From 1986 to 2013, Christopher Thomas Knight lived alone in the woods of Maine, surviving by quietly breaking into unoccupied cabins and summer camps to take food, clothing, propane, and books. Locals later called him the “North Pond Hermit.”

At age 20, Knight abruptly left his job as a home security installer and drove away without telling anyone. He eventually returned to Maine, abandoned his car in a wooded area, and began living off the land. He later said he had no clear plan or philosophical mission: “I just did it.”

Knight built a hidden campsite near North Pond, carefully concealed by dense forest and rocks. He never lit fires to avoid detection, even during harsh winters. He moved only at night, often in bad weather, and avoided stealing valuables to reduce attention. Over 27 years, he committed more than 1,000 burglaries but never physically harmed anyone.

In 2013, after repeated thefts at a local camp, motion-activated cameras captured his image. A game warden followed him to his campsite and arrested him without resistance. Knight confessed, helped close many unsolved cases, and served seven months in jail.

After his release, he reflected on his long isolation. He said solitude sharpened his awareness but also eroded his sense of identity: “There was no audience, no one to perform for.” Unlike Henry David Thoreau, whose book Walden described intentional simple living, Knight insisted he had no grand message to share.

When asked what he learned from nearly three decades alone, his answer was brief: “Get enough sleep.”

Today, Knight no longer lives in the woods. He quietly returned to work in Maine, ending one of the most unusual modern stories of long-term solitude in the United States.