In this episode of the Primitive Camping & Bushcraft Podcast, Chris Speir wraps up the gear section, highlighting all the essentials from cookware to miscellaneous must-haves like solar lanterns and headlamps. He shares personal stories and valuable insights on packing light while ensuring you have everything you need for a successful outdoor adventure.
Welcome back to the Primitive Camping and
Bushcraft Podcast. My name is Chris Speir
and I'm going to be your guide to
enjoying the great outdoors.
Well, we finally did it. We got all the
way to the end of the gear section.
Gearing up what we can take with us.
Describing all these different items from
metal containers and pots and pans and
cooking gear and water
gear and shelter gear.
You know all these things to take with us
in our backpack. Next, after this one,
we're going to start getting into actual
shelter and we're going to be breaking
shelter down over a several week period
and get into the nitty gritty.
But today we're in the miscellaneous
items of the book on page 70. If you're
following along in the book, Primitive
Camping and Bushcraft, we're
on page 70, 71, 72, and 73.
Now, on page 75, we have a depiction here
of basically all the gear that we talked
about in this entire section over the
past several weeks. All the gear that we
discussed all laid out and it shows you
how to put it in the backpack.
How to load it in your backpack. Now,
some of the items on this list are
actually stuff that we're going to go
over today. So let's go ahead and get
into the good stuff here.
Now, miscellaneous. And this category is
basically for all other stuff that you
may want to have on hand
while you're out camping.
I can't tell you how many times I got out
into the woods and I set up camp and I
wish I had brought some little bitty
something like the weight was negligible.
You know, it would have been something
that would have been very easy to bring.
Case in point here would be a flashlight.
I cannot tell you how many times I got
into the woods and I
forget to bring a flashlight.
I think I've discussed that before on
this podcast, but you know, the
flashlight is my nemesis. It's always the
last thing on my mind.
So, you know, we're going to go through a
couple more things, but at the end of
this, I'm going to give you one real good
thing that is always recommended. I
always recommend this no matter where you
are unless it is 100% in the dead of winter.
But a flashlight is always one of the
fairly essential items that you need to
bring with you. And, you know, if you
look here and if you're watching the
video, I have in my
hand an Energizer headlamp.
These things are like seven or eight
dollars and it's got various settings of
on and off. It's got a red light. It's
got a bright light, you
know, it's got various settings.
But the only downfall to this light is
that it is it uses battery. So it has a
finite life and it uses triple A
batteries, three of them.
And, you know, although triple A
batteries don't weigh a lot, you can
actually pack several of them in your bag
with you to take with you into the woods.
And it's not going to really weigh you
down. But, you know, just remember that
every time you turn that headlamp on,
you're always burning energy and you're
eventually getting to the point where
that battery is going to run now.
And if you're like some of these
individuals that I know that you turn
that headlamp on as soon as it gets dark
and you don't turn it off until you go to
sleep, you ain't going to have a light
but maybe a day or two.
And, you know, so you got to really,
really conserve energy when you're out
there. It's kind of odd how we're talking
about walking into the woods with a
backpack on, minimal
food and conserving energy.
Yeah. But there's been many times, I
can't tell you how many times I forgot to
pack a replacement battery for a
flashlight. I can't tell you how many
times I forgot to carry a
flashlight, believe it or not.
And this day and age, there's so many
lightweight options. I mean, in my hand
right now, I have a very small
lightweight flashlight
that can fit in your pocket.
And this dude, I have taken it camping
with me several times and it is actually
a pretty neat little investment to have,
you know, it's waterproof. If I drop it
into the water, it's not going to go bad.
And then whenever I get home, it just
sits on the little charger and it
recharges. So it is a great little asset
to have with you in the woods and it's
good for many things. You can see a lot
further with this at night
than you can with a headlamp.
And like I said, I mean, it may weigh
three ounces, two ounces, something like
that. It's not a lot, but it sure will
help your convenience when
you're out in the great outdoors.
Now, another miscellaneous item that I
carry is a lightweight solar lantern. And
the reason why I carry these is because
at nighttime, it's easy to have a lantern
around camp. So you can
see you don't have to.
You don't have to use your headlamp as
much. And so you can use these solar
lanterns. And the type that I have, I got
two various kinds. And in the book, I
really went over both of them.
I have the Lumenade Titan. Now, this dude
right here is able to recharge or charge
before you go into the woods and go out
with a fully charged battery.
Now, what I like about the Titan is that
the Titan allows you to use this battery
inside the solar lantern to be able to
charge your cellular
device or anything with a USB.
So you could take, open this up and you
can plug it in right here on the side.
They have a large USB and a small USB
where you can plug it
in and charge devices.
Now, the large USB is going to be for you
charging. The small port is going to be
for charging the device itself. But it
also, it has red lights and white lights
and it has strobing lights.
So in case of an emergency or whatnot, I
have one that is fully deployed here.
This is what it looks like. It kind of
looks like a little launch pail.
And that's the red light. Now, the red
light is pretty cool because it allows
you to maintain light, light discipline
if you want to have low visibility lights
outside for some reason.
But it also, the more you press this, the
more it's going to strobe. There we go.
We got a strobe if you need to have a,
see, it looks like it's saying SOS.
But it's a strobe light, a red strobe
light. Now you could do the same thing
and there's another button and all of a
sudden it's white light.
Now, what I love about these little
lanterns is the fact that they last 24
hours. You can, on high, I think high
will last 20 hours. On
low you can get a lot more.
And they're very easily foldable. They
collapse and you can throw them into your
backpack and you can
head out into the woods.
And whenever the battery gets exhausted
on these things, you just set it out in
the direct sunlight and
it'll charge itself up.
And I think it takes like seven hours of
direct sunlight and it'll
have a fully charged battery.
Now I love solar lanterns. Now there's
another one. I didn't bring one for this
video or this podcast, but it's called
Lucy L U C I. The Lucy solar lantern.
And it's, I think they call it M powered.
M is in the letter M.
M powered by Lucy and it looks kind of
like a little floaty for a swimming pool.
And you blow it up and it expands and you
turn it on and it lights
up the whole camping area.
And it does solar power and you can get
that at Walmart for
like 14 or 15 dollars.
And like the, the, the Titans you have to
order off of Amazon or
directly from Lumenade.
Now when I'm out there in the camp, these
things, those Titans usually last about
20 hours and you don't have to have any
kind of fuel for them.
They don't get hot. You're not going to
burn yourself and they don't have to have
metal. So if you draw them, they're not
going to break the metals.
So they have a lot of advantages to
those. And we're just making it through
hurricane season here
in South Mississippi.
And I know one thing is that these lights
are perfect for hurricane season. These
lights are perfect for when the
electricity goes out. All the
winds got to do is just blow.
It's a little stronger than normal here
in South Mississippi and the
electricity is going to go out.
And I have a friend of mine that
definitely all it has to do is turn dark
in the sky and
electricity at his house goes out.
But the, the, the Lucy's or the
Lumenade's Titans, they have different
models for the Lumenade.
But those dudes right there are amazing
for having just for
disaster preparedness.
Like if you, if you're just trying to
stay, if you're in a place where prone to
flooding or, you know, any kind of
natural disasters like hurricanes,
tornadoes, flooding, earthquakes, you know, stuff like that.
These things, I can't recommend enough to
have a couple, three or four of them on
hand, you know,
they're worth the investment.
If the electricity goes out for an
extended period of time, you will always
have some kind of light.
And, you know, for me to, I'll forget a
headlamp or flashlight nearly every time I go into the woods.
But I won't forget one of the solar
lanterns. I always pack it.
And don't ask me why, but that's always
been the way I am. Another good thing is,
you know, leather gloves.
Leather gloves are amazing little things
to have. There's so many uses for them.
You can, for instance, like I wrote in
the book one time, you know, I had a
armadilla that I dispatched.
For dinner. And I used the gloves to, you
know, hold the critter down.
And it was because in South America,
Central American countries, armadillas
have a lot, are known to carry leprosy.
Now armadillas throughout the United
States are not so much, but still they
are known to carry leprosy.
So it's better to be safe than sorry. And
so I went ahead and used my leather
gloves. Now, another reason is when you
get to camp and there's vines and stuff
like that in the tree
and you're trying to hang.
You want to hang a ridge line around
trees and stuff like that, but you got to
pull these thorny vines out of the woods
or out of the trees.
The gloves help with that.
They also help you clean up in an area
underneath your shelter and allow you not
to get splinters and thorns and all that
good stuff in your fingers.
So gloves, leather gloves are a great
idea to have with you in the woods. Plus,
I mean, they do the regular things that
what gloves are for to
help you not get splinters.
Splinters, what is a blender? Sometimes
my vocabulary, you can tell I for South
Mississippi catch a boy.
But anyway, so gloves are real, really
used to protect your hands. They're
really they help you not develop
splinters, not develop blisters. They
help you not get splinters and they
protect your hands from heat and glass
and, you know, anything to cut them.
And they're just like armor for your
hands. So leather gloves are amazing
little items to have with
you when you go into the woods.
Now, I've discussed this before and, you
know, I've done several videos on these
dudes and I really feel like the the
multi tool is another item
that can prove invaluable.
Now, I kind of went over them in the
cutting tools section, but, you know,
some people don't I mean, you can
consider it a cutting tool. It is a
cutting tool, but it is a versatile tool.
It has many tools in one. That's why they
call it a multi tool.
And then but these dudes right there are
very invaluable. This piece of gear can
be classified as a cutting tool, but it
has a it can help you with many tasks.
And if you get one from a very reputable
brand, you know, and and and mind you,
I've said before on here when we was
talking about cutting tools
and stuff like that before.
You don't have to spend one hundred fifty
dollars on a Leatherman P4 or Leatherman Surge or Leatherman, whatever.
You can spend forty or fifty dollars on
Gerber or something or a, you know, a
different name brand model multi tool
because it does not have to.
It does not have to be a certain name
brand at a certain price point. Some
people can't afford it. Some people can't
just because you afford it. You can
afford it. Don't mean you really need it.
And that's true with life itself is, you
know, just because you can afford
something don't mean you have to go out
spend all your money
buying something, you know.
But that's neither here nor there. But
still, you know, these these cutting
tools are amazing little things.
And I've used the pliers from multi tools
for cooking, for setting squirrel traps
and, you know, tightening loose nuts and
bolts that I've come across
that I needed to get fixed.
Different little items on my camping gear
and stuff like that. Leatherman is they
have they can do countless tasks.
And one thing that I found that
Leatherman is real good or a multi tool
is real good at is, you know, having one
with a saw blade and being able to do
real small, fun, saw work and then being
able to use the knife and do some real
good wood carving stuff like that.
Now, some of the knives, I know that
Leatherman brands are very good cutting
tools and they have a real good
reputation of durability and strength.
Gerber as well has a reputation of, you
know, strength and stuff like that. But
then you're going to get into, you know,
what made in America is made in China.
Don't buy it if it's made in China. Don't
buy it if it's made. Come on.
Get whatever. Let's move on.
You know, as for additional bedding that
you might want to look into bringing is,
you know, a wool blanket. And we'll go
deep into this when we get into when we
get into our shelter because, you know, a
wool blanket is going to
help augment your shelter.
And so we're going to talk about that a
little bit more in there. But, you know,
sleeping bags, stuff like that. You may
not want to bring a sleeping bag with
feather down. You may want to bring one
with synthetic material.
Each one of them has their pluses and
their minuses, their pros and their cons,
you know, a leather, not a leather, but a
feather down sleeping bag.
Sometimes it's going to be warmer.
But if it gets wet, then it's going to be
useless. It's not going to provide any
insulation. So, I mean, there's a million
different pros and cons to each thing
that you do. You just have to evaluate
which one's going to best work for you.
And that's what it all boils down to is
what best works for you.
So I got a little item here that I wanted
to discuss that I have not found. I had
an individual send this to me to try to
do a video on. I did a video on it.
And then his company went bankrupt, I
guess, and I haven't seen anything from
him. You can't find him anywhere. I guess
I got one of the only units.
And so I keep this dude around my house.
So what I have in my hands is a square
box. If you can envision a square box.
And when it has two little metal wings on
the side, such as handles,
and they fold up to the top.
When they fold up to the top, you pull
and the center comes out and it is a
lantern inside this box. Now, if you can
see on the video, it is not coming on.
That's because it's drained.
But I'm going to show you and tell you
and demonstrate you how this is so much
different than anything
else I found on the market.
Now, if you this little box right here
has a USB port on the side of it where
you can charge it. Now, this USB port
will allow you to charge your cellular
device and it will also
allow you to charge this unit.
But what I love, love, love about this
unit is that it has a handle on the
bottom and I'm going to try to get it to
where you can hear this.
It will wind up and charge. Now, if
you're watching the video, you will see a
little red light right there. That little
red light means this thing is charging.
So you can sit here for a few minutes and
if you don't have electricity, you don't
have any way to charge the same. You can
sit here and hand charge it. It reminds
me of the old emergency radios or the
handheld charging flashlights.
Charge this dude up. Now, you saw on the
video, it was dead. The battery was dead.
There was no light. Now, we've been doing
that for a couple seconds. We're going to
turn it on. Look at
there. You have some light.
And that's just after a few seconds of
doing that charging. Now, what is cool
about this little device, and I don't
know where you can get this. I have
searched everywhere for it since he sent
this to me to test out to do a video.
On the bottom, it has a handheld
flashlight. You can use it as a handheld
flashlight, but on the top of this thing,
on the top of this device, it has a solar
panel. You can set it out into the sun
and you can charge it via solar.
So this has to be the most amazing
multi-use tool that I have seen in a long
time. This thing is perfect for natural
disasters. It's perfect for camping. It
does not weigh a lot. I wish I had the
exact weight of it, but
it does not weigh a lot.
This dude is an amazing emergency
utensil. It's awesome. The guy that did
it, his business name was Uncle Mark.
If you could do a Google search or some
kind of search and find that Uncle Mark
and see if he still has these, but he
went out of business. He was on TikTok,
set up a TikTok shop, and then all of a
sudden he folded up shop and left.
He's an older dude, older fella,
white-haired, older guy. He contacted me
and asked me to do this. I think it was
called Uncle Mark camping
or something to that effect.
Alright, so, you know, as I mentioned in
the introduction of my book, Primitive
Camping in Bushcrowd, I always usually
carry a first-aid kit, a basic first-aid
kit. It is very wise to carry a basic
first-aid kit with you when you head out
into the great outdoors.
As I mentioned in the book, 90% of the
time, I mean, I say 90% of the time, I
don't know if this is a true statistic or
not, but I'm going to say the majority of
the time when you head out into the woods
and you have to use that first-aid kit,
you're going to use that first-aid kit on
somebody else rather than yourself.
And that's just a proven fact because
you, the majority of the time, are going
to be cognizant and, you know, paying
attention to all the little errors and
stuff like that. Accidents are going to
happen. I get it. Accidents are going to
happen. You're going to reach down and
you're going to grab a piece of hot
something that's going to burn you. Your
knife's going to slip, it's going to cut
you. You're going to trip and fall.
You're going to have puncture wounds.
Accidents are going to
happen. That's a given.
But the most of the time, you're going to
be cognizant of what's happening. You're
going to be able to pay attention to the
details and you will actually make
yourself, you will push through certain
things. You will make sure you are
accident free, you know.
But a first-aid kit is highly recommended
when you head out into the woods. A basic
first-aid kit can save you from blisters
and cuts and even some significant
injuries. Like my kit, I would be able to
sew somebody up, give them sutures if I
needed to and stuff like that.
But this stuff is going to happen. Cuts
are going to be, it's going to happen,
especially in the outdoors. You hold a
knife wrong, you're not paying attention
and you swing an axe. It misses. You hit
a foot. You hit an ankle.
You hit your shin. Whatever.
You're going to have a nasty
little cut there, you know.
This thing about first-aid kits is they
don't have to be very technical things.
If you think about what's the most common
injuries that's going to happen to you in
the woods, think about
it. It's not that difficult.
You're going to have blisters, cuts,
splinters, sprains or strains, you know,
or broken or severed limbs. Broken limbs,
severed digits, you know, stuff like
that. Those are the main things that's
going to happen to you in the woods.
Accident-wise, now, it's a whole
different ballgame when you start getting
into medically-wise, you know. By
medical, I'm talking about strokes and
heart attacks and, you know, kidneys and
appendicitis and, you know, gallbladder
issues, stuff like
that. That's medical issues.
I'm talking about accidents. I'm talking
about stuff that happens from exertion,
you know. You have to exert yourself for
something to happen. And that's what
happens with blisters and, you know,
splinters. It's picking up something.
You've got a splinter. You
know, it's going to happen.
Fish hooks, you get a fish hook in your
hand, you need to know how to take that
out, stuff like that. And, you know, a
first aid kit, a basic first aid kit that
covers those basic items is going to
cover you when you go into the woods.
Now, optional loads. We discussed
optional loads in here. So what I like to
bring with me when I go camping is a
hammock. I've discussed this all
throughout this gear section. I've
discussed this
through the shelter section.
I am a hammock dude and I just most
recently upgraded to a lay flat hammock.
And I'm getting used to it. I've only
stayed in it one night so far, but it was
in the next couple of weeks, I will
definitely out in the
woods checking it out again.
But the beauty of it is that it can be
set up as a ground tent or it can be set
up as a lay flat hammock. Man, you know,
I love a hammock. I don't know why. I
always have. I feel more secure in a
hammock than I do in a
tent for some reason.
You know, in the military, whenever we
wake up in the morning and there would be
scorpions on the ground, you know, I
don't like stuff on the ground. I don't.
I don't do it. You have to shake out your
boots and make sure you don't want the
scorpions in your boots, stuff like that.
Now, once again, you know, this.
This all the stuff that we have discussed
so far in this book about gear is not the
end all be all. It is not. Gear is a
personal preference. It's a personal
opinion. It's not me. I'm just trying to
get you to think about items
that would be handy for you.
And then, you know, some people will
start off with a lot, a lot of gear. And
then as you get better and you go, you
realize I don't need this. I could cut
this on the next trip and then I could cut this on the next trip.
And next thing you know, they have a 55
liter backpack that is full and the
majority of the stuff in that is just
food or, you know, clothing. And they
just don't need every single thing that
everybody thinks you need to go camping.
Now, true story. We're going to start
telling stories here. All right.
Everybody loves a good story. We'll tell
this story and then we'll start winding
down for the next day.
The next one. So growing up, my dad would
always when we get ready to go camping,
he'd make a laundry list of things that
we needed for for the trip. I mean, we
would have to bring a whole quarter
firewood with us in
the back of the truck.
But then we'd have to bring 30 gallons of
water. I mean, just gallons and gallons
of water. Then we would have to bring the
tents. Then we'd have to bring all the
sleeping, the air mattresses.
Then we'd bring all the food and the ice
chests. And then we'd bring this and that
and the other. And by the time it was
done, I kid you not. If I could find a
photo when I'm editing this video.
If I could find the photo, I will put it
in here in this video. A photograph of my
dad's truck whenever he went camping. And
I'm telling you now, guys, it looked like
an episode of the Beverly Hillbillies
coming to town. It really did.
But I mean, if there's no ifs or buts
about it, that's exactly what it looked
like. That's exactly what it reminded me
of. An episode of the Beverly
Hillbillies. And it was crazy. Now, one
of these photographs, my brother, Tim, I
think it was Aaron
and Tim. No, it was Tim.
So I got three brothers, by the way. And
my brother Tim was there and my dad was
there. And when it was done, he had a bow
target that he had set up on one of those
garage sale signs that
you stick out in the yard.
And on the back side of it, it's a garage
sale. On the other side of it, it was a
bow target. So when he was unloading his
truck, I took that sign and I said, "How
about the road?" And
people actually showed up.
That was crazy. So but anyway, you don't
have to carry a lot of stuff with you
whenever you go camping. You do not have
to. It is your preference. It is up to
you. Now, there's going to be a lot of
"bush crafters" and survivalists.
And I noticed a lot of stuff in the
survival world started to get real, I
don't know, real weird. But it's up to
you. It's not up to anybody else. It's up
to you. It's up to you. What
do you want to bring with you?
It's not up to somebody saying, "Oh, you
can't go camping or you can't practice
bushcraft or you can't practice survival
if you bring all that gear that Chris
Spears said to bring in his book."
No, I didn't say to bring any gear, you
know, other than just a metal container,
a knife and a cutting tool, you know, and
a tarp for shelter. Other than that,
that's pretty much it. You know, our
fire-start device, those little five
items, I think what Dave Canterbury calls
it, five-seizure survivability.
Everybody's modeled it after that, but,
you know, that's all. Everybody knows
these things, you know. Majority of the
people know it. And if you don't, guess
what? You're going to learn it. You're
going to learn that, you know, these five
categories of five things that we talked
about in the gear section or before we
got in the gear section.
But these five areas are going to be
filled. They're like a checkbox. Then,
you know, then you can make it whatever
you want. You can add to it. You can
subtract from it. You can go where you
want. You can do what you
want. It doesn't matter.
As long as it is what you want. You don't
listen to somebody else. You don't do
something else. You do your own thinking
and you think for yourself and you get
out there and you do it. And you could
tell that I have been building this up
and been talking about this and talk
about this and talk about this.
You can't pull up a YouTube video this
day and age without somebody saying you
can't go camping like this. You have to
do this. That's not the case. That is
his. He's doing that in order for him to
get more views on his YouTube channel.
It kicks in the algorithm because it
causes controversy with you and it makes
you leave a comment or hit the thumbs
down button. Believe it or not, when you
hit that thumbs down button, you are
still showing that that video is
engageable and you're engaging with that
video and it propels that video out there
for even more. Thumbs up,
thumbs down. It does not matter.
Negative, negative feedback, positive
feedback is all engagement and it shows
YouTube that this video
has something sends it out.
Now, these folks are designing these
thumbnails and designing the topics of
their videos and designing the content in
their videos to spark some kind of an
emotion inside of you to get you to
engage with that video.
And once you engage with that video, it's
causing the YouTube algorithm to send it
out to more people to do the same thing
you did. Feel something emotional about
the video, cause you to engage with it,
whether it's a like or share a
comment or anything like that.
And then once you do all that stuff, then
it triggers the algorithm for more people
to watch that video and it's just a
repeat process. And so these individuals
will say things that they know are not
true, that they know it does not matter.
And they will do it just for the
emotional feedback, for the tangible
feedback that you're going to give
YouTube so it triggers the algorithm, it
propels their video.
That is a fact that is 100% truth. And if
you can argue with me all day long, you
want to, but you go right on the head.
But that is the absolute 100% truth.
Oh, and real quick, I forgot that I told
you at the end of the video, I was going
to show you a piece of gear that I bring
with me that makes my life a lot easier.
And that is my
friends called a thermosail.
This thing is amazing. If you have never
seen one or never used one, this piece of
gear is amazing when it comes to keeping
mosquitoes and biting insects away.
And if you live in an environment where
it's a very high mosquito population or
biting flies or insects or something to
that effect, this little device right
here, it has a butane cartridge in here.
And it feels that is filled up with
butane, and you stick it in here and
screw it in. And then it has a little,
let's see if I can get it out of here.
You're not supposed to touch that, but
we'll do it for the sake of enjoyment
here on the video. It has a little card.
You see that card is blue, and it's got a
little white center. That's
because I've used it on a trip.
But you insert that card in here like
that. And this thing heats up and this
puts out a smell that them skitterbugs
absolutely cannot stand.
And it keeps them away. And it is
guaranteed for up to a 15 by 15 radius
area. And so you got a 15 foot radius.
And that dude is amazing. And I use mine.
I brought one and my friend brought one.
on the last camping trip we went on and that was the kayaking camping trip video on YouTube. And he kept his by his tent and I kept mine by mine. And then all the way between the two tents and there was no mosquitoes where we hung out, ate dinner and stuff like that. So, but anyway, if you get it, if you were looking for something that is economical, I think this whole device is like $29, I wanna say. I don't recall. I know I don't recall how much it is. Matter of fact, in early deer season, when you're bow hunting,
I have one of these to keep the mosquitoes off of me when I'm sitting in a tree stand and the smell does not startle the deer. It doesn't bother the deer at all. It doesn't have really much of a smell to it. You can get ersent, you can get cedar, you can get different flavor smells for the same, but it really does keep the skater bugs away. All right, now, thank you so much for joining me. I really do appreciate it. I'll see you next time. God bless you.