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 […]
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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 […]
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We started week 3 with a late season cold snap and dusting of snow. We spent the morning working on bow drills and shetlers, and I saw a beaver making a dam along the road to Moose Vegas. This can be problematic as it can wash out the road. I plan to keep an eye […]
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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...
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...
Track 1: Professional Development through the Journeyman Certification Track 2: Student Defined Inquiry (SDI), an independent research study on topic chosen by the student The Wilderness Bushcraft Semester is not a show and tell type of program where information is presented and students passively scribble about it in a notebook. The course is long in […] Continue Reading...
We don’t have any ticks at our field school in northern Maine. Traditionally, we’ve been quite a bit north of the tick line, below which they live. However, a few hours south the Maine coast is overrun with ticks. The bad news is that they are slowly moving north. The good news is that our […] Continue Reading...
New Course: Advanced Whitewater Canoe Poling & Paddling This year we’re offering something new; a dedicated whitewater canoe poling and paddling class. The second week in June is usually our week to canoe the Bonaventure river in Quebec, but neither we or anyone else wants to be crossing the border right now. So we’re pivoting […] Continue Reading...
In 2026 we are making a big push to simplify what we teach into a consistent, coherent curriculum. In the past, we’ve offered our Wilderness Bushcraft Semester, then had short segments of the curriculum as seperate, stand-alone courses. This year, we’re streamlining the curriculum, but opening up the course to allow people to join us […] Continue Reading...
An Ongoing Research Project And The State Of The Archives In 2026. In 1996 I first met Mors Kochanski when I took a course at his place in Alberta. As anyone who knew him will attest, he was a lover of books and a voracious reader. During the course I asked him if he were […] Continue Reading...
A few years ago we ran the backend of our courses in Google Classroom and used Google Docs for all of our documentation. Over the past year we’ve moved away from Google Classroom and now use Mighty Networks (the software behind our private online community at BushcraftSchool.com) to manage the courses, and this winter I’m […] 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...
Recorded on Saturday, September 14. Oz and Rick are in camp preparing to run the solo expedition canoe course and we decided to record our morning coffee discussion. Current events, all about the solo expedition canoe course, Rick’s survival courses in New Hampshire, Oz’s trip to Michigan’s UP, and a bit about the reworking of […] Continue Reading...
We started week 3 with a late season cold snap and dusting of snow. We spent the morning working on bow drills and shetlers, and I saw a beaver making a dam along the road to Moose Vegas. This can be problematic as it can wash out the road. I plan to keep an eye […] Continue Reading...
Melting snow and day after day of rain make for challenging fire lighting conditions, and that’s what we’re in the middle of now in Aroostook county, Maine. Everything is soaked. If you can light a one-match fire under these conditions, you know how to do something useful and valueable. Today we’re working on just that; […] Continue Reading...
We make our own ropes on every long course because, as an old book I have states, “The world of primitive man was tied together with bits of string.” To make things, especially things made from wood, if you eliminate metal fasteners from the picture, lashing and tying things together is the field-expedient option. These […] Continue Reading...
Winter is hanging on in the county, which makes getting around a little more difficult (melting snow is hard to walk on) but it sure is pretty. #FullTangLifestyle... Continue Reading...
A quick check-in on day 1 of the spring, 2026 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester. The woods are still blanketed with deep snow and the weather is more winter than spring. It feels good to be getting after it, but we’ve got a long way to go. #FullTangLifestyle... Continue Reading...
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