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 our second shelter of the course – the Quadpod. Our first shelter uses flexible saplings to make a small dome. The Quadpod uses rigid poles to make a small cone. It’s important to have both of these approaches in your tool kit because you never know what you’ll have available for local resources when you need to build a shelter quickly.
Other projects this week will include finishing and sealing canoe paddles, making a map of the area using a compass, making a simple knife, an introduction to fishing and fly casting, making a bucksaw and making a predator call, and we’ll finish the week with academic background studies on more mammals, plants and fish. We’ll also be starting our outdoor leadership curriculum tomorrow, just in time as next week we start canoeing.
This is a fun part of the course for me because everyone has been here long enough to know all the routines and we are able to cover a lot of ground quickly. Looking out over the Aroostook river valley this morning and the sun coming up behind Squapan mountain I’m reminded of how fortunate I am to get to do this.
Ive been wanting to do a refresher course . My son Jordan still talks about this and has moved on to a nature based career he loves. All the best Tim.