EP 26 - HISTORY CHANNEL'S "ALONE" STAR & WILDERNESS SURVIVALIST CARLEIGH FAIRCHILD SHARES HER PASSION FOR THE WILD

Carleigh Fairchild lives her life as a journey, taking each adventure and living it to the fullest. She has studied survival skills since she was a teenager, and Niaszhii Healing over the last seven years. Carleigh is passionate about basket weaving, shelter building, fire making, edible and medicinal plants, and finding joyful connections wherever she goes. In 2016 Carleigh lived solo for 86 days and filmed herself as part of History Channel’s TV series Alone. Carleigh is a practitioner of Niaszhii (Nya Zee Yi) Healing, teaches survival skills, gives inspirational presentations, and is an ambassador for LT Wright Handcrafted Knives. 

Show Notes:

00:00 

Carleigh Fairchild reads an excerpt of her journal about her time on the show “Alone

2:30 

Drea introduced Carleigh and her background

3:52 

Carleigh talks about the excerpt in the beginning about the feelings she had about the show, “Alone.”  She shares how they weren’t allowed to bring a journal on the show. 

4:43 

Carleigh shares what travel means to her

5:52 

Carleigh shares her preferred way of travel  

Carleigh shares that she actually went back to Mongolia and interned for Panoramic Journeys. 

Drea shares that on the show, they went to her two favorite places, Patagonia and Mongolia

8:55 

Carleigh shares what it looks like to travel with her and some of the things she carries with her when she goes to travel

10:12

Carleigh shares her travel style

Cowboy camping - Drea talks about Carleigh on the show when she still went cowboy camping even though she spots a bob cat

She talks about having familiarity and rationalizing being a big factor with cowboy camping.

Carleigh shares about sleeping with just a tarp for some of her time hiking on the Pacific Crest Trail

17:14

Carleigh tells us that there is nothing else teaches you more about yourself than being out there in the wilderness for a long period of time

She shares what the most valuable thing she has learned out in the wilderness 

19:27

Carleigh is a wilderness survivalist and she talks about where it started. 

23:20 

Carleigh shares with us what wilderness survival has taught her the most. 

The importance of being part of the wilderness

The importance to have empathy when hunting and being part of the cycle of life

28:70 

Carleigh talks about making a drum out of a cow hide she found on the show

She talks about the things she made with this cow hide 

She starts to discuss what the experience was like on the show “Alone”

33:58 

Carleigh and Drea discuss the difficulties about filming and surviving at the same time.  

35:45

Drea asks if this was the first time she really had to apply the survival skills she had learned in the past.  Carleight explains that she actually had less items in the past. 

Drea asks which of the two were more difficult -  her time on Alone or her previous experiences 

36:52 

Carleigh talks about how they weren’t allowed to go outside of the area they were in. 

39:42

Carleigh shares her biggest challenge on “Alone” - Food

She only caught 6 fish and she explains that journey

42:03

Carleigh talks about her mental capacity to stay for such a lengthy time on the show.  

46:43

Carleigh talks about how she really learn to value other people’s company after being on the show both on the first and second times.

She talks about how soon they had her work on the 2nd time on the show - it was one year. 

48:43

Carleigh talks about the recovery period after her experience. 

Losing her love for Bacon and Chocolate after the 86 days in the wilderness

52:52

Carleigh talks about how close she was to winning the show

Carleigh talks about how Alone was a journey for yourself as opposed to competing against each other

56:02

Carleigh talks about the 2nd time on the show, "Alone" and her experience with the fish hook in her hand.

1:07 

 Carleigh talks about the highest point in Washington on the PCT - She talks about a storm coming and a memorable moment for her. 

1:09 

Her favorite trails are the PCT and the Wonderland Trail around Mt. Rainier

1:11 

Carleigh shares her favorite moment was at the Cascades

1:12

Carleigh shares the people who inspired her

1:13 

Carleigh her plans on what she’s going to do next

1:14

Carleigh shares the one thing she takes with her when she travels

1:17

Carleigh shares a piece of life advice she would give to a younger version of herself

1:18

https://carleighfairchild.org

www.instagram.com/carleighfairchild

www.facebook.coin/carleighfairchildalone

www.etsy.com/cedarbaskets