After 20 years we’re changing the format of the Boreal Snowshoe Expedition to a combination advanced winter skills course and a weeklong expedition, and finishing with the frozen 24 winter survival challenge. We’ll still be out on the land the entire time, but we will be base camped for the first week working on specific [...]

We started an online network this past summer. Officially it’s BushcraftSchool.com, The Jack Mountain Bushcraft School Online Network And Digital Learning Academy. It’s sort of like a private facebook group, but without someone tracking everything you do, spamming you with ads, and without the angry political divisiveness that has come to signify social media. I’ll [...]

This weekend is the Snowwalkers Rendezvous in Fairlee VT, an event put on by the Northen Wilderness Travelers Conferences. I’ve spent the last week getting ready.  I’ll be presenting on open fire cooking, as well as running a workshop on burn spoon carving. There’s a lot of great presentations and workshops on the schedule for [...]

I’ve been busy with family stuff since returning home from the field school. Nothing bad, but it takes me a bit of time to get caught up. Now I’m caught up and am finally getting back into the office. I’ve got a lot of updates and announcements coming, including an update to the Boreal Snowshoe [...]

Long-term program number 48 is finished, as is an autumn poling trip on the St. Croix river. After a long time away, I’m home with all that it means. Family, dog, wifi, hot showers, an indoor kitchen, etc. Part of living without these things for much of the year is the incredible appreciation I have [...]

We’ve got a lot of talent coming to the Brushfire Rendezvous next weekend. I’ve put together a tentative schedule, but everything can change depending on peoples’ interests and the skills people bring to share. There are still a few spots available, so if you haven’t registered, there’s still time. We’re finishing week 9 of our [...]

This post was originally posted on the JMB Blog on October 14, 2009. It has been edited and updated, and is more true now than it was then. By the time you graduate from high school you’ve spent twelve years being indoctrinated into the ways of our culture. You know a bit of trivia about [...]

It’s week three of the semester, and students have started their first big project; making canoe paddles. This project is usually the first big test of patience for students during the semester. Up till now, they’ve built up a sense of working wood with small projects like netting needles, carving bowdrill sets, etc. Those are [...]

We’ve been back in camp for a little over a week now for the fall semester. Since I’ve been here, and gotten settled in I’ve watched the wildlife on the property settle right in with us. Living with the land isn’t just about what we take and use from it, it’s also about getting to [...]

During the Wilderness Bushcraft Semester students document their journey into the world of learning to live close to the land. There are a variety of workbooks they create, as well as a daily logbook of the experience. All of this is kept in a google docs folder, and their progress is marked by a checklist. [...]

It’s that time of year in northern Maine where the bushes are loaded with ripe fruit. Wherever you look there are cherries, berries and apples weighing down the branches on which they grow. For the next six weeks, the season of bounty in the county, we’ll be feasting on wild foods, learning about them as [...]

I’ve worked hard for and waited a long time to be about to say this. We’re all set up with the University of Maine at Presque Isle. Credits for courses, financial aid & more. Read more on the UMPI website or on the Jack Mountain website.

  On a recent overnight on trail for the 2019 “Riverman” program, I got to thinking about how great food always tastes in the bush, and mentally waxing philosophical about why that is. There are obvious factors, like working physically hard all day and building up and appetite, or that it’s just a pavlovian effect [...]

Life at the field school is a chance to see what living with low infrastructure looks like in practice. This provides students with an opportunity to get insight into our systems and how, when they’re managed well, life is pretty easy. However, those systems require careful management in order to function properly. The property is [...]

I’m happy to announce that we’ve just awarded three new Journeyman Certifications. Congratulations to Anthony Damiano, Max Lawrence and Jeremy Marcotte. It requires a mountain of work, dedication and documentation to achieve the Journeyman Certification. Each of these men have done the work. You have earned our respect and the certification that goes along with [...]

I’ve been adding information to the Brushfire Rendezous page. Coming in October (10/11-10/13), Brushfire is a 3-day rendezvous celebrating a life close to the land in northern Maine. Not an instructional course, it will be more of gathering of like minds and shared interests. I’ve changed the pricing structure to $45 for the 3 days [...]

While we were out on our final trip of the spring semester the Jack Mountain Bushcraft Podcast passed a big milestone; 100,000 downloads. I’m not one to study the statistics or demographics and stress over getting more listeners. I never have been. But I’m excited that so many people are interested in what we’re doing. [...]

In order to work with our new tablet-based digital assessment system, we’re adding a tablet that can run Google Docs (or a similar phone with an external keyboard) to the gear list for our long-term programs. We’re also adding a personal battery that can be charged via usb to keep your device charged. While we [...]

We just finished the spring 2019 semester, and it’s good to be back home for a spell before we jump into the summer programming at Jack Mountain and School Of The Forest. The semester was a challenging one for students. Spring in northern Maine is a tough time to be on the land. It’s cold [...]

It’s been a busy nine weeks, but now the parking lot is empty and the field school is quiet. Our 47th long-term program and the first half of our 21st year are complete. A few thoughts about the semester: The new digital assessment system worked amazingly well. Based in Google Docs, students were able to [...]

As of today the Riverman course in July is full. We still have a few spots left for the summer woodsman and fall Wilderness Bushcraft Semester course, but they won’t last long. Our big news is that we will no longer be running folk school programs at our location in New Hampshire as we’re selling [...]

I went to pick up the new outhouse for the riverside camp yesterday afternoon. On the way back, I saw a beaver sitting next to a ditch on the side of the road. We stopped and it walked into the water, then swam away into the woods up the stream. One of the guys spotted [...]

Poling a canoe is a difficult thing to learn. It’s even more difficult to teach. We have a series of exercises and situations we run people through, but it takes some time before the lessons sink in and people start to get it. When it finally happens, the “a-ha” moment is visible. They stop fighting [...]

Peter Frost was a 2004 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester student at the Jack Mountain Bushcraft School. This amazing story really happened and illustrates the usefulness of getting out every day, if only for a little while. Tracking A Fisher This morning we were very fortunate. The conditions were ideal for tracking. Early last night, an inch [...]

We’re nearing the end of week 3 of the spring Wilderness Bushcraft Semester, and today we were out on the river with a cold north wind and driving rain challenging every paddle stroke as the group was learning to canoe. It took a lot out of us. This evening I made a dutch oven dinner [...]

I’m writing this on Sunday morning, May 5th, in the Guide Shack. It’s a clear blue sky outside and batteries of our off-grid solar power system were fully charged at 8 am. We’re one week into the spring Wilderness Bushcraft Semester course, and spring is just starting to get some momentum. The birdsong is loud [...]

If you listen to our podcast, read our blog, or spent any time with us at the field school, you’ve heard us talk about learning outdoor skills in context. I’ve been bouncing this idea around in my head a lot over the past months while running short programs for museums, schools and science centers. As [...]

You haven’t been hearing from us much lately. Now, with the spring Wilderness Bushcraft Semester just over a week away, I’ll explain why. I’ve been busy migrating our student workbooks and our assessment system from paper to digital. This means that starting this spring, students on the Wilderness Bushcraft Semester can document everything from their [...]

Recently I saw an advertisement for new rain gear from a large outdoor gear company. They chose to market this with the phrase “rain? what rain?” Seems straightforward enough, but it got me thinking about a certain trend in the outdoor industry. The idea is that the outdoors is a place where you go for [...]

We recommend people bring a watch when they attend field school programs. It’s a necessary piece of kit for a working guide and ensures you know what time it is so you can be on time. Get a watch with a barometer, which is a common feature among modern outdoor watches. This will help you [...]

We’re excited to announce the official partnership between the Jack Mountain Bushcraft School and the University of Maine at Presque Isle (UMPI). After a lot of legwork, we’re partnering up to offer direct credit for UMPI students, and to offer transfer credits to students from other universities. The paperwork has been signed, the approval agency [...]

Last week School Of The Forest partnered with the New Hampton School for their yearly “Project week”. New Hampton students pitch a lot of different potential ideas for the week, and then participate in whichever is selected. I had a great time running this program, and because New Hampton is a boarding school, getting to [...]

I just returned from a fantastic week on the land with my Cree friends David and Anna Bosum. I mention them by name, but there were many other people who worked and visited with us during the week. It’s such a unique experience, to be welcomed into their culture and learn about their life in [...]

After three cold and snowy weeks in the woods at and near the field school in northern Maine, I’ve got a few days with my family and to dry out my kit before heading north to Ouje-Bougoumou, Quebec for a week on the land with my friends David and Anna Bosum. We had a great [...]

In the first week of March School Of The Forest will be teaming up with the staff of New Hampton School in New Hampshire to teach a group of students outdoor living skills. The skills and topics covered were selected by the students, and it’s been really fun to see what catches their attention and [...]

If you’ve been looking for Bushcraft and outdoor programs for youth, you’ve probably seen the term “immersion” thrown around here and there. While it’s great to see more young people spending long periods of time in the outdoors, a lot of these programs don’t truly meet the standard we think of as an “immersion”. ” they [...]

I’m headed out for our winter term, which means 3 weeks in the woods for our Winter Woodsman course and the Boreal Snowshoe Expedition. Then I’ve got just a few days before leaving for northern Quebec to spend a week on the land with my old friends David and Anna Bosum. February is my favorite [...]

Although we’ll be adding to it (because no website is ever done, they’re always in process), we’ve got the skeleton of the 2019-2020 Yearlong Immersion Program (YIP) on the web. We’ve got a lot of details to add, but the dates, tuition and general idea for the program is on the YIP page. In a [...]

Having business liability insurance is one thing that sets the professionals apart from the hobbyists. Nowhere is this more true than in the bushcraft/survival/outdoor space. If you’re charging money for your programs or trips, you should carry a business liability policy. We get a lot of questions regarding where to find affordable insurance for bushcraft [...]