In this Fundamental Friday Video, Chris unpacks his entire Primitive Camping kit piece by piece, explaining what he carries, why it matters, and how it all fits together for a night in the woods. From fire-starting redundancy to cooking gear, water filtration, and even the comfort of a camp chair, this episode covers the foundation of a lengthy primitive camping trip.
This episode kicks off a 4 week Fundamental Friday series by diving deep into my complete primitive camping loadout. You’ll see exactly what I pack, how I organize it, and the reasoning behind every item, including:
Fire redundancy: Ferro rod, Bic lighter, char cloth, and even a pencil sharpener for tinder.
Cutting tools: Belt knife (Mora Garberg), backup knife, multi-tool, and folding saw.
Cooking gear: Bush pot, skillet, wood burning grill, cutting board, and seasoning containers.
Food & drink: Freeze-dried meals, tortillas, powdered milk, trail mix, and drink mixes.
(if you are interested in my new homemade freeze-dried meals email me at chris@speiroutdoors.com I will be offering:
Breakfast, (Southern) Red Beans & Rice, Chicken Stew and Shepherd's Pie)
Water systems: GRAYL filter, 6L gravity bag, and backup metal bottle for boiling.
Shelter: DD 3x3 tarp, wool blanket, hammock, and a blow-up mattress for flexibility.
Comfort & safety: First aid kit, solar lanterns, gloves, shemagh, change of clothes, and even a folding camp chair.
If you’ve ever wondered how to put together a primitive camping kit that covers every base without overpacking, this video lays out the blueprint.
I've unpacked my bag, laid everything out right here so you can see it. Now we're gonna go one by one and explain what it is and why I packed it, and I'm gonna show you how to pack it in that bag. And then we're gonna head out for our regular camping trip. I wanna get started with a couple things that I carry that's not included in my backpack.
I carry these separate on my person. That way if I fall into a stream or something like that and the backpack goes floating away, I'm always able to start a. Fire. I carry a Ferro rod, and if you've seen any of my videos in the past, this thing throws molten love off of here and you can start a fire.
Next, I carry my belt knife. This is the Mora Garberg and it is a awesome knife and I keep it with me constantly whenever I'm going through the woods on my belt. Next up in my pocket is a BIC lighter. Now notice it's green. And that is, so if I drop it, it's highly visible and I can find it or whatnot. Now, I have several of these throughout my pack.
You'll notice that as we go through this, but you carry one on you. In the event of you lose your bag and you have to start a fire. Now, a lot of people will say, oh, well you need to carry a ferro rod. I do carry a ferro rod, and this has many applications, but the most cost effective and easiest and economical way to start a fire is with a big lighter.
Don't use one of the cheap off Brands. Make sure you get a BIC, this is not an endorsement of BIC. It is just that their product is the best. Alright. When you're starting to load all your stuff up into your backpack, what you want to do is you wanna put either the heaviest or the least used item in the bottom of your bag.
All right? Inside here is my cooking kit, and I have a couple of pots and a skillet. So first off, we have a two quart bush pot. Inside of that, we have a 25 ounce little cup or a pot. So this is like a personal sized pot. You can cook some ramen noodles in here. Underneath that, I have a little 10 inch skillet.
Now this little skillet is amazing. I've cooked a lot of breakfast in this thing, and it is a very handy tool to have into the woods. Now all this packs up nice and neat inside this canvas bag. And the reason why it's in a canvas bag is so that whenever you get all the soot from cooking in the fire, you put it inside this bag and it's not gonna get all over the rest of your gear.
Now the last item in my little bag of tricks is this little grill. Now this little grill will fit inside one of these little pots just like that. You can set it by fire and you have oven. Also in my cooking kit, I have a bottle holder. Now really what this is, is a fish spreader. It opens the mouth of the fish, but it is perfect for hanging your water bottles or your pots over your fire.
For instance, this little cup has two little holes on the side. You just go ahead and clamp them in there and you can hang your little pod over the fire. And I'm gonna show y'all all about hanging stuff over the fire whenever we get to the campsite. Next on our least used items is gonna be our food bag.
Now what I have here is one of your old little duffle or laundry bags, and it just cinch up like that. You can take the cords and you can tie it around like this and tie it off, but that comes in real handy to use as a food kit. Inside this food kit. I've got a little Ziploc bag. And inside there I have a couple of little strawberry lemonade, little flavor packets.
I have some green tea and also have some instant coffee. Now these little drink packets are perfect. If you had to boil some like lake water or some stagnant water or something that had a bad taste to it, just add one of these little drink packets to it and you're good to go. Now, one of the things that I found in the woods that is real handy is some non-fat dried powdered milk.
This stuff's real good, especially if you drink, uh, creamer in your coffee. Now with this powdered milk at the right time of the year and you collected a lot of pollen from your cattails, you can actually make cattail biscuits with a little bit of this milk mixed in there with it. Trail mix. Trail mix has a lot of protein, a lot of sugar in it.
They give you that extra boost whenever you're hiking in there and you just feel whipped. Also, I got some freeze dried snacks right here. This is cranberries, I believe it is. Yep. Freeze dried cranberries, and these things are awesome. Now, the company, thrive Life has a lot of amazing freeze dried products.
This is sweet and sour pork, and you just go ahead and hit you some water up. You pour it in here and dude, you got an amazing lunch. Now, what I like to use with those is tortillas. You take you some small tortillas, put 'em inside one of these little airtight vacuum packages. And then you got yourself a nice little fajita lunch.
Now for dinner from the same company, we got Thrive Life Chili. This Chili's pretty good and it is real. The reason I like this over Mountain House or some of your other commercially made products is because this has a lot less salt in it. And, uh, is a little bit better for you. I am a huge advocate of vacuum sealing, and this is the Thrive Life Powdered eggs.
You can use this for a couple of days and combined with a summer sausage, summer sausage does not have to be refrigerated, so you can keep this in your backpack for a long time, and it's not gonna go bad. And whenever you open it up, you can use it for a couple of days without having to be refrigerated.
A quick side note about summer sausage is that it's perfect for breakfast. It's perfect to take some dried beans with you and cook dried beans in there. You add some meat into your beans and it just adds a little bit of protein, or you don't even have to cook it. You could just eat it straight out of the package.
Inside the kit, I have a plastic spoon and a fork. This is a camping thing that you get from one of your local superstore. If you go to any of your little department stores, especially the one that starts with a W and ends with a T, they have these little travel. Dispensers for like shampoo and stuff like that.
Now, I put a lot of seasoning in here and these things are amazing. Uh, you just sprinkle you on some seasoning on your food. You don't have to worry about it getting wet or damp or anything like that. And it's very packable and very lightweight. Next we have a double D three by three tarp. That's three meters by three meters.
Okay? So this thing has 19 attachment points where you could set up any kinda shelter that you want. If you can imagine it, you can make it with this thing. I've used one of these for years. This is my second one, 'cause I wore my first one out. But this thing is amazing when it comes to setting up a shelter.
Now, you're gonna notice throughout this video that I have both, I have a blowup mattress and I have a hammock. I normally use a hammock 99% of the time, but I put the blowup mattress in here just because some of you guys may not use a hammock and you're more interested in laying on the ground. Then you are all bowed up with a hammock.
Let me know in the comments which one that you use. Next up, we got a first aid kit. Now everything in this first aid kit is enough stuff to take care of you. And the reason why I say that is because 80% of the time I'm gonna be taking care of somebody else. But in the event of you getting cut or hurt or burned, everything that I need to take care of myself is inside this kit, including super glue and.
Thread so I could do stitches. If you'd like to see everything that I have in this kit. Let me know in the comments below and we'll do a full in-depth video just on the first aid kit. Next we have a change of clothes. I have a pair of long pants. I have two pair of wool socks. I have a pair of underwear and I have a very bright orange shirt.
And the reason why you want an orange shirt is because if you venture in somewhere and it's some kind of hunting season, or if you're endangering, you need to flag somebody down. And also I have a long sleeve canvas shirt because mosquitoes bite. Now what I have here is a Woodburn stove. This Woodburn stove is perfect for whenever you get out into the woods and say there's a, a burn band or something like that, you can clear things out.
You can set this up and you're not starting to fire in the environment and you're able to cook your food and you could use anything, sticks, twigs, trash leaves. Anything that'll burn, you can use it inside this stove to cook your food. Another thing is a cutting board. This thing is very lightweight, extremely flexible, and it will fit anywhere inside your backpack.
Now, I've used this to clean armadillo, squirrels, fish, whatever, anything. You can clean frogs, you can clean snails if you got to, I guess. But anyway, this thing is gonna be very invaluable when you get out into the woods. And another thing is you could use it as a plate. Now what I have here is a six liter water filtration system.
Now you fill this bag up with water, you hang it into a tree, and then you let it run down into one of these collection bags and you got a gallon and a half of water. And then you can carry, say you're hiking through the woods on your way to camp, you find you a water source. You can have one bag for dirty water, one bag for clean water.
I just recently did a video on Pinterest about using the Keurig K Cup. Filter as a pre-filter for your water. Let me know what you thought about that video in the comments. Next up inside the backpack, we're gonna put our solar lantern. These solar lanterns are amazing. They recharge in the sun. They last about 22 hours, and they also could charge any kind of electronic device like your cell phone or whatnot from here.
You could pre-charge this at home. By this little adapter right here. You plug it in right here, plug it into your wall, and you can have it charged and ready to go. And then when you get out into the woods, you just set this out into the sun and let it charge up. They're extremely bright and I've used them for years when I go camping.
They're very economical. You don't have to worry about carrying fuel. You don't have to worry about carrying mantels That always break and you just puff this thing up, hang it up, and you're good to go. Now on top of the bag, I have a fire kit. Inside this fire kit, I have some char cloth. I have another lighter.
I have a magnifying glass. I have a magnification mirror. I have some more char cloth and I have a pencil sharpener. Now, the pencil sharpener is amazing at making real fine tender for you to start a fire with. Now this is just to ensure that you're gonna be able to start a fire. If you fer, you lose your ferro rod or your other big lighter.
Now, the heaviest thing that I carry with me is this little. Fold up hiking chair. Now this thing weighs roughly four and a half pounds, but it is so convenient to have a chair with you when you get out into the woods. And I promise you this, that you can only sit on a log for so long before your back starts hurting.
Uh, your lower back, your legs and everything starts hurting. This thing attaches to the outside of your backpack. It's easy to carry and it's very easy to put together, and I'll show you how to do that in a little while. Now, attaching on the outside of my backpack is gonna be my Grayle water filter. Now this thing holds 24 ounces of water.
You just fill up your dirty water to the fill line right here. Insert this filter and it will filter all your water and make it drinkable in about 10 seconds. I'm gonna demonstrate how to use this thing whenever we get over to the camping site. Always carry a metal water container with you whenever you go into the woods.
Now this little bottle was like five bucks at five below, and you're able to boil your water in the event of you can't filter it. So whenever you get out into the woods and you need to drink just straight river water, you can fill this thing up, stick it in the fire until it boils. Now, boiling water. Is gonna be dependent upon your elevation here at sea level.
You can boil it for a minute. Higher elevations is gonna be three to five minutes or whatnot due to temperature variations. So now we're filling up the outer pockets of the backpack and I have a few handkerchiefs and a shemagh, and then I have some leather gloves and I put these where as easily reachable.
Because you can filter water with your handkerchiefs. You can wipe the sweat off your brow or whatnot. You can also put the gloves on to make sure you don't get blisters on your hands when you're doing strenuous work. And then the , you can actually unfold it and use it. This dude is pretty big. You can use this to lay your firewood in and collect your firewood and use it to carry your firewood back to camp.
Now, in one of the pockets, I carry a personal water filter. This is sort of like the life straw. This is membrane solutions. This dude is a little bit shorter, a little bit fatter than a life straw, but is just as. Effective, and these things are amazing, you can just stick it straight into the stream and drink straight out of it with it, or you could pre-filter it, which I recommend and suggest that you pre-filter your water to get all the grit and grime.
That way this thing won't clog as easy. And this thing is good for 1500 liters of water. Now, also in its own pocket, we're gonna have a roll of bank line, and we're gonna have a roll of paracord. Now this paracord is a hundred feet. The reason why I carry some of it with me is because it has seven individual strands on the inside of a sheath, and those strands could be taken apart and used for fishing line.
If you need something like that, twisted and tarred bank line is amazing stuff. It has 386 pound braking strength and you can use it for ridge lines for creating anything in the woods that you need. To create. Now, on the other side of the bag, I have a Baco lap lander. This is a folding saw, and it's able to cut down a lot of stuff, cut some of your firewood up.
Then I carry another Mora knife. This is the Morakniv, HD companion. It's a stainless steel version. I use this as a backup knife, and then I have a multi-tool, and a lot of you is like, Chris, why don't you carry your multi-tool on your side? Well, because after a while you got your knife, you got your ferro, rod and all that.
And it's just easier for me to throw it in the backpack. Now, in the most accessible pocket I have on the backpack, we're gonna have a compass, an emergency blanket, and a flashlight. And finally, we have the wool blanket, and this is gonna be attached to the outside of our backpack. The reason why you want a wool blanket is because it holds its insulated properties if it gets wet, and also in the summertime it's cooler and wintertime it's warmer.