About

Learn Primitive Living Skills from John Yost

John Yost wearing desert camouflage at Red Rock.
I waited 3 steps off the trail at Red Rock Natural Conservation Area in my desert camouflage to see how many people would notice me. Thirty six (36) people walked by before someone saw me.

My name is John Yost. If you want to learn wilderness survival skills that will help you keep your cool and make it out alive when everyone else bites the dust in a survival situation, you’ve come to the right place.

I’m going to share with you what I’ve learned from practicing survival skills for over 30 years, including my 13 years living in my totally off grid log cabin with no running water and no electricity in Central Wisconsin.

Please understand that I’m not a prepper. I don’t think the world is going to end. I don’t think there’s going to be an apocalypse. And I don’t believe in zombies. I just love practicing outdoor skills.

Ever since I was a kid running around in the fields, woods and rivers, I practiced with my little survival kit. I’ve had a life-long fascination with nature and that led me to a biology degree from the University of Wisconsin. But most of what I learned about primitive survival comes from 1000’s of hours out in nature practicing the survival skills I show you on this website and in my survival books.

I’ve spent weeks alone in the wilderness where I had only a knife and a pan to boil water in. Now, I take a knife and a Sawyer water filter or LifeStraw. I’ve been to 15 countries practicing my skills, often with the indigenous people.

Building fires is a crucial survival skill.
One of the most important survival skills is the ability to make a fire. Sometimes it can be a calming companion.

There isn’t much I haven’t done, and there’s not many people who can do what I can do. And I want to share what I know about wilderness survival skills with you.

So welcome, my friend, you are about to discover the secrets to survival. Some of the links below will take you an article, other links will take you to a main topic page where you can choose exactly what you want to learn about.

My favorite part of the website is the wilderness survival skills section. There you will find real primitive living skills. The stuff that makes living in nature easy and fun. Mastering the survival techniques in the wilderness survival skills area means you will comfortably in the wild as long as you want. It’s what truly allows me to be able to just pack a bag and walk into the woods forever. Sometimes it’s a good feeling knowing you can do that.

John Yost has these main sections of the website:

The Top 5 Survival Skills:

Survival Shelters: How to construct a shelter and stay protected from the elements.
Survival skills-How to build survival shelters

Water in a Survival Situation: Finding it and purifying water if need be.
Finding, filtering and purifying water in a survival situation

How to Make a Fire: Fire by friction and modern methods.
Using survival skills to make a fire

Survival Food: Finding and preparing edible plants, insects and animals in the woods.
Wild edible plants and animals for food in the wilderness.

Wilderness Navigation. How to find direction and navigate in the wilderness.
Wilderness navigation is an unnecessary survival skill if you are at home in the wilderness.

Wilderness Survival Skills: Survival skills for long-term survival, either months or years.
Discover wilderness survival skills and primitive living skills.

6 Replies to “About”

  1. Hi Bobbi! I do presentations for schools, Scouts, and 4H Groups often. I can certainly come to Door County and do a presentation for you and your students. I sent you an email with details if you want me to come up! šŸ™‚

  2. Thanks for reaching out, Kara. Your survival experience with the kids sounds great!
    I do outdoor survival skills presentations for schools, 4H Groups and Scouts. I sent you an email. šŸ™‚

  3. Thanks Buddy! It was great to catch up. I’ll be teaching outdoor skills classes in 2022 in Madison, WI. So, if you are around, give me a shout!

  4. Hello! My name is Kara Haughian; Iā€™m a sixth grade teacher in Cumberland, WI. Over the past 20+ year, the 6th-grade students and staff typically visit Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center in northern Minnesota, but due to the health and safety restrictions, we will not be able to attend this school year. So, the sixth grade staff has designed a survival skills and outdoor adventure experience called Beaver Ridge (our mascot is a beaver). The students will explore outdoor survival skills, participate in outdoor challenges and hear from several different speakers about their outdoor survival expertise to prepare for the final week spent outdoors. As the culminating activity, students will go to Scoutland, a Boy Scout camp, to apply what they have learned. We are wondering if you know of any local MN or WI outdoor survivalists or experts who do speaking engagements or if you’d be interested in speaking to our students? Excited to hear back from you! šŸ˜‰

  5. Dear John, Glad to see your survival skills taking off! I’ve been carving decorative fish as a hobby. Think of you often. Mom and Dad say hello. Sincerely, Tim Paetsch

  6. Hello John,

    I am an English teacher in Door County, WI and we do a survival unit for second quarter. I know it’s a long shot, but do you visit schools and talk with students at all? If so, how can I go about trying to arrange for you to come visit my classes?

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