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 [...]

We run long, intense field courses in bushcraft and guide training. Over the past few years, we’ve gone to running them almost exclusively. There are many lessons that can only be learned in the field, hence the need for a field school. But there are others where the spirit of learning belongs in a community, [...]

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’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.

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 28, the 3rd in a 15 part series shot on our May, 2012 bushcraft canoe expedition course in the North Maine Woods. Learn about the knifing J paddling stroke as we paddle down Chase Pond in order to get to the outlet stream to practice poling.

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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.  [...]

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

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 is my favorite photo from our May canoe trip on the Allagash.  I got up at 3:57 am in order to wake someone on the trip at 4, and the light was just coming over the ridge to the northeast of the pond.  It was cold, but I grabbed my camera and took a [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Another 15″ brook trout caught in camp tonight.  Roasting on a stick over the fire in front of the new reflector oven.  A great week so far!

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

I have a hard time figuring out how to connect with people on social media sites. My quandary is whether to post things as me, Tim, or as my business, the Jack Mountain Bushcraft School. I want to be consistent. I want to not confuse people regarding who’s who and avoid creating a web-based split [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]