WWS Immersion Course Q & A

We are, Shirli and I, about to begin penning the next chapter of our lives.

To say that we are excited about the blank pages awaiting ahead of us is a bit of an understatement.

Our new digs up in the woods has been a long time in the making. The woods environment at the cabin affords us the peaceful natural serenity that we both personally need in our daily lives. It also provides us with an atmosphere, away from the hustle and bustle of mainstream society, where we can more fully practice and appreciate our lifestyle of self-reliant living.

What I want to do in this blog article is to address a few questions regarding Woodsmoke Woodcraft School. The question and answer format will, hopefully, be clarifying and explanatory for those reading it.

What prompted me to start WWS?

I had been thinking about doing something like this for quite some time.

A few years ago, a good friend asked me if I would help with a project that he was working on with his College and Career age Sunday School Class. They were planning a weekend survival exercise before these young people graduated and went off on their own into the world. My part in the deal was to set up and give these youth a block of instruction … basically a crash course … that focused on the Four Essentials for Survival … Shelter, Hydration, Fire, and Food.

That was the humble beginning of something that I've always spoken of as of all the good and meaningful things I've done … this is the most personally rewarding.

Where did I learn these skills?

This has been an ongoing course of learning for me that began early on in life as a poor farm boy growing up.

When most other boys were playing extracurricular sports, going to Scout meetings, or hanging out in the town park, I was exploring and hanging out in the woods and along the creeks. I've been in, close to, or longing to be in the woods all these years. There have been seasons here and there that kept me out of the woods. Those were miserable seasons. Maybe necessary at the time but, nonetheless, miserable. I took up golf ... imagine that ... during one of those seasons and got fairly good at it. But it was no viable substitute for hunting, fishing, camping, trapping, and generally wandering the woods.

I'm still learning. As Horace Kephart said, “In the school of the woods, there is no graduation day.” Why? Because there is always more to learn. Especially where identifying and utilizing natural resources are concerned. Nature is a classroom with an extremely vast curriculum.

Am I self-taught?

I have difficulty accepting self-taught as a valid concept.

Most of what we learn is taught to us by someone in one way or another. Even when we figure something out … supposedly on our own ... it is because someone taught us the skills necessary to work through a problem or challenge, see a solution, and manipulate a positive result.

I have had an innumerable number of teachers along the way. And will, as long as I breathe and have mental capacity, have more teachers.

I read. I study. I observe. I practice until I am proficient.

This thing … call it woodcraft or bushcraft or survivalcraft or whatevercraft … isn't neurosurgery. Learning how to survive in a wilderness setting doesn't take a PhD from XYZ University either.

What these do require is an investment of time and a commitment to learn. It involves assembling a specific tool kit to successfully accomplish the mission.

One does not necessarily have to enroll in a course at a bushcraft or wilderness survival school to learn these skills. People can, and do, learn a lot on their own when they apply themselves. Immersion type courses with an instructor do, however, make it a lot easier to get started. Especially for people unfamiliar with woods life and the natural laws that prevail in the woods.

What is a WWS Immersion Course?

An Immersion Course is a weekend basic wilderness skills training course.

Participants arrive on Friday at a designated drive-in location with their prescribed gear (KIT). Orientation, gear review, and set-up begins at 1:00 with instruction on course specific content during the afternoon. More course content is covered Saturday morning. We pack up Saturday afternoon and hike in for an overnight at a wilderness location that removes participants from familiar amenities and requires them to utilize their kit out there in a Lower Alabama woodland environment. We hike out Sunday morning, summarize, evaluate, and wrap it up at 1:00.

Although numerous related subjects naturally arise during the course, the Immersion Course focuses primarily on the four essentials for survival ... Hydration, Shelter, Fire-Making, and Food … and how to safely satisfy these basic human needs with the items in our kit and the resources that surround us.

How rigorous is a WWS Immersion Course?

That really depends upon the physical condition and health of participants.

What we do during a Basic Skills Immersion Course is done outdoors in the elements that are natural aspects of the outdoors. What we do is done with prescribed minimal gear. Simply being outdoors, for some, may seem rigorous. A weekend without the conveniences and entertainments of modern amenities, for some, may seem rigorous. A weekend without the pseudo-security of having insulated walls and locked doors, for some, may seem rigorous.

Participants should, ideally, be in good enough physical shape to hike a couple of miles with 30-35 pounds on their backs. We do not do the miles in a fashion that resembles a forced march. We set a casual pace and take breaks along the way. Rushing through wilderness settings is a good way to miss out on opportunities afforded in natural settings. Rushing is also a good way to set yourself up for some sort of mishap.

What are my goals for WWS at this point?

There are two goals and they are the same now as they were from the very beginning.

The first is to offer course opportunities for people to learn important foundational skills that assist them in preparing for unforeseen circumstances. This is the taught part. I teach people skills that can keep them alive. People learn. There's a lot of personal reward in seeing people learn.

The second is different from the first in that it is not something that can be taught. It's something residential in the caught department. It's that thing where people begin to see the surrounding natural environment as a benevolent friend to be embraced rather than as a foe to be feared.

Some fall in love with the woods in their first encounter. Some develop a love affair with the woods over time. Some never get it.