I’ve set the time and location for the first of our 3-part edible wild plant workshop series.  Session 1 (June 30) will run from 12-3 and will meet at 267 Camp School Road in Wolfeboro, NH. Plan to arrive between 11:30 and 12:00. We will be exploring the nearby woods and fields.  If your main interest is in cattails, we’ll be working with them during session 2.

Participants should download, print and bring a copy of our book First Person Ecology. Printed copies are available as well. To record the plants we cover, we recommend either a small dry erase board and a digital camera to photograph the plants with the name included in the image, or clear contact paper and note cards to press specimens. Also bring a water bottle, snacks, rain gear, etc., and whatever you need to be comfortable.

More on the edible plant walk series is on our site at Wild Food Walks.

Post from: The Jack Mountain Bushcraft Blog

Edible Plant Workshop Series Update

On the last day of our Aroostook River trip during our recent Wilderness Canoe Expedition Course, we stopped to have lunch at the boat ramp near the North Maine Woods gate at Oxbow.  From here, the river makes a sharp right turn, and there’s a short class 2 rapid we call Oxbow Gate Rips.  Often the most dangerous time to run a rapid is just after lunch when people are groggy and contented with full stomachs, and that day was no different.  I was the second to last boat, and after I went through the rips I stopped to wait for the last boat.  The boat didn’t come around the corner, but I started to see gear floating by.  Knowing they had flipped, I yelled to the rest of the group to pick up the floating gear, then poled back upriver to lend a hand.

They had hit the last big rock in the rip, but were already on shore and dumping the water out of the boat when I got to them.  I asked if everything was alright and was told that the new GoPro camera, which one of them had been wearing on a head strap mount during the trip, was missing.  I poled into the rip, but the glare of the sun on the water made it difficult to see anything even though the water was only a few feet deep.  After searching fruitlessly for ten minutes, I floated downstream to join the others.

The guy who had lost the camera looked like someone had run over his dog.  He had taken hundreds of photos with that camera, and now they were gone.  I told him I’d come and help him look for it; in a day we’d drive to the Oxbow boat ramp and pole around the rip when the light was better.  We had 18 more miles to travel that day, so as soon as their gear was sorted out we continued downriver.

Two afternoons later, as we were packing for our Allagash trip, five of us took four canoes to the Oxbow gate boat ramp and began looking.  I was the first one to see something.  It was the bottom of a fishing rod that had also been lost during the spill.  It was in four feet of water, just downstream from the big rock.  The light was much more diffused, which made looking into the water easier.  Still, it was difficult to see to the dark bottom of the river unless you were looking in the shadow of the canoe.

A few minutes later, about ten feet downstream of where I found the fishing rod, one of the other guys saw something reflecting light on the bottom.  It was the camera, and before long we had retrieved it.  I checked the seal and it was still good.  The camera was dry and working fine after spending 48 hours on the bottom of the river.

I was surprised we found it.  When I said I’d come and help look for it, I figured we had a 10% chance of finding it.  Needless to say the guy who lost it was on cloud 9.  After that, he continued to wear it on the head strap, but he also attached three giant orange bobbers to it.  It looked a little strange, but as he said, it would be much easier to find it it ever went in the water.

Post from: The Jack Mountain Bushcraft Blog

The Lost And Found Camera

Highlights: No newsletter last month because we were off the grid in the North Maine Woods.  We had a great 4-week canoe course in May, and I’m out of the woods with surprisingly few bug bites.  The month started with a stretch of hot and dry weather.  It was 85 degrees and there was a fire ban on the day we put in on Chase Pond at the beginning of the course.  It didn’t take long for the rain to start, though, and once it did it rained off and on (mostly on) for the rest of the month.  It stayed cool, which kept the bugs at bay.  We covered a lot of ground and got into some great fishing.  We ran the Aroostook and paddled the headwater lakes of the Allagash, and had a great time doing it.

Coming Up: 

• 6/9-6/15 – Riverman Course – ME
• 6/16-6/22 – Woodsman Course – ME
• 6/24-6/27 – East Branch Penobscot Canoe Trip – ME
• 6/29 – Bushcraft Fundamentals – NH
• 6/30 – Edible Wild Plant Walk – NH
• See all upcoming programs on our Calendar.

Post from: The Jack Mountain Bushcraft Blog

June News

Last weekend was arguably the best weather you could request for the last weekend in April. Sunny, a slight breeze and warm, it was perfect for hitting the water and getting the winter cobwebs out of canoe muscles. We ran two, 1-day canoe programs at the folk school in NH and they both were fantastic.

Saturday we ran our 1-day canoe poling workshop here on Rust Pond. We had sun and no wind, which are perfect conditions for learning. After spending the morning on poling exercises, we worked on traditional paddling strokes. The word ‘tradition’ is bandied about a lot these days, so to further clarify, I mean traveling strokes geared toward efficiently propeling a loaded boat mile after mile, day after day. Most of the instruction focused on the knifing J and the pitch stroke. My own favorite stroke is a hybrid of these two, and it’s taken me thousands of miles with relative ease.

After a mid-afternoon walk in the woods to identify brown ash and differentiate it from white ash by the bark, we returned to the water to cover a variety of other strokes: the draw, cross draw, pry, sweep, reverse sweep, backwards J and sculling draw. After calling it a day we had a dutch oven chicken dinner.

Sunday we put in on the Bearcamp river, then poled upstream for an hour to get a feel for working against the current. Then we started downstream and floated several hours out to Ossipee Lake. We crossed the lake with a stunning view of New Hampshire’s White Mountains in the distance before entering the Pine River, which we ascended to the take out.

We were on the water for a little over 5 hours, and all of it was enjoyable and beautiful.

This week we’re preparing for our Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester. Planning and packing meals, prepping gear, and tying up a variety of loose ends is on the docket. It’s the final of the three courses that make up our Yearlong Wilderness Bushcraft Immersion, and the one that takes all of the skills learned thus far and puts them into practice. It’s also a rare opportunity to spend a whole month out, traveling, fishing and living the woods life. After a long winter, I’m really looking forward to it.

Post from: The Jack Mountain Bushcraft Blog

Canoe Poling Course And River Trip Wrap-Up

Highlights:  April was a busy month at the folk school in NH.  We ran a handful of private workshops and along the way found time to get out fishing for smelt and suckers.  It was a cold spring and we’re looking forward to the warmer weather.  Currently I’m getting gear ready for the canoe expedition; oiling paddles and poles, doing any needed repairs and planning an expedition menu.

Coming Up: 

• 4/28 - Canoe Poling Workshop – NH
• 4/29 – Canoe Trip, Saco River – NH
• 5/5-6/1 – Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester – ME
• 6/9-6/15 – Riverman Course – ME
• 6/16-6/22 – Woodsman Course – ME

Post from: The Jack Mountain Bushcraft Blog

April News

The general route for our spring canoe expedition is set.  We’ll spend the bulk of the month on the Aroostook drainage.  We’ll be doing a good deal of upriver work, both poling and lining, to visit a few of my favorite spots.   Our second trip in on the Allagash, where we’ll be poling up Allagash Stream from Chamberlain Lake, then returning the same way.  It’s been a few years since I’ve been on Allagash Stream, and I’m anxious to go back.  It’s will be a great month, although physically challenging.

Trip 1 – Tour D’Aroostook

• Chase Lake
• Chase Lake
• Munsungan Lake
• Munsungan Lake
• Munsungan Falls
• Munsungan Branch
• Confluence
• Millimagassett Lake
• Millimagassett Lake
• Confluence
• Boars Head Falls
• Boars Head Falls
• Houlton Brook
• Field School

Trip 2 – Allagash Lake

• Chamberlain Lake
• Chamberlain Lake
• Little Allgash Falls
• Allagash Lake
• Allagash Lake
• Allagash Lake
• Chamberlain Lake

Post from: The Jack Mountain Bushcraft Blog

Canoe Expedition 2013 Itinerary

People put a lot of pressure on themselves to succeed, or to be really good at something right at the beginning. I, and anyone who has taught anything for any length of time, can tell you that learning doesn’t work that way.  You don’t start out being good at something.  It takes, blood, sweat and years to get good. But no matter how much you say it, it doesn’t sink in and there are still people who get visibly upset when things don’t work out perfectly the first time. Often the worst offenders are the highest achievers and the most intellectually savvy. They have a very difficult time when things don’t turn out perfectly the first time because they’re conditioned to things happening that way. The problem is that their frustration and negativity are contagious, and such feelings can infect group morale. So it must be dealt with. Ideally, it is prevented from happening.

As an instructor, I view my role as creating situations where learning can take place. With this in mind, when someone gets overly frustrated when making a functional saw frame or struggling through the creation of a friction fire on a damp day, I realize that due to the frustration level, there isn’t a lot of learning taking place. So what to do about it?

Framing the exercise a different way, so that students are concerned about the process and not the product, is my favorite way of changing the dynamic. Framing is just another way to describe how you set up the situation.  A painting of an apple remains the same whether the frame around it is white or black, but the change can have a big impact on how it’s perceived.  It’s similar with experiences.  When we’re working on something I know is difficult and the likelihood of success on the first try is close to zero, instead of making the ideal but unlikely outcome our goal, I flip it on its head.

Let’s say our goal is to make a pie crust and apple pie from scratch and bake it in a dutch oven.  I change the desired outcome when framing the exercise, so instead of trying to make a perfect apple pie, I say that our goal is to screw up making an apple pie from scratch. Our goal is to fail, but to learn something useful about the process along the way.

This has been an incredibly useful technique for me over the years. It makes the exercise a bit more playful and fun, while at the same time relieving the pressure on attaining the perfect outcome. When people aren’t concerned with the outcome, learning can take place.

Continuing with the pie example, if the pie ends up horrible, they’ve succeeded! They did exactly what we set out to do. If they make a perfect apple pie, they’ve failed the exercise, but we can discuss our failure over a slice of pie.  It’s win-win, regardless of the outcome, and along the way learning has taken place and experience has been gained.

In the beginning of someone’s journey on the road to excellence, it’s the process that’s important, not the product. Unless you look at it from a different perspective and see the product not as a finished craft or perfected skill, but a person who has learned, expanded their idea of what they’re capable of and is empowered.

Post from: The Jack Mountain Bushcraft Blog

Framing Experiences For Successful Outcomes

The number seven has been coming up a lot the last few days.

First, I’ve had this blog for seven years. I started it in 2006. I had one before this, but it was hacked and most of the 140 posts were deleted.

Second, I recently crossed the 700 posts threshold. This is post number 704.

Third, we just filled our fall semester and yearlong immersion program seven months in advance.

Fourth, I’ve spent seven hours over the past few days updating the look and feel of this blog, changing the theme, etc. If you read this via a feed reader or by email, check out the site. It looks significantly different. My goal is to bring all of the media we create (blog posts, videos, podcasts, photos, books, etc.) together in one place.  If you do check it out, let me know what you think.

Post from: The Jack Mountain Bushcraft Blog

The Number 7

What happens when a woman spends a weekend in the woods learning learning wilderness survival and bushcraft during a snowy Maine winter? Deirdre Fulton spent a weekend with us, and you can read her account of it in this article from the Portland Phoenix.  Read it here.

I wasn’t learning how to outlast the zombie masses or endure life after an electromagnetic pulse wipes out modern civilization. Sure, what I took away from the experience could apply to a life-or-death scenario. But the knowledge I procured was deeper than that, encompassing a connection with the natural world and a sense of self-confidence that was unfamiliar.

Post from: The Jack Mountain Bushcraft Blog

Woman Versus Wild

On Wednesday, February 27th we’re running a short course on winter bushcraft for kids (ages 6-12) and parents in Wolfeboro, NH.  The tuition is $25 per family, which can include 2 adults and multiple kids. I’m planning on running the program from 1:30-4:00 pm.

We’ll be focusing on lighting fires, snowshoe use and making bindings, safe use of an axe, safe use of a knife and making a campfire cooking rig. We’ll also be looking for any animal tracks we can find. There will probably be other topics that come up, but these are a definite.

I’ll be in touch with directions shortly before the program.

Post from: The Jack Mountain Bushcraft Blog

Winter Bushcraft Short Course For Kids And Parents

Over the past few months I’ve seen numerous blogs offering tips and tricks on bushcraft and survival. But tips and tricks will never take the place of practiced fundamentals; learning the correct technique, then doing it until it is second nature. The seemingly inexhaustible human desire for shortcuts keeps the search alive, but don’t be tempted by the tips and tricks, or anything else that promises results without putting in your time and doing the work.

In an effort to jump right onto this bandwagon, though, here’s my tip for today; There are no useful shortcuts. Or at least after looking around for several decades, I haven’t found any. Take time or make time to learn it and do it right.

And my trick for today; play with it and have fun. It’s challenging to remember what we try to learn, but it’s hard to forget what we have fun playing with.

Post from: The Jack Mountain Bushcraft Blog

Tips & Tricks On Bushcraft And Survival

During the bitter cold of our winter snowshoe expedition this year, several members of our group were eating over 5000 calories a day in order to keep their internal furnaces stoked. It got me thinking about making an expedition cake that was calorie-dense and nutrient-rich that I could make in advance of winter trips to help people get a lot of calories and energy fast.

When I got home I started experimenting, and have been very happy with the results. Eventually there will be several variations that will be written up in the next edition of Bush Cookery.

I started with a 10-inch dutch oven. and melted 2 sticks of butter in it. When melted, I added these to big mixing bowl and set aside the dutch oven while I mixed up the rest of the ingredients.

• 2 sticks of butter (melted and previously mentioned)
• 6 eggs
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1.5 cups raisins
• 1.5 cups dried cranberries
• 1.5 cups sourdough starter
• 2 cups chopped walnuts
• 3 cups of all-purpose flour

I mixed these, in order, in a big mixing bowl. Then, put it into the 10-inch dutch oven previously used (already coated in butter) and baked it at 325 degrees for about an hour and 15 minutes, or until the center looked done.

The result was dense, rich and tasted good enough for my kids to give it the thumbs-up. I froze sections of it, and was able to cut it while frozen due to all the fat.

Future variations will include ingredients such as grated ginger, coconut flakes, and other types of nuts and seeds.

Try making it, or something like it, before your next hike, outing, or expedition. And let me know how it turns out!

Post from: The Jack Mountain Bushcraft Blog

Sourdough Expedition Cake

The deep snows of mid-February are covering the landscape (and the canoe trailer), and for the past few days the wind has been howling down the lake with enough force to sculpt the snow and make it feel very cold. With no more winter trips planned for this year, my thoughts are turning to spring canoeing. This time of year I love studying maps and looking for new twists to our spring canoe routes, as well as studying the traditional routes and and the overland carries that link them.

The past few days I’ve thought about all the different variations available on our spring trip on the Aroostook. For a river that seldom gets paddled, there are enough navigable tributaries to keep a person busy for several years just exploring them. This year we’ll again put in at Chase Lake, then float down Munsungan Stream before entering the Aroostook. I’m thinking about a possible St. Croix Stream trip this spring, as well as a possible Mooseleuk trip.

All this trip planning results in hours of happy daydreaming about trips past and possibilities for the future. There are endless possibilities. Eventually I’ll have to choose, but for now daydreaming is enough and keeps me smiling.

Post from: The Jack Mountain Bushcraft Blog

Thinking About Spring Canoeing

As of February 14th, our 2013-2014 yearlong bushcraft immersion program and the fall wilderness bushcraft semester are both full.  Although it grows a bit every year, this is the earliest we’ve ever filled; more than 6-months in advance!  We will still accept applications for the waiting list in case their are cancellations.  If you’re thinking about 2014-2015, remember to get your application in early.

Post from: The Jack Mountain Bushcraft Blog

Fall Semester And Yearlong Immersion Program Are Full

Well, it happened again. I received an email from a friend about someone who has copied some of my stuff. Over the years, people have copied my text, photos (which is why every photo I post now has a watermark), and even my anecdotes. More than twenty-five times. I’ve always taken the high road, emailing them and explaining that:

1. I write these things myself and don’t appreciate them being plagiarized.
2. I won’t threaten them with toothless “legal action”.
3. But they should take it down or attribute it to me because it’s the right thing to do.

But frankly, I’m tired of the effort of the high road. I’ve been thinking about how to handle it all day today, and I think my best idea is to post it. Post my original, as well as what I think has been copied, and let the readers sort it out.

Irony? This person’s site has two separate copyright statements on their blog. Irony indeed.

Here’s a link to their page, posted May 1st, 2012:

        - http://ranger-pathfinder-notes.blogspot.com/2012/05/beginners-guide-to-bushcrafting.html

And here’s a link the page from this blog, posted January 3rd, 2009:

        – http://www.jackmtn.com/simplog/seven-points-for-beginning-bushcraft/

I’ve never corresponded, met, or heard of this person until now, but I’ve got a pretty good idea where they came up with the ideas for their 7 points.

Also the quotation from Mors Kochanski was something he said while he was visiting in the fall of 2007.  It wasn’t published, except for in our student handbook (page 4), but wasn’t copied correctly by the site in question. If they’re going to plagiarize, at least get it right! What that original quotation actually says:

This is not wilderness survival. It’s fundamental knowledge of what it means to be an educated human.

What do you think? You be the judge. I’m just annoyed.

Note to bloggers; I’ve got no problem if you want to reproduce something I’ve written. A while back I even changed my copyright from an “all rights reserved” to a “creative commons” for this reason. If you want to use something I’ve written, please do so. Just attribute and link it back to me. You don’t even need to ask. Just don’t take my ideas and words and pass them off as your own. That’s not cool.

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What Plagiarism Looks Like