Shaping  a crooked knife One component of our new Journeyman Bushcraft Instructor And Wilderness Guide Certification Program is the craft benchmarks I’ve written about before.  Below is the list of crafts and how many of them need to be completed in order to successfully complete the program.  All of the crafts below are taught during [...]

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 [...]

A project I’ve been involved in for well over a decade is something I call guerilla gardening. It consists of helping to spread the growth of edible wild (and not so wild) plants on undeveloped and vacant land. These aren’t gardens I spend hours daily or weekly weeding. Instead it’s more along the lines of [...]

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

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 [...]

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. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 Jack Mountain Bushcraft School was recently listed as one of the top five survival schools in the USA by Tony Nester, Outside Magazine’s survival guru and the owner of the Ancient Pathways school in Arizona. Tony is well respected in the industry and has two decades of field experience teaching survival and bushcraft. To [...]

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 [...]

A new way to pay for courses at Jack Mountain:  Students can now use Americorps vouchers to help with tuition. Check out our Scholarships & Tuition Discounts page for more info.

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 [...]

Episode 2 of our podcast is about the philosophy behind our new Journeyman program and why an assessment and accountability system is important to ensure someone knows what they’re doing.   iTunes Link | Play, Download Or Subscribe In iTunes

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

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

A question discussed on many outdoor forums is what gear a person needs.  My question is what can a person do without?

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”.

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. [...]

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.

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″]

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 [...]

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″]

Here are a few of my favorite canoe photos from the last few years. [slickr-flickr type=”galleria” tag=”2010 canoe favorites” delay=”5″] You can see these and others on our Flickr page.

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Bushcraft is about doing something.  Not about buying something.  This is good to keep in mind in our era of gear saturation.

There are a lot of terms in use these days with regard to outdoor and survival personalities, and every so often an argument seems to break out as to who is an expert and who isn’t. Some of these titles are bestowed by tv networks or other media outlets, while others are self-bestowed by instant [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

I just watched Thomas Elpel’s new dvd Classroom In The Woods; Primitive Skills For Public Schools.  It is a documentary shot on location in Montana where he and his team from the Hollowtop Outdoor Primitive School take junior high class on a 3-day primitive camping trip.  In addition to following the journey of the students, [...]

Assessment exists for the student, not for the instructor. At their worst, assessment systems put students in a competition with their peers.  At their best, they provide a way for students to gauge their progress and to see how far they’ve come, give them an honest accounting of where their skills fit into the bigger [...]

I stopped in to see my old friend Don Merchant at Pole And Paddle Canoe the other day.  In addition to our usual discussions about the weather, water levels, and just getting caught-up in general, he showed me a new, beefed-up 30″ collapsable bucksaw he plans to start offering soon.  After handling it for a [...]

A friend sent me this photo of his wooden canoe after a tough day on the river. You’re looking at broken ribs, half-ribs and planks inside a 20′ wooden canoe. The good news is that everything on a wooden boat can be fixed. That’s one area where these old boats are far superior to their [...]

I’m excited about the new flexible, adhesive PV solar panels, designed to stick to metal roofs, that are finally available. Long-time readers know that we’ve got a small, off-grid solar system at our field school in Masardis, Maine. It consists of one 80-watt panel, a charge controller and several 6-volt golf cart batteries. The panel [...]

Teaching bushcraft these days is as much about helping people to eliminate the extraneous as it is showing them something new. Put another way, it’s as much carving as it is building. Much of what passes for common knowledge in bushcraft and outdoor living is fantasy, created and fed by poorly conceived books, movies and [...]

Help us help the economy! We’re starting an email newsletter. But this time, we’re using professional tools to run it for us. Help us pump some money into the economy by signing up for our free newsletter. We don’t have to pay the newsletter company until we have 100 subscribers. Subscribe today and push us [...]

There are several definitions of bushcraft floating around the web, none of which I agree with.  The most common is the one used on the Wikipedia page that states that bushcraft is the long-term adaptation of survival skills.  I disagree.  Bushcraft goes way beyond survival skills. Bushcraft is the active component of our interaction with [...]

I was looking through an old notebook from the fall, 2007 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester course last night and I found a quotation I wrote down spoken by Mors Kochanski when he was here for the final week.  It was November 1st, 2007, and we were up late discussing the role of bushcraft and wilderness survival [...]

I’m adding a new section to our resource page of articles and downloads; podcasts.  I’m regularly sharing podcasts on learning, the natural world, ecology, and more with our students, and now I’ll be sharing them with anyone who is interested.  This is not the Jack Mountain Bushcraft Podcast.  We’re not responsible for recording or anything [...]

Spring and early summer were super busy, but I’m back in town and will be updating the blog with tales of our experiences in the woods of northern Maine.  I realize that those of you who have been regular readers over the years probably don’t like the intermittant nature of the posts while I’m at [...]

It was a funny spring weather-wise.  At the end of the first week in May there was already very low water in all the rivers of northern Maine.  We had just enough water to paddle the St. John River.  By the time we had covered the 113 miles from Baker Lake to Dickey, the water [...]

I’m back in town after a busy spring course.  I’ll be posting about some of our experiences this spring in the next week before heading back to the field school for several June programs.  It’s good to be back and away from the bugs for a few days.

We finished the Riverman course and now are busy getting ready for a week on the St. John river.  The weather is several weeks ahead of schedule, but it looks like we’ll just make it before the water drops to it’s summertime low. We’ve been seeing a lot of wildlife, including bears, moose, deer, snowshoe [...]

After a lot of thought, I’ve decided that this fall will be our last fall semester for a few years.  While they’ve been very successful and have been a life-changing experience for our students, they are also a difficult period of separation for my family.  While this has been challenging for my wife and I [...]

It’s been a busy early spring at the field school.  The road is impassable for the last half mile, but otherwise things are in great shape.  It’s been a lot of work getting everything ready for the spring semester, and I’m excited to be here. I’ll continue to be away from the web for the [...]

I’ll be away from the web for a while as I drive across the country and look to get the field school set up with internet access.  I’ll post when I’m able to.  Have a great spring and get out there and grab life by the throat!

I added a new look to the JMB blog that makes it easier to make changes and customize.  If you don’t like the new look, it won’t last forever as I’ll be adding to it as I learn more about the software.  So far so good, but the best is yet to come.

“Toddlers ask many questions, and so do school children – until about grade three.  By that time many of them have learned an unfortunate fact, that in school, it can be more important for self-protection to hide one’s ignorance about a subject than to learn more about it, regardless of one’s curiosity.”    – Jan Hunt [...]

Read a great post by Jeff Butler of Northwoods Survival on their Facebook page. What is interesting and what is essential?  This is a very important questions especially for people who spend a lot of time in the bush.  At NWS we look at it this way:  The ability to make fire by friction = [...]

Our job as a school is not to make you a bushcraft or survival expert.  It’s to teach you all the things you need to know, and to provide you with the necessary experience you need as building blocks in order to become an expert.  Actually doing it takes blood, sweat and tears on your [...]

Paul Sveum wrote and recorded this song a few years ago.  It’s our unoffical theme song, and we’ve used it in a bunch of our videos.  In addition to being a talented musician and good friend, Paul is a first-class bushcraft instructor who has spent several years working with the students at Northland College in [...]

The smooth waters of the Allagash reflecting the sky at dusk.

This morning I read an article on winter survival written by an individual who not only has no idea how to keep the body alive in the winter, but also had seemingly no experience in the cold without a truckload full of gear. It seems I have read hundreds of these, but maybe it’s only [...]

Sunday, February 4th, 2001 Woke up on my bed of fir boughs surrounded by other sleeping bodies. There are seven of us lying in a circle inside the round white tent. The only part of the tent floor not covered with prone bodies is the area next to the door and the small rectangular woodstove. [...]

Allagash falls after several days of heavy rains. A shirtless figure stands alone, shaking his fists. Shot during the fall, 2004 fall semester course on day 9 of an 11-day trip with a disposable film camera. Great shot, great trip, great guy.

These are not good times to put out a book on edible wild plants. Unless you’re Samuel Thayer. When I reviewed Thayer’s first book, The Foragers Harvest, I wrote that it is as good or better than anything available on the topic. It has since become the go-to book for students at the Jack Mountain [...]

Paddling into the mist on Long Lake, part of the Allagash Wilderness Waterway in northern Maine. Shot on a cool September morning under a clear blue sky.

This is one of my favorite photos, taken during the fall, 2003 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester. It’s the St. Croix River, which is the border between Maine and New Brunswick. In the photo are two women poling solo in 18 foot canoes. It was a beautiful fall morning; cold and crisp, with warmer water generating the [...]

Safety and having several backup plans are key when planning a trip. We designed a form a number of years ago that students fill out as part of our guide training curriculum for each excursion. You can get a .pdf of it here. The procedure is simple: Fill out three copies. Keep one with you, [...]

Do babies understand numbers, or are they a blank slate?  Is it a given that they will grow to understand numbers like we do, or do they need to be taught?  Is how we experience numbers different from how stone age people understood them? These questions and more are examined in this Radiolab podcast from [...]

We do a lot of sourdough baking in the reflector oven when on remote trips.  It’s a great piece of low-tech, high-skill equipment that is worthless in the hands of someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, but priceless in the hands of someone who does.  The best way to become proficient with it is [...]

We’ve had some great discussions about how the brain works in the learning process as part of our ongoing online course on becoming an instructor.  One aspect that we’ve only touched on briefly is the role of exercise in the learning process.  To simplify a complex subject into a soundbite, exercise is good for your [...]

Nutshimit is a word and concept from the Innu.  Previously known by the name given to them by the French, Montagnais, they inhabit a huge, sparsely populated region of Quebec and Labrador. For many Innu, life in the village is marked by idleness and a sense of loss and alienation, in strong contrast to being [...]

The question of how our bushcraft courses are applicable in the modern world comes up from time to time both in email and through discussions, so I wanted to formally address it today. When examined from a sufficient distance so as to blur the specific skills, our courses teach four things: problem solving, leadership, self-reliance [...]

I’ve been thinking for several years about putting together an expedition-style course for young men where we’d spend three or four weeks in the north woods canoeing and living outdoors.  It would be a similar, although less rigorous, curriculum that we use in our college semester programs, with a focus on academic subjects such as [...]

There are many features that make our yearlong bushcraft immersion program unique, and to read about them you should check out the yearlong page as the purpose of this post is to list a few of the perks that go along with taking the yearlong, but aren’t a part of it. Yearlong program graduates have [...]

I love to explore new places.  I’ve covered a lot of northern Maine in my canoe over the last decade, and I’ve still only scratched the surface.  Sometimes I find those special spots where no one goes, the fishing is good and there’s a beautiful place to camp.  Other times I’m hauling over beaver dams [...]

Thanks to a friendly piece of software this blog is now formatted with a mobile theme for viewing with the iPhone/iPod Touch, Google Android, Palm Pre and other touch-based smartphones.

Early spring is the season of travel on remote northern rivers. Swelled with snowmelt, a canoe is able to travel where the water is too low during the summer. This is one of my favorite spots in Maine, seldom visited, far from any logging road and a long way from town or a paved road. [...]

Something we emphasize on our courses is to know yourself and how you deal with different stresses that come into play on extended trips or even when you’re just working around camp. One of the most important deals with hydration; how much water YOU need and what happens when you don’t get enough. This is [...]

When I was a kid I knew the company I wanted to work for. I knew what my job would be and the things I’d do. But I couldn’t get hired by that company because it didn’t exist. I had to build it. Here’s a timeline of some of the highlights of that journey. 1995. [...]

I haven’t been blogging much lately, as I’ve been a busy dad as well as working on a lot of the behind the scenes aspects of our 2010 season. But I have been adding content to our various outposts on the web, and this post will tell you where they are. 1. We’ve got a [...]

With the rise of the web and people being constantly connected, I’m concerned about the future of really experiencing things. These days I see so many people constantly tweeting, shooting video, and documenting their experiences, especially outdoor experiences, that I wonder if there’s any authentic experience taking place or if the whole thing exists just [...]

The dates for the fall and spring terms of our 2010-2011 yearlong immersion program have been set. The yearlong program includes the fall, winter and spring terms. Fall Term: Wilderness Bushcraft Semester 8/22/10-10/23/10 – Immediately following the fall term is our practical exam, which lasts several days. Winter Term: Winter Bushcraft Intensive 1/9/11 – 1/22/11 [...]

TV survival shows are about hardships and risk. With background music to set the mood, the feeling of jeopardy hangs heavily over the host as s/he negotiates within an inch of his/her life. The danger makes it sexy. In the real world, bushcraft is much more about heritage and tradition rather than risk. The old [...]

We’re adding a tuition financing and payment plan for our long term programs. All the details aren’t set yet, but will be in a few weeks. It’s part of our plan to make our programs available to anyone who has a strong interest in bushcraft and living a simple, outdoor life.

Last summer I found an old magazine a friend had left at my place. It was the summer, 2004 issue of Outdoor Canada magazine, and on the last page was a short article titled “Homage” by Gary Ball. In it he gives his list of the perfect qualities a guide should posess. I think he [...]

Books on outdoor adventure can be read in the warm, dry, comfortable surroundings of the home. They entertain, but when finished they seldom change the reader. Actual outdoor experience and wilderness travel is characterized by bad weather, bugs, difficulty and exhaustion. Their impacts are felt throughout life, changing the person. Without the difficulty, there can [...]

Northern Maine’s St. John River is the premier wilderness trip in the US east of the Mississippi. This year we’re running it May 10-17. The natives called it Wallastook, or “Beautiful River”. It’s the largest river in Atlantic Canada, but starts from a series of small ponds deep in the woods of northern Maine, this [...]

Thinking about taking a semester off from college and spending it in the wilderness? If so, compare the different approaches of our program versus the large, corporate wilderness education companies. If you’re looking for modern, high-tech outdoor education with programs on backpacking and mountaineering, then check them out. But if you’re interested in building a [...]

We’ve changed the curriculum of our guide training course for 2010, and renamed it the Riverman Course It’s the first week of our 4-week Canoe Expedition Semester, and takes place in early May when the rivers are swollen and the bugs are still sleeping. This weeklong course prepares you for working as a professional guide [...]

I’m headed back to Canoecopia in March for a presentation on wilderness survival for paddlers titled “How To Avoid Becoming One With Nature Through The Composting Process.” As such I wanted to be clear about what you won’t hear in my survival presentations: 1. Long, drawn out discussion of equipment; kit is secondary, knowledge is [...]

I read an article from the Dallas Morning News on December 6th titled “Global Impositioning Systems; Is GPS technology actually harming our sense of direction?” by Alex Hutchinson. While I’ve often heard of people having no sense of direction, and have met a few that can get lost driving to the grocery store, I didn’t [...]

The forum on the Jack Mounatin Bushcraft Network (our online social network) has been increasingly active lately. Someone recently posted a question about natural alternatives to insulin: What happens if you are Insulin dependent and end up in a survival situation without Insulin. Is there anything you can do? Are there any natural forms of [...]

Is it better to know a little about hundreds of outdoor skills, or to know a lot about a few core skills? This is a heated debate, and the answer often depends on how you live your life. For the urban set, where bushcraft is a trivial pursuit, breadth wins you more kudos at skills [...]

We do quite a bit of knifemaking (crooked knives, mostly) in our longer courses. In trying to keep things as simple as possible, we use the campfire or woodstove to anneal the blades, and an open fire to temper them as well. We’ve got a coal forge with a hand crank blower, but we’re always [...]

As part of the online course we’re running titled “Becoming A Bushcraft Instructor”, we’re currently reading the book “Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind” by Guy Claxton. We’ve been enjoying many thoughtful discussions on teaching and learning and how they apply to bushcraft and the outdoors. This gem of a passage is from near the end of [...]

I was discussing bushcraft on Saturday and trying to explain it to someone whose life experience has been all in urban areas. In discussing life at our field school, I explained that it was just like life anywhere else, except without the infrastructure. I thought about this for a while after the conversation ended, and [...]

Our first online course, titled “Becoming A Bushcraft Instructor,”, has been a great experience thus far. We’ve had some thoughtful discussions about our first book, Hare Brain Tortoise Mind, which examines how the brain processes information. I’ve been learning a lot from the discussion. As a sample, below is a post from Russ Venditto on [...]

Simple food, simple shelter, simple transportation, simple tools, simple gear. A simple, rich, rewarding life.

We’re offering an early registration discount for 2010. If you register and pay in full for a 2010 course or trip by January 15th you can take 10% off the tuition. This includes our long term programs. It could save you a cool $1050 off our yearlong program; enough for a new canoe, a wall [...]

We’re adding an internship component to the yearlong program. As you know, the program begins with the fall semester course, continues with the winter intensive and finishes with the spring expedition. We’re adding a summer internship where students learn the business end of bushcraft, how we run weeklong courses, etc. They’ll get experience teaching, organizing, [...]

What would the ultimate Maine canoe, bushcraft, fishing and outdoor living program look like? We’ve thought about this for ten years and the 2010 4-week canoe expedition program comes pretty close. It begins with our Riverman course, a week of solid instruction in canoeing, guide training and practical camping and outdoor living. Daily lessons with [...]

There’s an idea about competing that winning is everything. It isn’t. I like to compete because it pushes me. Physically, it teaches me how much more is in the tank when the needle is hovering on “E”. As a business owner, it keeps me thinking about how to do it better and to create something [...]

When most people think of the northeast corner of North America, they think of the huge urban area stretching from Washington DC to Boston. They think there’s no wild country left, and that the west is the place to be. The map they think of looks like this: View Larger Map But look a bit [...]

I’ve never looked the part. Most people never do. We’re TBH (trained by hollywood) that people who do certain things should look a certain way. After all, that’s how they look in the movies. But it’s a big lie. My high school soccer coach was adamant about people not using their appearance to stand out. [...]

I just finished Tony Nester’s new book The Modern Hunter-Gatherer; A Practical Guide To Living Off The Land. If you don’t like reading book reviews, here’s the abbreviated version; It’s great, get a copy, read it twice. As the title suggests, it’s a primer for those looking to supplement their diet with wild fish, game [...]

Our educational system has become increasingly abstract over the last hundred years.  Instead of instruction in sensory development and hands-on skills, we focus almost exclusively on the intellectual and the abstract.  Much of this is the result of the influence of Jean Piaget and his stage theory of cognitive development from the 1920’s.  He viewed [...]

This is a selection from my upcoming book “Bush Cookery: Outdoor Cooking Secrets From A Professional Guide”. You should never leave food, even small bits of it, around your camp.  To do so is to bring animals into camp, and ultimately habituate them to human food.  There’s an old saying that a fed bear is [...]

Our yearlong immersion program is a combination of field school and home school; hands-on hard skills and more traditional academic work focusing on ideas and scholarship. We’ve decided to open the home school portion up to anyone who is interested for free.  It scales well, requires only an internet connection and a library card (and [...]

“There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers.  Yet it is admirable to profess because it was once admirable to live.”  Thoreau from chapter on Economy in Walden. There are nowadays many instructors of bushcraft and wilderness living skills, but few who spend much time in the bush.  Yet it is admirable to profess [...]

As discussed on online courses page, we’re ready to start our new online course series. The online courses represent the academic component of our yearlong course. We’re sharing it with anyone who wants to participate. It’s not a replacement for hands-on training in hard skills. It’s a complement for such training, resulting in a deeper [...]

I picked up a book at the library the other day called The New Toughness Training For Sports; Mental, Emotional, and Physical Conditioning.  I’ve enjoyed reading it, and think that it applies to survival and outdoor living. Mental and emotional toughness are crucial in survival, but also in bushcraft, camping and probably every other arena [...]

I’ve been reading Eric Brende’s book Better Off: Flipping The Switch On Technology.  The book chronicles he and his wife living off the grid and with limited technology for 18 months.  With all the current talk about sustainability and the search for new technologies that will make it possible, it makes the point that the [...]

Another new course for 2010, the Bushman course is an intensive exploration of primitive bushcraft skills. The word primitive is derived from the latin root primus, which means first or original. We’ll focus on original skills, those that don’t require specialized kit or other gear. Nature is our gear store. Knowledge makes it accessible. This [...]

My son and I set aside time every week to get outside and explore the natural world.  We’ve been looking at plants, tracks, rocks, and other things that he can see, smell and touch.  Then we go to the Austin Science And Nature Center, where he can get points for the things he discovers.  The [...]

I just got the fall, 2009 Maine Wilderness Guides Organization newsletter.  It has the previously mentioned write-up on Jack Mountain, and also included this great little story. One morning a husband returns after several hours of fishing and decides to take a nap. Although not familiar with the lake, the wife decides to take the [...]

172 years ago today (October 22nd, 1837), Henry David Thoreau started keeping a daily journal.  It was a pretty simple act, but he stuck with it and the result is that people around the world continue to talk about his writing and ideas.  Start something today.  Who knows how far it will go?

I’ve recently been reading about axes with very short handles, and it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.  Historically, the difference between an axe and a hatchet has been one hand. An axe is a tool traditionally used with two hands. A hatchet is used with one. While the various companies will [...]

We’re introducing several new week-long courses in 2010, the first of which is the Woodsman course. It’s a comprehensive introduction to bushcraft and wilderness survival in the northern forest, and will serve as the basic course for our week-long programs. Topics will include: * Wilderness Survival 101 * Introduction To Bushcraft * Fire Making: The [...]

Starting next year we’ll be partnering with Blackwater Outfitters to offer lodging options for our programs. Owner Dick Cullins is a friend and first-rate hunting guide, and his cabins are comfortably furnished with hot showers and soft beds. They’re located just down the road in Masardis. For those interested in attending a course but don’t [...]

For poor instructors, it’s all about the instructor. For marginal instructors, it’s all about the material. For good instructors, it’s all about the student.

We’re officially changing the name of our flagship course. The Earth Skills Semester Program is now The Wilderness Bushcraft Semester. The content of the course will remain the same. The reason for the name change is to make it more descriptive of what is taught and to eliminate any ambiguity caused by the term earth [...]

I’ve had the good fortune to be featured in a bunch of media outlets over the years, and while it’s always nice to see your name in print, when your peers write about you it means that much more. This month I’m the featured guide in the Maine Wilderness Guides Organization newsletter. Since it’s not [...]

Knowledge comes from using information, not access to it. It’s an important distinction to be made in the era of the web and the unlimited amount of information available. Just because someone copies a bit of how-to information onto an online forum doesn’t mean they know something. I’m not trying to be elitist, but there [...]

There are many outdoor education programs available these days, but there are huge differences in content, educational philosophy, and curriculum between them. When we explain what we do to people with no concept of bushcraft, they often remark, “so it’s just like (insert name of national outdoor company here)”. We reply, “No. In fact the [...]

Here’s a photo of my two favorite axe heads.  The top one is one that I managed to find a few years ago; an original Emerson and Stevens, made in Oakland, Maine.  This is the axe head that Geoff Burke sent to Sweden when Gransfors Bruks needed a template of a good American felling axe.  [...]

I’ve been an avid reader of Vilhjalmur Stefansson over the years, and I have a habit of writing down passages that really speak to me.  Having grown up with the common stereotypes associated with stone age people, I’ve always been especially interested in first hand accounts of explorers who made the first western contact with [...]

I heard from a friend last night who took one of our courses a few years ago.  He’s starting a bushcraft school in Canada and wanted to know if he could use our liability release and acknowledgement of risk forms.  I told him yes, as it’s my policy to let anyone who wants to use [...]

I enjoy reading about aspects of history that are little known – especially with regard to exploration.  Fittingly, I recently started reading a book I got at the library by Gavin Menzies called 1421: The Year The Chinese Discovered America.  In it the author discusses the Chinese treasure fleets and how they explored the globe [...]

The new stainless steel water bottles are all the rage these days, and while fashionable trends aren’t something I tend to engage in, there are real benefits to them over their plastic predcessors.  The most important benefit is that you can boil water right in them, eliminating the need for carrying a separate pot when [...]

Wanted: A mentor who can help me create a way to provide scholarships for low-income youth. Goal: To set up a scholarship fund, foundation, or non-profit wing of Jack Mountain in order to provide remote canoe trips and bushcraft courses for low income rural middle and high school boys. Need: Help figuring out the process [...]

Drawing on the philosophies of bushcraft we’ve developed over a decade of field courses, the traditions of Maine Guides that go back generations, the Cree concept of miyupimaatisiium (translated as “being alive well”) and the Scandinavian idea of friluftsliv (translated as “open air life”), the following seven elements comprise the components of our programs. 1. [...]

Eating acorns is a hot topic these days as I’ve gotten several questions about it.  If you haven’t read it, check out this page for a great essay written by my friend Dan Fisher.  He explains how he does it, and i chime it at the end with a short blurb. To answer some recently-posed [...]

If you’re a regular reader or visitor to our site, you may have noticed the small “site by Aroocom” text at the bottom of each page.  No, we haven’t outsourced our site to a Siberian media conglomerate.  Since I’m on an 8-month sabbatical from teaching extended bushcraft courses, I’ve decided to offer my web consulting [...]

There’s a difference between outdoor leadership and management.  Management is when you ensure people carry out predetermined tasks leading to a defined outcome.  Managers aren’t looking for innovation.  They’re there to ensure things get done according to a preexisting plan.  When we’re cooking a group dinner over a campfire in a remote location, we often [...]

We’ve been fielding a lot of questions about our yearlong program lately.  Several people over the weekend wanted to know if students live on-site for the entire year.  The answer is no, they don’t.  The program is organized around three intensives: the fall semester, the winter program, and the spring expedition.  For graduates, there is [...]

We’ve updated the information on our Yearlong Bushcraft Immersion Program for 2010.  Changes include the addition of a 2-week winter survival and travel course and that the course will begin with the fall semester instead of the spring.  Although our costs will go up with adding the winter course, we’re keeping the tuition the same. [...]

I hear from people regularly who are interested in making a move to the country and want to know how much land they need.  This question has also been the impetus for many discussions around the fire.  There is no right answer, as everything depends on the land and what you want to do with [...]

During a recent course we spent some time trout fishing.  When we were paddling across a remote lake I offered some of my lures to be trolled.  As I handed one of my treasured lures to a course participant, I told him the history of the lure, that I had bought it in 1981, that [...]

People stealing other’s content (text, photos, etc.) is common on the web, although that doesn’t make it alright or any less disrespectful.  Some large companies send threatening letters from lawyers to add a consequence for this act.  Our policy is to identify the site, say that it’s both uncool and illegal, and give them an [...]

I first read this story in the mid 1990’s.  It reminds me of a line from Edmund Ware Smith’s “The One-Eyed Poacher And The Maine Woods”, where he writes that the woodsmen in his stories “have their own idea of wealth, and it’s got nothing to do with money.” “A Micmac Looks At The Ways [...]

I’ve updated our blog with some new software, one result of which is that you can once again leave comments.  I’ve had them turned off for a few years, and updating the software and reactivating them is finally off the to-do list.

I spent Saturday canoeing the San Marcos river with my son and a friend.  The section we paddled was a narrow, gentle river  that wound its way past high sandstone banks, through cattle farms, and past some big houses.  There were enormous cypress trees, herons, red-tailed hawks and a bunch of turtles who were enjoying [...]

Our new online registration process is fully operational after a day of tinkering with it.  Instead of our old system where people had to print, fill out and mail a form, we’ve automated the process with an online form.  So the process will be faster, smoother and easier.  If it all seems like too much [...]

I’ve been rereading Calvin Rutstrum’s book The Wilderness Life and am enjoying it as much as the first time.  I think his insights on wilderness living are keen, and his years of experience are evident in his writings unlike some other popular writers.  (I really dislike Nessmuk, and will write about why at some point.) [...]

It takes a long time to achieve competence approaching mastery with bushcraft and primitive living skills.  There are so many different things to learn, and real learning can’t be rushed. Consider this: Tomas Johannson, a director of the Institute for Prehistoric Technology in Sweden, has calculated that would require twelve years of schooling today to [...]

A commodity is a product that is the same no matter where you get it.  A bag of flour is a commodity, because it is the same whether you get it from your local store, through a fancy cooking store, or order it over the web.  Those who sell commodities compete on price because the [...]

During each field school program, we always take a few hours to visit the Ashland Logging Museum.  It’s a great place to learn more about the woods life lived by loggers before the chainsaw and the logging road.  There are replica cabins, a Lombard log hauler, a king’s pine, and numerous other items of interest.  [...]

Where did the widespread idea about surviving in the bush “with only a knife” come from?  I can tell you that it didn’t come from people experienced with living in forested regions.  If I could have only one tool for a trip of a 1-100 days, it would be an axe, not a knife. But [...]

This year we won’t be running a fall semester course for the first time in six years, as I decided a month ago that it was time for a sabbatical.  My apologies to all of you who applied only to have the course postponed for a year, but it was time for me to take [...]