Bushwhack Jack's Tracts

I just returned from a marathon trip to Japan where I was invited to be the keynote speaker and present a workshop at the 12th annual...

I love Alaska. I’ve been there three times, and each trip has been special. In 2005 I got to spend a week in Haines with Phyliss while...

Do you hike up Baker Mtn? Do you bike the Rail Trail? Do you aspire to be a 46er? How about climbing Denali? Do you fish, hunt or travel...

The Northville-Lake Placid Trail is an Adirondack treasure. Initiated in 1922 and completed in 1924, it starts in Northville and finishes...

My wife, without exception, is the most caring person I know. You want someone with sympathy, empathy, and charity, Phyliss is your gal....

I met Doc Bill Forgey when we both served on the Board of Directors of the Wilderness Education Association. Bill is a wilderness...

If life is measured by family, adventure, passion for work and hobbies, and humor my mother checks all the boxes. Kitty Drury came from...

When I was the Director of NCCC’s Wilderness Recreation Leadership Program my staff and I worked ceaselessly to assess student outdoor...

I grew up in farm country and one thing I learned was that I never wanted to be a farmer. I occasionally helped my farmer friends during...

I went to the Wilderness Education Association annual conference a couple of weeks ago in Asheville, North Carolina. I’ve been involved...

During the start of the COVID pandemic there were runs on certain items in the grocery store. Understandably, there were shortages of...

I loved high school. Maybe I should say, I loved certain aspects of high school. I loved sports, I loved being a student leader, I...

Last week as I was cleaning up my excuse for an office (a tiny corner of our bedroom) I came across the obituary of my grandfather Kenyon...

Forty-one years ago this week, my colleague Doug Fitzgerald, and I started NCCC’s first Winter Practicum. It was a student-planned...

I spent my first eleven years on the north shore of Long Island. But my formative years were spent in the northern Finger Lakes after my...

In the fall of 1977, at the tender age of 28 and struggling to convince NCCC to start a wilderness program, I was asked by the Associate...

I didn’t give decision making a lot of thought until I started leading wilderness trips and realized that quality decision making was the...

I graduated from SUNY Cortland in January of 1972 and soon had to deal with the reality of having to make a living. Working construction...

I first visited Lower Saranac Lake in August 1956 at the tender age of seven. Given the circumstances it’s a miracle I ever wanted to...

I just got off the phone with my good buddy Jeff Olson, former Executive Director of Camp Confidence in Minnesota, a year-round outdoor...