This is the second morning in a row waking up to full sun. It’s been a cold, wet spring so far, and while it was below freezing this morning, once the sun came up the thermometer rose to the soft water zone. From Moonshine Hill I can see Mars Hill, which sits right along the […]
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It’s been a while. This short episode is an announcement that we’re rebooting our podcast. #FullTangLifestyle Photo: Boots. As this is our reboot episode. Show Notes: JMB Podcast Episode 136 Kid-Friendly? There is no profanity in this episode. Links: BushcraftSchool.com Jack Mountain Bushcraft School Calendar Play, download or subscribe on the following services, as […]
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We went out this morning planning on poling down a local stream, but ended up staying near the putin and working on canoe skills. Maybe tomorrow we’ll pole down the river. We paddled up and found a beaver lodge and a bunch of active beaver feeding sign. It was a solid day, maybe tomorrow for […]
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– Ago Puteus Foris –
We’re a bushcraft, guide training and wilderness expedition school and traditional Maine Guide service founded in 1999. We help people become more skilled, more knowledgeable, more experienced and more confident by using traditional wilderness skills, a few simple tools and field-based experience. This is our media hub. For information on our programs, go to JackMtn.com, and check out our Calendar to see all upcoming programs.
Sometimes you get to a campsite on a remote river and the firewood has been picked over. Especially if it has been used for a while. But there is almost always firewood on the other side of the river. In this (grainy) photo, I’m transporting a canoe full of firewood for the night’s cook fire […] Continue Reading...
From the spring. We went up to our local lake for some paddling and Maine IFW was stocking remote trout ponds by float plane. They would load the young trout from a stock truck into the floats of the plane, then it would fly off and dump them in the ponds. Since I was a […] Continue Reading...
My wood canvas canoe, rigged up and ready for the carry around Allagash Falls. Notice this canoe has a center thwart, not a carved yoke. Notice how the paddles are tied to the thwarts so that when it is carried, the weight of the boat is distributed by the paddle blades onto the shoulders as […] Continue Reading...
This is the second morning in a row waking up to full sun. It’s been a cold, wet spring so far, and while it was below freezing this morning, once the sun came up the thermometer rose to the soft water zone. From Moonshine Hill I can see Mars Hill, which sits right along the […] Continue Reading...
I made some sourdough bread in a frying pan the other day when I had some company (friends who were coming up to the county to canoe). I had a piece leftover, about 8” by 8” and two inches thick. After it sat out for a few days I grabbed it on my way out […] Continue Reading...
May 7th, 2026. Today is my personal holiday, for the story, see below. Yesterday was Wednesday, May 6th, and two things of consequence happened: it marked halfway day on the current semester, and the last bits of snow in the Masardis Glacier, the big pile of snow in the open that is always the last […] Continue Reading...
It’s week five of the spring Wilderness Bushcraft Semester and yesterday, May 4th, we put canoes on the water for the first time. In early spring the water and the air are cold. This, combined with learning to pole canoes, is often a recipe for people taking unplanned swims. So during years where the cold […] Continue Reading...
Navigation is becoming a lost art. I don’t mean that people can’t find their way around – but the art and science of doing it without a cell phone and gps or map app is becoming a rarity. Rarer still is the ability to navigate from sun, the stars, and those things in the natural […] Continue Reading...
The Changing Of The Seasons We’ve had some challenging weather lately but this past weekend feels like we turned the corner into spring. Today looks to be another sunny, warm day in Aroostook county, and I’m grateful for it. Today begins week four of the spring, 2026 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester. This morning we’ll start on […] Continue Reading...
We’re in the middle of week 3 of the spring, 2026 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester and I’m always amazed at the relativity of how we experience time. We’ve all engaged in things that didn’t excite us, during which time seemed to crawl by. I can recall being a kid in school, watching the second and minute […] Continue Reading...
Last week we kicked off our 27th year with the start of long term program number 68; the spring 2026 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester at the field school. We’re approaching spring this week, but early April is still winter in Aroostook county, Maine. For week one we had torrential downpours, snow flurries, several nights with temperatures […] Continue Reading...
It’s been a while. This short episode is an announcement that we’re rebooting our podcast. #FullTangLifestyle Photo: Boots. As this is our reboot episode. Show Notes: JMB Podcast Episode 136 Kid-Friendly? There is no profanity in this episode. Links: BushcraftSchool.com Jack Mountain Bushcraft School Calendar Play, download or subscribe on the following services, as […] Continue Reading...
Paul Sveum and I got together in our new digital studio (actually a piece of software) to talk about fly fishing opportunities for the upcoming 2025 season. We had a long list of topics to discuss and only got to a few of them. Hence the part 1 in the title. We’ll be recording another […] Continue Reading...
Recorded on December 23, 2024. Rick, Oz and I got together via the internet to discuss the Maine Guide Medic wilderness first responder course that took place in November, 2024. We go over what worked well, what will be improved for next year, and some interesting things we learned. For me, the Stop The Bleed […] Continue Reading...
Recorded on November 14. Sam Summers and discuss the Women’s Bushcraft & Canoe 3-Week Immersion, coming in 2025. We also discuss her experience on the 2024 Expedition Instructor program. #FullTangLifestyle Photo: Sam paddling with her dog. Show Notes: JMB Podcast Episode 133 Kid-Friendly? There is no profanity in this episode. Links: Women’s Bushcraft & Canoe […] Continue Reading...
Recorded on Saturday, September 21. Oz and Rick are back from the solo expedition canoe course. We discuss how it went, what worked, what didn’t, what the plan is for next time. If you’re interested, the solo canoe expedition course is on the calendar for next summer. #FullTangLifestyle Photo: Lake reflecting the sky. Show Notes: […] Continue Reading...
We went out this morning planning on poling down a local stream, but ended up staying near the putin and working on canoe skills. Maybe tomorrow we’ll pole down the river. We paddled up and found a beaver lodge and a bunch of active beaver feeding sign. It was a solid day, maybe tomorrow for […] Continue Reading...
After a few wind, rain and cold delays, we finally made it out onto Scopan lake, the largest body of water in the entire greater Masardis metropolitan region. With newly carved and sealed paddles, our crew started learning the ins and outs of navigating large bodies of water by canoe. We start with a few […] Continue Reading...
When people think of wilderness canoeing they think of the excitement of exploration, interacting with the land on a meaningful level, and adventuring beyond the realm of day to day life. They don’t think about something as mundane as tying canoes safely onto a trailer or vehicle to transport them. But this is a foundational […] Continue Reading...
Our first day in canoes on the spring semester. Monday, May 4th. We worked on canoe lifts and carries, balance drills and basic poling. It was a great day and no one swam! #FullTangLifestyle... Continue Reading...
Tuesday of week four and we’re beginning the culminating exercise in our navigation curriculum; making a map. Students will be using a compass to take bearings and back bearings between marked points, pacing off distances, then using that information to create a map of the area. #FullTangLifestyle... Continue Reading...
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