Tim Smith

Over the past few months I’ve seen numerous blogs offering tips and tricks on bushcraft and survival. But tips and tricks will never take the place of practiced fundamentals; learning the correct technique, then doing it until it is second nature. The seemingly inexhaustible human desire for shortcuts keeps the search alive, but don’t be [...]

Sourdough Expedition Cake

During the bitter cold of our winter snowshoe expedition this year, several members of our group were eating over 5000 calories a day in order to keep their internal furnaces stoked. It got me thinking about making an expedition cake that was calorie-dense and nutrient-rich that I could make in advance of winter trips to [...]

The deep snows of mid-February are covering the landscape (and the canoe trailer), and for the past few days the wind has been howling down the lake with enough force to sculpt the snow and make it feel very cold. With no more winter trips planned for this year, my thoughts are turning to spring [...]

As of February 14th, our 2013-2014 yearlong bushcraft immersion program and the fall wilderness bushcraft semester are both full.  Although it grows a bit every year, this is the earliest we’ve ever filled; more than 6-months in advance!  We will still accept applications for the waiting list in case their are cancellations.  If you’re thinking [...]

Well, it happened again. I received an email from a friend about someone who has copied some of my stuff. Over the years, people have copied my text, photos (which is why every photo I post now has a watermark), and even my anecdotes. More than twenty-five times. I’ve always taken the high road, emailing [...]

Trip Journal 1/30/13 Tentbound. Squapan Lake, Aroostook County, Maine. After the cold of our first 8 days in the woods, we enjoyed a beautiful walk hauling laden toboggans down the western arm of Squapan Lake. The sleds chattered behind us with minimal effort, a huge difference from hauling them up the hill from the field [...]

January 23, 2013; Day five of our Winter Bushcraft And Snowshoe Expedition Intensive. The weather has been cold; we haven’t seen positive temperatures in four days. The last two nights, the temperatures have been colder than 35 degrees below zero, and colder than -55 with the wind chill. We’ve got two 8-sided, 12′ diameter Ungava [...]

I’m off in a few short hours on our winter bushcraft and snowshoe expedition.  I’ll be gone for two weeks, during the first of which the weather is supposed to get cold!  Next week the forecast is for high temperatures in the negative numbers and lows nearing -30.  We’ll be in cotton tents outfitted with [...]

Frozen NH Lake After A Thaw

We’re back in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. After three winters in Texas, my family and I have returned to the Lakes Region of NH. We’ll continue to run our full slate of field school programs in northern Maine. But I’m planning some new programs for New Hampshire and am excited about all the opportunities they’ll bring.  [...]

I like first person accounts of life in the bush. There are many from throughout North America that I’ve read, but I also enjoy those from farther afield. Recently I had a day of travel (car, bus, plane), and spent the whole day reading Dersu The Trapper. It’s a true account written by a Russian [...]

I’m headed to the Snow Walker’s Rendezvous in Vermont November 9-11. If you’ve never been and you’re interested in non-mechanized winter travel and living out in the winter, you should check it out. I’ll be teaching workshops on axemanship, ropemaking, and making low-tech crooked knives, like the one Little Justin is holding in the above [...]

This past weekend we wrapped up our 21st long-term immersion program. When we started in August I had big plans about blogging every day, but the realities of field school life intervened and I only posted twice during the course. There were lots of great moments, from the weasel who lived under my tent and [...]

There’s a grace that comes with experience when form follows function. Simplicity is the goal. The more experienced one becomes, the less work is needed to complete a specific task. This is accomplished by eliminating the unnecessary. When using an axe to procure raw materials for basic needs from the forest, the more skilled and [...]

I woke up before dawn and watched the sun rise over Squapan ridge this morning. We’ve had a bunch of hot and humid weather, but a cold front came through yesterday afternoon and the overnight temperature was in the low 40’s. This morning the sky is clear and there a hint of autumn in the [...]

Yesterday we started our 21st bushcraft semester course, our 11th since relocating our immersion programs to the field school in Masardis, Maine. It’s significant because now we’ve run more of them here than at our old base in New Hampshire. It’s also the first semester course where we’ve been able to accept the GI Bill [...]

After meeting a bunch of the folks who frequent the Bushcraft USA forum at Woodsmoke, I decided to become a supporter and vendor there. As a result, now we’ve got our own sub-forum. It’s a good place to discuss anything bushcraft. You can get there by clicking here.

Summer’s Over

Our summer ended today and although it was a great one, I’m wondering where it went? With attending the first Woodsmoke rendezvous, running the first Family Bushcraft course (and having 20 people attend!), running our usual summer courses, and doing a bit of television work, it was full to the gills. The past week I’ve [...]

Jack Mountain Bushcraft Journal episode 39, the 14th in a 15 part video series shot on our May, 2012 bushcraft canoe expedition course in the North Maine Woods. In this episode, injury! One of the members of the crew gets a puncture wound in their shin. This episode finishes with a visit from Dr. Nick [...]

Jack Mountain Bushcraft Journal episode 32, the 7th in a 15 part video series shot on our May, 2012 bushcraft canoe expedition course in the North Maine Woods. In this episode we carry boats and gear around Munsungan Falls, then take a look at the falls and talk about how it was a favorite fishing [...]

Jack Mountain Bushcraft Journal episode 29, the 4rd in a 15 part video series shot on our May, 2012 bushcraft canoe expedition course in the North Maine Woods. Check out our poling practice session, watch Bart fall in twice, and hear Shawn expound on the importance of treating a friction fire coal gingerly as you [...]

There’s a legendary story about the band Van Halen and their tour rider with concert venues from the 1970’s and 80’s that has to do with brown M&M’s (the candy). Buried deep within the contract was a clause that they demanded to have M&M’s backstage, but that someone had to go through and pick out [...]

I heard from Dave Wescott last night, and the dates for Woodsmoke 2013 have been set.  It will run July 14-20.  2012 was the first year of this event, and with very little advertising it was at or just below capacity.  This combined with the fact that everyone I talked with had an amazing time [...]

After the ridiculously fun family bushcraft week, I managed to get away from the field school for a few days and have been holed-up learning the basics of the editing software and editing the video we shot in May during the bushcraft canoe expedition course.  After a lot of hours staring at a screen, it’s [...]

Family Bushcraft Course

We’re halfway through our Family Bushcraft Course, and so far it’s been a great week.  We’ve got a big group (20), which means that so far this week we’ve served over 100 meals out of the dutch oven.  I’m glad we’ve got a few large ones, and this experience may result in me pulling the [...]

There are times when macho doesn’t cut it. When you have to step back and acknowledge that things have taken a turn and the game has changed. That what got you here won’t get you there. That another year has gone by, and maybe you’re not up for the challenge anymore. That some hills are [...]

Following up on yesterday’s post, I’m currently reading a book called Discussion Based Online Teaching To Enhance Student Learning by Tisha Bender.  This year we’re adding a distance learning component to our immersion programs, and I’m educating myself as to how to do it effectively.  More on this later.  Bender relays a story on page 38 [...]

I first met Mors Kochanski in 1995 at his place in Alberta. Over the years we’ve stayed in touch and I’ve learned much from his sage advice. Recently at Woodsmoke we were chatting when someone complained about being kept up late the night before. Mors responded with several great lines I’ll never forget. I’m paraphrasing, [...]

Last Travel Day

Today is my final travel day in returning from Idaho.  I had to wait an extra day in New Hampshire for the new transmission for the truck; the old one suffered a mortal wound on the drive south.  It was a great trip, but I’ve had enough of cities, airports, and crowds for a while.  [...]

Bushcraft Bibliography

After a discussion about books at Woodsmoke, several people asked me about my bibliography. While it has been available as part of our student handbook, this morning I extracted it into a standalone document as I said I would do. You can download a pdf at: jackmtn.co/PDF/JMBS_Bibliography.pdf

One of the morning sessions at Woodsmoke was focused on defining bushcraft.  There was a lively discussion as to whether it should be done at all, and if so, how to do it in a manner that would not exclusionary.  After about an hour of discussion, we shot this video to explain the ideas to [...]

Woodsmoke Wrap-Up

I had a fantastic week at the Woodsmoke Bushcraft Symposium. It was great to be joined by a number of Jack Mountain alumni, as well as to meet several old friends and make a bunch of new ones. The location was in the shadow of the Grand Tetons and had a cold freestone stream running [...]

This week only, I’m offering a 100% discount on the downloadable versions of our books (not paper, sorry).  You can get them from our Lulu store.  The titles include: Jack Mountain Bushcraft Student Handbook First Person Ecology Bushcraft Education; Riffs And Reflections On Teaching And Learning Outdoors Simple Little Sourdough And Outdoor Baking Book On [...]

This year was something new for the Riverman course. We started the week with a morning poling and paddling on Squapan lake, then spent an hour poling at the confluence of St. Croix stream and the Aroostook river before floating back to the field school and spending two hours working on technical poling skills at [...]

The sunsets are late this time of year, and the sunrises are early. I love the colors on this picture as the sun sets in the northwest sky. The clover is thick in the field and the bees are loving it.  Nature is buzzing at the field school. We just passed the registration deadline for [...]

Bushcraft Gear

Over the past month of weeklong courses we got into many discussions about gear.  Longtime readers know that I have mixed feelings about it.  I like gear.  I especially like simple, traditional gear.  But I never want it to be about the gear.  I never want to see gear, or lack of a specific piece [...]

Hit By Lightning

Ten days ago we got hit by lightning. It zapped the inverter to our off-grid solar power system. It’s only today that I’ve got a new inverter installed and have some stored sunlight to post with. It was near the end of the Bushman course and there were strong afternoon thunderstorms. We had retreated to [...]

Nature is buzzing around the field school. The yearly show put on by fireflies is in full swing. After dark there are thousands of them over the field, blinking on and off and looking like a galaxy of stars you can reach out and touch. Were my photography skills developed beyond point and click, I’d [...]

Hit A Moose

One of the guys in camp this week hit a moose with his car. He was coming up route 11 toward Masardis after dark and saw some moose on the side of the road. Luckily, he slowed way down to about 5 miles per hour before a moose stepped in front of his car. The [...]

This morning we start our Bushman course.  The focus is on the primitive skills needed to live in the north woods during the warm weather months.  Primitive is occasionally used as a synonym for inferior, but a quick check of the dictionary will rectify that.  It is from the latin Primus, meaning the first of [...]

Woodsman Course Wrap-Up

After a busy week we finished the Woodsman course yesterday. The weather was fantastic the whole week; one rainy morning, but otherwise sun and warm days with cool nights in the 40’s. We had a bunch of animals come through camp, from deer and moose to the snowshoe hare’s who are hopping around the field [...]

I’ve had a bunch of reflector ovens over the years and they’ve all shared one thing in common; bake pans that aren’t a standard size.  After threatening to do so for several years, when we took off the river June 2nd I took a small, non-folding reflector oven and a standard half-sheet pan (13″ x [...]

Woodsman Course, Day 2

We had a busy day yesterday working on fires, axe uses, wild edibles and campfire cooking.  A guy on the course caught his first trout on a fly rod – a 12″ brookie, in the river right in front of camp.  And on a dry fly, no less.  One of the teaching assistants was riding [...]

Woodsman Course This Week

Today begins our series of week long summer programs with the Woodsman course.  It’s our general introductory course on all things bushcraft.  Last night we welcomed everyone to camp with a huge batch of sourdough biscuits cooked in our new, giant, reflector oven.  More on it later.  Today we’ll be working on using axes and [...]

We had the pleasure of Nick Gallop’s company on our river trip last month.  Nick has a school and blog in England called Skills For Wild Lives.  He’s also a skilled artist, craftsman, woodsman, riverman, photographer and potential infomercial pitchman (more on this later).  He’s writing up his trip journal on his blog complete with [...]

Axe Gauges

An axe gauge is a small tool with a triangular cut out used to measure the profile of an axe blade. Axes have different profiles for different jobs. For example, a splitting axe can be nearly triangular in shape, while a limbing axe has a much more narrow profile. Gauges were used to set and [...]

We made it back from the Allagash trip, finishing the spring Bushcraft Canoe Expedition Semester.  Overall the trip was fantastic, but it didn’t look that way at the beginning.  The first two days the black flies were terrible, but then it cooled off and they weren’t bad for this time of year.  The fishing was [...]

Phase 1 of the Bushcraft Canoe Expedition Semester is completed. It was a fantastic 9-day trip on the headwaters of the Aroostook, where we put in on Chase Pond and descended Munsungan Brook, crossed Munsungan Lake, carried around Munsungan Falls, descended Munsungan Stream, and paddled the Aroostook River back to the field school. We had [...]

It’s been a busy few days since arriving at the field school. Lots of cleaning, gear preparation, varnishing wannigans, canoe chairs, etc., but it’s finished and this morning we leave to paddle and pole the headwaters of the Aroostook river. We’ll be camping, fishing and canoeing back to the field school over the next week. [...]

If you have old outdoor books and magazines, I want you to join me in donating one (or more) of them to the troops.  Email me and I’ll pass along where to send them. Yesterday I received an email from a soldier serving in an infantry unit getting ready for a 12-month deployment to Afghanistan.  [...]

A reporter asked me a while ago why I thought survival TV shows have attracted such big audiences. I answered that if you filmed some gorillas in the wild, then showed that video to gorillas in a cage at the zoo, they’d be fascinated to see members of their species in their natural environment. If [...]

New Look To An Old Blog

If you read the Jack Mountain Bushcraft Blog feed on the web, or if you get it delivered via email, I’d like to invite you to check it out on our site again. I’ve recently made some big changes to the layout, making it a hub for JMBS videos, podcasts and photos. My goal is [...]

In a few days, I’ll be there.  A river in northern Maine.  A remote campsite, only accessible by water.  But in those few remaining days, there’s lots of work to be done.  Today, it was varnishing a new dutch oven wannigan and canoe chair.  Tomorrow it will be putting several coats of shellac on my [...]

The updated requirements for the Journeyman certification program are live on the web. You can read them here.  I’m excited about the direction our certification programs are headed, and will be writing more about them in the coming weeks.

New Photo Digest

I’m adding a new photo digest here starting today.  I post lots of photos to our Flickr, Google+ and Facebook pages, but  those of you who only read the blog will now be able to check them out. You can see a full-size version of the image by clicking the title.  Let me know what [...]

Spring Cleaning Fast

After a few months as a stay at home dad I’m doing some spring cleaning this week.  Currently I’m on day 3 of a 7-day water fast.  This means only consuming water, not avoiding water.  So far this fast has been pleasant. A seven-day water fast is a requirement for our Expedition Instructor (XI) certification.  [...]

Ross Morgan wrote a great comment on a recent post about Spiller axes, including some history of revered Maine axes and how the Gransfors Bruks American felling axe design started in the woods of New England.  I’ve heard stories about how the Gransfors was patterned after a Maine axe, and wrote as much in the [...]

Always Busy

There’s an attitude I’ve seen a few times that warrants mention because it will stop a person from becoming at home in the natural world. That attitude is busyness. For some a foray into the forest is a non-stop to do list without a break between projects. For some the constant stream of activity is [...]

Now that our winter programs are completed, I’m turning my attention to the spring canoe expedition semester. The course lasts 28 days. The first 2 are spent in camp planning, provisioning, packing and preparing gear. Then it’s off to run the length of our home river, the Aroostook. We’ve got an optional leg of the [...]

After studying the manual and talking with the Veterans Administration, I’m up to speed with the registration procedures for the GI Bill. It’s a simple, 3-step process. Step 1: Fill out the registration form on our site. Step 2: Email us a copy of your certificate of eligibility (sometimes called letter of eligibility). Step 3: [...]

I recently announced that we were changing our summer course lineup.  The new, revised summer lineup is now posted on our Calendar.  It includes: Woodsman Course – 6/10 – 6/16 Bushman Course – 6/17 – 6/23 Riverman Course – 6/24 – 6/30 Teen Bushcraft & Survival Course – 7/8 – 7/14 Family Bushcraft & Survival [...]

Spiller Axe, Oakland Maine

On my way south from the county I stopped in to see my old friend Don Merchant at Pole And Paddle Canoe. He had a sweet Spiller axe for sale for $90. Spiller was an axe making company in Oakland, Maine, back in the day. I’ve been told that Gransfors patterned their American felling axe [...]

3 week minimum. For Immersion program students, by immersion program students. There comes a point in a person’s bushcraft education where they need to be kicked out of the nest to do things on their own and gain a level of experience that is difficult to obtain during a formal course. Once a certain level [...]

After a lot of thought and discussions with students, we’re scrapping our current Journeyman Certification Program. Instead of being based on a 4-week summer field course, the Journeyman Certification will now be based on the Wilderness Bushcraft Semester in the fall. Like the XI (Expedition Instructor Certification), it will be comprised of benchmarks, minimum competencies [...]

I just received some more information on Woodsmoke, a classic camping and bushcraft rendezvous taking place this summer and organized by Dave Wescott.  The dates are set and they’re currently accepting applications to fill the 100 slots. Date: July 8-14, 2012 Location: Tetonia, Idaho Cost: $275.00 For detailed info, check out this .pdf I received [...]

After three weeks sleeping in sub-zero temperatures, we’re getting a warming trend. I had plenty of insulation (2 sleeping bags), so I haven’t been cold at night. I have, however, had to deal with frost. Living and sleeping in subzero temperatures is an exercise in moisture management. The moisture expelled by your skin ends up [...]

Check out the amazing program my friend Jeff Giallombardo is running at Nokomis High School in Newport, Maine (see below). It’s exciting to see bushcraft making inroads into the classroom. “Ultimate Outdoors” is a program recently developedat Nokomis Regional High School in an effort to better serve our “at risk”young adult students and our general [...]

We’re down to one available spot for January’s Winter Bushcraft Immersion course.  The course runs from January 8-21 at our field school in Masardis, Maine, and students have the opportunity to earn 5 undergraduate credits. It’s definitely not a beginner’s course, as camp is roughly a mile snowshoe in from the road.  We’ll be camped [...]

We’re adding two new certification programs to our list of courses to go along with the Journeyman course: the Expedition Instructor (XI) and Expedition Instructor Trainer (XIT). They exist as add-ons to our current yearlong immersion program. There are no extra courses that need to be taken, nor is there any extra tuition involved. There [...]

Our 18th bushcraft immersion semester program is finished and I’m enjoying some down time with family.  In addition to a busy schedule of courses, we added a hand pump well to the field school this year, as well as finished the exterior of the guide shack and built a student campsite at Moose Vegas. In [...]

For the past two years I’ve been under a television contract with the Animal Planet television network. I’ve shot two pilots, and just heard that the more recent of these will not be airing. It was a fun experience and an amazing learning opportunity, but one that involved a lot of waiting and relying on [...]

Wilderness survival; what is it and how do you go about preparing for it? We’ve been teaching survival for 20 years and in that time have learned a few things about it. This is our standard survival lecture, broken down into what you need to know, what you need to do and what you need [...]

Today was the first day of the Journeyman Program.  It’s new this year – a four week immersion course.  We had a great day building shelters,  lighting fires, cooking over the fire, etc.  The mosquitos in the Guide Shack are fierce tonight – someone left the door open today.  They’re too numerous to spend much [...]

Busy, Busy Summer

My posts lately have been only to Twitter and Facebook because I’ve been so busy, and the days I’m not I’ve had family duty.  This is set to change, as we start our long term programs in a week (for 13 weeks) and we’ve got a dedicated study hall period in the evening where I’ll [...]

Viva, Moose Vegas

Making crooked knives beneath the Pyramid Of Doom I’ve been at the field school for several weeks, currently in the third straight week of courses. We ran the Woodsman course, then the Bushman, and now are smack in the middle of the Riverman. It’s been busy, with days starting at around 6 and lasting until [...]

Time Off, Back Now

I took a bit of time away from updating the blog to get ready for my recent speaking gig in Dallas and to work on my advanced diaper changing technique, but am back again.  My diaper changing duties are about to be put on hold as I’m packing for the trip from Texas to Maine [...]

I’m a member of a hate group. Not any longer, but I was for a few hours. Someone added me to one on Facebook. I wasn’t aware that someone else could add you to a group without your consent, but one day I received 14 email updates from this group which alerted me that I [...]

The registration deadline for our summer and fall courses recently passed. We’ve done a poor job of communicating what this actually means. You can still register for all of our courses as long as the Registration Status on our calendar is Open. We started this system of registration deadlines years ago so that we knew [...]

Is the whole survival thing a sham? Steve Rinella, host of the Travel Channel’s show The Wild Within says so about the made for TV survival episodes in an article in the May/June, 2011 issue of Mother Jones. Written by Brian Kevin and titled “Savage Love: How the larger-than-life bushmen of cable TV are creating [...]

Time Is Short

Over the past few months a bunch of unfavorable occurences have taken place amongst my circle of friends. One friend lost a child, a friend’s father lost a leg, and another friend was diagnosed with spine cancer at age 39. I’m not writing this post looking for sympathy for a few bad months. I don’t [...]

From very early on, it was clear that bipedal locomotion was not going to be fast enough to keep pace with the hustle and bustle lifestyle of our hunter/gatherer ancestors. The desire to effortlessly transport heaping hunks of mastodon, to swiftly reach the local flint quarry, or to fulfill the need for a tranquil cardio [...]

It’s tax day today.  I’ve spent a considerable amount of time over the past few weeks working on ours. I always find it a little odd to have a year’s worth of work represented by numbers on a piece of paper or in a computer program. Obviously they tell a very small part of the [...]

If you’re coming to the field school this year and want to upgrade your accomodations to include your own private bathroom, consider bringing your own toilet seat and 5 gallon bucket (or 2 buckets).  These Luggable Loo toilet seats clip onto a bucket.  You can also improvise your own seat or build a toilet box [...]

I’m not a fan of online handles or usernames if there’s no way to find out who the real person behind them is. The anonymity of the internet allows people to be rude and take cheap shots without any accountability. It also provides people with little experience the opportunity to masquerade as full-time professionals, doling [...]

Bark Lean-To As our remaining wilderness areas are logged, mined, and crisscrossed by roads, I think it’s time to reconsider the phrase wilderness survival. The reference to unspoiled wilderness is becoming harder and harder to justify as these places disappear in the face of a growing, resource-hungry human population. A more appropriate descriptive term is [...]

Part of the Journeyman Program will be a remote canoe trip.  We’ll be poling and lining upstream to a remote lake, where the loons will sing us to sleep at night.  Then we’ll take a week heading down-river getting back to the field school.  Along the way we’ll be fishing, camping, and living outdoors. Classroom [...]

At the request of one of our students I’m updating our college curriculum and creating a course catalog for our immersion programs.  This first section is our field ecology and natural history curriculum. Economic Field Botany (3 credits) – Edible, medicinal and other useful plants of Maine and surrounding territories. Aided by an instructor, students [...]

These two quotations from “The Art Of Outdoor Living” jumped out at me because what they say about experiential education and a realistic assessment of skill through a practical exam apply directly to our new Journeyman Bushcraft Instructor & Wilderness Guide Certification Program. Scroll to the bottom for full bibliographic information. “The training and preparation [...]

Keytars, Unicorns

Longtime readers of this blog and those who have attended our courses in person know about my fascination with, and extensive collection of miniature ceramic unicorn figurines. As anyone who also collects them can attest, it is more of an obsession than a collection. Sometimes I like to imagine I live on a magical island [...]

Dusk at forty below in northern Quebec The old loggers who spent their lives in the woods wore suspenders to keep their pants up in cold weather. They were practical people, and as such there was a reason they did so. Tight clothing was always avoided, as it is uncomfortable and doesn’t insulate nearly as [...]

Most of the winter footwear on the market is heavy and doesn’t keep your feet warm. Pac boots, for example, seem to always leak in wet conditions and trap moisture and become cold in frigid conditions. Most of the big companies market their footwear by insisting that it is both waterproof and breathable (for some [...]

We’ve got a new Facebook page. In the past I was maintaining a personal profile as well as a Jack Mountain Bushcraft page. Our new page combines these, and as such there’s no need for the other two, so the’re gone. Visit us there at: http://www.facebook.com/timsmith.jmbushcraft

The Best Axe

There is no shortage of advice on the weight an axe head should be and how long (and what shape) the handle should be. Today I wanted to inject a my opinion into the discussion, as well as describe my favorite axes. An axe with a longer handle is safer than one with a shorter [...]

Is This Hard To Read?

This blog is supposed to be black text on a white background.  If you’re reading this and it’s anything else, such as black text on an olive green background, would you please leave a comment or send me an email and say what you’re seeing?  Also, please include the operating system and browser you use. [...]

Choosing An Axe

The axe is the most versatile and useful tool to have with you in the forest. It can help you build a first-class shelter, put up a sizable pile of firewood, drive tent pegs, split logs, etc., etc., etc. As with all tools, when looking for an axe you should try and get the best [...]

Wilderness Living Skills

If you’re going to teach a course on wilderness living skills, you should have lived in the wilderness for at least a short period of time. The term is too often embraced by those who want to sell skills classes, but have no experience actually living outdoors with no infrastructure. Let the buyer beware. Reality [...]

Old Books And Ebooks

Throughout my life I’ve chased down old, obscure books on a variety of topics relevant to bushcraft. Often it was like detective work, finding references to something rare then tracking them down with the help of librarians and book dealers. When the internet came along it changed all that, making it easy to research and [...]

I got a call from Dave Wescott the other day. Dave is the organizer of the Rabbitstick and Wintercount primitive skills rendezvous, the author of Camping In The Old Style and the former owner of the Boulder Outdoor Survival School. We spoke a year ago about his plan to put together a symposium and rendezvous [...]

We’ve got a new photo gallery on the web, and I’ve been looking through old pictures for a few days and posting them.  In a few months I plan to have all of our archived photos posted.  It’s powered by the newest version of Gallery, the same software that ran our old photo gallery, which [...]

One of the new aspects we’re building into our Journeyman Certification Course are skill and craft benchmarks. It’s great to learn how to make new things. But, to attain even a basic skill level with them, they have to be completed a number of times. For example, on some of our courses students learn how [...]

The Teen Bushcraft And Survival Course is for young men ages 13-17 and designed as an introduction to a wide variety of bushcraft and survival skills. We spend the week camping at the field school and along the Aroostook River, practicing the skills of outdoor living until they become second nature. Syllabus: Sunday, July 3rd [...]

Third in our series of course profiles in the Outlander course. The Outlander is the first of our new Challenge Course series. Designed for experienced people who want to test themselves in a realistic situation but also have the safety that traveling as a group provides, our challenge courses will push well beyond the comfort [...]

Second in our series of course profiles is our Bushman Course. The Bushman Course picks up where the Woodsman leaves off and runs the following week, making them available to be taken together. The focus here is on creating what you need from the natural materials available. We’ll still use a few simple tools for [...]

First in our series of course profiles is our Woodsman Course. The Woodsman course is a comprehensive introduction to all that we do at the Jack Mountain Bushcraft School and is a good first course for someone new to bushcraft and survival. It’s designed to teach you the most important and practical skills of bushcraft [...]

A few people who read this blog have seen some of our courses on the web, but as changes are made each year, the ideas that our longtime readers have about our courses may no longer be accurate.  In order to eliminate this uncertainty, I’m going to be posting some information about our courses here [...]

It takes time to learn. For some things, this can be measured in minutes. For others, it’s measured in decades. When we become enamoured with something, we often want to shorten the learning time so we can get to the point where we’re respected for knowing it, where we’re the celebrated “expert”. So the temptation [...]

I wrote up the following journal during a weeklong bushcraft course I taught during the summer of 1999.  Although it’s been on our site, it’s never been published here.  Going through it has been a lot of fun for me.  Hopefully you’ll feel the same after reading it. ——————————————————————– The purpose of the Basic Wilderness [...]

A lot of what we do in our bushcraft courses doesn’t look like formal education. The old-school image of a standing instructor lecturing to seated students taking notes is a rarity. We have no love affair with seat time, nor with the lecture format. You’re more likely to see a small group of people engaged [...]

We’ve added a new section to our online forum specifically for questions about our programs.  If you’re searching for the gear list for a course, want to know whether there is college credit for the Journeyman program, or come up with anything else you want to know that you couldn’t find on our site, go [...]

Setting up the new BushcraftNetwork.com site and having kids down with the flu has consumed all of my free time for the past week and a half.  Now that the new site is up and running, I’ll be back to blogging soon.

We’re launching a new online social network for the Jack Mountain Bushcraft School community at: Bushcraftnetwork.com I’ve heard from a bunch of people who were part of our ning network who missed it, and personally I’ve missed the community and the forums. I didn’t want to do the same thing again, though, and I’ve got [...]

We’re planning a free bushcraft course and get together just outside of Austin, Texas, for February. When: Saturday, February 12, from 11:30-2:00 Where: Russell Park, Georgetown, TX (directions) Cost: Free We’ll do a short meet and greet, look at some basic bushcraft gear such as knives and axes, show a cheap but effective sharpening kit [...]

The inaugural episode of the new Jack Mountain Bushcraft Podcast.  I talk about how bushcraft is changing from a community to an industry in North America.  Is it a good thing?   iTunes Link | Play, Download Or Subscribe In iTunes

What Is Bushcraft?

As the term bushcraft comes into the main stream there are many people writing and defining it, none of whose definitions I agree with.  There’s an old saying that if you don’t define yourself, others will do it for you.  Here, then, is our definition of bushcraft: Bushcraft is the active component of our interaction [...]

Nothing Is Fool-Proof

I often hear things referred to as fool-proof. I’ve never liked this term because I’ve seen many times, despite good intentions and careful planning, where the “fools” have been able use their skills, or lack of, to wreak havok. Instead, I like to use the term idiot-resistant. The idea is the same, but it acknowledges [...]

I’ve been slow to post our 2011 schedule because I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it. Last summer I wrote on this blog that the 2010 fall semester course would be our last for a number of years. It was our 16th college-level, semester-length program we’ve run, and it was time for a [...]

We stopped using sandpaper for smoothing wood on field courses years ago. Sandpaper is sand, or grit, glued to a piece of paper in a thin layer. It doesn’t last very long, which precludes it from being taken on long trips. A simple alternative is to take a piece of fabric (denim or cotton duct [...]

After  describing the turkey on the last post, I felt obligated to post a shot of it when it was done.  Ingredients: half a stick of butter, a bottle of beer, an onion, some carrots and celerty, salt, pepper, and half of a 12 pound turkey in a 12 inch dutch oven.  325 degrees for [...]

Eating Well Outdoors Or In

Last week I bought a new dutch oven from a local sporting goods store; a legless, 12″ oven with a flanged lid for holding coals when cooking outdoors. I’m a big fan of cast iron cookwear, using it every day. I have been looking for a legless oven with a flanged lid for some time [...]

Ode To The Gazetteer

I’m putting the our final schedule for 2011 together this morning. This includes crunching dates on a calendar as well as flipping through the Maine Atlas And Gazetteer. The pages of my current copy are loaded with notes, campsite reviews and landmarks that I’ve added. Flipping through it and seeing the notes is a trip [...]

After describing what a simple, outdoor life was to several people over the holidays, I decided to change the subtitle of this blog to something they would understand without an explanation. The subtitle of this blog is no longer “Bushcraft, Guiding And A Simple, Outdoor Life”. It is now “Bushcraft And Self Reliance”.

Weasel Eating Moose

My friend Dick butchered a road kill moose, saving the good meat and giving it to the person who totalled their car as a result of the impact. I took a chunk of the “spoiled” meat. I had been seeing this weasel around for a few days and I wanted to see him up close. [...]

Plan Ahead To Be Prepared

I’m just getting over a 48-hour bout of food poisoning (or an acute flu). I don’t get sick very often, and sick to where I’m confined to laying around has happened just a handful of times in my life. But this one knocked me out. We’re still unsure what the offending piece of food was, [...]

I just got a call from Greg Averill, a past student and friend, who informed me that he passed the written and oral exams this morning and is the newest Registered Guide in Maine.  It takes a lot of work and studying to pass the tests, for which he is to be commended.  Expect to [...]

I put up a new page on the JMBS site last night, a program overview. It lists all of the programs we offer broken down into different categores: Field School, Folk School, Short Courses, Wilderness Trips and Other. Check it out at jackmtn.com/courses.html.

Canvas Tent Gallery

I’ve owned and stayed in a variety of different types of canvas and egyptian cotton tents over the years. Outfitted with a wood stove, they allow you to be comfortably nomadic in any season. This photo gallery shows some of these. [slickr-flickr type=”galleria” tag=”canvas tent” delay=”5″]

To Get More, Have Less

One benefit of a simple outdoor life with minimal inputs, such as at our field school or on extended trips in the bush, is that there is less stuff. This gives more meaning to the stuff you have, but also eliminates the clutter that gets in the way so often in modern life. When you [...]

Wilderness Bushcraft Semester students who get college credit must write a final paper about their experience. I just received one from this fall’s semester course. If you’re curious about our programs, you should read it as it gives you the student’s persepctive on what we do.  The paper, as well as one from 2007, are [...]

The culture we’re raised in teaches us what things we do ourselves, and what we get others to do for us. This is a deeply powerful psychological force, but it is a herd instinct, not a rational and reasoned deduction. We do things a certain way because that’s how our parents did them, that’s how [...]

When Gear Fails

Gear breaks or fails.  It happens.  If you’re prepared for it the consequences can be minimized.  I prepare for it by bringing a back-up on trips.  If something is crucial to my well-being in the bush I either have, or am prepared to make, another.  How do you prepare for it?

Home is where you hang your hat. The benefits of being able to build a comfortable house in the woods are immeasureable. For it to be useful, any shelter then must have a designated hat-hanging spot. Here are a few of ours. [slickr-flickr type=”galleria” tag=”shelter gallery” delay=”5″]

You learn to write by writing. It’s a truism, but what makes it a truism is that it’s true. The only way to learn to write is to force yourself to produce a certain number of words on a regular basis. – William Zinsser, from “On Writing”, p.49. Is there anything you could switch writing [...]

When you’re learning a new skill, it should be as simple as possible, broken down into its necessary elements and with as many details as possible stripped away. The focus should be on the minimum input needed for success. This is why many how-to books aimed at beginners fail; too much detail. On our bushcraft [...]

Taking a course does not make you an expert. You become an expert by investing enough time, energy and sweat to really learn something in depth.  How much time?  Malcom Gladwell, in his book Outliers, popularized the 10,000 hour rule; “The idea that it takes approximately 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to master a skill.”  [...]

At the Maine Lumberman’s Museum in Patten is a cabin built with only 2 tools: an axe and a froe. The axe was used to fell and limb the trees, as well as to cut the notches. The froe was used to split out boards to be used as a roof. The froe is used [...]

I’ll be spending this winter and spring in the Austin, Texas area with my wife and kids. This means we won’t be running any winter courses or snowshoe trips in the coming months, but we may run some short programs in Texas.  It will be interesting learning about new plants and habitats.  If you’re in [...]

A guarantee on a piece of gear doesn’t mean it won’t fail. It means that if it does fail, the maker will stand behind it and repair or replace it. This is a good policy, but it doesn’t help you when you’re on a remote trip. This past spring I guided a 105 mile trip [...]

I  have learned more about fungi from Paul Stamets‘s book Mycelium Running (Amazon.com link)  than any other resource.  While other books on mushrooms are often great field guides for identifying individual species, Stamets’s book has helped me to understand the ecology and relationships of mushrooms.  I still have a long way to go, but I [...]

Live Well Outside

We’ve done a lot of things in our 12 years, but there has always been something missing. No longer. We’ve finally got a latin motto.  Ago Puteus Foris.  It means Live Well Outside.

“Craft teaches our dependence upon the natural material world directly and practically – not as an abstraction.” –  Zabe MacEachern, from her article Crafting as a practice of Relating to the Natural World in the Canadian Journal of Environmental Education (CJEE), Vol 5, No 1 – 2000. Crafting is often seen as a way to [...]

One of my all-time favorite books is Elliott Merrick’s True North.  It is his journal of a year spent in Labrador in the late 1920’s when he journeyed upriver to the height of land and learned to live off the country with the trappers.  I’ll eventually get to writing a review of it, but I’ve [...]

My experience running 16 bushcraft and wilderness semester courses has taught me the value of taking a time-out from modern life and living more simply. I’ve seen the positive effect the experience has had on course participants. I know the effects it has had on me. Some of these include: Separating needs from wants. Living [...]

Sourdough Cornbread Deluxe

My son told me he liked cornbread last week, so we came up with a simple recipe we made together for a sourdough cornbread baked in a 10.5” square cast iron skillet.  It differs from our old cornbread recipe because it uses eggs and milk (our old recipe uses no perishable ingredients), so we’re calling [...]

New Category: Food

I’ve added a new category to the Jack Mountain Bushcraft Blog: Food.  Look for posts on recipes, wild foods, and general food-related topics.

The dates and details are set for our June, 2011 Woodsman and Bushman courses.  You can get the dates on our calendar. Woodsman: June 12-18 Bushman: June 19-25 Last year these courses ended on Friday afternoon.  This year they’ll end on Saturday morning. Last year the Woodsman course filled early, so if you’re interested register [...]

We’ve had kids join their parents on many of our courses, even semester courses.  It’s been a great experience for the kids, and great bonding time for the families.  As a result, we’ve put together a new kids policy. Kids Policy – We are a family-friendly business, and understand the value of parents and kids [...]

I had a friend at the field school this past summer and he and I spent some time discussing water and water systems. We collect rainwater at the field school for drinking and washing, and when it runs low we get water from a stream or the river. At the time he was in the [...]

I’ve got a couple of jugs of wine bubbling away and wanted to share another fermentation project I’ve got on the go; cheap and simple hard cider. I just started this the other day so it will be done in time for the holidays. While there are lots of books and websites with a lot [...]

Zen Of Bushcraft

This quotation from the introduction to The Book Of Five Rings discusses what Zen is.  The Zen of bushcraft, then, is doing something so many times that doing it becomes second nature. “In Zen first comes the technique, practiced so many times that it is forgotten.  Then you begin to use it.  It is when [...]

We’ve been using the humanure composting system since 1996. At the field school, we’ve simplified it down from a sawdust toilet. Now it’s a forest duff toilet. The goal was to use only materials we could gather on site. Now we cover fresh deposits with duff; the mixture of leaves and dirt that makes up [...]

My Favorite Skillet

For a trip of any duration, a good skillet ranks just behind the axe, knife and kettle as an irreplaceable piece of kit. Ever since fellow Maine guide Bud Farwell turned me on to “The One Eyed Poacher And The Maine Woods” during a fall Allagash trip, I’ve been a big fan of Edward Ware [...]

Peak Bagging

I’m not a peak bagger.  I don’t care about rushing to the top of a mountain, then rushing down, all so I can check it off on my life list of hikes.  I’m the same way with river trips.  I realize that peak bagging, as a philosophy, is the norm in outdoor recreation.  It’s a [...]

The Windpouncer jacket is the premiere wind and rain layering system jacket I’ve ever encountered.  Three layers of ultra-thin imagi-foam stand between you and the elements ensuring you stay warm and dry, and your hands are sure to be warm in two large slash pockets lined with their proprietary “cold-be-gone” spun polyester… OK, this is [...]

Can you train people for white water canoeing without them spending time in white water?  Is training without a realistic setting viable? I spent six years trying to get people ready for white water canoe poling and paddling by having them complete exercises on smooth water.  But when we got to the actual white water, [...]

I just gave my son his first knife.  It’s one I’ve had and used extensively for 11 years, and he was really excited.  I explained to him that he’s only allowed to use it when I’m with him because he needs to learn how to use it safely, but this didn’t dampen his enthusiasm at [...]

What I’m Working On

Now that I’m back from the woods, I wanted to let regular readers know what I’m working on. First, I’m putting together our 2011 schedule.  I’m still waiting to hear about several non-bushcraft events I need to plan around, but as soon as I get the information on them I’ll be posting our new schedule. [...]

We’ve wrapped up our 16th wilderness bushcraft semester course and I’ve made it back from the field school in one piece.  I’m back to consistent internet access, and will be blogging and posting photos from today forward.  Although our email vacation message said that I got to town once per week to keep up with [...]

We’ve finished the first four and a half weeks of the Wilderness Bushcraft Semester, and have the second half remaining after our short break.  Highlights have included canoeing the Devil’s Elbow and the Aroostook River, building and living in shelters, cooking all of our meals over an open fire, most of them in a dutch [...]

Week 1 of the 2010 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester is in the record books.  We spent time eating a lot of wild foods, poling and paddling canoes, building shelters, lighting fires, cooking over the fires we lit, making crooked knives on the campfire, learning about off-grid solar technology, studying the weather, and much, much more.  Busy [...]

I’ve been researching the role of crafting on the learning process recently.  There is a mountain of how-to information on crafting, but most of it on how-to-do things; the questions of why and what are the impacts are aren’t as common.  Since crafting is one of the seven core elements of the Jack Mountain Bushcraft [...]

Practical Bushcraft Exam

We use the logbook to track the individual progression of each student. However, there are some skills where a demonstration of the skill set is necessary for competence. You can either complete a task safely and efficiently, or you can’t. The practical exam process is about having a minimum skill level necessary to be able [...]

I read about the Windbelt several years ago and am excited it will be coming to market soon.  It will be a great complement to our off-grid solar system.  Unlike conventional wind generating technology, the windbelt generates electricity without a turbine using aeroelastic flutter; the same process that causes a blade of grass to vibrate [...]

A friend recently went on a fishing trip to Manitoba’s Big Sand Lake. This monster was the second biggest trout he caught there. Notice the Jack Mountain hat.  Some people are lucky when they fish.  Others work hard for what they get.  This fish, and his large cousin caught the following day, were the result [...]

I field a lot of questions about our off-grid solar power system at the field school, so here’s my super-simple primer on going solar. An off-grid solar system where you store energy to use with regular appliances (light, radio, laptop, etc.) at night or when the sun doesn’t shine is comprised of four parts. 1. [...]

It takes a minimum of 100 miles to learn how to paddle a canoe It takes a minimum of 80 miles to learn how to pole a canoe It takes a minimum of 100 friction fires to learn how to consistently make a friction fire It takes a minimum of 50 percussion fires to learn [...]

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