Preppers: It’s Ok To Follow a Beaten Path
Kevin Felts 03.12.18
There is an old saying about getting off the beaten path and blazing your own trail. Well, sometimes that is a good idea, and sometimes blazing your own trail can set plans back a great deal.
For example, a few days ago, my dogs and I were on a hiking trip. On the way home, I decided to take a rarely used route–rarely used by people, that is. The area is overgrown with stickers, vines, briars and brambles during summer time, creating an impenetrable fortress that only Briar Rabbit could appreciate. Being March, I was hoping the stickers would not be to bad.
As we approached the area, my dogs went off in one direction and I went another direction, which is not unusual. The route I took looked easier to travel through then the route the dogs took. Not long thereafter, I understood why the dogs went their own direction. The route I thought “looked” easier turned into a wall of stickers.
What was not taken into account is how my dogs traveled through the area on a pretty regular basis. They had their own beaten path through the area that allowed them safe passage. As I was staring at this wall of stickers, the dogs arrived on the other side and were waiting on me.
So, I had to backtrack to where the trail forked. Guess who was there waiting on me? The dogs. When they say me turn around and head back, they turned around also.
It was a lesson in humility. The lesson was when someone (or something) has experience in a given area, and heads off in a direction, the less experienced should pay attention. The dogs knew the area well, and I did not respect that knowledge.
This applies not only to prepping, but everything in life. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, or reinvent mylar bags, or reinvent freeze dried food.
When I started Lamar College in Port Arthur, one of my professors talked about researching topics. He said to look for research articles on the topic. Read the research article, expand off of it, and cite your sources.
Next time my dogs and I are in the woods near the farm, I am going to pay closer attention to the direction they want to go.
