8111153862?profile=original

About 25 years ago, Mick Dodge shed his shoes, grew his beard, and left modern civilization (and a family) to live alone in the Pacific Northwest’s Hoh rain forest. But he’s not a total isolationist; he’s dialed into a community of mountain dwellers and agreed (although it took convincing) to be the subject of National Geographic Channel’s series “The Legend of Mick Dodge”

In the first story, Dodge’s mission is to scatter his late father’s ashes up in the mountains — if he can recall where he stashed them. “My family has perfected the art of dodging civilizations for hundreds of years. All I have to do is follow my feet,” says the backwoods philosopher. He’s a memorably quirky character with a unique take on life, as this interview illuminatesWhat was your life like before you moved to the woods? Did you have a job? Did you get an education?

Mick Dodge: Yes, as a heavy equipment mechanic. I have also dug ditches, chopped wood, washed dishes, and taught the Earth Gym practices. I graduated Kubasaki High School in Okinawa, Japan. Never been to college, but like to read books. If the book makes sense and has value for the earth, I plant a tree and share the book. If the book does not make sense, I plant a tree for it and use it as [toilet] paper or fire starter. My life was about the same as it is now, learning the ways to walk and explore physical exercise and how to create a physical practice that finds the middle ground between the wild and tame, between the gated wild and the walls of modern domestication. However, I must add that I have no feet pain, back pain and my heart is strong [since] I became a barefoot nomad.


What prompted you to go to the forest in the first place?

My feet hurt. I had hammertoes, plantar fasciitis, deformed feet. They hurt so bad that I could barely walk and I had always used my walk and run to handle the stress of modern living, make sense of the modern world story that I was living in, and the Hoh is home for me. So I went home to heal my feet.

In following my feet I found myself stepping out of the insulation of the modern world and landing in the earth. The results came quickly. Not only were my feet healing, but my back pain, neck pain and most of all my heart pain disappeared, and in no time at all I was back into a dead run, stepping out of the sedentary, stressed, sedated and secured living of the modern world. I was muscling my mind into the heart of the matter. I was dancing as the fire, running as the wind, strengthening as the stone and flowing as the water within, by the simple act of touching with my bare soles and allowing the Earth to teach. It is a simple matter to follow your feet, but is does not come easy. The Earth will eat you if you are not paying attention.

Is there anything you miss about modern civilization?

I don’t miss it. There is no way to get away from it. So I developed a physical fitness practice in how to step in and out of it, stepping out of the walls, machines, electronics, social babble for awhile, ground back into the natural flow of the land, and then go back in.

Going barefoot, did you ever injure your feet?

On one of my long running quests in my bare soles into the highlands of the Olympics, I was taught a lesson by the mountain. It was early winter. The snows came and I almost lost my toes. I had no footwear with me. It was a 30-mile walk out. So I cut up my moose hide jacket and had to make a set of mukluks to protect my feet. It was then that I realized that … I better shift my attitude and vow about bare footing. It was a powerful teaching. I learned the meaning and wisdom of the old saying of my elders. “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”

How difficult are the winters for you, with diminished resources?

It is not difficult at all. It is an adventure and I have never had to deal with diminished food sources. I just follow my feet. There is not much that I do not eat. I am an omnivore, able to eat a wide variety of food, which also means that I learned how to become a scavenger and allowed the hunger in my belly to guide me into discovering all kinds of food. For example, I would come upon an elk killed by a cougar. When a cougar kills an elk, the entire forest moves in to eat. So I do the same. I often come upon road kill. Many people are scared of such food and yet they eat jerky … and jerky is nothing more than sun-dried meat. So what I eat during a normal week changes depending upon which one of the three terrains that I am footing my way through. But there is one highly spiritual food that I try to maintain in my stashes and storage places and that is chocolate-chip cookies. My grandmothers got me hooked on them.

Have you had any close call animal encounters?

I was footing my way along the road headed for my home camp, when some idiot talking on a cellphone, doing at least 80 miles per hour, almost hit a deer and then me. The most dangerous encounters that I have ever had in the gated wild, walls of the city and in the open fenced lands are with two footed creatures.

8111153875?profile=original

What do you do if you get sick? Have you ever had an emergency situation?

Fire is one of the elements of the forest that I have learned to develop a relationship to use in healing. Another key element in healing is water. After all, we are all walking sacks of water. I found during those times when I had been around people from the city, I would catch some kind of cold or flu. I would enter back into the Hoh and drink the water and soak my entire body in the glacial water. My grandfather called it “kissing the foot of the glacier.” There are all kinds of mushrooms, herbs, etc. to be used for healing, and I keep a close relationship with those in the Earth communities that master the healing and herbal arts, such as my friend Doc Gare, who is introduced in the series.

Does this lifestyle give you a heightened appreciation of Mother Nature?

Appreciation is such a weak word to express what I feel for the Earth and the transitions that I have gone through and am still going through. Hell, I am just getting started. One of the ways that was taught to me on one of my long gated wild quests was to break free of the polarization of the modern world. People always trying to put you in box. By getting some distance from the comforts, habits, physical structures like shoes, machines, walls, electronics, I find myself seeking out what makes sense, what fits, and integration of the wild and tame make sense. So l learned to hunt and track the middle path, the middle way. It is not easy at times figuring out the middle way between the modern world and the Earth. But it is fun and adventure.

What’s the best and worst part of this lifestyle?

Wherever there is good there is bad. That is the game of life. My passion in life is to explore, engage, challenge and balance whatever comes in the three terrains that I run through.

I don’t imagine there are many mountain women out there. Do you get lonely?

On my journey, I have formed so many wonderful connections with women, formed strong brother-and-sister relationships with them. I may not be able to figure out what they are always talking about. But if their soles are touching the Earth, I am more able to figure it out. A few years ago my path wandered into the Cedar Woman. We share a common vision of these Olympic Mountains and a deep musing of the lands, and in order for a vision to manifest from the Earth it takes a mission — a mission brings it to a physical reality. Cedar, along with others, created the Olympic Mountain Earth Wisdom Circle. Our lives are guided by the musings that come from living in a deep connection with the Earth, and Cedar holds the feminine wisdom fire of our hearth, which I keep coming back to, what I call the base camp.

Why did you agree to do a TV series?

I have three passions in life: the first one is my teacher, the Hoh river in these lands of the Olympic Mountains, and I wanted show what the Hoh has taught me about training and living. My second love and passion is my community, my clan that is spread out all through the three terrains. And my third passion is a calling and vision that I have been pursuing and running as long as I can remember, and that is to train and share a physical practice in the Earth Gym.

8111152897?profile=original

I’m guessing you don’t have a television. But how do you feel about being famous and people possibly coming to look for you, invading your privacy and solitude?

The last time I watched television, I was very young and it bored me. I have looked at some clips of what the crew shot. I love the scenery. I love seeing my brothers. But I will not watch them, mainly because I cannot stand to see myself on television or hear my voice, and I am not a legend. The land is the legend. Fame is a snare used by the modern to trap and confine the spirit. Fame is one of those ways of the modern world that always comes with blame and shame. I will run from it, dodge it. After all, I am a Dodge. If any one comes looking for me, I will be out to steal their shoes, hand them a stick and rope, show them the stones and how to sack a practice in the Earth Gym.

What do you think people will make of the show? Will they think you’re crazy or be secretly envious?

I have no idea and don’t give a s**t. You will have to ask them. When I began bare-footing, I discovered a wonderful way to explore our common cultural story. I would foot my way into the city, enter into a store barefoot. I found some liked it and would begin to reflect upon times when they walked barefoot. Others hated it, mocked it and even became angry. What was interesting to me is that they were even looking at my feet. I mean, all of us are two-footed animals. It is what has made our species. I don’t have the time or desire to figure out what people think. It was once said that this is the “land of the free and the home of the brave.” It is becoming more like the “land of the free and the home of the caged.” I don’t know what people think. But I wish they would just think about not screwing up the land that we walk in.

What else would you like audiences to know?

Just stand up, step out of your shoebox and walk around through your habitat, your local area. When you do perhaps you will begin to notice some simple things. What will happen when you begin to follow your feet? I have no idea, no one does. I only know my own story. But I also know this: all of us are storytellers, so I hope people step out long enough to feel into the remembering, develop a practice of recovery and begin restoring their footing with the earth.

Source:

www.nationalgeographic.com

You need to be a member of Ashtar Command - Spiritual Community to add comments!

Join Ashtar Command - Spiritual Community

Email me when people reply –

Replies

  • https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/apr/11/american-hermit-caugh...

    I read the kindle edition about this guy-he just liked to be alone-he lived only minutes from the lake hoses in between a rock formation and never built a fire-he lived by stealing -27 years!!!

    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
    The woodland camp where Christopher Knight is believed to have lived for up to 27 years
    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
  • Thanks for sharing krishna, great story.

    They became angry with him, not because he was barefoot, but because they know he is dodging the control and energy extraction system.

    Anyone being mocking or angry, is in a low fequency state of fear, exactly the system he is avoiding in his own way.

    Most of the whole "modern", is used to not only trap and confine the spirit, it is currently used to create fear and a constant state of anxiety and siphon those E(nergy) in motion-s from us.

    Will be a nice day, when the matrix starts using joy and love as its energy source, which he is obviously trying to maintain for himself, by his way of living.

    peace love light

  • Srila Prabhupada ...quote ...the way to live on Planet Earth is SIMPLE LIVING HIGH THINKING.

    none of the material things you have will go with you when you leave your body.

    all relations on Planet Earth are temporary as no one will go with you when you leave your body.

    ONLY YOUR KARMAS WILL GO WITH YOU WHEN YOU LEAVE YOUR BODY.

    After death experiences by Dolores Cannon tells you that your whole life on Planet Earth is shown to you when you leave your body so be good ..yes very good as you don’t want to look like a fool in Gods Court 

This reply was deleted.

Sananda, One Who Serves and Shoshanna - THE GREAT AWAKENING IS NOW COMING TO A CONCLUSION via James McConnell

ANCIENT AWAKENINGS Sunday Call 3/27/2022 (Sananda, OWS, & Shoshanna)James & JoAnna McConnell THE GREAT AWAKENING IS NOW COMING TO A CONCLUSION Sananda and One Who Serves channeled by James McConnellShoshanna – Joanna’s Higher Self These messages…

Read more…
0 Replies
Views: 1510

Ashtar, One Who Serves and Shoshanna - YOU ARE CREATING YOUR NEW REALITY via James McConnell

ANCIENT AWAKENINGS  Sunday Call 3/20/2022 (Ashtar, OWS, & Shoshanna)James & JoAnna McConnell YOU ARE CREATING YOUR NEW REALITY Ashtar and One Who Serves channeled by James McConnellShoshanna – Joanna’s Higher Self These messages were given during…

Read more…
0 Replies
Views: 729

Copyright Policy: Always Include 30-50% of the source material and a link to the original article. You may not post, modify, distribute, or reproduce in any way any copyrighted material, trademarks, or other proprietary information belonging to others without obtaining the prior written consent of the owner of such proprietary rights. If you believe that someone's work has been copied and posted on Ashtar Command in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please Contact Us and include the links to these pages and relevant info. 

Latest Activity

Justin89636 left a comment on Comment Wall
"More sightings down in Mexico. https://youtu.be/uQv7A1wHZwA?si=A6vimHDSrlXiR1lo"
15 minutes ago
Justin89636 replied to Justin89636's discussion Anything Ufo Or Et Related
"More sightings down in Mexico. https://youtu.be/uQv7A1wHZwA?si=3LFrjz3AwIc4s3SD"
17 minutes ago
Justin89636 replied to Justin89636's discussion Anything Ufo Or Et Related
"Tons of ships here. This was seen down in Mexico in the beginning of 2005. https://youtu.be/PJxlIJXhO90?si=uFGQS8LtS6JRmD-m"
20 minutes ago
Justin89636 left a comment on Comment Wall
"Tons of ships here. This was seen down in Mexico in the beginning of 2005. https://youtu.be/PJxlIJXhO90?si=-GE7ujszySVzdVrM"
22 minutes ago
Justin89636 liked AlternateEarth's discussion Weirdness at the Baltimore bridge collapse
2 hours ago
Movella left a comment on Comment Wall
"Oh yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised if they do.. x"
2 hours ago
Drekx Omega replied to AlternateEarth's discussion Weirdness at the Baltimore bridge collapse
"Clayton Morris of Redacted, discusses the salient points surrounding the Baltimore bridge destruction, including asking the question, as to why Biden would volunteer US taxpayer money, when the insurance company for the ship, would normally pay for…"
2 hours ago
Justin89636 left a comment on Comment Wall
"Good video Drekx. You posted a few videos with those two and they seem like a good and honest channel. Will definitely check out their news more often."
2 hours ago
More…