...


FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/budelli-hermit-eviction-morandi/index.html

And he's going.

More than 30 years ago, Mauro Morandi was attempting to sail from Italy to Polynesia when he ended up on Budelli, a small private island off Sardinia. Morandi, now 81, never left and eventually became the island's official caretaker. Above is a Great Big Story about Morandi from two years ago. La Maddalena's National Park, owner of the island since 2015, has been trying to evict Morandi to renovate his shack into an environmental observatory. Morandi announced this week on his Facebook page that he's decided to leave. From The Guardian:

"I have given up the fight," he said. "After 32 years here, I feel very sad to leave. They told me they need to do work on my house and this time it seems to be for real." National park authorities have argued that Morandi made changes to the building without the required permits. ...

https://boingboing.net/2021/04/27/i...off-after-30-years-of-living-there-alone.html

 

[EnolaGaia]

The case of the Lykov family - famed for having living reclusively in the Siberian wilderness for circa 40 years - is discussed in this separate dedicated thread:

Siberian Hermits (Lykov Family; 1936 Onward)
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/siberian-hermits-lykov-family-1936-onward.51658/

 

[EnolaGaia]

New Hampshire hermit / recluse David Lidstone - aka "River Dave" - had been forced out of his remote cabin because of court proceedings charging him with unlawful squatting for the past 27 years. Now his cabin has mysteriously burned to the ground.

Fire destroys cabin of New Hampshire man forced out of woods

For almost three decades, 81-year-old David Lidstone has lived in the woods of New Hampshire along the Merrimack River in a small cabin adorned with solar panels. He has grown his own food, cut his own firewood, and tended to his pets and chickens.

But his off-the-grid existence has been challenged in court by a property owner who says he’s been squatting for all those years. And to make Lidstone’s matters worse, his cabin was burned to the ground Wednesday afternoon in a blaze that is being investigated by local authorities. ...

Lidstone is accused of squatting for 27 years in the cabin on private property in Canterbury. The wooden, two-level A-frame cabin had a small, cluttered kitchen with pots hanging from the ceiling, some appliances, and curtains on the windows. His porch had a footstool with a base made of stacked beer cans. He converted a wood stove into a beehive. He attached lights, a mirror and a pulley for a clothesline to logs supporting the cabin. There were piles of firewood.

Nearby was a gravel path leading to vegetable garden plots outlined by logs and some berry bushes. Lidstone got his water from a stream. ...

In court, Merrimack County Superior Court Judge Andrew Schulman agreed that Lidstone wasn’t hurting anyone, but said the law was clearly on the landowner’s side. ...

FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/River-Dave-New-Hampshire-Dave-Lidstone-e0ef2fb3349a23ceebaa9e244b97eb5a

 

[EnolaGaia]

New Hampshire hermit / recluse David Lidstone - aka "River Dave" - had been forced out of his remote cabin because of court proceedings charging him with unlawful squatting for the past 27 years. Now his cabin has mysteriously burned to the ground. ...

Update ... River Dave is now saying he doesn't think he can return to his prior hermit's life ...

‘River Dave’ doesn’t think he can go back to being a hermit

An off-the-grid New Hampshire man’s days living as a hermit appear to be over. “River Dave,” whose cabin in the woods burned down after nearly three decades on property that he was ordered to leave, says he doesn’t think he can return to his lifestyle.

“I don’t see how I can go back to being a hermit because society is not going to allow it,” David Lidstone said in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Lidstone, 81, said even if he could rebuild his cabin, which burned down last week, “I would have people coming every weekend, so I just can’t get out of society anymore. I’ve hidden too many years and I’ve built relationships, and those relationships have continued to expand.” ...

He said he’s not grieving the loss of his life in isolation. ...

FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/river-dave-rebuilds-life-aa0e69bf1d8828fc8b740b6a57ffc63d

 

[Nemo]

The man who has lived as a hermit for 40 years

For almost 40 years Ken Smith has shunned conventional life and lived without electricity or running water in a hand-made log cabin on the banks of a remote loch in the Scottish Highlands.
"It's a nice life," says Ken. "Everybody wishes they could do it but nobody ever does."
Not everyone would agree that Ken's isolated, reclusive lifestyle of foraging and fishing as well as collecting firewood and washing his clothes in an old bath outdoors is the ideal. And even less so at the age of 74.

(C) BBC '21

 

[EnolaGaia]

Update ... River Dave is now saying he doesn't think he can return to his prior hermit's life ...

Update ... River Dave apparently reversed his position and headed back to the remote site where he'd lived for years. He's now been arrested for trespassing.

‘River Dave’ arrested after returning to live at cabin site

A former hermit in New Hampshire whose cabin in the woods burned down after nearly three decades on the property that he was ordered to leave has been charged with trespassing there once again, turning a shed that survived the fire into a makeshift home outfitted with a wood stove.

There had been an outpouring of support for David Lidstone, 81 — better known as “River Dave” —since he was arrested in July and accused of squatting on property owned by a Vermont man. His cabin burned down in August while he was jailed. ...

Lidstone ... had secured temporary housing as he figured out where to live next and believed that he could not go back to being a hermit.

But he returned to the site in Canterbury in late November, turning the wood shed into a home. He was arrested on a trespassing charge Dec. 14 and faces a court hearing in March.

FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/article/lifestyl...ew-hampshire-1d2d3b02442fc810cfac480eac5703b9