Discover Why One Man Chose to Live Alone in the Forest for 25 Years

A Wild Upbringing

Mick Dodge was born on August 29, 1951, in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. He spent his early years in the loving guardianship of his grandparents. The rest of his youth was adventurous, he traveled the US with his Marine father, Ronald Dodge.

Oriental Influenece

During his high school years, the pair lived on a U.S. Marine base in Okinawa, Japan. There, the young Mick Dodge would go on to graduate from Kubasaki High School, highly trained in martial arts. The teenager adopted many esoteric Buddhist principles that would later contribute to his future alternative lifestyle choices.

The Beginning of the Road

Before Dodge made his first national television appearance, his adventurous and unusual upbringing had begun to mold him into a unique character. After graduating high school, he served in the Marine Corp for almost six years. Once his military service had ended, Dodge ventured off to explore South East Asia.

Gaining Valid Skills

Once he returned to the US, he took on a 9-to-5 job as a mechanic in Washington. The manual labor taught Dodge to work well with his hands, gaining an understanding of how to build and fix various types of equipment. He was yet to know that these skills would serve him well in the years to come.