In this raw and reflective episode, Chris Speir relaunches the Primitive Camping & Bushcraft Podcast from Camp Wut-Da-Heck—a tribute to his late friend Scooter and the roots of outdoor authenticity. He shares why he's stepping back from chasing algorithms to build a meaningful community through purpose-driven content, faith, and real skills by the fire.
Episode Highlights:
Why Chris pulled back from social media and content creation
The heart behind the new Camp Wut-Da-Heck and its connection to his friend Scooter
What’s changing with the podcast and YouTube moving forward
Replacing quick “hacks” with real stories, real skills, and real purpose
Announcement of upcoming audio-only episodes recorded outdoors under tarp
The launch of “The Waypoint” community + email newsletter
Faith reflections tied into Easter and spiritual waypoints
Preview of future episodes, release schedule, and how to stay connected
Mentioned in this Episode:
Primitive Camping & Bushcraft book – now available on Amazon
Primitive Camping Coffee – now available in multiple sizes
Camp Wut-Da-Heck – new home base for Speir Outdoors content
“The Waypoint” Facebook Group & Email Newsletter
Call to Action:
Subscribe, leave a review, and pick up the book or coffee through the links at www.speiroutdoors.com. New episodes drop Mondays at 6:00 AM.
[Music]
Welcome back to the Primitive Camping &
Bushcraft Podcast. My
name is Chris Speir.
If you've been following this journey
from the start, then you know
it's been a wild, wild ride.
From survival hacks to gear reviews to
simply sitting by the fire and thinking
out loud, this podcast has
evolved just like I have.
So today, you know, today's
going to be a lot different.
Today we officially set up camp at a
place that's been years in the making.
A place that means more than just canvas
and kindling. This is
camp...what the heck?
[Laughter] And this podcast, well, is being relit
with the same spark that started it all.
Teaching real skills, telling honest
stories, and making
every minute out there count.
So what we're doing, and you may notice
it may sound a little different, I'm
actually doing this podcast outside.
I am actually at camp...what the heck?
And we're going to go through a bunch of
stuff about what to look
forward to, what we're going to do.
You may hear the dogs. You may hear the
dogs doing their heavy mouth
reading or chasing turtles.
Ranger loves to chew on turtles. And he
will find three or four turtles and bring
them over here and chew on.
And he might even find a copperhead or
two when it sounds like he
just got struck by a snake.
[Laughter]
So, you know, let's talk
about the last stretch.
You may have noticed that
I've pulled back a little bit.
I've been late on publishing podcasts,
and I've actually
skipped a couple of days.
I've skipped two days in a year.
And then I took a break
over Christmas and holidays.
And, you know, I pulled back
from all my social accounts.
I pulled back from YouTube, TikTok,
Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, all that.
You know, in beyond,
views started dropping.
I started pushing out as much
content as I could, you know.
And frankly, I started asking myself some
real hard questions.
And it was basically,
was this still worth it?
And was I chasing lights instead of
living the life I was trying to teach?
Was I chasing the social media, quote
unquote, popularity, you know, thing,
instead of actually
doing what I wanted to do?
And what I've been wanting to do is
exactly what I'm doing right now.
And that's why this has
been a rebranding effort.
And, you know, I spent
a lot of time praying.
I spent a lot of time reflecting.
I've spent a lot of time
going through the data.
I've been going
through all kinds of stuff.
I'm analytical.
And, you know, the answer came.
Not in a comment section,
but around fire one night.
And I realized I'd
gotten away from the roots.
You know, the joy of
sleeping out under a tarp.
The beauty of the silence in the woods,
the crickets, the grasshoppers, you know,
the owls, the coyotes in
the distance, you know.
Just the real sounds
of the great outdoors.
And the real honest connection that comes
with building something with your hands
and talking about what
really, really matters.
And I got away from that.
So what has changed?
You know, honestly, a lot has changed,
but really not much.
Not much at all.
And this podcast isn't being reinvented.
It's actually being refocused.
I'm back and we are back
to real bushcraft lessons.
Shelter, fire, water, how to do it right.
We're going to be
focusing on storytelling.
The kind that makes you laugh, nod your
head or even tear up, you know.
But it's going to be coffee by the fire.
Yeah, that's coffee.
You know, it's real too.
Primitive camping is the
primitive camping blend.
Coffee is ready to roll.
You know, we're going to sit out here and
drink coffee underneath the tarp.
And we're going to have fires going and
we're going to actually
physically be in camp.
Wind noise and all as we record this.
Now there are going to
be some different changes.
I'm going to be filming everything here
at camp what the heck.
And camp what the heck is
my permanent outdoor studio.
It's a place that honors a
close friend of mine, Scooter.
And it reminds me of
why I started all of this.
What to expect moving forward.
What you're going to hear from me is
personal stories that are from the trail.
Mine and from others.
And, you know, from the beaten path, you
know, deep dives into outdoor skills.
Not flashy, not, not little hacks.
I mean, you might hear some hacks and
stuff like that if it's
pertinent to what we're doing.
But it's not what it's based off of.
It's just going to be
true, honest outdoor skills.
And it's going to be
lessons that tie into faith.
You know, quiet reflections that come
with nature and God's word, honestly.
And yeah, sometimes the
wind will cut through the mic.
A rooster might crew in the background.
Dogs might bark.
And you might hear overhead airplanes,
you know, because this isn't
going to be polished anymore.
It's going to be real.
And that's what I'm trying to generate.
That's what I'm trying to make.
That's what I'm trying to convey.
So, you know, back to Camp What the Heck.
What it is, how it came about.
And Camp What the Heck
is, is a dream of mine.
And a friend of mine, Scooter.
Scooter succumbed to
cancer five years ago.
And five years ago, next month, and he
and I was, you know, all the time, you'd
see both of us together
outdoors in the great outdoors.
You know, hunting, camping, fishing,
bushcrafting, you know, just doing it,
you know, anything and everything.
And this man was an amazing inspiration
on me to keep this going.
We'd sit around the campfire at night and
he's like, man, I really would love to
build a camp and just
call it Camp What the Heck.
And I was like, why in the world would
you want to call your
camp Camp What the Heck?
And he said, because it's going to be so
ugly that when people walk up to it to
see it, they're going
to say, what the heck?
So, in honor of Scooter, man,
I miss you, dude. I really do.
But anyway, we're going to move on in
honor of Scooter, Camp
What the Heck has been born.
What I have done is I have put a couple
four by four posts in the ground to hang
a hammock on, to hang a tarp in.
And we have strung up a ridge line and
hung the tarp and hung the hammock.
And I put a fire pit in, got a tripod. I
have a massive stump over here. I mean,
this thing must be 500 pounds.
And that is what I'm going to be doing
demonstrations and
teachings and stuff from.
So, moving forward, Camp What the Heck is
going to be the
epicenter of Spear Outdoors.
Camp What the Heck is going to be the
branding of Spear Outdoors.
When you see Camp What the Heck, you
know, as ugly as it is, you're going to
think of Spear Outdoors
from this point forward.
You're also you're going to think of
parameter camping in Bushcraft because
this is where it is going to be from.
We're going to try this out, see how it
goes, because I really
want this to be natural.
I really want this to be authentic. I
really want this to be outdoors.
And I figured taking all this equipment
down to the camp and hooking it all up
and recording is the easiest and best way
to be authentic, to be real.
And to do it the way it's supposed to be
done. And in honor of my good dear
friend, Scooter, Camp What the Heck is
now in business and it is now a thing.
Now, moving on to a couple other
housekeeping issues. I'm not doing videos
on the podcast any longer.
The podcast is going to
strictly be audio moving forward.
I'm simplifying a lot of things. The
views were actually destroying my YouTube
channel and so much so that YouTube has
stopped recommending my
Spear Outdoors content.
But the audio for this is actually like
in some countries, it's like
number four and number seven.
And the podcast for the Primitive Camping
in Bushcraft podcast is ranking in so
many countries in the
top ten. It's crazy.
It's really crazy to be
honest with you. It's really crazy.
So what we're going to do moving forward
is give you 100 percent authentic
outdoors content from the outdoors.
There might be times when it's raining.
We got rain coming in and
it's going to rain on this tarp.
You know, it's going to be pretty loud
that I'm not going to be able to film,
not film, but to record the podcast out
here under the tarp.
But it's going to be a majority of time
done here in Camp What the heck.
And it's pretty awesome to sit here and
look around and actually see the great
outdoors while I'm talking to you guys
and to visualize every
one of you listening to it.
Let's say somebody is driving to work
and, you know, here you are fixing to go
spend 10, 12 hours of your day at work.
And I am glad to be able to bring this to
you, the great outdoors to you through
this microphone and help you visualize
the great outdoors and help you visualize
the primitive camping in
Bushcraft aspects of camping.
So, you know, I just I really want you
guys to know that I'm not going anywhere.
And I'm actually taking a step back from
all my primitive, not primitive camping,
but all my social
media platforms right now.
I'm taking a step back.
I'm not going to be publishing much
content for the next month and a half to
two months while I am actually making
real content on purpose.
Everything from now on is
going to be purpose driven.
Everything from now on is
going to have a reason behind it.
Everything from now on is not going to be
chasing views, chasing likes, chasing
comments, watch time.
All that garbage is out the window now.
Now everything from spare outdoors, from
primitive camping and Bushcraft, the
group, the Facebook page, all of that.
Everything is going to be on purpose and
it's going to have purpose.
It's going to have meaningful content
that is really going to actually grow, be
shareable, be likable, be, you know, and
actually build a community.
And that's what it's all about.
That's always been my dream is to build a
community slam full of like minded
people, not just because it's on the
social media platform.
I don't care about the numbers of
followers and the numbers of subscribers.
What I do care about is the number of
comments that I get to interact with and
people that I really get to
talk with and make friends with.
I have made friends with so many folks,
you know, Chris Chappelle and then Jodi.
I've made friends with so many people
through this journey that, you know, it
is time to turn the journey into a
community of people of like minded
individuals that enjoy camping, that
enjoy the outdoors and
enjoy Bushcraft, you know,
and start making a community out of it.
And so without an effort of repeating
myself over and over and over, I'm just
letting you guys know, I'm informing you
now that if you're seeing less of me
online, it's because I have a purpose and
I am in the background filming, making,
getting everything ready.
And we're going to have a launch day
sometime in May, if
not the first of June.
So I hope you stick around. I hope this
doesn't scare you off that they're going
to be changing. I'm going to be changing.
I'm actually starting a it's called the
waypoint and on Facebook, there is a new
messaging platform and the group
messaging group there
is called the waypoint.
And so that was inspiration to go ahead
and call my email
newsletter, the waypoint.
And, you know, it don't necessarily just
point to the waypoint is a compass.
It is a it is a place that you are
actually going to travel to.
It is also, you know, has
spare spiritual connotations.
And, you know, we're going to be talking
a little bit about faith
throughout all this as well.
You know, being the day after Easter, you
know, Easter is the most important day of
the Christian faith.
And there's trains in the background.
There's dogs barking. I told you the
guys, this is going to be
real. This is going to be real.
But anyway, it's the day after Easter and
you guys are going to really, really
start seeing a difference in what is
happening with spare outdoors with
primitive camping and bushcraft.
And so this isn't about algorithms. It's
not about viral viral videos anymore.
It's about sitting around the digital
campfire with folks who care about
getting better at life, at faith and at
camping with purpose.
So welcome to camp. What the heck? Let's
start over together.
And you've been listening to the
Primitive Camping and Bushcraft Podcast.
My name is Chris Spear.
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Go ahead, hit the like button.
If you don't mind, give me a review to
let me know what you think.
And if you want to connect, head over to
SpearOutdoors.com. Find me around the
campfire at camp. What the heck?
So until next time, I'll keep it
primitive. I don't like that catchphrase.
Let's say keep it primitive. No.
And in everything you do, acknowledge,
you know, yeah, that's going to be our
catchphrase from now on.
And everything that you do, acknowledge,
you know, all right, guys, so I'm going
to see you next time.
And next Monday, we're going to start
posting this thing. It is actually going
to be hitting Monday
mornings, six O-Clock every week.
Don't forget to head over to Amazon, pick
up a copy of the book,
Primitive Camping and Bushcraft.
It's 28 percent off and it's like 14
bucks. And then go ahead and follow the
links in the show notes for this for a
copy or get your six ounces, 12 ounces,
five pounds, two pounds, one pound,
whatever it is, the Primitive Camping and
Bushcraft Blend Coffee.
And we will see you next week with a very
purpose filled episode. God
bless you. I'll see you then.