Newly made crooked knife starting work on a canoe paddle.  

We’re adding a second Boreal Snowshoe Expedition session in 2016.  It’s our winter bushcraft immersion; a twelve day traditional northern winter wilderness living and travel expedition.  We’re on the trail living on snowshoes, hauling our gear on toboggans, staying in woodstove-outfitted canvas tents and learning to be at home and comfortable in the bitter cold. [...]

Flatwater poling today. Traditional skills and gear make you more resilient on the water.  

Bending crooked knife blades in camp today. Photo by Paul Sveum.  

New addition to the field school: weight lifting/pull-up station. Made from lumber.  

Dutch oven lunch, then canoe poling class on a perfect August day.

Week 1, Wilderness Bushcraft Semester, everyone makes their own rope.  

Paul harvesting overhead cherries using a Blickey Stick. There's a mountain of ripe wild food around here right now.  

Using axes in the woods. Wilderness Bushcraft Semester, fall 2015, day 2.  

Maine Wilderness Guides Organization life member certificate finally arrived. Its official.  

Talking axes on day 1 of our 32nd long term program. Great start to the course. Photo by Paul Sveum.  

Paddling in the North Maine Woods. This is what freedom looks like.  

Moose and calf on the Allagash. Summer is just about over. Our 32nd immersion course starts this weekend.  

Lining Long Lake dam wearing really short shorts.  

Best view in NH? On Rattlesnake Island on lake Winnepesaukee with an old friend. Perfect evening.  

Watching and listening to a thunderstorm approach. A grand spectacle. Thunder rumbling from horizon to horizon.  

Paddling at the headwaters of the Aroostook. From this spring.  

Little Allagash Falls. Allagash stream below the falls has a few rapids and several ledge drops, and we ran them all.  

After the Ice Caves, enjoying the current in the pools above the larger drop at Little Allagash Falls. This is roughly halfway between Allagash Lake and Chamberlain Lake.  

Exploring the Ice Caves at Allagash Lake on our recent trip. A few of the guys got 100 yards in. These are pretty remote, no roads anywhere near them, but one one of the old canoe routes.  

Just upstream of Stair Falls on the upper East Branch of the Penobscot. Over the three miles downstream from here the river drops over four named falls and a series of rapids. The mountain scenery on this trip is the best in Maine.  

Gravel Beach on Chamberlain Lake, Allagash Wilderness Waterway. We spent a day windbound here on our recent trip.  

Allagash Falls – boyband album cover, 2 of 2. Displaying their more playful side.  

Allagash Falls – boyband album cover photo. This is 1 of 2 and shows their sensitive side.  

Congratulatins to Maine's newest registered guide, Thomas Letchworth!  

Chamberlain Lake Cairns. Someone had built these two cairns on the shore of Chamberlain lake, and I got in touch with my inner artist at sundown for this shot. I thought it looked interesting.  

Just before sunrise on Webster Lake on our second trip of the Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester. A stunning corner of Baxter State Park.  

Hardest part of any long-term program is saying goodbye at the end. You become family. It's the worst for me. #team

Back from the river. EPIC trip. Hate whats coming next. Allready miss these guys.  

Going off the grid and on the river. Be back in four weeks.  

My friend Charlie's motorcycle with moose antlers mounted. Welcome to Ashland, Maine.  

Meal and trip planning for 4 week canoe expedition tonight. Packing tomorrow, put in on Tuesday. Great group, going to be an awesome trip.

Lakeside foraging on ripe juneberries (Amelanchier genus). It doesn't get much better than this.  

Stunning pack basket I was given on Sunday. Thanks to Derek Faria of The Woodsman School. You're a true class act.  

Motorcycle with axe and pack basket lashed on, headed south from the field school.  

Spending the day with family in the Ossipee mountains. Great views of the NH lakes region. At Castle In The Clouds  

Great fly fishing class tonight. Thanks to Sumner Brook Fish Farm for hosting. Tight loops!  

New wannigan. Instead of just varnish, this one is first getting fiberglass cloth and West System epoxy. Super strong  

This afternoon's fly fishing workshop is full. If the lightning is bad, we'll reschedule. If its just rain, its on.  

Just watched this guy swim across the pond. Don't know the species, but a great swimmer!  

Rainy day, but first one in ten weeks I'm not running a course. Getting excited about the canoe expedition.  

Finishing a pack basket. One of many projects being completed this afternoon, the last one on the Woodsman course.  

Making a burn bowl by the campfire. Super-productive week on the Woodsman course.  

Fire by friction with a bow drill. One of the technologies that got us where we are as a species.  

15 minutes later, some dirt and a piece of angle iron cut in half, and the new rocket stove is cooking lunch.  

Making a new rocket stove for our outdoor kitchen. Metal can, stove pipe, hammer and cold chisel.  

Making rope with hand spinners. Back to the basics.  

Building saw frames and getting ready for the rain, JMBS Woodsman Course.  

Woodsman course, tents in the field. Off to a busy start with the four axe majors and carving bow drills.  

Primitive tool kit as final project. Stick a fork in our 30th long-term immersion program, it's done.  

Crossbow as a final project. Wilderness Bushcraft Semester # 30, nine weeks almost over.  

Two epic days canoeing the Big Machias river and Pratt Stream. Big water & tons of wildlife.  

Pulling braintan buckskin on a cable. This is where the magic transformation happens: from slimy hide to buckskin.  

Beginning the braintanning process today: fleshing and scraping deer hides. Will eventually become mukluks.  

Full rain buckets, 2nd day of rain. Always amazed at the human response to weather. Can quickly crush group morale.  

Pouring rain and 49 degrees. June in northern Maine.  

Out enjoying the 2.3 miles of new trails at the field school. Aroostook river on the left.  

Finishing a pack basket. Wilderness Bushcraft Semester week 7 is full of big craft projects  

Shave horse, spoke shave, wood becoming a canoe paddle. Hand tools and going slow.  

First-time paddle maker, turned out beautiful.  

Wilderness Bushcraft Semester week 7: nets, hammocks, paddles and pack baskets.  

5 large ice creams. i saw it live. True story.  

Only the chosen one can wield The Spoon Of Destiny!  

There's a new sherriff in town. Iron Spoon challenge met. This is large ice cream number 5.  

Making a spoon from rebar in order to take on the Iron Spoon Challenge: 4 large ice creams from the Quik Stop 2.  

May 23, snowing hard and fast in Masardis. Glad I waited on putting in the garden.  

Making grass mattresses. Good sleeps on the grass-o-pedic.  

And a whole bunch of live moose, bald eagles and a whole family of otters.

Saw two more dead moose on our trip. One was in the river.

Back, a week on the river. Awesome time. 60 miles from the headwaters to the field school. Photo from a woods road.  

Paddle making: using draw knives to shape the blanks. Hand tools, process not product.  

Beginning the canoe paddle-making process: tracing a blade onto a paddle blank.  

Life Returns. Every year when green returns after a long winter I'm completely amazed.  

After a long build up, my son and I are sitting down to watch the movie Troll 2, the worst movie (supposedly) ever made.

Land navigation exercise this morning: map, compass and barehand.  

Making rope for canoe lining bridles. Poling the Blackwater River this afternoon.  

Tony Nester is one of my favorite writers on bushcraft and survival skills. I enjoy his easy writing style, and an fascinated and entertained by his descriptions of the southwest. This morning, May 5th here in northern Maine, I woke up early and sat with Life Under Open Skies with my morning coffee. I was [...]

After a long day paddling, cooking a triple stack of dutch ovens for supper. Sourdough, spicy chicken, custard.  

First day on the water for 2015. Beautiful sunny day, still some ice.  

Beautiful day, had my first outdoor shower of the year. Feeling clean! Solar hot water, hoist a bucket.  

Windy and rainy lately, so we made a windbreak/raincoat for dutch oven cooking out of blocks and a barrel lid.  

Found a dead moose halfway up the mountain. He hadn't been dead long.  

Great hike up Deboulie mountain in the north Maine woods Saturday. Still some pockets of deep snow.  

Finished crooked knife. Heated in an open fire, shaped with a file.  

Making buck saws. Carry the blade, make the rest in the forest.  

Coal burning a burl to make a wooden bowl. The slow way to make a container.  

Bending crooked knives, heated in a small rocket stove. No forge, simple knife making.  

Cutting the bevel on a crooked knife in progress. Making simple knives during week 2 of the WB semester.  

The 2015 Woodsman course is full and registration is closed.  We’ve received numerous inquiries, so we’re opening another week long course in August.  There’s been a two year gap since we’ve ran the Bushman Course, a primitive skills and primitive survival intensive, but we’ve got it on the calendar for August 8-15.  If you’re looking [...]

Bow drill fire lighting this morning. Newly-carved sets and challenging cold and damp conditions.  

Great weekend in New Brunswick with my old friend Jeff Butler from Northwoods Survival. Good talks. Inspiring.  

Field school rocket stoves. Snow is melting in open spots. Still deep in the bush, but not for long.  

Open fire lunch on the snow. Bannock, soup, coffee and tea.  

Our 30th bushcraft semester course begins today. And yes, there's a story behind this photo.  

Ice is going out on the Aroostook. 7 foot snow drifts on the road. We'll be walking in for a while.  

Canoe, Pack Basket, Axe. Traditional Maine Guide tools.  

Dome Thatched With Fir Boughs. Built a few years back during a fall semester.  

Wall Tents At The Field School. One week until the spring semester begins, getting excited.  

Morning Paddle. These days will be here soon. Ice is melting!  

Snow is melting and I'm thinking dangerous thoughts. Is this the year we canoe the Mosie river?  

Breakfast In Camp. Eggs and sourdough biscuits.  

End Of The Carry. End of the carry around Munsungun Falls in the north Maine woods.  

Canoe Tarp Shelter. Traditional gear on a north Maine woods river trip.  

Twenty Footer Rigged To Carry. Paddles lashed in to help distribute the weight of the boat when it's on my shoulders.  

Morning Paddle. Mist and bright sunshine.  

Mist and bright sunlight at Round Pond on the Allagash.  

After lots of discussion and staring at maps, we’ve decided on the route for this summer’s 4-week Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester. We’ll be running the Allagash from Chamberlain bridge to Allagash Village. Then we’ll rest and resupply at the field school for 2 days before hiking with minimal gear in Baxter state park for four [...]

Beautiful lines of a 20' wood canvas canoe.  

A double stack of dutch ovens, sourdough biscuits in the reflector oven, kettles of coffee and water and the clear blue sky for a roof. This is living.  

Waterfall at the north end of Baxter State Park in Maine. Hot summer day, and the water was freezing. It never warms up. We all got ice cream headaches as a result of swimming, but so refreshing after a long hike.  

Canoes and Katahdin, Epic Maine photo shot by Sam Racioppi during the fall Wilderness Bushcraft Semester.  

Twilight At The Waters' Edge. Inch of snow today, but spring is right around the corner.  

http://photos.nickgallop.com  

Canoe reflection. I love these shots when the water is like glass, reflecting back the world above it.  

Grouse In The Alders. Shot at the field school. Grouse are often hanging around, but somehow they know to not hang around during hunting season!  

Katahdin In The Morning. Loading canoes with Katahdin in the background on a beautiful fall morning.  

Morning In Camp. Coffee, oats and sourdough biscuits.  

Flat Water Paddling Practice. First day of spring, excited about getting out on the liquid water.  

Winter Won't Quit! Still tons of snow on the ground and we've had crazy wind for the past few days. Really, really looking forward to some warmer weather. Pic is from the Boreal Snowshoe Expedition, taken on a cold and windy day.  

We’re just over four weeks out from the start of the spring Wilderness Bushcraft Semester. We’re making some changes to the course this spring, most notably planning more time out on the trail canoeing the remote waterways of northern Maine. We’ll be all over the Aroostook drainage and I’m leaving the door open for the [...]

Two Different Sleds. In the foreground, a 3-strake wooden toboggan. In the background, a sled with runners. They perform differently and are built for different conditions.  

Sawing Up Firewood. We cut a lot of firewood during the Boreal Snowshoe Expedition. Love the wide angle gopro shots.  

Long Walk To The Water Hole. Filling pails to cook dinner.  

Life Under Canvas. Living the good life on the trail.  

Cranberry dutch oven cake. Snow day, kids have cabin fever so I put them to work in the kitchen.  

Hauling toboggans after the lunch stop on a perfect winter day.  

The GI Bill covers 100% of tuition and fees for our immersion programs. I get asked this question often, so I added it to the FAQ on our GI Bill page. We’re changing our deposit policy for those on the GI Bill beginning beginning after the fall, 2015 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester. Going forward, we’re adding [...]

The Backlit Axeman. Heading out for a load of firewood on the Boreal Snowshoe Expeditions.  

Never get tired of this view. And I never take my good fortune for granted.  

I can’t remember if someone told me or if I read that coffin-shaped toboggans, widest a few feet from the bow and tapered at both ends, pull better than rectangular toboggans. Regardless of how I came to know that as true, I’ve believed it since I started pulling toboggans and camping with them in the [...]

Snow sculpted by the wind.  

Quickie Snow Shelter. Dug in 5 minutes with a snowshoe in wind-packed snow. It was well below zero degrees F, which is when snow shelters are at their best. Note the stylish, relaxed pose, making it look extra-inviting.  

Meanwhile our crack team of trackers have been scouring the remote corners of the north woods searching for sign of the elusive samsquantch.  

Although the snow is still more than waist deep and we have yet to hit mud season, today will be the second day in a row where the mercury tops 40 degrees F. Spring isn’t here yet, but it’s coming. So I wanted to take a look back on a really busy, amazing winter. It [...]

Tending the cooking fire on the BSE. I love the way the flames look in this photo.  

Broken Axe Handle. He had just hung that old Emerson & Stevens head before the trip. Must have been some bad wood.  

Axe Safety? This technique was not covered during the axe safety lecture, but what could go wrong?  

Quick look around our 8-sided tent on the Boreal Snowshoe Expedition.

After some shovel work, I'm declaring the dutch oven cooking season open! Tired of waiting.  

Tent Bound. Cozy in the tent while the wind howls outside on the 2015 Boreal Snowshoe Expedition.  

Snowshoeing Through The Birches. A beautiful birch glade in Quebec.  

Tom by the tent at the winter carnival. Tent and stove from the incomparable Don Kevilus at Four Dog Stove.  

Cooking birds next to the wood stove in Quebec.  

We'll be a the winter carnival all afternoon. Stop by the tent and say hi! Town of Wolfeboro – Wolfeboro Winter Carnival! Wolfeboro Winter Carnival!

New Toboggans. We made a bunch of them for the trip. It really helped to spread out the load of gear and food when everyone had a ten-foot sled.  

Walking out to the water hole.  

Peaceful Winter Camp. Tom Belluscio shot this one, and when we looked at the trip pictures everyone loved it.  

Endless Winter. It was ten below with a gusty wind when the boys decided to have a little fun and take a 'tasteful nude' photo. There was even talk of a men of Jack Mountain calendar. This photo reminds me that winter expeditions aren't just a lot of work, they're a lot of fun.  

Congratulations to Maine's newest registered guide, Nikki Calhoun!

Congratulations to Maine's newest registered guide, Fil Salonek!

Winter Expedition Kit. From the Boreal Snowshoe Expedition, wooden toboggan, snowshoes, axe, ice chisel, wood stove, wall tent, folding saw.  

2015 Boreal Snowshoe Expedition Team  

Amazing photos shot on our recent trip to Quebec by Nick Gallop. Nick Gallop Photography http://photos.nickgallop.com/#!/index/G0000oDbqMaxEi9k Nick Gallop Photography – Documentary wilderness and outdoor photography. Commercial photographer.

Bacon bannock. It was as good as it looks. We ate well on the Boreal Snowshoe Expedition.  

Camp 2, nestled among the hemlocks and balsam fir. Home from the expedition, unpacking today.  

Boreal Snowshoe Expedition last day, tent bound because of a howling wind. Back to the world tomorrow. Great trip.

Back in cell coverage. Day 12 of the Boreal Snowshoe Expedition, 2 days to go. Group is comfortable and happy. Great trip!

Photos aren't posting, on the ragged edge of cell coverage. Will post them when we get back.

Camp 3, tents snuggled under large spruces and hemlocks. No break in the cold, and windy.

Content. A warm stove, big pile of wood and cozy, dry tent. Living well on the trail in northern Maine.

Warm in a tent tonight. The stove is hot, gear is dry and the laughs are many.

On the trail, Boreal snowshoe Expedition 2015.  

Sleeping under the stars at -18F. Bad day of driving. Boreal Snowshoe Expedition night 1. Warm sleeping bag = good.

Chiseling a series of holes in order to set a fish net under the ice. Notice the net being stretched on the left.  

Tips on staying warm during Maine winters from the Bangor Daily News, with a few quotes by yours truly. Ways to stay warm in Maine’s snowy outdoors As the temperature drops and snow piles up, many people hide indoors. And it’s no surprise. The frozen Maine wilderness can be a harsh and unforgiving place. But [...]

On the snowshoe trail in northern Quebec. Surrounded by snow covered black spruce, it was stunningly cold, harsh and beautiful.  

Tim on the ice.  

Our tent camp in northern Quebec, nestled among the black spruce on the shore of a lake.  

On the trail in Quebec. Snowshoes, spruce and fur.  

Back in NH from a week in northern Quebec. Amazing experience. Pic of the truck thermometer showing -40.  

On the road to northern Quebec!  

They’re trickling in from far and wide. England arrived yesterday. Texas and Chicago tomorrow. Ohio, Connecticut and California on Thursday. New Hampshire is ready to go. Alberta and Montreal are meeting us on the road. In two days our small group (on the Jack Mountain calendar as the Subarctic Snowshoe Expedition With The Cree) is [...]

Cold wind whipping across frozen lake Winnepesaukee.  

Monday morning inventory: Dog getting quilled by porcupine? Check Kid throwing up all night? Check Overnight rain making road glare ice that is unsafe to walk on? Check But, we did have a great weekend in the woods with the Winter Survival Weekend Course. Met some great people, got them on snowshoes with traditional bindings [...]

Dog with porcupine quill beard. Not going to be a fun afternoon.  

Derek checking a pot of hemlock tea. Winter survival weekend course, January 2015.  

This weekend we’re running our Winter Survival Weekend Course at the folk school in New Hampshire. It’s a short course designed to teach the fundamentals of living in the winter woods. We’ve been running it for more than a decade, and I think that it has provided a basic skill set to a lot of [...]

Last night Discovery again aired the Norway episode of Dude, You’re Screwed featuring yours truly. It was a great experience from start to finish; great people, beautiful place and a little boat that grew on me over time. Being on the show has given me a lot of great memories, as well as my first [...]

It’s easy to make something that looks like a bucksaw frame, but it’s much more difficult to make one that will cut a lot of wood without coming apart. It’s easy to make something that looks like a snowshoe, but much more difficult to make one that will allow you to walk on it all [...]

Lucky dog pouncing during a twilight walk on the pond. Looks like a chupacabra.  

Last week we ran our first program of 2015; the Winter Woodsman course. In summing up the experience, it was cold. Really cold. -50F (with wind chill, -25 in still air at night) cold. While those temperatures aren’t unheard of on winter expeditions, the Winter Woodsman is an introductory course in living out in the [...]

Trip planning, even for day trips, should start with reading Paul Petzoldt on expedition behavior (ch. 10).  

The Guppy, Tim Cole's paddle, on display at Freem's bar in Ashland, Maine. End of a long, cold week.  

Fishing and ice safety on the lake during the winter woodsman course. Skunked! No fish, but we'll be back.  

Checking out the vent hole on an active beaver lodge during the winter woodsman course.  

Axe class, winter woodsman. -20 tonight, -50 with the wind chill. BRRRR! Having fun despite the cold.  

Weaving a pair of snowshoes in the guide shack. Cozy inside, -10 outside.  

Enjoying an evening in the guide shack before the Winter Woodsman course. New wood stove.  

I started blogging in 2004, but that first blog was hacked in 2006 and all the posts deleted. I don’t know how many posts I had, but somebody thought it would be fun to delete them all, and they did. I started this blog in 2006, and this is post 1001. I had no idea [...]

2015 marks my 20th year composting humanure, also known as human poop. In that time I’ve managed numerous compost piles, scrubbed countless buckets, read The Humanure Handbook about five times, built a variety of structures to serve as outhouses, had numerous outhouses built by others, and created a lot of soil. What started me down [...]

A variation of the promontory peg that hails from Siberia and was made famous by the documentary Happy People, the Koolyomka is an interesting deadfall and a fun one to carve in camp. This was carved during downtime on the 2014 Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester.

Video 9 in the 2014 WCES (Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester) series. Join us as we run the Telos Cut. Running Telos Cut We finished our trip down the Allagash in the last video. After taking out in Allagash Village, we had a big lunch at Rock’s Diner in Fort Kent, then went back to the [...]

Join Tim and instructor Tom Belluscio as they discuss how Jack Mountain got it’s name (the Jack Mountain origin story) and the summer, 2015 Teen Bushcraft And Wilderness Canoe Expedition. Recorded in the truck on the way back to the folk school after picking up three toboggan blanks and two paddle blanks. iTunes Link | [...]

Video 8 in the WCES (Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester) series. Join us as we swim below Allagash falls and paddle the lower river. At Allagash Falls

7 gallons of Ankle Breaker apple wine done bubbling just in time for new years. Taste-testing tonight. All good.  

Shopping for a new canoe paddle blank. Seeing a few beauties, a lot of chaff.  

Video 7 in the WCES (Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester) series. Join us as we paddle into Round Pond, and Tim does a walk-through of our campsite. At Round Pond

Video 6 in the WCES (Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester) series. Join us as we line canoes down Long Lake dam, an old logging dam. It’s unsafe to run because of metal spikes that move each year when the ice goes out, so we tie up lining bridles and line it, or lower canoes over the [...]