Age: 46

Hometown: Cherryfield, ME

Profession: Educational Consultant

Michelle was raised on the Maine coast, where she grew up exploring the forest and seaside areas. She spent a majority of her free time outdoors with her older brother wandering the woods, fishing off the town wharf, combing the shore, and generally getting up to childhood mischief. Her mother, a teacher, and her uncle, an avid outdoorsman, had a significant hand in inspiring her love of nature. They taught her all about the incredible world around her and would always take her camping and fishing.

Michelle received her degree in elementary education but, instead of entering the classroom after graduation, she chose to pursue bushcraft studies. She lived primitively in a semi-subterranean dwelling for nearly two years, taking classes and practicing various skills such as tracking, shelter making and wild edible identification. For years, Michelle ran and assisted trainings for adults and children to help them connect with the wilderness.

Eventually, she ended up in a public school in bush Alaska, teaching Siberian Yup’ik children on a remote island off the coast of Nome, where she continued to learn traditional skills from the village elders. There, she met her husband Doug, also a teacher, and they now make their home in rural Maine renovating a farmhouse from the 1820s.

When not providing professional development to teachers around the country, Michelle can be found traveling the world, practicing indigenous skills, scuba diving, and gardening. She looks forward to connecting with an amazing new wilderness area and learning as much as she possibly can from the land with all of the challenges and opportunities it will offer.

Here are the ten items Michelle selected to bring on her survival journey to Grizzly Mountain:

1. Sleeping bag

2. Pot

3. Ferro Rod

4. Multitool

5. Saw

6. Axe

7. Snare wire

8. Fishing line and hooks

9. Bow and Arrows

10. Paracord