Ocean Canoeing. Morning on Passamaquoddy Bay, nearing the end of the Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester.  

The boys have made it to the ocean! The Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester has made it to the salt water. Currently in Passamaquoddy Bay along the Maine/New Brunswick border. Two more days and they take out in Eastport, Maine.  

Organizing the barn this AM: canoe mold, deer hides, traps, snowshoe molds, tools, pack basket materials, knife blanks, etc. Been a while since its been neat and tidy.  

Wild Food Walk. Big turnout for our foraging walk with GALA at Knights Pond. Beautiful night, lots of wild food!  

Does the land have moods or reflect what is inside of us? I used to know the answer, now I'm back to not knowing.  

Starting the day with a swim in this beautiful water before anyone else is awake. Feel like the richest man in the world.  

Leaving camp on their way to the ocean via the Aroostook, St. john, Eel & St. Croix rivers.  

Using a scythe to cut the grass. Old school mower and weedwacker.

Chaleur Bay, Quebec. Rekindling my love for the ocean and kayaking this summer.  

Great photo by Nicolas Twine of the field school library under the Milky Way at night. Nicolas shot a bunch of great photos this past spring that I’ll be sharing.

Foraging for juneberries on the shore of the pond. Rose family, Amelanchier genus. Delicious!  

Sunset paddle in the kayak after a day of storms. Sublime. #friluftsliv #nh

Remote trips, especially solo, aren’t safe or even possible without solid canoe skills; poling, lining, and paddling. On the Bonaventure I poled the upper section, lined ledges, and as shown here, lined through the ’embacles’ (french for log jams). As this was just a short drop inline with the current, I didn’t bother to tie [...]

Just below a series of ledges on the Bonaventure. I should have ran this one on river right, but these are the things you learn during a first trip on a river and why I like to paddle them solo before doing them with clients.

After an overnight rain, the Bonaventure was misty. In the background is a class 2 ledge. The water level was perfect for the ledges and rapids – much lower and it would have been scratchy.

I continued on to Bonaventure, Quebec. Solo river trip, headed off the grid in the AM. Atlantic sunset.  

Dropped the boys at the International Appalachian Trail in Matapedia, Quebec. They're hiking back to Maine. #woodslife #iat  

On to the International Appalachian Trail in New Brunswick.  

Empty parking lot. 35th immersion program completed. On to the Gaspe tomorrow to canoe the Bonaventure river.  

The Bowman PackBack: 2 pack baskets on a pack frame. Bottom basket is for a sleeping bag. Will be on the IAT in New Brunswick next week.  

One last trip for the semester; running the Big Machias river. Water is way up, should be great whitewater.  

Smoking a newly-made pair of braintanned buckskin shorts at the Bob Waggetorium.  

Brown ash pack baskets: starting to weave.  

Pounding brown ash into strips, making pack baskets. End of week 8, 1 week to go.  

Moose bone arrowheads made as part of a final project. Wicked shaahp!  

New knife. Blade from an old file, stacked birch wood and bark handle, made outside with simple tools.  

Becoming a canoe pole. Peeled spruce ready to be fitted with copper pipe shoe to become a canoe pole.  

Stretching a hide in a frame. Racing the incoming storms. Lots of cool final projects going on.  

Been out putting up trail signs- our 3 mile field school trail system is now color coded.  

Making wooden wedges to split a tree the long way for canoe paddle blanks.  

Braintanning: scaping hides and feeding the black flies.  

Using a fir bough as a brush to varnish a canoe paddle. Use what you've got.  

Rock boiling in birch baskets by the river.  

Problem with red squirrel getting into bulk food solved.  

Rocket stove morning: reducing maple sap into syrup and creating a gumbo from scratch. Struggle to survive out here.

First day on the water, poling practice. Just one swimmer, great day.  

Damp weather after after a long stretch of dry.

Primitive luxury.

New garden bed in anticipation of spring. 77 frost-free days a year here at the field school, USDA zone 3b.

Taking bearings for a trail to add to the field school trail system. South Boundary Trail: SOB.  

Using a draw knife to rough out a canoe paddle on a clear Tuesday morning.  

Monday morning friction fire, tinder bundle workshop.  

Learning the way of the axe while gathering firewood to cook with.  

Long but great first day, ready for sleep before 7pm. Glad I have my JB pillow case for a great night's sleep.  

Big pan of breakfast on a big rocket stove. First morning of the semester.  

Back to snow in the county. Semester 35 starts tomorrow.  

Barehand fishing: no hook, no net, no spear.  

Busy morning in the woods, but this calm water caught my eye.  

Open water, getting that canoeing itch!  

We lost one of the greats today. RIP Steve Watts. A true gentleman.  

Ice is out on the pond. Earliest I ever remember having open water.  

Tapping trees and boiling sap into maple syrup with a bunch of kids. Bucket with lid in the foreground.  

Home. Morning coffee with kids and dog. There's no greater comfort than coming home to family.  

End of the trip, back to the world. Farewell winter! #bushcraft #woodslife #guidetraining  

Old man winter on the ice. Last full day of 4 weeks in the woods this winter, coldest day yet.  

Bitter cold and windy, need the chisel to open the water hole. #guidetraining #woodslife #bushcraft  

Sleet is over, now getting ready for the deep freeze and cooking supper. #woodslife #guidetraining #bushcraft  

Tentbound. This is our view as we listen to the sleet and rain fall. Glad to have a big pile of firewood.  

Setting up a hot-tent camp alongside of a lonely, frozen lake. #guidetraining #bushcraft  

On the trail hand-hauling toboggans on a beautiful Boreal Snowshoe Expedition day. #guidetraining #bushcraft  

Tracking a fisher on the Boreal Snowshoe Expedition. Size, toes and C-shaped palm pad are keys.  

Breakfast of oats and coffee in the woods. #winter #guidetraining #bushcraft  

Loading sleds and jumping off on the Boreal Snowshoe Expedition, session 2.  

Next to an open lead on the Aroostook River, checking the ice with a chisel.  

Making improvised snowshoes at a remote camp.  

Assembling a toboggan for next week's trip with Derek Faria and Paul Sveum. Great company in the workshop!  

Up early to surprise my family with a loaf of dutch oven sourdough bread. Out of the oven while kids were waking up.  

60 degree F temperature swing in 30 hours. -15 yesterday morning, 45 and rainy now. Glad I'm not on the trail today.  

Group shelter built last week. A warm home in the frozen forest.  

Frozen 48 over, celebrating with dutch oven doughnuts. They're as good as they look!  

Checking the pipe on a permanent wall tent.  

Three-strake toboggan in its native habitat.  

Snow all day, rain tonight, but we're warm and dry. Challenging conditions for travel, so we'll base camp until the weather changes.

Cozy camp next to a frozen lake. Great trip so far. Smiles all around.  

Part of our fleet of homemade toboggans and sleds. Loading up and hitting the trail.  

Pre-contact routes of travel in New Brunswick and northern Maine. Our field school is near the "A" in the word "Maliseets". This map, combined with the map in the book "Indian Canoe Routes Of Maine" gives a rough idea of the many canoe/snowshoe routes through the region. More on the old trails of New Brunswick [...]

Old photo of my youngest and another use for a pack basket. The kid is six years older now and that basket has been retired.  

Lucky dog posing in front of the Jack Mountain Expedition Tent. The more I use this tent, the more I like it.  

Honing a knife on a ceramic coffee cup. Coffee + sharpening on a Sunday morning.  

A roaring fire chasing away the chill.  

Enjoying the warmth of the expedition tent and stove at the end of a long day.  

Delicious 'shore lunch' cooked by Derek Faria today. Open fire food just tastes better.  

Doughnuts draining on a bed of fir boughs.  

Walking at sunset, spied the clouds reflecting on the ice.  

Shave horse workshop a big success. Six finished horses and a few cheap laughs.  

Grave of a Revolutionary War soldier, deep in the woods and a mile from any road, and every veterans day someone puts a flag on it. #respect  

Review of our campfire cooking class by Anne from Mom Can You Make, a NH food blog: GALA Campfire Cooking Workshop | On November 4th, my good friend Rosalie and I went to a campfire cooking workshop put on by GALA. Have any of my NH friends heard of GALA? Well they are just an [...]

Aroostook twilight at the field school.  

Plotting a course on the map with a Sher-Wood straight edge.  

Best part about going away is coming home to family. Mine makes me feel like the richest man in the world.  

What if you don't have an ice chisel? Cutting a water hole in the ice with an axe.  

Checking the ice with a chisel. The water here is only 2 feet deep, but ice safety is no joke.  

Building a runnered sled for around camp, old skis for runners.  

Successful night in front of a fire with no sleeping bag.  

Simple snowshoe binding. Walked 2000+ miles with these.  

Shelter/sauna with raised bough beds on the Winter Woodsman course.  

Hauling firewood on the money sled.  

Coffee and doughnuts on the fire this morning, winter woodsman course.  

Hiking the trails at the field school.  

Aroostook river at the field school.  

Braintan workshop day 2: 6 hides scraped and dressed, 3 fleshed and salted, pulling all afternoon, 3 tired guys.  

Braintanning this AM: fleshing a deer hide in the rain.  

Boys, dog and I hiked to the bridge and had hot chocolate to celebrate black Friday.  

Dutch oven turkey on the bottom, apple cake on top, and lot's to be thankful for.  

Saw my friend who butchers deer today, left with 9 hides. Braintan class this weekend, plus a few for me.  

Gloomy day, stunning sunset over Rust Pond.  

First look at the new Jack Mountain Expedition tent made by Tentsmiths. Details coming soon.  

White pine burl at The Woodsman School. Stopped into see Derek Faria and spent a rainy afternoon in front of a fire.  

Mist on lake Winni this morning, water like glass.  

Rust Pond, named after Henry Rust. Here's the cellar hole of his house built in 1773.  

Son and I taking advantage of warm fall weather. This view became the Jack Mountain logo.  

Calm before the storm; cooked for 22 people tonight at the campfire cooking workshop. Good times and good food.  

Sublime twilight on Rust Pond. Still water reflects blue sky, makes me reflective too.  

Long-term bushcraft program number 32 successfully completed. Home with family in NH.  

Full house on the cook stove. Cook shack is a luxury during cold weather.  

Brown ash basketry in camp today. Some pack baskets, some smaller baskets. #poundedash  

1st aid/CPR in camp this AM. It's a requirement to become a registered Maine guide.  

Pounding brown ash for basket splints. Lots of 'pounding ash' jokes flying around camp right now.  

Splitting a brown ash log with wooden wedges, to be pounded into pack basket splints.  

Felling a large brown ash for pack basket splints.  

Putting wood in the stove. Cook shack at the JMB field school.  

Atlatl practice. The original big game hunting tool.  

Jack Mountain Bushcraft School instructor and Maine Guide Paul Sveum poling his 18' EM White wood canvas boat on a lower West Branch of the Penobscot deadwater at twilight.  

From our recent trip to Baxter and Debsconeag. Later afternoon sun with Mount Katahdin in the background. And the work horse of our canoe fleet, the 18' Prospector from Nova Craft Canoe. After beating up on them for 14 years, I can say with some authority it's simply an awesome boat.  

Moose season. Scraping moose hides in the rain at 7AM.  

Softening braintanned deer hides in camp today.  

After a week on the trail we're starting the braintanning process today. End of week 5 of the WBS, time is flying by.  

Spring water bubbling up under a big spruce tree. Cold and pure.  

Crystal clear waters of Rust Pond. I never want to live where the water isn't amazing. Spoiled.  

Congratulations to the newest Registered Maine Guide, Benjamin Spencer!

Firing up the smoker this afternoon. Big fancy dinner tonight.  

Custom made Guide Canteen for Fil Salonek's Allagash-AT expedition. Alumni services, trail support.  

Hand drill fire lighting. Old School.  

9-11. Listenened to The radio news this AM. They were reading names, they read 5, including the guy I knew who was on the plane on 9/11/01.

Took a ride to check out a new course location. Quoddy Head lighthouse, easternmost point in the USA.  

Solos are over. Welcoming everyone back to camp with a dutch oven triple stack. 17", 16" and 14" deep.  

Low-tech gravity fed solar water heater. Elevated barrel and coil of black pipe. Used for washing dishes and people.  

Shaving a canoe paddle blade down with a draw knife. Finishing paddles today, headed out paddling tomorrow.  

Primitive rope making with hand spinners this morning. Low-tech and it just works.  

Bushcraft Tool Kit.  

Newly made crooked knife starting work on a canoe paddle.  

Flatwater poling today. Traditional skills and gear make you more resilient on the water.  

Bending crooked knife blades in camp today. Photo by Paul Sveum.  

New addition to the field school: weight lifting/pull-up station. Made from lumber.  

Dutch oven lunch, then canoe poling class on a perfect August day.

Week 1, Wilderness Bushcraft Semester, everyone makes their own rope.  

Paul harvesting overhead cherries using a Blickey Stick. There's a mountain of ripe wild food around here right now.  

Using axes in the woods. Wilderness Bushcraft Semester, fall 2015, day 2.  

Maine Wilderness Guides Organization life member certificate finally arrived. Its official.  

Talking axes on day 1 of our 32nd long term program. Great start to the course. Photo by Paul Sveum.  

Paddling in the North Maine Woods. This is what freedom looks like.  

Moose and calf on the Allagash. Summer is just about over. Our 32nd immersion course starts this weekend.  

Lining Long Lake dam wearing really short shorts.  

Best view in NH? On Rattlesnake Island on lake Winnepesaukee with an old friend. Perfect evening.  

Watching and listening to a thunderstorm approach. A grand spectacle. Thunder rumbling from horizon to horizon.  

Paddling at the headwaters of the Aroostook. From this spring.  

Little Allagash Falls. Allagash stream below the falls has a few rapids and several ledge drops, and we ran them all.  

After the Ice Caves, enjoying the current in the pools above the larger drop at Little Allagash Falls. This is roughly halfway between Allagash Lake and Chamberlain Lake.  

Exploring the Ice Caves at Allagash Lake on our recent trip. A few of the guys got 100 yards in. These are pretty remote, no roads anywhere near them, but one one of the old canoe routes.  

Just upstream of Stair Falls on the upper East Branch of the Penobscot. Over the three miles downstream from here the river drops over four named falls and a series of rapids. The mountain scenery on this trip is the best in Maine.  

Gravel Beach on Chamberlain Lake, Allagash Wilderness Waterway. We spent a day windbound here on our recent trip.  

Allagash Falls – boyband album cover, 2 of 2. Displaying their more playful side.  

Allagash Falls – boyband album cover photo. This is 1 of 2 and shows their sensitive side.  

Congratulatins to Maine's newest registered guide, Thomas Letchworth!  

Chamberlain Lake Cairns. Someone had built these two cairns on the shore of Chamberlain lake, and I got in touch with my inner artist at sundown for this shot. I thought it looked interesting.  

Just before sunrise on Webster Lake on our second trip of the Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester. A stunning corner of Baxter State Park.  

Hardest part of any long-term program is saying goodbye at the end. You become family. It's the worst for me. #team

Back from the river. EPIC trip. Hate whats coming next. Allready miss these guys.  

Going off the grid and on the river. Be back in four weeks.  

My friend Charlie's motorcycle with moose antlers mounted. Welcome to Ashland, Maine.  

Meal and trip planning for 4 week canoe expedition tonight. Packing tomorrow, put in on Tuesday. Great group, going to be an awesome trip.

Lakeside foraging on ripe juneberries (Amelanchier genus). It doesn't get much better than this.  

Stunning pack basket I was given on Sunday. Thanks to Derek Faria of The Woodsman School. You're a true class act.  

Motorcycle with axe and pack basket lashed on, headed south from the field school.  

Spending the day with family in the Ossipee mountains. Great views of the NH lakes region. At Castle In The Clouds  

Great fly fishing class tonight. Thanks to Sumner Brook Fish Farm for hosting. Tight loops!  

New wannigan. Instead of just varnish, this one is first getting fiberglass cloth and West System epoxy. Super strong  

This afternoon's fly fishing workshop is full. If the lightning is bad, we'll reschedule. If its just rain, its on.  

Just watched this guy swim across the pond. Don't know the species, but a great swimmer!  

Rainy day, but first one in ten weeks I'm not running a course. Getting excited about the canoe expedition.  

Finishing a pack basket. One of many projects being completed this afternoon, the last one on the Woodsman course.  

Making a burn bowl by the campfire. Super-productive week on the Woodsman course.  

Fire by friction with a bow drill. One of the technologies that got us where we are as a species.  

15 minutes later, some dirt and a piece of angle iron cut in half, and the new rocket stove is cooking lunch.  

Making a new rocket stove for our outdoor kitchen. Metal can, stove pipe, hammer and cold chisel.  

Making rope with hand spinners. Back to the basics.  

Building saw frames and getting ready for the rain, JMBS Woodsman Course.  

Woodsman course, tents in the field. Off to a busy start with the four axe majors and carving bow drills.  

Primitive tool kit as final project. Stick a fork in our 30th long-term immersion program, it's done.  

Crossbow as a final project. Wilderness Bushcraft Semester # 30, nine weeks almost over.  

Two epic days canoeing the Big Machias river and Pratt Stream. Big water & tons of wildlife.  

Pulling braintan buckskin on a cable. This is where the magic transformation happens: from slimy hide to buckskin.  

Beginning the braintanning process today: fleshing and scraping deer hides. Will eventually become mukluks.  

Full rain buckets, 2nd day of rain. Always amazed at the human response to weather. Can quickly crush group morale.  

Pouring rain and 49 degrees. June in northern Maine.  

Out enjoying the 2.3 miles of new trails at the field school. Aroostook river on the left.  

Finishing a pack basket. Wilderness Bushcraft Semester week 7 is full of big craft projects