Travis Johnson(XXIV)
Travis Johnson is the Founder and Senior Survival Skills Instructor for
Northwest Survival School and has been perfecting his skills every day
for well over 25 years. His love for the outdoors started at a very
young age while he found himself continually wondering off out into the
mountains and woods around his home. During that time, he discovered
that he feared nothing which in turn encouraged him to learn the ways
of the wilderness. He grew up in Eastern Washington near a small town
called Clayton, Washington which is just northwest of Spokane,
Washington. He was surrounded by acres and acres of wilderness and
mountains just right outside his childhood home so he was able to
simply walk out his door and submerge himself in nature. His father was an avid outdoors man who taught him a lot
about the outdoors. Together, they would go gold prospecting and they
would spend quite a bit of time out in the wilderness. His mother also
contributed in her own special way by taking him to different locations
all around the northwest to educate him on the way people lived before
modern man came along. As he became a teenager the passion for the
outdoors never faded from him. At the ripe age of seventeen, Travis
worked as an outfitter in the Northern Cascades for several years
guiding people deep into the wilderness for hunting, fishing, and other
outdoor activities. As a wrangler for the guide company, he would set
out into the mountains alone most of the time and many days before the
rest of the group leading anywhere from seven to fifteen pack mules. He
would make food for the clients from wild edibles and prepare meat the
way the natives would. Part of his job was to also set up camps and
guide the clients further into the wildness to show them where the game
they were hunting was located. He would then dress and quarter the
animals for the clients. He would also teach the clients survival
skills and first aid in case of an accident. Later as he got older he
found himself in the deserts of Arizona where he lived for a brief
amount of time. This is where he was able to develop some special
survival skills from local native Indians in the southwest. His goal
was to learn as much as possible from the people who are true
survivalists since over the centuries, they had perfected their own
skills just to survive day to day off the land. The natives that Travis
would come into contact with from all around the world would give him
much respect when they saw that his intentions were clear and his
purpose was to inform people of the skills used for thousands of years
by the people who knew best. They also knew that he would ensure to
keep these ancient skills alive. A lot of his skills and knowledge was
gained by Native Americans and indigenous peoples from around the globe
including his own real life experiences. His step father was a full
blooded Northern Cheyenne Indian from Eastern Montana. He learned from
his step-father the ancient ways of the tribe, preparing food,
trapping, creating tools and utilizing nature's resources to survive.
Travis has studied the ways of several different indigenous people from
all walks of life and passes this knowledge on to his students. Travis
has also lived in the wilds of the Northern Cascades for well over a
year on his own living only off the land in a bush shelter with very
little tools at his disposal. He ended up making everything he needed
to sustain his life except for every once in a while, he would have to
walk to the nearest town which was a 23 mile walk when he was in need
of certain items. He has worked as a first Responder-SRU (Special
Response Unit) for Okanogan County Fire and Rescue in Washington State.
He has been contracted by the USFS and DNR to work on wildfires during
the North Cascades forest fire seasons in the early 1990's and has
worked on search and rescue missions as well. He is a member of the
prestigious Sierra Club, Wilderness Society, American and the Mountain
Guides Association. He is an Ambassador for the Worldwide Scouting
Organization-(Messengers of Peace), a certified self-defense
instructor, wilderness first aid, CPR instructor and is currently
working closely with Shelter Box USA. He is currently producing and
hosting a survival radio show. He also has written several survival
books, manuals and is filming an educational DVD series on survival
which includes the necessary knowledge to overcome any obstacle that
might arise in a survival situation. He has been an integral part in
several radio interviews and other media productions. He is also
well-known for being a film-maker and a producer of outdoor films
including a new documentary which is currently in production called
"There's Only One Wilderness" and he has just been staffed on a New
upcoming television series called: Survival Trek Escape" for which he
is the Field Producer, Adviser to the Host, and Location scout. He
truly teaches what he has lived and he has trained many great
survivalists from all over the world.