Well. I'm back.... The trip was awesome John Mccan is a really awesome and cool guy. His crew was exemplary as well. a portion of the course was academic consisting of classroom sessions in a large lean-to each topic also had a practical element, in which we got to practice our skills. THe first topis was knives and tools where he went over the importance of a knife in the wilderness addressed charectaristics that one should look for when selecting a knife and allowed us to play around with alot of his vast collection also lessons in proper battoning tech. was provided. from ther we covered many topcis including traps and snares, fire craft map/compass navigation fishing survival kit construction shelter building. and may others all with a practical element that followed ..At night we sat around the fire swapped ideas and b.s'd and it gave me the oportunity to carve my 1st wooden spoon...(don't use locust wood) alot of the information was basic but essential and it was nice to have an experience person watching over me as I practiced skills that I thought I knew, but actually was not any where as efficient at as I should be at. I highly reccomend this class to anyone wanting to go for a short weekend and explore the basics of survival and bushcraft with awesome people in a relaxed environment. I'll definitely go back for more training. This trip also gave me an opportunity to give a real workout to some of my knives My 12 inch ontario served very well as a chopper and battoned a fair amnt of kindling and other misc items (no complaints) My new vic farmer was awesome Ideal for some one looking for a no-nonsense rugged woods folder, with a great blade and an awesome little saw. I intended on using a folder for most tasks but the sheer amount of time I used a knife made the repititon of taking it out and opening it up a hinderance, and leaving it out and open was hazardous so I ended up giving my f1 a workout....what a fantastic knife I battoned kindling made tinder sparked fires made fighure 4's & twitch-up snares...cut alot of cord, carved a spoon and performed some basic meal prep with this blade throughout the course of the weekend, I gave it a few passes on a loaded strop when I got home and it is still shaving sharp....(Fantastic) I did also get a chance to play with a barkriver foxriver while there....I know what I want for christmas. My buddy took alot of pictures as soon as gets them to me I'll see if I can post them. All in all great weekend. John is also the author of a really great book (which I'm reading now) called Build the perfect survival kit. It is a welcome addition to my survival library....Thanks for listening..
