Adam Lougee is a Registered Maine Guide and certified Wilderness First Responder. He was raised in Campton, NH on a retired dairy farm that has been in his family for over 200 years. He attended Campton Elementary School, the Holderness School, and St. Lawrence University, and returned to Campton in 2018 after spending 18 years in Vermont.
There is no romantic story of a boy wandering the woods since he learned to walk. Truthfully, Adam was not interested in the natural world until he read Jon Krakauer’s book Into Thin Air while attending college and he decided he wanted to learn to climb ice. Every moment that first season felt awkward. The gear fit improperly, the snowshoes were inadequate for the terrain, and the backpack was tall enough to constantly push his head forward into the steep slope like a schoolyard bully. None of it was pretty and a lot of it was uncomfortable, but there was a moment at the top of Cinema Gully in Crawford Notch where Adam realized he had a perspective of the world that most of the people he knew would never experience. He persisted until things became less awkward.
Adam eventually developed an interest in bushcraft and learning traditional wilderness living skills, now preferring canoes and axes to crampons and ice tools. While the challenges are different, what remains similar is the standard to which the natural world holds one accountable. Some of it is emotional and all of it is physical. Living with the land requires one to assess their strengths and weaknesses in every moment.
Adam completed the Jack Mountain Bushcraft School Journeyman Certification in June of 2018 and earned the Registered Maine Guide patch soon after. In his spare time, he works a regular 9 to 5 job, volunteers with the Pemigewasset Valley Search and Rescue Team, and aims to design programming that fits similar lifestyles.
