Even during a heatwave, emergency snowshoes are useful. Here they are being used to dry mushrooms harvested from the woods.
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From The Archives, 2003 photo. Here’s a birch bark lean-to made near our old home base in New Hampshire.

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With gas prices being so high, I’m thinking about one of these for my next vehicle.
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During rush hour some of our highly traveled routes sometimes experience traffic jams.
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Sometimes you get to a campsite on a remote river and the firewood has been picked over. Especially if it has been used for a while. But there is almost always firewood on the other side of the river. In this (grainy) photo, I’m transporting a canoe full of firewood for the night’s cook fire across the Bonaventure river on the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec.
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From the spring. We went up to our local lake for some paddling and Maine IFW was stocking remote trout ponds by float plane. They would load the young trout from a stock truck into the floats of the plane, then it would fly off and dump them in the ponds. Since I was a little kid, I have always loved float planes.
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My wood canvas canoe, rigged up and ready for the carry around Allagash Falls. Notice this canoe has a center thwart, not a carved yoke. Notice how the paddles are tied to the thwarts so that when it is carried, the weight of the boat is distributed by the paddle blades onto the shoulders as an improvised yoke. I find this more comfortable than the carved yokes, mostly because they aren’t carved for my shoulders. Also notice the pole is inside the boat, which is the best way to carry them. Also notice the throw bag is attached to the center thwart, not anywhere else, to keep the weight balanced. The bigger and heavier the boat, the more all the details matter.
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A young moose by the pond at the field school.

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Canoes on the beach on the Allagash, high and dry and ready for night.
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A misty morning on a northern Maine lake poling canoes.

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Using a compass to take a bearing in the field.

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A brief respite from the rain and bugs in the form of a navigation exercise with map and compass in the Guide Shack on the summer, 2023 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester. #FullTangLifestyle

Tessa was meditating on the edge of the forest, holding her knife and spoon she was carving tight to her hands with her magical powers. Someone walked up and snapped a photo while she was deep in meditation. #FullTangLifestyle

This photo is 10 years old and was taken on a -20 F day with a stiff breeze while we were out on the Boreal Snowshoe Expedition. It was a great group of people and a few of the guys got it in mind to take a “tasteful nude” photo with the toboggans. So they stripped down for the pose, got the photo, then got dressed again really fast. When we talk we still laugh about that instance, and many other funny stories from that trip.

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On a fall, 2023 trip, paddling a 20-footer while kneeling. #FullTangLifestyle

It has been a cold and wet start to June in northern Maine. To keep things in perspective I will occasionally look at this picture from a few winters ago when the thermometer in my truck registered negative forty degrees below zero. This is the spot where the F (freedom) and C (Canadian) scales cross.

Huddling by the cook fire to keep warm on the Boreal Snowshoe Expedition.

Looking down from the bluff at a beautiful Maine river.

This might have been the one moment, early in the morning, where the wind wasn’t howling for the entire month of May 2023.

Maine lake reflecting the sky.

The sun sinking into the horizon.

We’re back at the field school after our latest trip. All that remains of the 2023 Wilderness Canoe Expedition Semester is testing, our field-based practical exams for those seeking the Engagé certification.

This photo was shot on a cold morning in May of 2023, so I was wearing the wool toque under my big hat. Beautiful spot, beautiful lake, beautiful Maine. #FullTangLifestyle

The pond at the field school, photo taken from above.

Beautiful lichen with red top.

The iconic Moose Vegas sign, deep in the woods of Aroostook County, Maine.

Tussilago farfara, coltsfoot. The first flower we get in the spring. This plant flowers before the leaves come out. This ground was covered in snow six days ago.

First mushroom of the year, Gyromitra esculenta or false morel. Don’t eat this one. Growing on ground that was covered with snow six days ago.

The Guide Shack, my off-grid cabin home for 12 years, with the solar-powered lights shining into the darkness. A warm and dry retreat in the cold Aroostook winter. So many great memories, and so many more to come. Shot on January 25, 2023.

Coaching from shore while students navigate the rips.

Coaching canoe poling from shore at the starch factory rips. It was a super fun day, as you can tell by my smile.

Coal burning bowls and spoons in preparation for a primitive living experience at the end of the semester.

The calm water of the river is reflecting the clouds and colors in the sky.

From a recent canoe outing on a perfect fall day. These are the types of photos you look at over winter to get excited about open water.

Saw this little guy hiding under a bunch of coltsfoot leaves. They sit so still and won’t move so they are easy to not see.

Class photo, Introduction To Fly Fishing, May 2021.

When people aren’t around, wildlife has the run of the field school. This moose is a local resident, and helps to keep the cattails from taking over the shallow edge of the pond. Photo credit to Christopher. #fulltanglifestyle

Casting practice during the Introduction To Fly Fishing Weekend.

Roasting coffee beans in a frying pan over an open fire.

Several pots, shiny and new, going over the fire for the first time.

Staying warm and dry in a shelter while the snow falls outside.

It’s been ten years since I took this photo. The kid is now in middle school. The basket has been retired and sits in a corner of the guide shack holding fishing gear. Of all the photos I’ve ever taken, it remains in my top ten. And a reminder that life happens fast.

Shot this on a northern Maine lake at the end of the fall semester. It’s a campsite on a big lake that we revere for epic sunrises. It took a while for the sun to burn through the fog, giving us the mist effect.

It’s still August but the nights are getting cool. When the night air is cooler than the river water we get dramatic morning mists. I shot this on the morning of August 23, 2019, as the sun was just peeking over Squapan Ridge and the river valley was full of mist. I stood there for ten minutes, from when the sun was just a sliver to when it had cleared the ridge and was climbing into the sky.

When made well, a grass mattress is portable luxury. Unlike thin sleeping pads, grass mattresses can easily be made to rival a modern mattress in thickness and comfort. They can also easily be transported, unlike bough beds. And they can be made from a variety of materials including grass, weeds, cattails, reeds, and more. They can even become a shelter covering. In the photo is a student making a grass and cattail mattress on the fall, 2019 Wilderness Bushcraft Semester.

Smudge pots are a way of life at the field school in June and July. Take a metal coffee can, punch a few holes in it, attach a piece of chain to the rim and keep a small, smoky fire going. The smoke keeps the bugs at bay. It’s getting harder to find a metal coffee can as most companies have gone to plastic or cardboard, but they are still available, if not common. Learning how to keep a smudge pot smoking for hours without it bursting into flame is a foundational skill.

I’m not a habitual smoker, but on expeditions I do enjoy the occasional pipe. There’s a great heritage involved, a kinship with the voyageurs, not to mention the smoke keeps the bugs away from your face. In this photo we were on the Gaspe peninsula in Quebec, an arm of land that juts out into the Atlantic ocean. We had stepped out of the canoes for a mid-morning snack. It was one of those moments on the trail where the birds were singing, the warm sun was shining and all was right with the world. Or at least those things that were not right were so far away they seemed to not exist. In our little world, floating down a crystal-clear mountain stream, surrounded by good friends, it was one of life’s perfect moments. Worth more to me than all the money on Wall street.

I’ve looked all over for black morel mushrooms without a lot of luck. What a treat that this is growing in an old garden space.

When I see water droplets on lupine leaves, I think of tiny jewels that are there only for me to appreciate. I love how the drop of water stops and spends time at the center of the plant where the leaves go together after a rain. And then the sun comes out and shines on it, making it a glowing diamond in the green. It’s beautiful to me. Never gets old.

The principles of tanning hides in the bitter cold are the same as tanning in warm weather. The details, however, are significantly different.

From our recent trip to northern Quebec. A great group of people. Here we were out checking hare snares and looking for marten tracks. We had a tip that someone had seen Bucksaw Jenkins tracks somewhere between Chibougoumou and Chapais, as he was wintering in the James Bay lowlands, and we were concerned that he might stop by our camp.

This guy hung around our place a while back. In the photo he was sitting chest-high in a hemlock sapling, 9-feet from our door.

Working on updating the Yearlong Immersion Program for 2019-2020, should be done by the end of the weekend.

One of my favorite spots in the North Maine Woods. One of these years I’m going to spend a week there, living with the timeless rhythms of the forest and river.

One of my favorite places in the world at a beautiful time of day. Miles from the bustle of the modern world, deep in the North Maine Woods, with no signs of people as far as the eye can see.

Looking into the wood stove in one of our Jack Mountain Expedition Tents. The orange and red colors inside the stove are incredibly dramatic when compared to a grey winter day.

Did you know that we designed our own tent a few years ago? Get more information here.

Photo from a past trip out on the land with David and Anna Bosum. Only a few spot remain for our March, 2019 trip. If you want one of them, register soon.

Deep in the North Maine Woods, it’s big country with big views. I’ve been roaming around this region for several decades and there’s still so much country to explore.

Two landlocked salmon in a 16″ dutch oven over a fire. On canoe trips where we do a lot of fishing I often bring my 16″ dutch oven because the fish just taste better when cooked in it.

We were coming down a fast, narrow stream in early spring. On a bend in the stream was a full-width strainer; an obstruction spanning from shore to shore. After a short debate, we opted to cut it rather than unload and carry around it. So we poled a boat out into the current and held it stationary with a pole and chopped the log, which was slightly underwater, with an axe. The canoe is on the upstream side of the log; the current is moving from left to right.

You won’t find this in any books on axe use, but the problems you’re tasked with solving on an expedition rarely fit nicely into the training scenarios you practice. In order to solve them it usually takes a lot of skill and a lot of creativity.

Get a free pdf copy through the Maine Forest Service.

Order a print copy through the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry.

Order a print copy through Amazon.

If you’re a Jack Mountain student, you’ll definitely want your own copy.

Last project on the last day of the fall Wilderness Bushcraft Semester.

More at Downeast Magazine.

Well done, sir.

Next week we’ll be running a similar program at Squam Lake Natural Science center. Squam lake’s programs allow us to bring in live animals to pair with each activity, so for example, when we talk about building shelters students get to meet face to face with an osprey and see how she builds her nest to solve the same issues they are when they build a raised bed, or meet a coyote and see how she walks right after we’ve finished our tracking exercise. This program is a lot of fun for me as well, because it adds a face to face element with animals to the course that I can’t reproduce in a bush setting.

Once those are over we’ll be running our “Tech Detox Program” at our field school in Northern Maine. This course is centered around learning the skills to be comfortable in a canoe, and on trail, all while being unattached to the modern world and learning to be self-reliant without constant connection to the internet. The course culminates with a trip on one of our local waterways in the North Maine Woods and allows students to put into practice what they’ve learned about outdoor living.

We’ll also be running a weeklong Family Bushcraft week, where families will get to come up to the field school for a week and have an alternative vacation where they’ll get to learn together, as well as swim in the pond, hike our trails and just have the experience of enjoying the natural world together.

Both the Libby Museum and Squam Lake programs are full with waiting lists, the Tech Detox and Family Bushcraft week still have spots available though, so if they sound like a good way for your child, or your whole family to spend some time this summer get in touch. Hopefully, we’ll see some of you in the bush this summer.

These boats are used by a lot of fishing guides in this region. I’ve always called them a “Y” Stern, based on how the transom is built, but there’s probably a more correct term.