The Secret Naturist Handbook

[jbeegoode]

This is Gila north of Winkleman, Arizona. A stretch up stream from town on the way into the White Mountains. The hot springs are, yup, toward and into New Mexico. There' it is a kayak trip, a couple of days between any civilization called the Gila Box. The hotsprings can be driven to.

That is on the bucket list. We have naturist friends with four kayaks that are interested. It is time of year, rains, water-flow, work schedules, porters, to coordinate. We'd camp overnight part way...all naked in the wilderness.
Jbee

[jbeegoode]

Skinny Dipping: From the Secret Naturist Handbook:

For the secret naturist, skinny dipping offers a way to make secret naturism acceptable in the eye of the general populace. Anyone witnessing a naked man, or woman for that matter, skinny dipping in a river, pond or the sea, will usually not take offence. People do not generally see any risk to themselves when someone is skinny dipping. This acceptability also means skinny dipping is a good way for beginners to get into secret naturism.

I must admit that I'm not really into skinny dipping in the true sense of the term and tend not to actually swim very much, mainly because the waters of Scotland are usually too cold for full immersion. The one exception I have found are smaller sized ponds which can often be quite warm during the summer, Generally though, I tend to enjoy simply wading about in streams and rivers, and the sea, rather than actually swimming. But each to their own.

There are many places where skinny dipping, in whatever fashion you prefer, is possible. The countryside is dotted with all manner of rivers, small streams, reservoirs, lakes and small ponds, and of course, there is always the sea. As a rule running water will be colder than still water and smaller bodies of water will have a greater heat gain during the warmer months than larger bodies of water. So, for comfortable skinny dipping, look for smaller ponds and streams.

There are a number of factors you need to consider from the secret naturist point of view when skinny dipping. The first is dealing with your removed clothing. Whatever the location, you will be separated from your clothing while in the water and you need to make sure you clothing is secure. As a rule I always hide my clothing when skinny dipping. Should someone stumble into the area, at least my clothing is hidden from view and I only need remain in the water to conceal my nudity.

Another point to consider when skinny dipping is that even the freshest cleanest looking water will leave a lingering smell on your body. For some this might not be a problem, but for those who keep their secret naturist activities a secret, this can be noticeable to others. The beds of rivers and the bottoms of ponds can also be quite muddy, not to mention smelly and you should be aware of this.

Safety is an important point when skinny dipping. Tidal currents can sweep even the strongest swimmer out to sea and rivers can have hidden currents that can trap the unwary. Water will also cool the body 25 times faster than air, so watch what you are doing. You should never enter any body of water until you are aware of what is under the water. This is particularly important with urban ponds and the like, where all manner of debris can litter the pond bottom. Footwear is always recommended in such locations.

As a rule, for skinny dipping, I always wear my sports sandals to protect my feet from rubbish and sharp rocks and never get out of my depth. Generally, if my feet cannot touch bottom, I don't enter the water. Just my own preference.

[jbeegoode]

Yup, those chilly waters can be an eye opener. Observe the reaction in the 12th picture, here:

https://thefreerangenaturist.org/2019/10/08/hutchs-pool-part-ii/

Redington when the waterthere, it is there is very nice, as the water washes the debris downstream. Downstream from there, where it is now a textiles area, the rowdies bring glass bottles and they can get broken, making surprises.

I suppose that there is risk in any body of water, even the ocean. There are critters down in the depths with the feet, too. but that is not always the case.

I don't get it. "If the feet don't touch the bottom" that is called swimming. I have waded out carefully, getting to the place where i can swim off and no longer jeopardize my feet, or footing.

Jbee

[jbeegoode]

TREE CLIMBING: From the Activities section of The Secret Naturist Handbook

This might seem like an odd activity for the secret naturist and you are probably right. But when you actually try nude tree climbing, you realise just how thrilling an activity it can be. To be high in the branches of a mighty copper beech, with the wind rustling through the leaves, birds singing all around you and the amazing feeling of total exposure, you really have to experience it to believe it. Tree climbing is a good activity when you are restricted to a small area of woodland. When you cannot go far horizontally, why not go vertically? It gives you something else to do when forced to stay in one location.

You need not climb very high to get the effect but the higher you go the more exposed you feel. Of course, it always seems much higher than it really is. Five metres can seem like fifty metres when you are looking down and the ground appears a long way away. If not used to tree climbing, start off easy by only climbing a couple of metres. When you get more confident with your abilities, start going higher, one branch at a time. Do take care, as it can be easier getting up than climbing down. It would not be a good idea to get trapped naked up a tree and have to be rescued by the fire brigade!

Most types of tree can be climbed but some trees are easier than others. With most conifers you tend to get scratched and the branches are generally not strong enough for safety. Beech trees are ideal, with good strong branches at all levels and rotten branches can be easily spotted and avoided. There are also many others that can be climbed safely and easily and it's just a case of finding them.

One interesting observation is that people rarely look upwards, into the trees. This fact might be useful to the secret naturist looking for a daring challenge.  Suppose your local park had good trees suitable for nude climbing. You could find a good tree, strip off and climb up out of sight. Wait until people have passed by and climb down again. Could be fun and might be good for the nocturnal secret naturist looking for some adventure.

Where to leave clothing is something to consider when nude tree climbing. I would advise against leaving stuff at the base of the tree, as it tends to be difficult to hide and therefore easily found. You could take it with you but a bumbag tends to get in the way of climbing. My personal approach is to either hide clothing and footwear away from the tree or to attach the bumbag to a lower branch yet still out of easy reach of anyone below.

Finally a few notes of caution on tree climbing. Tree climbing can be dangerous and a fall from even a few meters can result in serious injury or worse. Do make sure that the branch you stand on will support your weight and that you can get back down again before you start to climb.

[jbeegoode]

I used to hide in trees as a kid when we were playing war games. People just don't look up and I'd ambush them every time. I'd wipe out whole platoons of kids. I never felt more exposed, but the opposite.

A good climbing tree is unusual around here. They are generally not tall, or thick branched. The mountainous trees don't have much lower branches, conifers mostly. They all are rough on the skin, except aspen. There are occasional old mesquite that are suitable, but again, there is that rough bark. We used to have mulberry around here, but they were outlawed a couple of decades ago and died off.

I'm working on the issues, but my upper body strength has dissipated so that I can't safely accomplish climbing. The swinging and pull up are essential to muscles that support like the psoas, and those oblique side muscles. So this is good for us, too.

I have for some reason developed some irrational fear of heights as I have aged. I've been occasionally working with rock climbing to desensitize. It is probably currently for the best, as again, that upper body strength. Maybe my subconscious is telling me something about my condition. My coordination and stretch and balance are coming along after too much disuse with Movnat exercise. Eventually, I should become capable again.

When was the last time someone here climbed a tree? JMF has to an extent. I've just hung from lower branches, myself. I don't think that I have been truly up in the heights since my twenties. We used to climb trees in the park and make elf sounds in the dark when people walked by.
Jbee

[nuduke]

One of my neighbourhood friends as a small boy had an orchard in their backyard and we used to spend many a summer afternoon climbing trees and playing make believe games.  Happy days (ish!).
John

[jbeegoode]

When I was five or six, I climbed a small fruit tree in the backyard. It was Falls Church, Virginia. We had 36 trees from huge to small dogwood that we would mess with during the five years that my family was there. This day however, I got up and didn't see a way down. I was stuck up there for what seemed to be hours, calling for help and feeling horrible, until a helping hand arrived.

I spent about three hours hiding up a tree near La Paz, Bolivia...1976...I think that that was the last time I climbed one. It takes many muscles that are usually not used together, if much at all. Things forgotten, disused for decades. Perhaps a tree climb is a worthy goal toward achieving youthful dexterity, elasticity and confidence.

I have been to the top of a very tall pine tree not long ago...but it was laying on its side....
Jbee

[MartinM]

I took to climbing trees again a few years ago. Often when on a naturist walk in the woods, or even a clothed walk, I will climb a suitable tree naked. Many of these are yew trees, but sometimes oak or any other suitable tree. I haven’t been up one since October.

I enjoy simply meditating in a tree for a while, contemplating the nature in which I am immersed.

[jbeegoode]

TRIG POINTING: From the Secret Naturist Handbook

Many of you will have heard about Munro bagging, the "collecting" of mountain summits over 3000 feet by visiting each in turn. Well, trig pointing is something similar but Ordnance Survey triangulation points are bagged instead. For those who are unfamiliar with trig points, trig points are those large concrete pillars you see dotted around the countryside which were once used by map makers but are now no longer used.

The great thing about trig points is that there are plenty of them, around 6500, I think, and they are located in all manner of locations from remote mountain peaks to inner city parks. They offer the perfect target for the adventurous secret naturist. I've bagged around about 20 trig points in secret naturist fashion.

What I do is to select a trig point from the map and then plan a way of getting naked there and also during as much of the inward and return journeys as well. I also have a short ritual I complete before the trig point is deemed fully bagged. This entails climbing on top of the trig point and facing all four compass points, north, east, south and west. I must do this totally naked, no clothing and no footwear.

With trig points being located in such a wide range of different locations, they offer the ideal target for secret naturists seeking a challenge. For example, there's a trig point on top of Arthur's Seat, a 251m high hill in Holyrood Park, Edinburgh. The park is extremely busy from dawn to dusk and is surrounded by housing on all sides. It is very, very exposed to view and the weather. It presents a real challenge for a secret naturist wishing to stand naked there. I hope to bag this trig point one day.

Of course, not all trig points are as challenging as the one mentioned above and many can be found is quiet out of the way locations. Those found in woodland are good for beginners but they are not so thrilling as those found at high and exposed locations.

[jbeegoode]

Trigs are no such thing here in Arizona. It sounds fun, like a commando military operation. Scope, penetrate and secure, dig out maps, aerial, do recon, etc. Back in the 1970's, we used to sneak across the Mexican border at night, just for fun, nothing needed to be profitable smuggling. There was no law against entering one's own country and the border was a free public place to roam as an American citizen. So what if we were suspicious.

Nowadays, they are so weird about their "important mission" they would most likely harass, even abuse people. Certainly they would record and build a file in a computer if caught. There may even be a law against not entering at a point of entry. I can hear them now, "you are using up the resources, costing the government's tax payers money." HA! 

Even if there is no risk in the UK due to new use of the law, it can be done just as a challenge to not be seen. It could be done with clothes on, but then I see the added fun without, with the potential to be discovered as the odd one. Photographic evidence, furthers the challenge. Or with the new laws would it be a time to go to each trig nude and liberate the country piece by piece? It can be good natural exercise, a meditation in awareness, lots of good hunter/gather skills to be used.
Jbee

[Safebare]

I earned a degree in Forestry some time ago and trees have always held a special place in my heart.  I have never stopped climbing trees.

The earliest story comes from 1960 when dad bought the family station wagon.  It was a Valiant, with many cool extras, one of which was a cigarette lighter.  My lil' bro' and i were checking everything in the car while at Grandma's house.  The cigarette lighter was certainly a curiosity to our young selves.  Being the older of us two, I figured out how to heat the thing up to it's red hot fullest, but I wasn't going to touch it myself.  So, my lil' bro' became the test dummy.  Three times in the middle of his back.  He still wears the scars.
Of course, he ran into the house to seek solace, and I skidattled, climbing the tallest tree in the yard.  It was awesome watching all of the angst turned to concern beneath my perch.  It seemed like several hours, but was probably less than one when I decided to end the charade.  All of the adults were combing the neighborhood, so I decided to confide in my older sister.  "Pssst, Jacki, I'm up here."  Well, she didn't stop to see what I had in mind and immediately started screaming MOM! DAD! I found him!!
I still am not sure what they were more mad at me about.  Was it scarring my brother?  That wasn't a rare occurrence.  Or, more likely, the worry they endured searching for me.  But, I never left the yard! 

Anyway, I still climb trees, mostly to perform trimming and other maintenance.  I have taken to wearing 100% fall arrest system equipment when at elevations though.

Be safe, be bare,
Safebare

[ric]

sometime in my teenage years i came home to find parents in a state,  the new kitten had escaped and not neen seen for some hours,   youve guessed it.... it was up the tree 10 foot from the back door.


theres a trig point in the 2nd field accross the road from us, ive often thought about bagging it,   its in view, through a straggly hedge, from the farmhouse, which one has to pass by ,or going tother way down the road passed two other houses and up a long driveway in full view of another house .   just getting bare at the trig point seems a bit tame could probably  actually do that during the working day ... carrying nothing the whole way more of a challenge,  i guess were looking at very early one summer morning,

[John P]

If anyone wonders what British trig points are like, you can see several of them in the "Naked Munros" section of this site.

[jbeegoode]

I randomly popped into the "Ben Hope" thread and there was what I assumed was a trig point. It seemed odd to mark the top of a mountain, the top should be dang obvious, must be a marker.

So, I went down the post. Beautiful!...filled with pastel colors, shadows with emerging light and various celestial critters for fun. It looks to be one of those truly magical spots.

So, I looked into it further, 3000ft.! The 5 mile trail has an elevation gain of 3000ft!?? That's quite a hill side march.
Jbee

[ric]

the trig point is a 4 sided concrete cone some 4ft tall, used for survey purposes, its height above sea level is noted on ordenance survey maps,   the mountaintop height can vary due to erosion, but the trig point height is relatively stable and immediately obvious if it has altered.
if you sit a theodolite ontop of a trig point you should be able to see (have line of sight to) several others, some many miles away

basically the trig point network is the backbone that uk maps were built arround