Jack Mountain Bushcraft Blog

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Wooden Canoes Can Be Fixed

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 [...]

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 [...]

New Email Newsletter

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 [...]

Bushcraft Defined

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’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 [...]

Back In Town

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 [...]

Busy Early Spring

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 [...]

Away From The Web

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.

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.

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, [...]

Reflector Oven Baking

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Connectivity

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.

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