Click on the Book Cover to Purchase from Amazon

Mantracking Thriller Series (under pen name, JT Sawyer)

Mitch thought he would just be training under
his mantracking mentor in the North Woods –
until a killing spree began outside of a small town.

When a botched heist goes horribly wrong, three thieves are forced to flee into the rugged wilderness in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Soon, Mitch, along with his mentor and a fellow classmate, are thrust into a federal manhunt to track down the murderous trio before they can escape.

Using all of their fieldcraft and tactical experience, the elite team soon discovers that the killers are skilled survivalists who plan to turn the tables on their pursuers in this high-stakes thriller.

The post Manhunt first appeared on Ancient Pathways | Outdoor Survival Courses.

Click on the Book Cover to Purchase from Amazon

Espionage & Tradecraft Thrillers (under pen name, JT Sawyer)

The CIA created him. Treachery unleashed him.

Cal Shepard was trained by the government to be a hunter of other assassins. He’s the tip of the spear in the war on terror and a master of tradecraft after 16 years in black-ops.

When he’s assigned to be a consultant for the Burke Corporation, a US defense firm creating a software-targeting database of terrorist threats, he thinks his time in the field is over. As an expectant father and with a battle-torn body, he’s more than ready to settle down for a while in the quiet suburbs outside of DC. Days before the database is supposed to go live, he is framed for murder and becomes the target of a nationwide manhunt.

But he’s not about to disappear….not without exacting revenge. With an FBI task force on his trail and a group of hired guns needing to take him down before he can uncover the truth, Shepard realizes that the network of corruption extends to the upper echelons of the government.

Applying his well-honed skills from years of search & destroy missions, Shepard takes the fight to the enemy, methodically hunting down those responsible and dispensing his own brand of justice.

For fans of Jack Reacher, Mitch Rapp, Jason Bourne and Jack Ryan comes an explosive espionage thriller from Amazon bestselling author JT Sawyer.

The post Search and Destroy first appeared on Ancient Pathways | Outdoor Survival Courses.

Click on the Book Cover to Purchase from Amazon

Survival Thrillers (under pen name, JT Sawyer)

For years, the former CIA operator had been hiding in plain sight.

Now a kill squad has him in their cross-hairs.

To the townspeople of Blayne, Utah, population 202, Nick Mercer was just a friendly thirty-something woodworker living in a small cabin at the end of a dirt road. But Nick also kept a fully stocked bug-out bag complete with a take-down sniper rifle, assorted passports and a pouch full of uncut diamonds hidden in the wall near his back door along with concealed surveillance cameras spread around his property.

After a document forger is captured by authorities in Indonesia, Mercer’s aliases are eventually leaked to a powerful diamond broker with ties to Mercer’s past with the CIA in West Africa—a man who is willing to stop at nothing to hunt down the former agent.

When a crew of private contractors disguised as FBI agents arrives in Blayne, Mercer discovers his primary escape route along the highway in southeastern Utah is cut off. Now, he must evade on foot through miles of rugged canyons.

With seasoned assassins and a CIA grab team closing in, Nick Mercer must rekindle old survival skills to outrun them…and his past.

This fast-paced survival-thriller is a stand-alone story that is connected with characters from the Search And Destroy Series.

The post Escape & Evade first appeared on Ancient Pathways | Outdoor Survival Courses.

Click on the Book Cover to Purchase the book from Amazon
The Ultimate Survival Handbook

The Ultimate Survival Handbook contains five of longtime, survival instructor Tony Nester’s bestselling eBooks, covering urban and wilderness survival along with the long-term skills of bushcraft.

Tony has spent the past 30-years applying and teaching survival skills to the military special operations community and general public, including serving as a consultant for the movie, Into the Wild, the Discovery Channel, Travel Channel and the NY Times along with providing training for actors Josh Brolin and Emile Hirsch. For years, he also wrote a monthly survival column for Outside Magazine and is a frequent contributors to numerous publications.

This book is a compilation of the following previously published eBooks:

Survival Gear You Can Live With

A quality survival kit is one of the critical keys in prevailing during a backcountry emergency. Survival instructor Tony Nester shares what essential gear to carry and how to design a tailor-made kit to fit your specific needs which will cover the Big 5 Priorities facing someone stranded in the backcountry during a short-term crisis.

Nester provides a pragmatic look at the crucial elements that should go into a personal survival kit and the steps to help ensure that you don’t get lost in the first place.

Bushcraft Tips & Tools

Packed with practical advice taken from years of teaching long-term wilderness courses, and experimentation on extended personal trips, this book covers strategies for enjoying the wilderness with your hands and a few simple tools.
Topics Include: Tarp and Bedroll Types, Bushcraft Blades, Axes and Saws, Firearms & Food Procurement Tools, Region-Specific Gear, Wilderness Ethics, Clothing Recommendations, Trail Food and Cooking Implements.

A Vehicle Survival Kit You Can Live With

An in-depth look at field-tested gear and self-reliance methods in case you break down in the wilds or on the highway. It provides insight into the essential recovery, survival and emergency items that every traveler should carry.
Accompanied by real-world stories of survival, this book covers the basic skills that can help you prevail during a roadside emergency.

Bug-Out Gear for Travelers

Most people in the survival and preparedness community spend a great deal of time and expense to outfit themselves with quality bug-out gear for an urban crisis. All of that changes when you board a commercial flight for work or pleasure and the majority of the well-planned kit gets left behind due to travel restrictions.

Discover what emergency gear to have in your pockets along with critical first-aid kit items, nutritious no-cook foods, a carry-on bug-out bag and how to dress for egress. Additionally, there are anecdotes from real-world situations, a checklist of practical items for post-arrival at your destination and low-tech measures for securing your gear at the hotel or in a rental vehicle.

Survival Q & A

Can you really get water in the desert from a solar still? Should you ever attempt to suture a wound, Rambo style, in the backcountry? What happens if the grid goes down in a foreign city while you are traveling abroad? How do you distinguish cougar tracks from dog tracks? Should you drink from your swimming pool during an urban disaster? How do you survive a night in the snow without any gear? What is the best treatment for a rattlesnake bite?

Join Tony as he delves into the Q & A of survival as it relates to forest, desert, jungle, urban, and the often misunderstood realm of living off the land.

The post Ultimate Survival Handbook first appeared on Ancient Pathways | Outdoor Survival Courses.

The post Custom Survival Courses-Various Dates Available first appeared on Ancient Pathways | Outdoor Survival Courses.

Ever wondered how to handle a worst-case outing in the wilds with only the clothes on your back and a knife? Each year in North America, there are countless cases of unprepared hikers becoming lost and having to endure an unexpected night in the elements, depending only on their wits and abilities.

Written in a lively style, interspersed with anecdotes from his own field experiences throughout North America, Nester provides a pragmatic look at the survival mindset, knife-selection & use, sheltermaking, firecraft, improvised water filtration methods and signaling in addition to a special section on advanced knife-only skills for extended bushcraft outings. Jammed with over 80 photographs and detailed descriptions, Knife-Only Survival will show you the critical skills for coping with a grueling, bare-bones ordeal in the backcountry as well as long-term strategies for living off the land.

Tony Nester has spent the past 30-years applying and teaching knife-only survival skills to the military, the public and the film industry including serving as a consultant on the movie, Into the Wild.

Pick up your copy today on Amazon: Knife-Only Survival

The post The New Knife-Only Survival Book is Now Available on Amazon! first appeared on Ancient Pathways | Outdoor Survival Courses.

Summer Greetings!
As I write this my family and I are on the road, heading to our new home in Colorado Springs. After 22 years of teaching and guiding in Arizona, we have made the difficult decision to pull-up stakes and head to the Rockies. Flagstaff has changed considerably from the town we once knew and there are also more college opportunities for my teenage kids where we are headed. Plus, as someone once said, “the Rocky Mountains are the marrow of the world.”

I want to thank all of you who have participated in our fieldcourses over the years during the bushcraft, Knife-Only’s, and 9-week programs along with numerous university classes. I leave this amazing landscape with many fond memories shared around the woodsmoke of countless campfires in our hogan in the high-desert and in bark-covered wickiups in the mountains.

I still plan to teach a handful of fieldcourses each year but these will be traveling programs hosted by other groups so stay tuned for future events held in Moab, Oregon, Phoenix, and the central Rockies. Excluding this summer, we will also be running our popular Ultimate Survival Skills Course in Flagstaff each June, and I will be writing  newsletter updates of gear reviews and survival tips shortly.

Many heartfelt thanks for being along for the ride all these years!

Enjoy the wilds,
Tony Nester

The post We’ve Moved to Colorado Springs!! first appeared on Ancient Pathways | Outdoor Survival Courses.

What’s the point of having well-laid contingency plans and bug-out gear if you can’t jog a few blocks or run down a flight of stairs to avert an impending disaster? Real survival is grueling- there’s nothing fun or romantic about it. The better shape you are in the better your body will handle the myriad daily stressors associated with survival along with hastening your recovery time.

When I am traveling and confined to a hotel, I try to hit the gym and do twenty minutes of Cross-Fit type training once a day. If I am without a gym, then bodyweight exercises such as burpees, lunges, pushups, crunches and plyometrics help to keep my ticker in good shape. If space isn’t an issue I pack along a resistance band. I do my exercises in the morning so as not to use the excuse of being too tired at end of a long day of teaching.

When I travel, some days are easier than others for getting in a short workout when jetlag, frantic business schedules and the drain that accompanies time zone changes are factored in.

When I’m at home, I always change up routines every 6-8 weeks and like a blend of kettlebell work, hitting the speed-bag, and some type of aerobics like jogging or biking around town. AND, of course, having a good diet is key, especially as you get older. Bodybuilders say that their physiques are built in the kitchen not the gym. You might get in a killer workout for half an hour but what’s the point if you’re then jamming three, 1200 calories fatty meals into your day while snacking on Cheetos (although I admit to going down this road in my early 20s when I had the metabolism of a shrew…).

I do the following routine 3x a week and it’s designed to hit the Core. The rest of the days, I get in my aerobics by hitting the trail with my dogs for an hour, mountain biking, or getting on the treadmill during snow days. Prior to guiding a trip, I make sure to focus on doing plenty of lunges which helps my legs prepare for the rigors of carrying a pack through the mountains/desert.

Core Routine

3×12 of side planks
3×15 kettlebell rows (single-arm)
3×12 Shoulder press w/kettlebell
3×15 Goblet squat
3×12 Single-leg hip bridge
3×12 log-flip in backyard (some people use a big tire)

Try to maintain your fitness level and workouts even if only a few times during a busy week or if you are traveling. Being fighting-fit is one of the foundation pillars of survival. All of the cool gear won’t matter if you’re not physically fit enough to use it during a real-world crisis!

The post Survival Fit? first appeared on Ancient Pathways | Outdoor Survival Courses.

The post Ramon S | Wild Foods Course Participant first appeared on Ancient Pathways | Outdoor Survival Courses.

The post Bill J | Equipped to Survive Forum first appeared on Ancient Pathways | Outdoor Survival Courses.