NYC Peak Oil Meet-Up Group Ventures Beyond City Life

In October of 2005 NYC Peak Oil Meet-Up took a wilderness survival course at Stone Ridge in Clarksville, NY, instructed by Barb Stone. The skills taught included starting a fire without matches, shelter building in the woods, and avoiding hypothermia. Much of what we learned, and then some, is echoed by Dale Allen Pfeiffer in “A Matter of Survival.”1 Many of us had hiking or camping experience, but now we would practice stepping into the wilderness with minimal amenities.

It was a three-hour drive upstate from Manhattan so the group set up a car share system. I left Long Island at 5:30 a.m. and headed into Brooklyn to pick up Jenna and Ernesto. The ride was filled with conversations about how each of us had discovered Peak Oil, our spiritual or philosophical outlook upon what is destined to come, and how difficult it has been to bring up the issue with those whom we love. The resistance we’ve encountered from loved ones, whether we realize it or not, has forced each of us to search for an extended family of aware individuals.

We made it to Stone Ridge by 10 a.m. and walked into the garage of a home that resembled a traditional red barn. We were the last to arrive. Our group totaled four men and four women, and in front of the room was Barb Stone wearing a T-shirt that said, “Becoming an Outdoors Woman.” She specializes in teaching outdoors skills to women and groups.

From the Wilderness