Primitive ways in the woods

By ROB BREEDING

Instructor teaches 'a purer way to be close to nature'

The Daily Inter Lake

The outdoor gadget business is booming.

But bucking that trend is a growing interest in the most primitive of outdoor skills: camouflage made from natural ingredients or hunting using traditional long bows or rudimentary black-powder firearms, for example.

Even the resurgence in fly fishing - despite the industry's obsession with high-tech materials - has at its root a desire for a more direct connection nature.

And while many people just dabble in the primitive, Bill McConnell, the founder of Bozeman-based Past Skills Wilderness School, has made it the focus of his life.

"Since I was about four, my grandfather has been training me in these things," McConnell said. "In my early 20s I started seeking other trainers."

That quest brought McConnell to the wilderness survival school of Tom Brown Jr. in the pine barrens of southern New Jersey. Brown is a longtime wilderness survival teacher and author of more than half a dozen books on outdoor survival techniques and philosophy.

McConnell is a former instructor in Brown's school.

In February McConnell and his wife, Kristy, launched Past Skills. This summer, McConnell will offer three courses in the Flathead Valley. The first, The Sacred Art of Tracking, begins June 22. Other courses deal with camouflage and awareness.

While McConnell isn't predicting an end to Americans' obsession with outdoor technology, he plans to tap into the new interest in the old.

"There's really a renaissance going on in these primitive skills," McConnell said. "It's a purer way to be close to nature. I think these skills are really a doorway into that."

In his tracking course, McConnell teaches students to see what they cannot see. There are usually tracks everywhere, but only occasionally do animals step into soft soil or some other medium that leaves an obvious track.

"The problem is that people only stare at the tracks they can see," McConnell said. "Ideally, by the end of the class, when I ask you to find tracks, all you have to do is look down."

One of McConnell's biggest challenges as a teacher is getting his students to overcome the biases of modern society. In his camouflage course, McConnell emphasizes the use of positive and negative space as a means of concealment.

People in a modern society tend to see nature a certain way, McConnell said. Their eyes are drawn from "prominent object to prominent object to prominent object" (positive space) while the stuff in between (negative space) tends to blur.

Camouflage has obvious benefits for Montana hunters and anglers. But a Past Skills course such as the Scared Art of Awareness can pay big dividends as well.

Todd Tanner, a Bigfork-based outdoor writer and former big-game and fly-fishing guide, said he's never been afield with a hunter or angler who could match McConnell's skill.

"I can't believe how effective he is at seeing game and reading sign," Tanner said. "When you are around Bill you realize how much you miss."

McConnell's techniques are useful for more than just seeking a more intense relationship with nature. Many of his former students are now using what McConnell teaches to be successful in the ultimate test of survival: modern warfare in Iraq.

"These skills transcend wilderness skills," McConnell said. "These are survival skills."

Despite a focus on the primitive, McConnell's work has had some unusual intersections with pop culture. McConnell received vocal credit on "Lipan Conjuring," a song on the hard rock band Tool's "10,000 Days" CD. The CD is No. 7 on the Billboard Top 200 chart and peaked at No. 1, earning platinum status with more than 1 million albums shipped.

McConnell sings a Lipan Apache chant as a tribute to Stalking Wolf, a Lipan Apache elder who was trained in the old ways by his grandfather, Coyote Thunder.

Coyote Thunder was a member of the west Texas tribe who never resorted to life on the reservation, instead maintaining the traditional Lipan ways which he ultimately passed to his grandson.

Years ago, while visiting family in New Jersey, Stalking Wolf met 7-year-old Tom Brown Jr. Stalking Wolf became Brown's mentor (and Brown his mentor's lone student) for the next 11 years. Brown, in turn, became McConnell's teacher.

So while there is a role for technology in people's lives, it's probably not a good idea to show up for McConnell's Sacred Art of Awareness course sporting an iPod, even if it's blasting the sacred art of Tool.