The Hunter Gatherer Society: Foraging, Primitive Fishing, and Camping – Blending Traditional Skills with Modern Living

Hunter Gatherer Society: Foraging, Primitive Fishing, Wild Food Recipes & Outdoor Living Skills

Welcome to The Hunter Gatherer Society, your guide to modern foraging, primitive fishing, and outdoor living. Whether you’re identifying wild edible plants, testing outdoor gear in rugged terrain, or fermenting ingredients gathered from the forest, this is where you’ll learn to reconnect with nature through hands-on experience and seasonal wisdom. Explore beginner-friendly foraging guides, gear reviews, and wild food recipes created for real life. From learning the basics of plant identification to discovering new ways to cook what you forage, The Hunter Gatherer Society is about building confidence outdoors. We blend traditional knowledge with modern adventure to inspire a more grounded, self-reliant way of living.

Big Tree Trail Hike in Prairie Creek Redwoods

June 4, 2026 rpolipnick Hiking

Exploring One of California’s Last Ancient Redwood Forests The Big Tree Trail in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park is one of those hikes that naturally makes you slow down. This morning, after stopping by the visitor center for trail recommendations, we decided to take the roughly 2.5 mile round-trip walk from the visitor center out to the famous Big Tree and back through the towering redwoods of Redwood National and State Parks. Sometimes the best hikes are not the hardest or longest. Instead, they are the ones that remind you how incredible the natural world really is. The trail itself was incredibly approachable. It was wide, well maintained, and had very little elevation gain. Because of that, it made for[…]

Man using a portable water purifier to filter water from a roadside puddle during a hammock camping trip in the Pacific Northwest.

Can You Really Turn a Roadside Puddle Into Safe Drinking Water?

June 2, 2026 rpolipnick Primitive Camping and Hammock Camping

What a Stealth Hammock Camping Trip Taught Me About Water Purification in the Outdoors By Richard Polipnick | The Hunter Gatherer Society Affiliate Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, The Hunter Gatherer Society may earn from qualifying purchases. If you choose to purchase through links in this article, it helps support our content at no additional cost to you. If you spend enough time hiking, camping, fishing, foraging, or exploring back roads, sooner or later you will run into the same problem. Water. More specifically, finding safe drinking water when your supply starts running low. That happened to me recently during a stealth hammock camping trip. I had spent most of the day exploring logging roads on my Wallke ebike, stopping[…]

Forest hammock camping setup beside a river during golden hour with tarp shelter and backpack

Why I Switched to Hammock Camping After Years of Tent Camping

May 28, 2026 rpolipnick Primitive Camping and Hammock Camping

There’s a moment almost every hammock camper experiences for the first time. You wake up in the woods feeling surprisingly rested, no pressure points, rocks under your back, or sliding downhill all night inside a tent. Just fresh air, gentle movement, and the sound of the outdoors around you. That moment completely changed how I camp. I still use tents occasionally, especially in alpine terrain or areas without trees, but for most wooded camping trips, hammock camping has become my preferred setup by far. What surprised me most is that hammock camping isn’t just about sleeping differently. It changes the entire feel of camp itself. You spend more time outside.You notice your surroundings more.And camp somehow feels calmer and more[…]

Wild foods to forage in late June and early July including blackberries, chanterelles, nettles, and dandelion roots in a rustic foraging basket

Top 10 Wild Foods to Forage in Late June and Early July

May 24, 2026 rpolipnick Foraging Wild Edible Plants and Mushrooms, Wild Edible Plants Foraging and Identification Guides

Beginner-Friendly Wild Edibles You Can Learn This Summer Late June and early July are some of the best times of year to begin learning about wild foods to forage in late June and early July. Trails are alive with edible plants, berry patches begin producing heavily, summer greens are thriving, and beginner-friendly mushrooms start appearing across much of North America. Most importantly, many of these wild foods are common, easy to identify, and incredibly rewarding to harvest. You do not need deep wilderness or advanced survival knowledge to start learning. Many of the best edible wild plants grow: This guide covers ten of the best wild foods to forage in late June and early July for beginner foragers, including: If[…]

Hikers relaxing beside the Dungeness River on the Upper Dungeness Trail in Olympic National Forest Washington

Upper Dungeness Trail: One of Washington’s Most Peaceful River Hikes

May 21, 2026 rpolipnick Hiking

There are some hikes that challenge you.Others simply remind you to slow down. The Upper Dungeness Trail on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula feels like the second kind. Instead of a brutal summit grind or exhausting backpacking trip, this trail offers something calmer. Along the way, you find yourself stopping every few minutes just to listen to the river, look up at the old-growth trees, and remember why getting outside matters in the first place. During our trip, we hiked about 3.4 miles into Camp Handy and back out for just under 7 miles total. Because the elevation gain is minimal and the trail conditions are excellent, the hike feels approachable and relaxing almost the entire way. Even better, the scenery never[…]