Bushcraft Basics

Leon Pantenburg is the author of Survival Common Sense, a bushcrafting/wilderness survival website and blog that has been in continuous operation since October, 2009. Pantenburg is a wilderness enthusiast, and while he doesn't claim to be an expert survivalist, he has interviewed many who are. As a newspaperman and journalist for four decades covering all sorts of news stories, he has seen his share of floods and forest fires, hurricanes and tornadoes, earthquakes, mudslides, and other natural disasters. He's also reported on too many tragic outcomes from wilderness emergencies where common sense actions might have changed the tragic outcome. After graduating from Iowa State University in Ames, he completed a six-month, 2,552-mile solo Mississippi River canoe trip from the headwaters at Lake Itasca, Minnesota, to the Gulf of Mexico. His wilderness backpacking experience includes extended solos through Yellowstone's backcountry, hiking the John Muir Trail in California, and numerous shorter trips along the Pacific Crest Trail. From 2001 through 2017, when he relocated to Mississippi, Pantenburg was actively involved in a Boy Scout Troop in Bend, Oregon as an assistant Scoutmaster and as a Scoutmaster Wilderness Skills Trainer for the Boy Scouts' Fremont District. He now teaches common sense techniques to the average person in order to avert potential disasters. He resides in Mississippi with his family.