Putting a mattress of green fir boughs on a raised bed in a long-term cold weather shelter. It’s easy to make these more comfortable; add more mattress. Like everything else we do, you can learn something about this type of shelter and bed by building it, but to really know it you have to live [...]

In 2019 we’re changing the dates for the Wilderness Bushcraft Semester courses that have been on the web for a few months. After lots of discussions in the guide shack about how to provide the best courses with the fewest drawbacks, we’re shifting a few things around. The spring semester will run from April 28 [...]

There were hugs, handshakes and promises to keep in touch, but now the parking lot is empty and a group of people that came together nine weeks ago has gone their separate ways. They’re headed back to Alaska, to cycle across southern Europe, to explore West Virginia, to a winter job at a ski area [...]

Finishing pack baskets with dogwood rims. Snow flurries here this morning and cold and windy today, so we’re in the guide shack with the stove roaring. Last project on the last day of the fall Wilderness Bushcraft Semester.

Back from the trip, finishing projects on the last few days of the semester. A few people wanted to make pack baskets, so we’re making them. It will be a push to finish them, but that’s what we do.

We’re leaving on our final trip this morning, headed to a large, remote lake about an hour away. While there we’ll do our canoe-skills testing and people will head out on solos for several days. We’ve had some cold nights, so I’ll be brining a canvas tent and wood stove in case someone goes for [...]

The Autumn Woodsman is a new field school course this year, designed to provide people with skills for cold weather without deep snow. There’s a heavy emphasis on axe, saw and knife use, appropriate fire skills, shelter construction, using tents and stoves to create warm, comfortable spaces, as well as seasonally-appropriate crafts such as making [...]

Teaching poling and watching everyone come through a rip. Poling is a traditional canoe skill that we use daily. It’s a great way to descend a rapid with complete control, stop in the middle of whitewater and travel upstream against a strong current. And to do it well, you stand in the canoe.

Cool today, lit the first fire of the season in the Guide Shack. Enjoying the heat and looking out the window at the yellow aspen and birch foliage. Two weeks left in the semester, our last weekend in camp. Off-grid and loving it.

In episode 51 of the podcast Christopher and I recap the 2018 season with our youth program, the School Of The Forest, and talk about the Teen Wilderness Living Semester coming in 2019. As part of the discussion, we discuss the difference between wilderness living skills and actually living in the wilderness. It is something [...]

Canoeing season is almost finished for the year here in northern Maine, with night temperatures below freezing. But we still have one trip left on the fall Wilderness Bushcraft Semester. I’m excited to get out one in the boats for a few days one last time in 2018. If you’re interested in learning the way [...]