About

My name is John, and I live in Wisconsin with my wife Amanda and our kids. Wilderness Catholic is where two parts of our life meet: the Catholic faith and the time we spend outdoors. For us that has meant summer camping trips, Wisconsin deer seasons, and canoe country in the Boundary Waters.

My day job is running a video production studio called Backflip with my business partner Ryan.

A few days into a canoe trip, the day gets small enough that you’re mostly noticing whether you’re hungry, whether you’re cold, and whether the fire needs another log. The part of your mind that spends most days rehearsing yesterday and negotiating tomorrow finally gets to rest. I think that’s worth going out for, and I think the point of going is who you are when you get home.

The Gospels keep mentioning that Christ withdrew to deserted places to pray, and the Church has treated the wilderness as a place of testing and quiet ever since. Deserted places are harder to come by now that a phone rides along in every pocket, and a lake with no signal is one of the few left.

This is for other people who live in both worlds too: families who want their faith to come along on the trail, fathers looking for formation that doesn’t feel like a workbook, and anyone who has found that faith gets more real out there.

If any of this sounds like your life, I’d love to have you along. Subscribe on YouTube, follow on Instagram, or get on the list for when the shop opens. This is a small thing right now, and I’m building it slowly.