Start the new year off right with the annual wild game dinner hosted by our friends at The Woodsman School. Located in Wakefield, NH, a short drive from the seacoast. I’ll be in attendance and hope to meet some new friends there. If you’ve ever wanted to start eating wild game, this is a great [...]

We’re adding a second Boreal Snowshoe Expedition session for 2017 running February 20th to March 3rd. It’s a 12-day remote snowshoe expedition with a focus on guide training and winter bushcraft. If you want to learn how to live out on the trail in the cold, learn to lead and teach others in winter, and [...]

We’re consciously shrinking. In 2017 we’re lowering the number of participants on almost all of our programs. It’s the opposite of growth, but our focus is on the experience. After years of experimentation, these are the numbers we find work the best for our immersion programs. The new maximum course sizes are: Wilderness Bushcraft Semester: [...]

Had a busy day in the office with our office manager. We were going over enrollment for 2017 and talking about past and future students. There was a period of time when she was looking through the enrollment paperwork and asked me if I knew/remembered person X, Y, Z, etc., and for each I said, [...]

Recently it was brought to my attention that our website has been plagiarized again. Someone took our ideas and words (verbatim), used it as their own to sell programs similar to ours, and didn’t cite where they got it. Two days ago I received an email from a friend in Canada regarding a recent plagiarism [...]

Life is simpler on an expedition. The people on it have a shared goal and take tangible steps toward it every day. They come from different places and have different beliefs, but work together. When you stand shoulder to shoulder with someone while working hard as a team, you appreciate them, even if you don’t [...]

To learn new things is challenging. When you stay inside your comfort zone, not being challenged, you’re probably not learning new things. This is fine if you want to refine things you already know, but to blaze new ground demands that you be outside of where you feel 100% safe. In the photo above, participants [...]

During the Wilderness Bushcraft Semester, we want people to learn how to plan food and meals for an extended trip, starting with themselves and finishing with planning for a group. We also want them to learn how much water water they need on any given day in order to feel good and have their body [...]

I read some advice about choosing the right axe recently. I want to make a statement about choosing the wrong axe, or at least the closest axe. I’ve met young people who couldn’t afford a high-end axe and felt that their skills wouldn’t develop until they could. It’s not true. The path to axe mastery [...]

Just before they left on the Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester, I sat down with Raife Bowman, Dylan Robinson and Jeremy Yates to talk about their recent hike across Quebec and New Brunswick on the International Appalachian Trail. They used their homemade pack baskets to do the hike, and had some adventures along the way. Listen [...]

We’ve been working on it for a while, and now we’re finally able to accept federal financial aid through consortium agreements, opening our immersion programs up to more college students than ever before. If you know a college student who wants to immerse themselves in bushcraft and outdoor living for a semester, please pass this [...]

Our giveaway of a signed copy of The Woods Cook recently came to an end. I’m happy to announce that Mark N. from Illinois is our winner! I sent out the book a few days ago, and he should be receiving it soon. This was our first foray into giveaways, and we expect to do more [...]

We don’t provide sandpaper on field school courses with which to smooth and finish wooden projects such as canoe paddles, long bows, etc. Every course, one or two people get upset about this and urge us to provide it in the future. But there is a reason why we don’t. Sandpaper is a one time [...]

At the end of week 6 of the spring semester I recorded the second podcast with Christopher Russell. We talked about the progression of the course, the instructor and guide’s dilemma, the 2 journeys (outward and inward) that everyone is on, and told a few stories along the way. You can read more about Christopher, [...]

There are a lot things referred to as survival skills these days that have nothing to do with survival. Survival is keeping your body alive. It’s pretty simple, but not easy. Over the short-term, defined by how long you can fast and go without food (longer than a month), you need to maintain your body [...]

On Wednesday, July 6th from 5-7 pm we’re offering our popular campfire cooking workshop in Wolfeboro, NH, in partnership with GALA as part of our Self Reliance Workshop Series. This time around we’re adding a special treat; we’ll be joined by instructor Derek Faria of The Woodsman School. Derek’s an old friend and Registered Maine [...]

The new breed of bushcraft and survival social media celebrities, the ones with the popular channels, large followings, etc., seem to not know what they’re doing. The old rule of ‘fake it until you make it’ is as common as ever, but it’s new iteration, taken directly from their mouths seems to be ‘pay attention [...]

Christopher Russell is the first recipient of the Wilderness Bushcraft Semester scholarship and a student on the spring, 2016 WBS. We sat down to talk about scholarships, motivation and all things WBS on a cold day in early May. You can read more about Christopher, including an amazing series of interviews he published about the [...]

Our camp internet connection broke this past week. It was probably about time, as we run camp off a wireless wifi device and it was a few years old. It will no longer charge, leaving me wondering if I should get a new one or just a standalone battery charger. Then yesterday on my way to [...]

Our 4-week canoe expedition for 2016 will run from the Jack Mountain Bushcraft Field School in Masardis, Maine, to the Atlantic Ocean at Calais Maine. Along the way we’ll paddle the Aroostook, St. John, Eel and St. Croix rivers. We’ll also be tracing the ancient Maliseet Trail. More information on the trip and the route [...]

At dusk tonight I stood for half an hour watching and listening to four ruffed grouse feeding, talking and jumping around at the top of an aspen tree. Being silent and observing not only aids my knowledge and understanding of the natural world, but also my enjoyment of it. Empathy. Kinship. Belong to it.

We running our first giveaway. Win an autographed copy of The Woods Cook; Outdoor Cooking With A Professional Guide by Tim Smith. You can read more, throw your name in the hat and get the complete rules at: http://jmbnews.com/giveaways/woodscook/

Years ago I found a copy of the book Cooking Without Fuel that described a common appliance of 1900 that functioned much like a modern cooler. The idea was that you cook food until it boils, then put it in an insulated container which will maintain the heat and allow it to continue to cook, [...]

Being a lifelong learner, I’m of the belief that wherever you’re at, there is always room for improvement. Leading up to our 35th long-term course this spring, I’ve been seeking out additional training in order to become a better instructor. It’s been an immensely enjoyable experience. In early March I spent a weekend at Amherst Archery [...]

Combining The Northern Forest Canoe Route, The Appalachian Trail And The International Appalachian Trail Into An Epic Journey   The Idea There is a romance and simplicity in journeys that start at your door. In The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins didn’t take a bus to a plane to another bus to a cab to start his [...]

I’m excited to announce the recipient of our Wilderness Bushcraft Semester scholarship for the spring, 2016 semester; Christopher Russell! You’re going to be hearing a lot about him over the coming months, but for now let me introduce you to his blog, PrimitiveAddictions.com,  and Facebook fan page. We have another scholarship opportunity for the fall [...]

I was just made aware that part of the term “survival situation” has been trademarked. I personally won’t miss it and am glad to see it go.   Term “Survival Situation” To Be Replaced With “LTO – Life Threatening Occurrence” Since the recent registration of the trademark “The Situation” by Michael Sorrentino, the outdoor community [...]

Since returning home from the second Boreal Snowshoe Expedition, I’ve been immersed in the tedious and delicate process of a major overhaul of our web site. This entailed a lot of backend work, as well as creating several new sites. While there is still a lot of work to be done, the major overhauls are [...]

The modern world we live in is a thin veneer stretched over the raw circumstance of our human condition. Countless interconnected pieces give us things like central heating, the internet, smartphones, tax forms, and countless other modern realities. Despite its many benefits, the veneer insulates us from the experience of life our forefathers knew. While [...]

Two quick stories. One. Last week I went to see a movie with my dad at a classic old fashioned and equally rural theater in northern Wisconsin. The day was a mix of heavy wet snow, sleet and temperatures probably near thirty, this is all vital info, trust me. When we sat down there looked [...]

A bunch of years back I gave a presentation on sustainability in outdoor education at the Wilderness Educators Association conference (Read our paper here: https://www.outdoored.com/articles/asap-20-sustainable-possible). Our small group was proposing a model to help improve and correct some of the environmental problems inherent with most modern outdoor pursuits (think burning white gas for camp stoves) while also harpooning [...]

    This society finds defining the world around us irresistible. We gave names to the trees, the animals, the weather and the winds. We have developed scientific principles in order to understand the inner workings of the natural world, to give structure to the systems operating around us and to explain all those events [...]

Everybody who’s been active in the outdoors for any length of time knows that as a knife ages, it stops being functional. This is true for both individual knives as well as knife designs. Only NEW knives and knife designs are useful, and only they can save your life in the inevitable “survival situations” we [...]

It is amazing how many blogs, web sites and discussion forums are committed to outdoor knives. A cursory jaunt through the web will quickly inundate the reader in barrows of gigabytes covering every weekend warrior’s 2 cents on knife construction, design, material, use and even a slew of experts piping in to pitch their new [...]

I laced up my skates for the first time in five years today and hit the ice with my youngest’s first grade class. It felt great to be at the rink and brought back a lot of powerful memories. Even if I never stepped into a hockey rink again, it will always be a big [...]

The second of 2 videos about gear for the Boreal Snowshoe Expedition. If you’re going on the trip, pay attention.

As winter winds on and the snow piles up outside the windows of my small cabin, it is easy to appreciate the wonder of the natural world.  There is the ruffed grouse that scurries around the perimeter of my clearing, hiding in the shadows of the cedar and fir trees.  A red squirrel has taken [...]

Here’s the first in a series of videos shot specifically for those joining us on the Boreal Snowshoe Expedition this winter. You can get links to the gear mentioned at: http://www.jackmtn.com/gear.html#footwear Do not bring boots without removable liners!

There’s something about me you may not know that might change how you perceive me. I’m not a flusher. I poop in a bucket, and when I’m done I cover it with sawdust. When the bucket gets full I dump it on a compost pile along with other organic inputs (kitchen, yard, etc.), then cover [...]