Over the last few weeks, we’ve been setting up a partnership with the wilderness medicine fellows of Dartmouth-Hitchcock at the School Of The Forest Campus in southern Vermont. Students at Dartmouth Hitchcock go through extensive medical training for remote locations, but are looking to expand that knowledge base with skills like shelter building, fire lighting [...]

We just wrapped up the fall, 2020 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester. 50 is the number of the day, as it was our 50th long-term program, and this week I celebrated my 50th birthday. I always get nostalgic at the end of fall semesters. As I was walking through the woods from Moose Vegas to the Guide [...]

For episode 98 of the JMB podcast, we discuss the process of developing wilderness instructors and guides. We outline the following steps to the process: Take a course and get the Journeyman certification Take a medical class, first aid or wilderness first responder Take and pass the test to become a Registered Maine Guide Go [...]

It’s near the end of the fall semester, so we invited some of the current Wilderness Bushcraft Semester students into the Guide Shack so you could hear directly from them about their thoughts about the course. Listen in as they describe their experience and answer a few questions about it. PHOTO: Spring semester students at [...]

In this short video, we walk through our newly built group shelter. We’ve been consistently having nights below freezing, so having a warm space for people to dry off and defrost their bones is a big bonus for our students. Just based on the general shape and color of the structure, we’ve started referring to [...]

If we have learned anything from the pandemic, it’s that you’re on your own when things get tough. Unless you give a lot of money to politicians they don’t care whether you live or die. So this is a great time to start taking control of your self-reliance needs. In northern Maine we’re sure of [...]

We offer several different types of programs, and in this episode of the podcast we describe and define what they are and who they’re for. Two weeks to go in the fall, 2020 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester. PHOTO: Big breakfast in camp. Show Notes: JMB Podcast Episode 96 | Differentiating Professional Training Programs Kid-Friendly? Kid friendly, [...]

I’ve been dragging my feet in making this decision, hoping there would be a vaccine or a change or something. But as people are trying to make travel plans for our February programs, it’s time. I’m officially cancelling the 2021 Winter Woodsman and Boreal Snowshoe Expedition due to the covid. I have been confident we’ve [...]

Minimalism in the wild. In episode 95 of the JMB Podcast Christopher and I discuss the idea of minimalism as compared and contrasted with ultralight in the backcountry. We often discuss our traditional approach to camping, characterized by heavy gear and lots of it. But we also enjoy going light with improvised gear. Going light [...]

Hello everyone, it’s been a while. We’ve been pretty busy this year with our semester programs at Jack Mountain, as well as getting our southern Vermont campus set up for the FFP. Last weekend I took a break from the fall semester to run the first weekend of the friluftsliv program. For folks that don’t [...]