Animals leave many tracks behind, at all times of the year. However, winter seems to be the time of year where more people are interested in animal tracking. I am sure it is because tracking animals in the snow is one hundred times easier than tracking across dry pine needles in the middle of summer! Developing an understanding of the morphology of an animal's footprint is a practice that takes time. We unfortunately live in a society where you can show a child fast food logos and they will...

“OUCH!” “How’d that feel?” I said to a boy who had his hand hovered above a fire he just built. “Not Good” he said as he rubbed his hands with discomfort after getting a little too hot from feeling the flame of the fire.  He learned a good lesson that fire is hot, without actually getting burnt.  Teaching children fire building is a normal day in the life of a survival instructor. Fire can be an absolutely devastating force, and also a wonderful element of any camping trip. So how do we teach...

Proficiency in wilderness survival requires us to practice a wide range of skills. Fire building, shelter construction, animal tracking, foraging, flint knapping, water disinfection, rope making, and wood carving, to name a few. Nothing seems more exciting and also requires constant practice than the use of weapons. Accuracy with primitive weapons can take years to refine. Learning to make weapons can also include their own set of challenges. Making a bow is quite the undertaking even at home...