John is a native
Ohioan who traces his love of the outdoors to his childhood
visits to his grandparents in the mountains of Pennsylvania. It
was cemented by his experiences as a Boy Scout. (Ask him about
his first winter campout!) He recently "retired" after about 30
years as a Scout leader to "make more time available for Coyote
Trails!" He has been offering classes in primitive and survival
skills for several years at Audubon Ecoweekend, Metro Parks,
including special classes for naturalists, classroom educators,
and home schoolers, NWTF Women in the Outdoors Programs,
Medicine Woods Nature Center, and has been helping with the
Coyote Trails Adventure Club at New Albany Middle School.
John's favorite skills to teach are bow-drill fire making,
awareness, cordage and knots, winter camping, and the one he
started with in 1991, "Outfitting for Survival." When asked to
pick just one, John replied, "It would have to be
Awareness...it can open the door to all the others and so much
more." Some of his class handouts have been edited by his
friend Walking Crow and published in Backwoodsman Magazine.
