Silicon Valley entrepreneur Julie Fredrickson remembers clearly the moment she decided to become a “prepper” – somebody who prepares for the worst-case scenario.
It was late October 2012 and Hurricane Sandy had just hit New York. “There was a large, almost phosphorescent flash and that was the main power plant that powered all of lower Manhattan going out.
“There was this bright, other-wordly eerie green and then everything just went black,” she says.
As Canadians holed up at home away from family and friends or swept grocery store shelves clean of toilet paper, others took pandemic precautions a leap further this year, turning to living off the grid and learning survival skills.
Chuck Wrathall, a survivalist and photographer from Cape Breton, runs an Instagram account dedicated to his adventures and has received an influx of messages from people wanting to learn the ropes since COVID-19 hit.
“Bushcraft has exploded. People love the wilderness skills. They want to know how to survive, how to forage, how to go out and hunt and gather,” he said. “Plus they want to know how to be self-reliant so that could mean off the grid or being self-sufficient, having solar or having water collection.”
