10,000 foot Mountain Retreat - Cabin Building on the side of a Mountain!

The area has great potential but with a shadowy area where the sun didn't hit properly there was only one area to build, up on the 'Golden Hill'. From there it could be leveled and made ready with solar power and much more...

These are just roll-up, temporary panels but demonstrate the start-up phase...


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Some like to put down us folks in the mountains as being pure loners and likely to be overwhelmed etc.
Well that's not the case at the Mountain Hold, this is one of the neighbors bobcat/snowcat machine for clearing snow. We like to help each other out from time to time.


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I myself did some roof work for one neighbor who needed a new chimney installing.

Getting the shelters built takes trees, lots of trees. These ones being shown next are all dead trees that were infested with beetle-kill...



Making a mallet for working the wood with:



Under Construction!

Getting around the area is nice and offroady:



Setting up the shower wasn't too difficult, just leveled the slope with rocks and a pallet on top, some sponge floor and spikes for tarp etc.



This is a neighbors outhouse, fancy stuff let me tell you.

Food Reserves

It's always good to have a food reserve, some folks have enough food for years, at Mike's Hold he has just some of his in big 55 gallon barrels like this one:



My little cooking experiment:



What is usually on the menu is Mountain Stew, tasty and plenty of it!



If neighbors are around the dutch oven comes out! Millet was used in making this and, for my guts at least, it went straight through! The other food cooked with it was damned tasty stuff though.



The cooking stove was this coleman one that is very old-school:

So THAT'S where the timber is coming from Are you within a hundred miles of Afton OP? Idle curiousity, no big if you'd rather not answer.

We had bad wild-fires in Colorado back in 2012, but thankfully at 10,000 feet they never took hold where we were. Got a lil' bit smokey and that was it.





Last Edited by Honfire on 12/27/2015 06:54 PM

On the note of this allow me to introduce the wildlife at the Mountain Hold Area...

Lots of these:





Quite a lot of them:



And a fair few of these:



Bears, we'll get to them later!

While there's plenty of water to drink the risk of gardia can't be chanced, where the spring begins is popular with animals first thing in the morning. To that end a good filter is needed.

Behold The Big Berkey Filter...





This is slow, but steady for filtering water. While it may not be as quick as an MSR pump filter, both are ceramic. The Berkey also is a passive filter, meaning you can leave it overnight, during the day etc and it will continue to drip filter through to the water reservoir.

I'm sure you're here for the construction, but it's important to show you the stuff necessary to get to the construction. Nevertheless we begin now!

CONSTRUCTION OF LOG CABIN

Typical Logs used.


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Leveling the ground (this took a month per area!)


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For the neighbors cabin area it took him much longer due to....

This mega-rock being in the way! It was time to get technical...

I am Mountain Man Mike and no I won't tell my real full name. My real name that I have had since birth is Mike, and yes I do have a real birth certificate from Greeley, Colorado.

I am the Mike shown in the videos. I own the mountain retreat and anyone out there who has Any questions just ask in a post or email. My email should be found on my profile.

The Watch Ryder made quite a few videos when he camped, worked and Lived on my mtn place the summers of 2012 and 2014. I won't tell more about him unless he wishes me to.

And some might wonder Why anyone would want to live in the wild woods at around 10,000 feet. Well, all I can say is that one just has to get used to it. I love it up there and Hope to move up there permanently someday soon. I still must take care of my elderly parents here in Greeley, Colorado.

Although from 1999 to 2014 during the summers - actually from mid June to Nov. or so I did work, camp and Live up there building what I think is a good survival retreat / BOL and hope to make it into a sorta wilderness homestead someday soon. Would be nice to be up there and let the rest of the world go to, where ever it is constantly going to.....

Last Edited by Mtnman Mike on 12/28/2015 12:31 PM

Here's to you Mike, I'm enjoying the thread please keep it up as you can.

Tough people live up there. If you were an out of shape person living at 10k, you could run a marathon at sea level.

Good stuff. Thank you.

You sir are a hero.

you left the iron on

Nice thread.

I've a daughter that lives in Casper wy....they have a small log cabin on Muddy Mountain...very very nice

Very nice work and surroundings! I like the chipmunk and the animals. I didn't like though your soup! Possible the food in dutch oven have been delicious, but that soup, guys, you have to be very hungry to say is good. Radishes in the soup? Never!

But anyways, very interesting, full of insights and it make someone wonder what happened that we were separated from the nature, to live in this concrete and asphalt jungle!

Keep up making videos!

Thanks to everyone who has posted. Not even one nasty comment which is a first for me from ten years or so posting on the net. I mainly post in the winter time since I am not online for a remote mtn retreat reason especially every summer - June to Nov. since 1999.

Someone will likely post something crude or nasty since I asked for it, sorta.

And I had to quote the above guy since he likes Wyoming. I think Wyoming and Montana and even most of Idaho are some of the last still mostly Free states. I never feel more free than when I am in Wyoming, especially on a remote mtn retreat which I hope to move to permanently someday. I still am stuck here in Greeley, Colorado for a year now since I must take care of my elderly mom and dad.

My inspiration was mainly Dick Proenneke. I have all three of his videos. I also met and worked for Mike Oehler in north Idaho on his sorta homestead on his 40 acres. I planted his large garden, cut a great deal of firewood for him and helped dig out the fallout shelter in his 2 story underground house. If any google " Mike Oehler " you will find quite a bit. Even google or search for " Mtnman Mike retreat " and bunker and there is quite a lot.

And hope you all won't miss this other thread here on this forum about my bunker which is really just an very strong, very secure underground storage / storm shelter - cabin. > Thread: How to Build an Underground Bunker

I also have a sorta blog near the bottom of this page which I Should post more in but it does have some more pics of my mtn retreat - vacation spot - BOL - or Hold as one guy calls it, in a few posts of this forum >
[link to www.survivalistinfo.net]

Later, although I am not online much since I have to go to a library or McDonalds to get online.

I doubt yer at 10,000 feet- thats above the Timberline in the US and All I see are trees...

Well said, Mike is probably one of the few people with bolt-like kneecaps that can jolt-jog down a mountain hill and keep at full sprint!

Timberline can range slightly higher than that, usually 12,000 to 15,000 feet.

That is bad ass op wish I had the doe for a retreat in the wilderness and all the gear to go with it , yeah I'd probably leave the world is going to pot , I don't want to be here tbh

Thanks Romanian dude! Glad you enjoyed sampling the 'food' too! :)

I'm hoping you'll be ok if the testing times come over the island wise jonnie....

I thank you for such noble words, but while I did help out at the Mountain Hold and have a tiny slice of land adjacent, it's MMM who was the pioneer hero. A survivalist that dared to open his world to the outside world. Few do that, especially post 2010 NDAA that has scared many privacy-minded survivalists and preppers etc into the shadows once more.

He continues to work on it too when most his age are cosy baby boomer types slicking about the cities with fake pursuits and nonsense like that. There's a few others that can do what Mike has done, but don't broadcast it hardly.

Mike's had TV fame almost arrive too, but that is another story I'll let him talk of...

Ok this next part is the gateway section that bars the way into the Mountain Hold. It was done over the 2012 - 2014 period.

Gear


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Peeling


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Spikes hammered in.


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Frame is made up, needs hinge pieces


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Gates are mounted and boards are going up!


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Olde Worlde View


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Notice the Rebar Locking mechanisms. :)


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It took three of us to mount the last gate-frame and two for the other three. Make no mistake it was no mean-feat making LOG Gates but these things will stand the test of time no doubt about it!

Before I retire for the night, I'll leave you with some ATV doings. One of the Cabineer neighbor folks came over and let and invited guest have a buzz on about with his fancy ATV:



This is his cabin, not like the rustic stuff, but he built it himself with his large family over a few years of work. They make a noise sometimes with racing the trails but are generous and hard-working. I have his permission to show this but don't show too many people, it might wear out the magic. ;)



For all the nice-features of his cabin, it doesn't have a Golden Hill or underground shelter though. More on that in another thread and later...

So the work to level land on the side of a mountain is worth it, but it is HARD work.


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First thing to do is hammer fence-bars in to the ground:


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Some logs laid across between them are the next move!


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Next it's time to get digging, digging, digging and digging!


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Landscape the terrain by the logs to be level


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Keep on repeating that...


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