We wrapped up the spring semester a week ago, and started the Advanced Whitewater Canoe Course strongly with a great day on a local rapid and lake going over skills and maneuvers with both pole and paddle. On Tuesday we headed into the woods, to camp at Churchill Dam on the Allagash. After setting up […]
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Time flies during the Wilderness Bushcraft Semester, and here we are at the end of semester number 68. Oz and I gathered around the old microphone to discuss the JMBS Digital Archives Project, the challenges of the spring semester (this semester in particular), how we’re running 3 semester courses this year, and a few other […]
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On our recent trip, getting ready to go in the morning I found time for a short update. High water and cool temperatures, it was beautiful. #FullTangLifestyle #AroostookCounty […]
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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 wrapped up the spring semester a week ago, and started the Advanced Whitewater Canoe Course strongly with a great day on a local rapid and lake going over skills and maneuvers with both pole and paddle. On Tuesday we headed into the woods, to camp at Churchill Dam on the Allagash. After setting up […] Continue Reading...
The spring, 2026 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester, our 68th long-term program, is complete. Yesterday we gathered together for a send-off dinner, shook hands and said I’ll see you when I see you. I never grow tired of watching people of different ages, from different walks of life, from different places coming together and forming into a […] Continue Reading...
We finished week 8 of our spring semester and have one week to go. The final week is when students go out for the solo experience, putting the things they have learned into use and reflecting on the entire semester. It is the culminating experience that bookends the entire semester. Maine spring weather has been […] 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...
Time flies during the Wilderness Bushcraft Semester, and here we are at the end of semester number 68. Oz and I gathered around the old microphone to discuss the JMBS Digital Archives Project, the challenges of the spring semester (this semester in particular), how we’re running 3 semester courses this year, and a few other […] 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...
On our recent trip, getting ready to go in the morning I found time for a short update. High water and cool temperatures, it was beautiful. #FullTangLifestyle #AroostookCounty... Continue Reading...
On a trip upriver and we ran into a bunch of prime fiddleheads. These are the young shoots of the ostrich fern, and are a much sought after edible plant of spring. We ate well on this trip. #FullTangLifestyle #AroostookCounty... Continue Reading...
At high water levels there is a great small rip on the far side of Samsquanch Island, and we’re at that water level now. So we spent the afternoon building quickwater poling and snubbing skills. #FullTangLifestyle #AroostookCounty... Continue Reading...
Our knot curriculum includes a section on rescue knots, which could also be labeled as moving heavy things with a rope. We teach two methods for doing so that could help you recover a stuck canoe or other heavy item: one using mechanical advantage and another using a lever. The application using mechanical advantage is […] Continue Reading...
