This week I dive into one of the biggest discussions happening inside the Primitive Camping & Bushcraft Facebook group: are lightweight hiking chairs worth carrying or just extra weight? We look at real comments from group members, talk gear, comfort, multi-use items, and why there is no single right way to enjoy the outdoors.
The Primitive Camping & Bushcraft Facebook group has been growing fast, and with that growth comes some great discussions. In this episode, I take a look at a recent post that sparked a lively debate about lightweight hiking chairs.
Are they worth the weight?
Are they an unnecessary luxury?
Or are they one of those items that become more valuable the older we get?
Welcome back to the Primitive Camping and Bushcraft podcast, and I am your host, Chris Speir. And dude, let me tell you, we have got some stuff going on within the Facebook group, Primitive Camping and Bushcraft. And it has jumped from 7,000 people in a couple of months all the way up to 70,000 and 100 at the last count. That's crazy. And that's just in a few months. But today's episode of the podcast, I want to do something a little bit different here. I know it's been a while since I've been on, but we're going to go ahead and try something out. I'm working on camp wut-da-heck to try to fix it back up. I had a storm come through. It kind of destroyed the entire shelter. So, I I'll be putting that back together in the next week. So tonight, I am actually sitting in my computer room and I want to discuss some of the topics, especially one of the topics that I posted this morning on the in the group. And it's pertaining to equipment and gear. And it's crazy because, you know, it's got a substantial postreach where a lot of you folks out there that are members of the group have looked at it and you weighed in and you showed up. You didn't disappoint. And what it is is I I threw a picture out there of just the hiking chair. And I've been doing this for the past couple of weeks and just seeing what works, what doesn't work, you know, what actually helps people in conversation. What guides the conversation? And my job is the ad man for this, is just to push the conversation, nudge the conversation and facilitate it, if you will. So I threw this out because it's always been a good question of mine, you know, hiking chairs. So there seems to be a lot of debate about hiking chairs. Plain, simple. You know, it's just a chair. You fold it up, you bring it would you out to the great outdoors. You sit in it after a long day of hiking or, you know, fishing or whatever it is that you're out there doing. And you just have a place that's elevated up off the ground and you can sit in it and relax. Because I can tell you straight up from experience These chairs really help save the back. If you're sitting on a log or sitting on the ground after a couple of days, your back is going to be killing you. And I don't know if yours will, but I know mine did. And I don't know. It's probably all the patients I picked up when I was in the Air Force as a medic and constantly picking up 200 plus pound people and throwing them in the back of ambulances. But, you know, after a while, your back starts giving out on, you just starts hurting and everything. But that's neither here nor there. And then back to the subject, we're going to discuss this today, and we're going to talk about some of the comments that we got in there. I mean, we got several comments, what people prefer, what people think. So here's the question. So there's a lot of debate on hiking chairs, dot, dot, dot. What are your thoughts? Are they expensive gimmicks? question mark Are they worth it to you or are they just useless gear? As I slurp down the coffee, that's that's a substantial question there. There's a lot of questions in there. And I formulated that question like that just so that it would engage people to actually think about it. And that's what we got. We got plenty, oh, plenty, oh comment. So let's check some of them out. John. John Schultz. I love mine. Light and small. And he takes his everywhere he goes camping, hiking, fishing with the kids, sports games. He said, it's way easier to carry a couple, little bag than load up a large chair and move through a crowd whenever you change fields it's several times a day with his daughter's softball term. That's pretty cool. I never thought of it that way. I'll go ahead and hit that light button and reply. As I'm going over this on the podcast reading your comment, I never have thought about using it in a situation like that. All right, so I could talk a lot faster and I could type it. So. You know, John West, you know, he put lots of decently priced lighterweight chairs now. And he says, he's got to have his. So his wife carries two, just to prop up her feet. And He said he can't talk her out of that. That's pretty cool. Old Dennis Bunch, mine has worked it and the folding table as well. So they got a folding table version of these chairs? When I'm ready to kick back after a long day on the trail, I'm glad I haven't. Also, like having a table to prepare my food. I don't have to craft it altogether. Oh, I got that. Old Dennis. Good fella, good fella. Now, Daniel said, I bought one and I won't go without it now, Daniel Smith. So starting to see a consensus here where people are thinking that, hey, yeah, they're fantastic. Now, you got different folks on here, like M Cal, M. Caudle. I think I know who that is or that name. Yeah. It depends on environment and purpose. An Oounce mountaineering three legged stool was worth every ounce when stomping around body armor and wearing a sort of 55 pounds pounds walking around weight. Yes, it was. For non overnight hikes, you know, square canvas works. Scout camp, car camping, chairs like that. All right. So, you know, everybody's got different different aspects of why they like these kind of things. Now, I want There's another one out there. I'm probably going to throw a picture of it up sometime this week. That, what's crazy. Is this, I use this thing for different deer hunting all the time. This a millennium tree seat? I don't know if you've ever seen that. Excuse me, a millennium tree seat. No, this thing a attached to any tree. And you can adjust the height, how high you want to sit on it. And, you know, it just straps on and then your body weight actually holds it to the tree. And, buddy, I'm telling you right now, I have used this thing. It only weighs two pounds, but it's bulkier. It's bigger than a fold up chair. Now, you could probably rig it up somehow to be a frame to a backpack, some kind of rook sack. It could probably be rigged up that way. I'll have to post a photo of that, some kind of picture of that this week. But that is a pretty interesting little chair that I absolutely, absolutely love to use. Now, there's another chair. that I have. It's a Sportsman's Warehouse brand. And it's one of it's one of those portable, lightweight, ultra light. This is lighter than the one that you get. and a department store or whatever. And it was, I think it was roughly 80 to a hundred bucks somewhere in there, somewhere in that range. But it's a high back and it's got a high back where you can actually lean back in the thing. And I have used it many times. And absolutely love it because it is it's got a lot of support. You don't feel like you're just like laying back. You know, you actually feel like you're in a chair. And that's the difference is you feel like you're sitting in a deadgum chair. And that's that's what I really love about that thing. So... I got all kinds of comments in here, like, when you need to sit down, they're fantastic. That's from Gary. And then Keith Whitehouse, best investment for long through hikes, kicking out the miles on trail, then chilling in his Hillenox chair. So that's going to be your higher end stuff. I got the Helenox ultralight caught. And it's only like two pounds, something, something silly. It's like extremely lightweight and it's very comfortable. And, uh, yeah, so if that's let's see, he's got a picture on here. And boy, he's got a pretty good bit of gear on there. Boy, if you haven't got in and looked at the stuff the way people load their stuff up, and I encourage you. If you're not a member of the Facebook group, Primitive camping and Bushcraft, join the group and it don't cost you anything. You get up in here and you see different aspects of how people load their gear. It looks like he's got an oxygen mask in there and he's got some flippy floppies. And he's got his backpack. all his gear. So, yeah, you learn stuff by seeing and talking and discussing. And, you know, we got,, we got some prominent individuals in the survival community and the Bushcraft community that are members of this group as well, you know, survival instructors and of the such. We' got people with a few million followers in such, you know, all up in here. You can learn something from anybody. And, you know, the follower count thing is very deceptive because you don't. just because they have a large following does not mean that they're that much smarter. And I love how people are starting to take the time and discuss stuff with other folk in this group. And when somebody new joins the group, it's actually a welcoming environment. And so, yeah. And so the the Facebook group, Prim Camp at Bushcraft is what this podcast is all about. The book that I wrote, Prim of Camp and Bushcraft and the group. And, you know, this podcast is all hand in hand. And what is what it's trying to do is put together an ecosystem of individuals, a group, a community, a group of like-minded individuals that would like to teach each other and help each other learn because just because you have different experiences, different skill sets does not mean that the person that does not have that skill set is any less of value than you. And I really, really, really love the idea of how everything's starting to come together and people are really actually communicating and we're not seeing a lot of hate. And plus, I got a real good admin group on here that, hey, I don't care who you are. If you break the rules, you go. It's like plain and simple. And that's the way it is. Louis M. French, and he just, he said it plainly on here 12 hours ago. Good discussion. And it is. It is a very good discussion. And I replied back to him and I said, very good discussion. You know, John Walker, elderly mean. I carry a sixgon plastic bucking, bucket, and an Alice pack with a toilet lid on it. His waffle pad wrapped around, the inside, mummy bag rolled up on the inside poncho, rain suit, tarp, and then now he has a chair, a toilet, a table, a bucket. His ancient knees, hips back. Thank him. And, you know, he says, he goes in here to say that he jumped out of too many helicopters off of too many APCs and trucks and wreck too many motorcycles. And what he says, the VA is calling a colorful life. Yeah, John, I hear you, man. I hear you. So you got people saying, I like them? You got people saying, I don't mind them. I don't mind carrying it. It's not useless. And I really love the idea that we have like 52 different people commenting on a post about a dead gun chair, you know? And I mean, you got somebody, you got Rawson here, he's saying that you can get one for $40. It's two to three pounds or you can spend $150 for one that's one pound. And that's so true. It does not matter. It depends on how much money you want to spend on a certain thing.. And that's been a lot of topics, a lot of the questions that I've been looking at here lately and posting. Is this gear worth it? Is it a gimmick or is it worth it? Is it actually useful for something? Does it have more than one use? And that's the real aspect of whenever you start loading stuff up and head out to the great outdoors. Are the things that you loaded up and took with you? Do they have more than one use? Are they multiuse? That's the big question. A multiuse item. Because if you can get more than one use out of it, you're cutting your weight down. Yeah, I get it. There's people that's going to be one is none. You know, two is one and one is none. And I get it. I understand that. I understand the concept. But, I mean, let's think of it this way. I got a post coming up in a couple of weeks. I scheduled the post out for 29 days and that way it gives me time to take more pictures and, you know, work on more posts and shoot some videos of the such. But here is a multi-use item. I had on. Plain and simple. It can be used for more than one thing, right? Bus points for whoever can answer that. What can it be used for?. Well, you can purify your water with it, and you can answer actually clean wounds with it. disinfect. And, you know, they say it's not the best thing in the world to put eye iron or bated on or whatever on your open wounds, open cuts. But if it comes on to it and you have to disinfect a wound, then that's all you got. And guess what? That's what it's going to get. So, but anyway, back to the main subject. You know, if you have an item that you're bringing with you that has more than one used, let's talk about the bucket that he mentioned while ago. And he brings a bucket with him. A six gallon plastic bucket. It has more than one use. You could use it for many things, and it could be used as a chair, and it's relatively lightweight. And you could use it as a sack your backpack, haul everything you got in a bucket. And there you go. Lightweight, durable.. And I know there's some loyalist, purists, bushcraft purists out there that, oh, you got to weave your bucket. You got to weave it. You got to, you know, and I get that. I get it. I've had the discussion in the past week with a couple individuals on the group that they was like, huh, you're using, I forget what it was now, a big lighter. I don't know. It was something. And. And there was like, oh, how's this perimemitive bushcraft? And I'm like, dude, it's. Because people might, oh, it was an air mattress. It was using an air mattress or an air pump to blow up a mattress. And somebody says something about primitive and it started laughing. And I was like, dude, we got a lot of individuals in here that either because of medical problems, injuries, and the such, we have a lot of veterans in here that have seen real combat and have real injuries. You know, we just discussed something, jumping off the APCs and trucks and, you know, jumping out of too many helicopters and the such. These individuals have hurt bikes, hurt legs, you know, and of the such. And if bringing a small two ounce or three ounce air pump to pump up a three ounce or four ounce air mattress to make their stay in the woods more comfortable. What business is it of yours? You know, and I'm sorry. I'm just, I'm just out there. I'm being honest. I'm just throwing it out there. What business is it of yours? And, you know, there's no wrong answer. There's no wrong way. If you have X, Y, and Z and it makes you more comfortable in the great outdoors, then you bring X, YZ with you. Now, what I will encourage you is like these chairs. Do you actually need it? Will you actually need X, Y and Z? Does, quote, unquote, X Y and Z actually serve more than one purpose? All right, let's look at that. If you have a AirPod,. I would argue, yes, it does have more than one purpose. It probably has several purposes, but one is to pump up your mattress. Given. One's the deflature mattress. Given. So that's two purposes right there. You're going to use it for, you don't have to have one for deflating. You don't have to have one to inflate. You know, you can use your lungs. Someone said that. Just use your lungs. Okay. COPD is a real thing, guys. Anyway, you can use it to blow a fire. Could you not? Would a small air pump could it actually be used to blow a fire in the fl flames? Yes, he could. So, what other purposes? If you throw it into comments, what other purposes could you use a little air pump for? Hmm. But getting back to the chair, you know, we have some individual, I think James Andrew here, he says, is completely worth it to avoid sitting in the dirt while enjoying a good meal is especially after a long day of hiking. And I really think that a chair does that. I really do. I really think that it gives you some peace of mind. It gives you some comfort. It gives you some, some comforts of home and allows you to relax. And by the way, James, tomorrow, I am going to, I'm going to make your picture that you posted the group, the group banner for the week. I'm going to start changing that picture every week. You guys are throwing out some awesome pictures and I really, really, really, really am considering, I think, yeah, every week. It's set sten now. Every week, I'm going to change that matter. The group cover. So, Paul Gill. Paul Gill says the Helenox Chair one extraore size is definitely worth it. Most are too heavy to carry are too bulky, or low weight rated. And the seat in position is too low, which I agree. I touched on that earlier. You know, some of of these little chairs are a little bit too low. You feel like you're just squatting down. You could have just sat on the ground. You're only six inches off the ground anyway. And he says that he is a hefty guy. And this chair, he has found that is excellent. Hmm. Well, that, uh.. That is pretty nifty. I'll have to look up the Helenox Chair one. Let's see. Let's tape that in here and see what it comes up. Heen Knoxs chair one. Heen Knox. Heen Knox, Chair one. XL is what that he said it was. Come on, work with me here. So they have the heal of Knox on XL. It's 131 bucks. So I bought a high back, non-named brand, Sportsman's Warehouse, Ultra light hiking chair. And it was 80 bucks, I guess, between 80 and00 somewhere in there. I don't recall. It was like four or five years ago about this thing. And, so the Helenox is only, you know, h, $50 for. But what he's saying is that it's well worth it. You know, it's Asia large size. And so if you're looking at that, huh, that's crazy. What? Home Depot sells them? That's crazy. But, yeah. So, I mean, dude, let me see. You can, they got climate backpacking chairs. No Casey Freeman. says, the older I get, the more I'm uncomfortable on the ground or a log. So to me, it's worth having a lightweight chair. And, yes, it very much is. So it's it's a very interesting piece of gear. And so so far, let's see here, you know, we got, we got 57 comments and almost 3,000 people have looked at this and interacted with it, you know. So. old Chris Javel, the older I get, the ground seems to be harder than it used to be. I talked to Chris on the phone at least once a week or, you know, here lately, once every couple weeks. He is trying to get a new job. hope you don't mind me telling everybody, Chris, but he's trying to get him a new job. And so if you don't mind, just throw a prayer out there. Pray for him. And just pray that this is the direction that the Lord really wants him to take. He's had to step up as a pastor at his church and doing a lot more preaching. And so he's looking at taking another job a little closer to home. So dear Lord, blessing, and let your will be done. So anyway, going on moving on to to the chair and the equipment and stuff like that. You know, we we're going to go over this a couple more times this week., we got some more posts I want to get to. And so I think so the next couple of podcasts episodes, we're just going to go over comments and stuff like that within the within the group. I'm talking about real comments and real concerns and real everything from the group and stuff that real people are really posting. And, you know, don't just take it from me. I, you know, I may try to push the conversation along and stimulate some conversation through there. But, dude, we got some great individuals in there doing some real good conversations and posting some good content. And, you know, it's real questions. It's real questions. How would you do this? Or, you know, here I'm taking my family member with me camping for the first time. We got some comment. I got a post the other day in there where someone took their boys fishing for the first time. That's awesome. That's what it's about. That's why we are here to encourage that kind of behavior, tocourage that, encourage that kind of lifestyle. We're not here to put you down. We're not. You know what? If this is your first time going, God bless you. Get out there and do it. If you got any questions, is there any way that I can help you or members of this group can help you, let us know. Throw a comment out there. And, you know, there's been a couple of comments in there where people were interested in certain places of having some kind of camping meetup. I would love to do that, you know, but I'm in South Mississippi. I'm at the complete bottom end of the whole world, it seems like. And, I'm one of those where I'm like, yeah, I'll do this. But, you know, I don't want everybody to go broke just trying to get down here to do a camping trip. So, but anyway. All right. That's it for today's episode. And we're going to pick up next week. and we'll discuss some more stuff. So, look, guys, I really appreciate all your support. I appreciate all the people reaching out to me over the past couple of months. Life has been lifing and yeah, it has been a roller coaster ride, but, you know, God's in control. God's in charge, and God is directing our paths. So I'm just going to let you know straight up that I hear we're going to be kicking this off and try to be at least way more consistent with it. So anyway, remember, acknowledge him in everything that you do and let him direct your path. All right, guys. So I'll see you next week. God bless you.