OUR STORY...
Black Oak Wilderness School began in 2017 with a single friction fire class.
What started as a small gathering quickly evolved into something much larger. Between 2019 and 2023, we partnered with public schools across Northern California to deliver immersive outdoor electives serving more than 400 students each week with a team of eight instructors.
Over time, though, something became clear.
The most meaningful moments were rarely the biggest ones. They happened around campfires. On long walks through the woods. We call them perspective changing moments. In the slow process of learning something difficult, real, and deeply human, we learn most about ourselves. Both who we are, and who we want to be.
So after COVID, we made a deliberate shift.
Instead of continuing to scale outward, we chose to go deeper — returning to smaller groups, stronger mentorship, immersive experiences, and a higher standard of instruction.
Today, Black Oak Wilderness School is shaped by that decision. Our programs blend traditional wilderness skills, storytelling, creativity, leadership, and hands-on adventure into experiences designed to build confidence, competence, resilience, and connection.
ARTISAN
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Creativity
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Discipline
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Craftsmanship
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Ingenuity
THE GUILDS
TRACKER
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Awareness
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Patience
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Focus
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Presence
WAYFINDER
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Courage
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Adaptability
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Curiosity
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Initiative
Our youth camps are organized into skill-based guilds — a fun, story-driven system that gives students shared identities, mentorship paths, and a sense of belonging as they explore different aspects of wilderness living.
FORAGER
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Reciprocity
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Stewardship
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Gratitude
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Balance
BARD
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Expression
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Storytelling
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Joy
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Connection
WHAT WE OFFER
Black Oak Wilderness School delivers hands-on outdoor programs for youth, teens, and adults- focused on building confidence, independence, and real world skills through guided experience.
Participants learn to problem-solve in real conditions, work with real landscape, and develop skills that hold up beyond controlled settings.
Our training is built on:
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Traditional wilderness skills (inspired by Tom Brown Jr. & BOSS.)
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Modern survival systems and risk management
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Years of hands-on instruction, leadership training, and outdoor education
Our programs are designed with intention -prioritizing depth over scale, and skill over surface level experience.
LED BY EXPERIENCE
I’ve spent over 20 years working across traditional wilderness skills, land-based education, and immersive outdoor instruction.
My background draws from multiple lineages—ranging from traditional skills schools and nature-based mentorship to modern survival systems, risk management, and field-based leadership training. Over the years, I’ve focused deeply on tracking, firecraft, shelter systems, tool use, navigation, foraging, and working directly with natural materials in real environments.
I founded Black Oak Wilderness School to create the kind of learning environment I wished existed when I was younger: one that treats wilderness skills not as novelty or nostalgia, but as meaningful tools for confidence, resilience, creativity, and human connection.
Since 2017, that work has grown from small grassroots classes into large-scale youth and adult programs, including partnerships with public schools serving hundreds of students each week. Alongside that work, I’ve trained in advanced field environments, including SEER-style programs and instruction with military personnel, while continuing to teach everything from intimate mentorship-based intensives to large community gatherings.
Today, the program reflects a deliberate shift toward something more intentional: immersive, story-driven outdoor education that blends technical skill with culture, creativity, mentorship, and adventure.
The goal has never been simply to teach people how to survive outdoors. It’s to help people become more capable, observant, grounded, and connected—to themselves, to each other, and to the living world around them.
We're currently expanding our collection of program photos. Until then, some images on this website may be AI-assisted or digitally enhanced to help illustrate activities, skills, and experiences offered through Black Oak Wilderness School.