Wilderness Survival Stories

Jimmy Benge is excited to celebrate his thirteenth birthday with an ice fishing adventure in northern Minnesota. He's even allowed to invite his best friend, Ryan, to spend winter break at the family’s lakeside home. The two boys learn a lot about ice fishing and catch a few panfish but decide to fish for something bigger: Northern pike, the alpha predators of the lake.

"Wilderness," a darkly intriguing short story first published as an e-book original, was written as prelude to Dean Koontz’s novel of mystery, suspense, and strange wonder - Innocence.

Terror on the Appalachian Trail by Harlan Blackwell A solo trek into the mountains was supposed to be peaceful. But the Appalachian Trail holds something far older—and far hungrier—than solitude. When experienced hiker Martin Ellis disappears without a trace, his last journal entries hint at unnatural cairns, shadowy watchers, and a forest that shifts around those who enter. Weeks later, another backpacker arrives, unaware that the trail is watching—and waiting. A skin-crawling horror story set deep in the wilderness, where what returns from the woods may not be human at all.

You’re not on top of the food chain. Not out here. Mauled delivers 15 gut-wrenching accounts of humans hunted, cornered, and torn apart by nature’s most savage predators. Bears. Lions. Wolves. Hyenas. These aren’t stories with happy endings—they’re warnings. If you think you're prepared, think again. When it happens, it happens fast.

Nature doesn’t need a motive. It just needs a moment. Animal Attacks – GORE! delivers fifteen of the most blood-chilling real-life accounts of humans being mauled, torn, swallowed, and savaged by the wild. From shark-infested waters to bear-haunted campsites, these are immersive, narrative-driven true stories of survival, terror, and the raw fury of the animal kingdom. James Calloway plunges you into each scene with cinematic detail and emotional depth. Whether it’s a grizzly’s final charge, a killer whale’s lethal strike, or the eyes of a tiger locked onto its prey — these ...

Entropy is a law of nature, the one predicting that "things fall apart." Spend enough time outdoors and it will eventually happen to you. When it does, who will pick up the pieces? Who will glue them back together? Professional search and rescue volunteers leave work, home, and their cozy beds to rescue people on the worst day of their lives. They buy their own gear, pay their own gas, and ask nothing more than to make a contribution to the lives of strangers who they'll probably never meet again.

When a deadly plague reaches the small fish camp where he lives, an orphan named Leif is forced to take to the water in a cedar canoe. He flees northward, following a wild, fjord-riven shore, navigating from one danger to the next, unsure of his destination. But the deeper into his journey he paddles, the closer he comes to his truest self as he connects to “the heartbeat of the ocean...the pulse of the sea”.

Newbery Award-winner Gary Paulsen's best-known book comes to audio in this breathless, heart-gripping drama about a boy pitted against the wilderness with only a hatchet and a will to live. On his way to visit his recently divorced father in the Canadian mountains, thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is the only survivor when the single-engine plane crashes. His body battered, his clothes in shreds, Brian must now stay alive in the boundless Canadian wilderness.

Nature doesn’t care how prepared you are. Stretching over 2,000 miles from Georgia to Maine, the Appalachian Trail is a test of endurance, willpower, and survival. But for some hikers, the true challenge wasn’t the mountains — it was the sudden fever, the twisted ankle, the blood loss, the vanishing companion. In Medical Mysteries – Appalachian Trail, you'll find 20 true stories of medical emergencies, disappearances, infections, injuries, and unexplained deaths that occurred on America’s most iconic trail. A hiker survives 26 days lost in the woods before dying just miles from ...

Many people dream of escaping modern life, but most will never act on it. This is the remarkable true story of a man who lived alone in the woods of Maine for 27 years, making this dream a reality—not out of anger at the world, but simply because he preferred to live on his own.

The Hunted Become the Hunters... But What They Find Might Be Worse. Dr. Elise Holloway and the broken remnants of her team survived the horrors of Site Sierra, but escape is only the beginning. Hunted by the ruthless Kestrel organization and stalked by unseen forces within the ancient forests, their only hope lies with Dr. Aris Thorne—a brilliant, perhaps unstable, scientist hiding secrets that could shatter everything. Their desperate journey north leads them through treacherous terrain and impossible choices, pushing them past the limits of endurance. Kestrel, led by Aris's own vengeful...

3:47 a.m. That's when they come for Wren Clemmens. She's hustled out of her house and into a waiting car, then a plane, and then taken on a forced march into the desert. This is what happens to kids who've gone so far off the rails, their parents don't know what to do with them anymore. This is wilderness therapy camp. Eight weeks of survivalist camping in the desert. Eight weeks to turn your life around. Yeah, right.

This true-life wilderness survival epic recounts 17-year-old Alex Messenger's near-lethal encounter with a grizzly bear during a canoe trip in the Canadian tundra. The story follows Alex and his five companions as they paddle north through harrowing rapids and stunning terrain. Twenty-nine days into the trip, while out hiking alone, Alex is attacked by a barren-ground grizzly. Left for dead, he wakes to find that his summer adventure has become a struggle to stay alive.

The I Escaped Series: Thrilling Survival Stories for Kids 9-12! 13-year-old Carlos loves adventure, whether he's racing BMX bikes or exploring the Arizona outdoors. But when an ordinary backyard chore goes wrong, he and his younger brother find themselves locked outside—with no easy way to get back in. Nearby, a disturbed beehive adds an unexpected challenge. With no time to waste, Carlos must think fast, act smart, and guide his brother to safety—all while staying calm under pressure. Can he figure out an escape plan before things take a turn for the worse? Perfect for young readers ...

Only four men survived the plane crash. The pilot. A politician. A cop... and the criminal he was shackled to. On an icy night in October 1984, a commuter plane carrying nine passengers crashed in the remote wilderness of northern Alberta. Four survived: the rookie pilot, a prominent politician, a cop, and the criminal he was escorting to face charges. As the men fight through the night to stay alive, the dividing lines of power, wealth, and status are erased, and each man is forced to confront the precious and limited nature of his existence.

A trip to the Yukon Territory in northern Canada turns into a nightmare for three childhood friends. Shortly after being dropped off on a frozen, isolated lake they make a bone chilling discovery. When the initial shock eventually wears off, they realize that the ones responsible are hiding in the woods and keeping a close eye on them. That’s when the terror starts in earnest. The plane that brought them to this vast, isolated wilderness is not scheduled to return for another week, and they have no means of communicating with the outside world. There’s only one option available to the ...

Twelve-year-old Donn Fendler steps away from his Boy Scout troop for only a minute, but in the foggy mountains of Maine, a minute is all it takes. After hours of trying to find his way back, a nervous and tired Donn falls down an embankment, making it impossible for him to be found. One sleepless night goes by, followed by a second...and before Donn knows it, almost two weeks have passed, leaving him starving, scared, and delirious.

In this groundbreaking epic biography, Douglas Brinkley draws on never-before-published materials to examine the life and achievements of our "naturalist president." By setting aside more than 230 million acres of wild America for posterity between 1901 and 1909, Theodore Roosevelt made conservation a universal endeavor. This crusade for the American wilderness was perhaps the greatest U.S. presidential initiative between the Civil War and World War I.

🛑 People vanish without a trace. Some are never found. For decades, strange disappearances have plagued national parks across the country. Hikers, campers, and even experienced outdoorsmen walk into the wilderness—never to return. What happened to them? And why do these cases share disturbing similarities? 📖 Lost and Gone: National Parks investigates real-life cases of mysterious vanishings, eerie encounters, and theories that range from tragic accidents to something far more unexplainable. Inside, you'll explore: ✅ Chilling accounts of people who disappeared in broad daylight ✅...

In MeatEater’s Campfire Stories: Discoveries, Revelations & Near Misses, a collection of outdoorsmen share remarkable tales of life-altering moments. From a macabre discovery in the Idaho mountains that closed the book on a mystery spanning more than 50 years to an Ice Age archaeological find in remote Alaska, these stories take listeners on an immersive journey and provide intimate glimpses into a way of life that is slipping away.