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.
