A number of years ago I crossed paths with Ezra Smith on a canoe course. He went on to build a wood canvas canoe, then traveled in that canoe the length of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail. I was guiding a trip on the Allagash when, on the last leg of his journey, he walked [...]

I love to see sign of the animals on the land, like this beaver-chewed ash tree along the river. Such signs tell me the ecosystem is healthy. But is health an objective thing, or culturally defined? In our modern, western world, health is often associated with the body. It is the worship of the appearance [...]

Out for a walk on the land today, enjoying some solo time and the luxury of wandering with a camera. We’re supposed to get a storm over the next few days, and something tells me the snow will stick until April or May, so this was my last fall day to enjoy the weather and [...]

I originally posted this in 2016. A lot of people have lost loved ones recently. I don’t have any sage words to say about how to deal with the loss. Do the best you can, and if it isn’t enough talk to someone. ————————————– During our courses I talk a lot about the time I [...]

“No matter what anyone says, men in the cities spend their lives and win their bread fighting other men. In primitive places they fight nature and are drawn to other men by the common battle. The difference in character and viewpoints between a hunter and a salesman is as fundamental and irreconcilable as though they [...]

If you eat a great meal at a restaurant, is the type of spatula the cook used responsible for the taste of the food? If you see a beautiful house, how important is the type of hammer the builder used to the final structure? If someone has a beautiful website, do you ask them what [...]

One of the more philosophical individuals who’s taken our semester program over the years posed a very good question to me a few years ago, and since then I tend to pose it to others who engage in long-term bushcraft and survival practice. It was a year after he had taken the course, during which [...]

I was recently a guest on the Nature Reliance Media Podcast with Craig Caudill. We had a great conversation about a wide variety of outdoor-related topics including my time in Alaska, the North Maine Woods, how expeditions are where stupid ideas go to die, and more. Here’s the link to the podcast: Nature Reliance Media [...]

After having to cancel our trip last year, We’re heading back to Oujé-Bougoumou in northern Quebec in March 2022, where we’ll spend a week in the bush experiencing Cree culture with our guides David and Anna Bosum in their ancestral homeland, Eeyou Istchee. This will be our 9th trip north, and as always we’re looking [...]

Gear sales drive the outdoor industry, not small guide services or outdoor schools. Years ago outdoor gear manufacturers and retailers learned that they needed to create a desire to buy among people in order to make money. They advertised aggressively and convinced people that the outdoors could be a fun and rewarding place to recreate, [...]

Looking through some photos from the spring semester and am reminded of the day we went up to a nearby lake to work on paddling canoes and there was a game warden and a truck full of brook trout. They were filling up external tanks on several float planes with trout, then flying low over [...]

We finished up the fall, 2021 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester yesterday. Now Moose Vegas is empty and the moose have the run of the place again – there was a big cow on the road this morning. It was our 53rd long term program, and we had a student on the course who wasn’t alive when [...]

This year has been the most prolific for mushrooms that I recall in northern Maine. The local woods have been full of mushrooms since June, including these Amanitas I took a picture of the other day. I have eaten more boletes than any other year, as well as Suillis and other related genera. We also [...]

This last trip pushed us and our students physically. Low water meant lots of walking boats and portaging around obstacles we’d usually be able to float right over. Frustrations during trips like this one can get pretty high, but there always seems to be something to balance it out. Our first day leaving the headwaters [...]

Since the beginning we’ve enjoyed spending time on the trail with friends. We call these Full Tang Expeditions, and as a few of them have made their way on to our calendar I think it’s time they got a formal definition and description. A Full Tang Expedition is a minimally-guided trip for friends, colleagues and [...]

This morning we begin week four (of nine) on the Wilderness Bushcraft Semester. Thanks to a bunch of recent rain, the rivers are near spring high water levels and we’ve taking advantage of it. Last week we covered basic poling in moving water, and this afternoon we’ll be pushing the envelope with some class 1 [...]

Fall in northern Maine is the best time of year for camping, getting away from the crowds of summer and for catching big brook trout and landlocked salmon. Join Jack Mountain head fishing guide Paul Sveum for 3 days of advanced fly fishing classes on the banks of the West Branch of the Penobscot at [...]

This morning we begin the fall 2021 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester; our 53rd long-term wilderness immersion program. Yesterday people arrived from Florida, California, Montana, Maryland, and other places around the country to our little town in northern Maine. They got a quick tour of the field school and we cooked a group dinner over the fire. [...]

Summer is quickly coming to a close. I’ll be heading up to the Jack Mountain field school at the end of the week for the fall semester, and with that knowledge always comes the urge to get things done here in VT. Putting up wood for winter and whitewashing the house seems to be an [...]

It’s been a busy summer in northern Maine. We’ve run a bunch of courses, as well as gotten out into the North Maine Woods on several occasions to explore. One of my favorite things is to take out young men and introduce them to bushcraft and life in wild places. The photo above was taken [...]

We just added an Advanced Fly Fishing Course to the calendar, running September 24-26 near Big Eddy on the West Branch of the Penobscot River. Taught and guided by Paul Sveum, (Registered Master Maine Guide), the course is designed for those who have taken our Introduction To Fly Fishing Course, and picks up where that [...]

We’re into the thick of our summer programming, having finished up the spring semester and the Summer Woodsman course. Currently we’ve got four spots remaining for the fall 2021 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester. It’s going to be a great course this year, and I’m already looking forward to to the warm days and crisp nights of [...]

On our final trip of the spring 2021 WGTS we caught a lot of fish. Unfortunately, the vast majority of those fish were chub. Creek chubs are a large member of the minnow family and have a tendency to get under the skin of anglers targeting brook trout in a lot of New England streams, [...]

New for 2021, a 3-week introduction to bushcraft and canoe tripping, or the practical arts of life in the woods lived by hand, with no experience necessary or assumed. We’ll spend a week at the field school learning the skills of the forest and canoe, then spend two weeks canoeing the 99-mile Allagash Wilderness Waterway [...]

This is our 2000th post. Over the years I have found blogging, and more recently podcasting and video, to be a great way to communicate with our audience. It allows us to publish what we want when we want, without the gatekeepers that were the norm twenty years ago. Our initial blog was setup by [...]

Higher education is changing. Whether due to covid or other factors, traditional education is being disrupted. While 4-year college degrees are still the norm, alternative education routes are growing dramatically in popularity. A question we get regularly is how can students pay for our program. Enter the 529 college savings plan. A 529 plan is [...]

Today is halfway day on the spring semester; Four and a half weeks done, four and a half weeks to go. Life is returning to the land as the warmer days are filled with birdsong and the buzz of insects. The leaves are coming out, and we’ll have fresh fiddleheads to eat any day now [...]

Last year we had a single black morel mushroom growing in an old garden space near the Guide Shack. This year there are about 100 of them. I’m not sure what it is about this soil that they like so much, but I’m happy to have them.

This morning we’re starting week 2 of the 9-week Wilderness Guide Training Semester. This week we’ll continue with our deep dive into self-reliant living in the forest with more useful plants and campfire cooking skills. We’ll also be adding our first shelter of the course, where students will spend four consecutive nights before moving on [...]

We’re getting closer to the end of our first Friluftsliv Forest Program in southern Vermont. It’s been a great experience, and we’re already getting signups for this year’s session. This got me thinking about the differences between a long-term residential program like our nine-week guide training and bushcraft semesters at Jack Mountain and the once-a-month [...]

Yesterday we began our 51st long-term program, the Wilderness Guide Training Semester, and the first field school program of 2021. After a winter filled with Covid-related challenges, it’s feels fantastic to be back out on the land and working with people. We’ve got a long way to go and a lot of material and miles [...]

We’ve just added a 3-day introduction to fly fishing course at the field school May 28-30. It will be guided by Paul Sveum, Master Maine Guide. Tuition is $450. Details are here. Gear, Casting, Fishing, Fly Tying Participants will arrive Thursday evening and we’ll start Friday morning at 8. We’ll learn the art of casting [...]

Congratulations are in order for Paul Sveum, who recently upgraded his Maine Guide license to master. In order to do so he had to document 10 years or work guiding, with a minimum number of hours each year. Maine first licensed guides in 1897. In those early years, you had to have a game warden [...]

This episode features our first returning guest. Mike Clough from the Southern Vermont Natural History Museum is back to talk about the newest edition to the museum’s educational animals. There are now live Virginia Opposum’s at the museum, and they’re part of a pilot program for the state of Vermont, exploring the possibilities of museums [...]

As of yesterday both of our family bushcraft weeks this summer are full. It’s great to be able to provide an outdoor experience that families can take part in together, and due to the current pandemic we’re limiting the course to four families per week. If you’d like to sign up for the waiting list [...]

We live in a world that likes to chop things up into bite-size pieces and analyze each part in order to understand the bigger picture at play. This method of engaging with learning material works well for some but has one downfall that I find pretty severe. It’s easy to get bogged down in individual [...]

After struggling to keep up with a wide variety of different communication channels over the last few years, I’ve decided that it’s too much and have decided to simplify the channels I stay current with. Social media messages, email, texts, comments, messenger, whatsapp, etc. – it all adds up. These days every website seems to [...]

We had another signup for the inaugural family bushcraft week at the SOTF campus in southern Vermont. That brings the course registration to half its maximum, so if you’re interested in spending a family vacation learning outdoor skills, cooking over a campfire, and sleeping under the stars, register soon. We’ve cut the maximum number of [...]

The instructor-student relationship needs to be based on honesty and verifiable facts. If someone asks me a question as to whether I’ve eaten a certain plant, I can tell them yes or no, as well as what I thought about it. If someone asks me about the medicinal properties of a plant, the waters are [...]