At the Piked Antler Wilderness School, we’re all about Type 1.5 Fun, a healthy blend of Type 1 and Type 2 Fun.
Your Adventure is Calling You. Will you take the call? Or keep letting it ring?
We are located in Clyde, NC-30 minutes West of Asheville, NC
Ready to get into the woods?
Choose your path below.
Open to everyone
Scheduled Classes & Events
Navigation, deer processing, animal tracking, father & son events, and more. Browse what's coming up and grab your spot.
See what's coming up →
Custom experiences
Corporate & Private Events
Custom wilderness experiences for your team, company, or private group. We'll build it around you.
Plan your event →Not sure where to start? Book a free 15-min call
Events are held in Clyde, NC and Canton, NC near Asheville, NC
Yes, We Take This Seriously — and We Have Fun Doing It
This gives you a feel for who we are.
We teach real, useful wilderness skills — and we believe learning works best when people are relaxed, connected, and having fun.
If you’re smiling by the end, you’ll fit right in.
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The Piked Antler Project, LLC (DBA Piked Antler Wilderness School) is a veteran-owned company in Wester North Carolina founded in 2017, that offers powerful, hands-on experiences in the forest that build confidence, connection, and real-world skills. Through guided challenges, you may learn fire-building, navigation, shelter, tracking, medical skills and teamwork—no experience needed. Each event is designed to help you reconnect with yourself, others, and the natural world in a supportive, encouraging environment. This is growth through adventure—purposeful, unforgettable, and real.
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The Piked Antler classes are physically active but intentionally paced for learning and stamina. You'll be on your feet most of the day in all these courses, with structured breaks built in. How to Process Deer is more flexible—sit, snack, and hydrate as needed while staying hands-on and engaged. Expect movement, not exhaustion.
Who We’ve Worked With
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Asheville Area Habitat for Humanity hired Piked Antler Wilderness School in 2025 to host a one-day team experience for their nine-person home repair team with a goal of building deeper cohesion. What happened exceeded expectations. In the middle of the challenge phase — while tasks were still active — teammates stopped, embraced, and had real moments of connection, some with tears. Not at the end. Not during a debrief. During the challenge itself. That says everything about how fast this environment moves people.
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Haywood Community College hired Piked Antler Wilderness School four years in a row to host the survival skills portion of their Bobcat Summer Camp — 40 students per day. William White was also brought on as an adjunct professor teaching wilderness survival to adult students, covering medical, land navigation, fire making, knot tying, shelter building, water purification, edible and medicinal plants, tree identification, and how to apply these skills in a hunting context.
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First At Blue Ridge — an education, vocational training, therapeutic life skills, and aftercare center serving men and women in recovery — became a Piked Antler Wilderness School partner through one of William's own clients. A man who had found deep healing through wilderness immersion had also gone through recovery with First At Blue Ridge. He connected the two, and a partnership was born. Since 2020, Piked Antler Wilderness School has worked alongside First At Blue Ridge to bring their clients out of the office and off the couch — into the woods, into challenge, and into a different kind of healing.
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PrepperNet invited Piked Antler Wilderness School to teach at their well-known PrepperCamps — a nationally recognized gathering built around preparation and readiness for worst-case scenarios. William covered the primitive side of survival: navigating through the forest in an SHTF situation, wilderness medical, and the core skills that matter most when modern systems fail.
PrepperNet
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Gaia Herbs — one of the most respected herbal supplement companies in the country, based in Brevard, NC — entered into an exchange agreement with Piked Antler Wilderness School to manage the deer population on their 300-acre herb farm. A partnership built on mutual respect and a shared connection to the land.
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In 2024, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion joined forces to hire Piked Antler Wilderness School to build and host Veterans Rising — a military-style obstacle course experience designed to bring back the good memories, the camaraderie, the bond that only those who served truly understand. No civilians. No explanation needed. Just "the ones that understand" — together again, remembering what it felt like to be part of something bigger than themselves.
Click on their Logo to learn about our clients
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In September 2026, Piked Antler Wilderness School was hired by Victorinox through the Outdoor Media Summit to host a hands-on wilderness experience for 22 of the outdoor industry's most influential voices — magazine writers, podcast hosts, YouTubers, and Discovery Channel talent. The Outdoor Media Summit is where the industry's biggest names gather to experience new gear and products firsthand. Our role was to put the Victorinox Venture Pro to real work in the field, getting participants' hands dirty with its built-in ferro rod, bearing block, tweezers, and ballpoint pen. Not a product demo — a real experience, in the woods, with people who know the difference.
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In September 2026, Piked Antler Wilderness School was hired by Victorinox through the Outdoor Media Summit to host a hands-on wilderness experience for 22 of the outdoor industry's most influential voices — magazine writers, podcast hosts, YouTubers, and Discovery Channel talent. The Outdoor Media Summit is where the industry's biggest names gather to experience new gear and products firsthand. Our role was to put the Victorinox Venture Pro to real work in the field, getting participants' hands dirty with its built-in ferro rod, bearing block, tweezers, and ballpoint pen. Not a product demo — a real experience, in the woods, with people who know the difference.
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Authentic Endeavors is a community of like-minded people who found each other through a shared pursuit of real experiences in the outdoors. Their sister company, Armogan Consulting & Training helps the brave few to make it through Police Officer selections. Some of these faces are Piked Antler Wilderness School supporters, some are Authentic Endeavors supporters, and most are both. This photo says it all — four men, one young girl, one hunt, two deer in the cooler. That's what this is about.
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Heritage Life Skills is an annual event held by the famous Carolina Readiness Supply in Waynesville, NC — a nationally known preparedness retailer. Thousands of people gather each year to learn wilderness skills, bushcraft, home preparedness, home security, medicine, animal care, and worst-case scenario readiness. From 2019 to 2024, Piked Antler Wilderness School taught several courses annually at Heritage Life Skills, covering self-defense, psychology, and edible and medicinal plants. Thousands of attendees. Real skills. Real people ready to learn.
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Orlando City Pathfinders Club made the trip from Orlando, Florida to the mountains of Western North Carolina for a 50-person wilderness experience with Piked Antler Wilderness School. A youth organization with great leadership and a powerful mission — and it showed in how their group moved, worked together, and rose to every challenge. An exciting, high-energy event that left a mark on everyone who was there.
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Shining Rock Classical Academy has been a Piked Antler Wilderness School partner since before COVID hit — when William held weekly after-school wilderness and bushcraft courses for youth, teaching real skills in the field. In 2024, Shining Rock High School brought Piked Antler Wilderness School back for a 30-student event. The goal was simple: get kids off the desk chair, out of the classroom, and into the wild. Hands-on learning, teamwork, effort, grit — moving their bodies and discovering what they're capable of when you put something real in front of them.
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In 2025, HEAR.COM — a major corporate company out of Miami, Florida — brought 26 of their team members into the Appalachian Mountains for a wilderness team experience with Piked Antler Wilderness School. This was already a cohesive group. Strong leadership had done its job. Their objective wasn't to fix something broken — it was to shake people out of their comfort zone, take risks, and face high odds of failure on purpose. So that's exactly what we built. A course designed around their goals, their team, and their willingness to be uncomfortable. They came to unleash potential. We made sure they had to earn it.
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Veteran Healing Farm is a well-known nonprofit near Asheville, North Carolina dedicated to helping veterans find healing through gentle immersion in farm skills, gardening, and the outdoors — on a beautiful property built for exactly that purpose. Piked Antler Wilderness School hosted three events there, bringing our own touch to their model: a little intensity, a little effort, a little discomfort — the kind that reminds you what you're made of. Two events were challenge courses. One focused on edible and medicinal plants. Same healing environment, same mission — just with a Piked Antler edge.
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Warrior Clan is a veteran nonprofit with a powerful mission — helping our warriors stick around. Founder John Wayne (front left, pack on) came to experience what Piked Antler Wilderness School was building in 2025 — a four-hour course that ended with a grueling ascent to the top of a mountain. What happened during the challenge phase was a lesson nobody planned to teach. The red team fell way behind early. The blue team got comfortable, got confident, grabbed coffee, and started making mistakes. Enough mistakes that the red team clawed all the way back and took the win. John made it to the top. His team was still somewhere on the trail. Stay humble, my friend.
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In 2024, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion joined forces to hire Piked Antler Wilderness School to build and host Veterans Rising — a military-style obstacle course experience designed to bring back the good memories, the camaraderie, the bond that only those who served truly understand. No civilians. No explanation needed. Just "the ones that understand" — together again, remembering what it felt like to be part of something bigger than themselves.
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Hazelwood Gun and Tactical in Waynesville, NC invited Piked Antler Wilderness School to set up a booth and teach basic wilderness skills to their community of gun and outdoor enthusiasts in 2019.
What is the Piked Antler Wilderness School?
First, let us define “Piked.” The definition has several meanings, but the one that speaks on Piked Antler is this: To sharpen a natural object into a weapon.
While we are not shaping our clients into weapons of harm, but weapons to fight off death in the wilderness. When you have the skills to keep death at bay, you have become “Piked.”
The Piked Antler Wilderness School creates unforgettable adventure experiences through wilderness-based challenge courses that push your limits, build real teamwork, and reignite grit, respect, and self-worth.
It’s designed to wake you up — to rejuvenate, rewild, and remind you that you're fully alive.
Be sure to subscribe and/or get your free eBook to get updates on these life altering events.
The Piked Antler Wilderness School has locations in Clyde, Canton & Waynesville, NC and was founded in November 2017 by U.S Army Veteran, William White.
Piked Antler Project, LLC (DBA Piked Antler Wilderness School)
Camaraderie
Teamwork
Feel Alive Again
Life Saving Skills
Brotherhood & Growth
Community
Challenge Course
Natural Testosterone Boosts
A great experience with purpose….with positive side effects.
“I hesitated to come, but after the first time, I wished I had came sooner...much sooner.”
“I needed therapy, but after this, If feel clear, energized and ready to take on the world.”
“I felt like a kid again. I can’t wait to go back.”
Our mission is to provide you with the Wilderness skills to stay alive…
…by teaching you Real World Wilderness Skills that will TEST your GRIT, BUILD your WORTH and KEEP your ASS ALIVE!
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Warrior Clan
As a veteran and former law enforcement officer, Russ Conner wanted to do something to confront the issue of PTSD and suicide among veterans and first responders. In 2013, he founded Warrior Clan to create community and to join the fight against PTSD and suicide.
info@warriorclan.org
https://warriorclan.org
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Mountain Man Gun Worx
This man is great at what he does and a great person he's the only one I use anytime I need my guns worked on would definitely recommend and will be going again.
Cecil@mountainmangunworx.com
https://mountainmangunworx.com
LOCAL VETERAN OWNED BUSINESSES THAT WE SUPPORT AND WHO SUPPORT US.
Whether you’re surviving in the forest, the battle field, PTSD or just life, we all need each other at some point. The Warrior Clan and Mountain Man Worx are two local and Veteran owned companies that share a similar mission: To Help, Teach and Protect our community members.
All of us spent time overseas while in the U.S. Military fighting for our country. When we came home, we decided to keep the mission vision going. We all love helping our community members through counsel and teaching, and that is what we do.