Jack Mountain Bushcraft & Guide Service has just released its 2005 Canoe Expedition and Guide Training Course, designed to train experienced guides and fishermen to become experts in traditional canoeing skills. For the experienced fishing guide, this is the ultimate course in learning traditional paddling and poling, expedition skills, and the craft of guiding, on two of America’s premier northwoods wilderness rivers. For the avid fisherman, it opens up a whole new level of experience for fishing those backwater northwoods streams.

“Canoeing has been the preferred method of spring, summer and fall travel in the northern forests for thousands of years,” says Jack Mountain owner Tim Smith. “The waterways were the lifeblood of early native peoples. We use and teach the traditional methods of Maine guide canoeing because they work as well now as they have for centuries. Our goal is training our students the skills for safe passage of people and gear.”

The 2005 course was specifically designed as a hands-on experience for those guides and serious fishermen who want to learn these techniques cold. Let’s face it, too many guides have received their license by just reading literature sufficient to pass a written guide exam, with little or no experience in the bush. This course will provide them, and any serious fishermen, with the necessary skills they need to lead a successful and safe canoeing expedition.

“Our students put their newfound skills into action while traversing the awesome St. John and Allagash Rivers in northern Maine,” states Smith. “Throughout the trip, the instructors present real-life problem scenarios to be solved by the students, conditions that may come up in a guided expedition.”

Based in Wolfeboro Falls, New Hampshire, Jack Mountain uses a fleet of boats, which includes two handmade 20-foot wood/canvas White guide canoes, and five 18-foot Prospector canoes, made of Royalex. According to Smith, the Prospectors have been found to be the truest to the traditional hull designs.

The 2005 Canoe Expedition and Guide Training Course is a 23-day experience running from May 7 to May 29, at a cost of $2,450. For more information contact Tim Smith at Jack Mountain Bushcraft & Guide Service at 603-569-6150, or visit www.jackmtn.com .

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