Primitive Camping & Bushcraft

From Clogged Filters to Rainwater: Bushcraft Water Tips

Episode Summary

Chris shares a survival trip in the Mississippi heat where clogged water filters, dehydration, and a midnight rainstorm turned into hard-earned lessons in bushcraft. From practical skills like pre-filtering, boiling, and rainwater collection to reflections on what truly satisfies, this episode dives into both survival and deeper meaning.

Episode Notes

on: John 4 — Jesus offers living water that never runs dry

Action step: practice filtering and boiling water, then reflect on what truly quenches your thirst

Resources Mentioned

Book: Primitive Camping and Bushcraft

Facebook Group: Primitive Camping and Bushcraft

Call to Action

Practice filtering and purifying your own water this week

Share your experience in the Facebook group

Reflect on whether you’re drinking from “wells that run dry” or from the source of living water

Episode Transcription

(upbeat music)

Welcome to the Primitive

Camping and Bushcraft Podcast.

I'm your host, Chris Speir.

So here we're gonna talk about gear,

grit and the kind of stories

you only get around a fire.

It's all about learning, adapting

and keeping your faith strong.

So whether you're a seasoned outdoorsman

or just looking to unplug and reconnect,

you're in the right place.

So pull up a chair by the

fire and let's get into it.

(upbeat music)

All right guys, welcome back.

I'm out here at Camp Wut-Da-Heck

and it is a hot mid afternoon day.

I don't have any fire

rolling in the pit today.

It's too hot for all that stuff.

I do have the

OGERY fan over here blowing

and the topic today is all

about this little substance

inside this blue Nalgene.

Oh, some good old water.

So nestled away up

underneath the tarp down here

at Camp What the Heck and

I'm trying to catch some shade

and this heat's just bearing down.

I got the sweat pouring on me.

It is, I'm just sticky

with hot, sweat and nasty.

You don't have to do anything

and your shirt just sticks to you.

You know what I'm talking about

when you've been sweaty so bad?

It's like in South Mississippi,

you open the door and you're drenched.

So I saw a guy do a

video on TikTok or Reels

or one or two shorts

or whatever and he said,

"All right, we're

gonna go to church now."

And he opened up the door and they said

it was like a bucket of

water poured on top of him

and I was like, that was funny.

That is the way South Mississippi is

whenever it is in the

middle of the summer.

Golly.

So anyway, I got the book,

The Primitive Camping

in Bushcraft right here

and head over to your

favorite online retailer

and go ahead and pick you up a copy

that we're gonna go by

and we're pretty much

still following along.

We're all in the water

section of this thing today.

And also swing by Facebook,

joined the group

Primitive Camping in Bushcraft

and we'll open up the

discussions about all kinds of stuff.

We got stuff going on

in there all the time,

people talking, posting

pictures of the camping trips

and it's a great times, great people

and it's a great group to be a part of.

So years ago, and I

probably talked about this before,

I don't recall soon,

this is like 50 some

odd episodes into it,

but my brother and I, we went on a trip

and as Rangers back there turned to

heave up some bark off of

a tree, he just chewed on.

But my brother and I went on a trip

and we called it our

quote unquote or end quote,

I've been doing that a lot,

quote, end quote, whatever,

with the little fingers flared up,

going back and forth

like the little rabbit ears

and like hey, quote unquote.

And for those of you watching the video,

you'll understand,

you'll see what I'm doing.

But we decided we was

gonna do a survival trip.

So we drive up to this place and it had,

it was like a little island,

it had a creek all the way around it,

a yellow creek I think the name of it was

and it had a little

tributary that comes around

and then it meets the main creek again

on the backside of

that piece of property.

Well, we figured that

would be the perfect place

to go try out a survival trip.

So we get out there and drive the hour

or whatever it was from

here to go up there and do it

and the water was flooded.

The water was up above the access

so we had to swim across a

flooded creek with our gear.

Now we stripped down to our under drawers

and walked across this creek.

The water was, I guess it was chest high,

holding all our stuff above

our heads, keeping it dry.

I'm sitting here reminiscing.

He and I have done trips

like that several times

where we had to cross creeks,

holding all our stuff up

above us while we were walking.

Anyway, we get across there,

we get back there and

start setting up everything.

Some starting to go now.

It was late in the evening

before we even got a start.

Get the sun out there going down

and we start putting up our camp,

building our camp as fast as we can

before the light went out.

We could hear the rushing

water from the creek flowing by.

It was actually a little too

high for us to be out there,

but we were still doing it anyway.

It was one of those too late now.

(laughs) And so as we started

putting our camp together,

we were sweating.

It was late August, early September.

It was late, it was hot.

It was hot in South Mississippi.

And we were sweating.

And the only way we could cool off

was to go get back down in water.

But a little bit

later, we got to the point

where, hey, it was time

to get something to drink.

We didn't bring any water with us.

We didn't bring anything.

What we brought with us

was one of those cool army

hand pump water filters,

little compact little things.

It was maybe three inches by four

and little small little things,

the little ultra

light, cool looking, smooth.

I don't know any more adjectives

or any other way to describe this thing.

(birds chirping)

But we filled up a container,

dropped a little hose down

in there and started pumping.

And we got maybe two or

three squirts into it.

And that little thing clogged up.

I was like, this is crazy.

It's supposed to be good

for 200 and something gallons.

(water splashing)

Well, my brother, he decides,

hey, I got mine, we'll use mine too.

And so he goes and we did the same thing.

And two or three

pumps later, it clogs up.

Now, mind you, these are small little

personal water filters.

It wasn't like a sawyer or a life straw

or anything of the such.

We had the great idea.

Well, let's go ahead and

try to boil some water.

So we did.

The water was hot, it

was nasty and gritty

and it was just a horrible experience.

And it was one of our

first quote unquote,

quote unquote, whatever you

wanna call it survival trips.

And this was, this was

years and years ago now.

This is what got us really into Bushcraft

because when we got out

there and this happened,

we had to learn.

So we gave up, we went, it was late.

We went to bed.

And sometime through the night

and a little bit after midnight or

something like that,

I had a massive headache.

And my brother Aaron, he

had a massive headache.

And you start to show

the signs of dehydration

and it don't take

long here in Mississippi

and when you're sweating constantly.

But it was a little after

midnight, late in the evening,

late at night, I

guess, early in the morning

that it had storm come through.

And boy, when that rain

started hitting that tarp,

the both of us jumped up

and was drinking as much water as we

could off of that tarp.

We scrambled, we set up pots, bottles,

everything that we could,

everything that we could find.

I had a garbage can liner

and we ended up using that.

And we remembered whenever we

was walking around that day,

scout and looking for spots,

we saw an empty bucket or something

that had a hole in it

or something like that.

And so we brought it over

and put that liner in there

and just let it fill up with water.

And that was our fresh

drinking water for the trip.

And we, looking back at

it, that was, it was great,

but it wasn't the

best or smartest decision

because we'd set up

underneath a tongue tree,

a tongue nut tree and

they're very poisonous.

But thankfully nothing happened.

So we filled up this

garbage can liner, trash bag,

whatever you wanna call it, with water.

And we would just take a handkerchief

and get all the leaves and

the other stuff out of it

and just drink straight from there.

We didn't have to boil our

water or any of the such.

And that made it a great trip after that.

So it taught me two things.

I had trouble starting a

fire with just a fair rod.

Nobody brought a lighter.

I brought just a fair rod.

Whenever you get out

there and the humidity

and everything is damp from humidity,

it is not the easiest

way to start a fire either.

So it taught me how to

learn how to start a fire.

Then it taught us to

pre-filter our water.

Now I've been doing the pre-filter thing

for ever since that day.

Ever since that day, I will always

pre-filter my water,

no matter where I'm at or what I'm doing

before I use a water filter.

I am always conveying the fact that

some kind of filter is great

for your commercial water filters.

And if you're

watching the video right now,

I have this, my book on page 112,

and all the way through 112 through 117,

it's talking about

pre-filtering your water

or filtering your water.

And that is coming

straight out of the pages

of the Primitive

Camping and Bushcraft book.

So first of all, the good old hanky.

That is the best method to

pre-filter in your water.

The good old hanky.

Now, when I mentioned

the pre-filter in the water

and stuff like that, we're gonna be

getting into the skills.

We're gonna be getting

into water in the field.

That's what we're

fixing to talk about now.

Since that trip, I've made it a point

to know a dozen different

ways to get and make water safe.

I can convey to you

several different ways

to make your water safe.

One, like I just mentioned,

was pre-filtering with a

hanky, with a handkerchief.

It allows you to stream muddy water.

It allows you to get the

sand, the grit, the nasty,

the tadpoles, the baby dragonflies,

the water bugs, all that stuff.

The mosquito larvae out.

And it allows all that

grit and grime and nasty

to be removed before you run it

through your commercial water filter.

Thereby, extending the life

of your commercial water filter. Now you can forgo that.

You don't even have to use

a commercial water filter.

You could just

straight up boil that water.

B-O-I-L, boil.

Or in South

Mississippi, you can burrow it.

You can go ahead and burrow that water.

I've been guilty of saying it both ways. (laughs) Bring that water to a rolling bowl.

What temperature does water boil at?

Think about it.

Now, what temperature

does microorganisms

do at first sight? Does microorganisms start to die off?

The answer is 165 degrees.

When you boil the

water, it's 212 degrees.

So by ensuring that your water is

boiling, you are making

sure that your water is above

165 degrees, which will kill all

biological contaminants.

It will not kill the

chemical contaminants.

It will not kill various other things to

get all the chemicals

and nasty out of it, but

it will render it

biologically safe for you to drink.

It's going to taste gritty.

It's going to taste nasty, but a gutful

of sand is a lot better

than a gutful of vomiting,

a gutful of diarrhea

from drinking unsafe water.

Now you could do like

we did with that night.

You can catch the rain.

You could build a rain catch.

You can use some method of

collecting the water, the rain.

I get it all the time.

I get all kinds of comments where people

are saying, "But Chris,

it's illegal in my state

to collect the rainwater."

And to that effect, I will tell you this.

If I'm to the point where I need to drink

something, I don't

care if it's legal or not.

I am going to collect some

water and I am going to drink it.

End of story.

Now I'm not telling you what to do.

I'm not telling you to make that

decision, but being

illegal to collect rainwater is

stupid.

It is ridiculous.

That is controlling power at its finest.

And I'm not the biggest conspiracy

theorist out there, but

that is a way of controlling

people into submission.

Now, there's different ways to do water

purification besides just boiling it.

You can add chlorine and regular Clorox.

You can put in tablets.

You can put in drops.

You can use iodine.

There's different methods on here.

And I mentioned them all in my book,

Prandtl, Camping and Bushcraft.

I mentioned it several times in there how

to do different ways

of filtrating water out

in the field.

You can even dig a hole next to the water

source and let it seep in, do a seep well

or coyote well or gypsy well.

And now I will call it what it is.

People will leave comments again.

You can't believe the amount of comments

I get of what I say.

And people, you can't say that, buddy.

This is my show and I'll say what I want.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry to say it like that, but it is.

Then you could do like we had to do on

another trip where we had

a filter that clogged up

again.

A soya this time, the big soya, not the

little bitty one, but

the big one, it clogged up

on day two of a 10-day trip and we had to

make a tripod water filter.

And we used straight out

of all the survival books.

We used the three

handkerchiefs and we found some sand.

A lot of people will be like, yeah, but

where did you find the sand from?

Well, here in Mississippi, if you got

water, you got sand

usually in the vicinity.

Let me take a big old

swanner of this water.

It's so hot out here that the cold water

is starting to get hot,

but at least it's wet.

I want to back up a

little bit about the rainwater.

There's going to be people that talk

about PFAS or PFAS forever chemicals.

And these folks are going to tell you

that you can't drink the

rainwater because it has

the forever chemicals in it.

Going back to the I'm not a conspiracy

theorist, a lot of people are.

And a lot of people believe that the con

trails, the chem trails

that they're leaving with

jets and stuff's on purpose to leave

chemicals in the air.

So it kills off people.

And I'm like, man,

come on, give me a break.

If you can't drink the rainwater because

you're scared that these

forever chemicals are in

it, then I'm going to go as far to say,

just like I did in my

book, that all the water

on earth is contaminated with forever

chemicals because it rains everywhere.

All the lakes are contaminated.

All the rivers are contaminated.

All the ocean is contaminated.

The whole world is

contaminated with forever chemicals.

If that is your point of view and your

case, people do not

realize that the water they

drink out of a water bottle at the store

usually comes straight out of a river and

is either a reverse osmosis or some kind

of chemical filtration

and then bottled into

the bottle.

People do not believe the fact that I

will say that a lot of

companies out there just

use straight tap water, which they do.

And it's crazy how people just shut up in

color because they can buy their water in

a plastic bottle, mind

you, from a convenience store.

And then they have the audacity to tell

you, don't let the plastic heat up.

It releases cancer-causing agents, but

yet the warehouse they

got the water from is not

air conditioned and is hot,

and they just don't realize that.

They don't put two and two together.

We're talking about the same kind of

people that believe all

food comes from the grocery

store.

Don't go hunting.

Go to the grocery store to get your meat.

It's on a mass scale, but anyway, I don't

want to drift off too much further.

You have to have water to survive no

matter where you are on Earth.

And I am going to throw this in there

that one of the Grail

GeoPress is my favorite,

favorite way to filter water no matter

where I am anywhere at any time.

The Grail GeoPress will filter your water

and make it 100%

drinkable and renders safe

to drink.

I've used it a million

times on rivers, creeks.

I've used it in some very

shady and sketchy places.

Some very beaver pond-ish looking stuff.

This one place in particular was a

stagnant pool that I camped

next to that had alligators

swimming in it and had

otters all in this thing.

And it was some very stagnant water.

Never been sitting there a long time and

I used that GeoPress

and it really got all

the nasty out.

Now mind you, after it was over with and

done, the water was so

t-stained that I had to replace

the filter on the GeoPress because it

started getting extremely slow.

But that is standard.

That is standard operating procedure with

any kind of filter

system is that you have

to filter it or reverse back flush it.

And the GeoPress is kind of hard.

It can be done.

I've seen it done before.

You can backwash the GeoPress.

And actually I think I've done a video on

backwashing the GeoPress before.

But anyway, that night that we were

camping and that storm

came at the perfect time.

We woke up.

We scrambled to get any container we

could find to fill up

with fresh drinking water

from the rain.

And boy was it good.

It was nice and cool.

It was fresh.

Now rain water has a slightly different

taste than regular water.

Rain water is evaporated water and then

it condenses and it falls.

And it is going to have a slightly

different taste to it

but it is still water.

The water that you get out of rivers,

lakes, streams, creeks,

stuff like that has more

minerals in it.

And that's why it has that taste, that

signature water taste.

But that storm that night taught me

something even deeper too.

And I really didn't learn

this lesson until later on.

We didn't earn that water.

We couldn't buy that water.

We were extremely unprepared and honestly

we couldn't have a...if I had a fist full

of cash, I would have paid somebody for

that water in the middle of the woods.

But the problem, not the problem, but the

metaphorically speaking, that water saved

us.

Here's the thing, it was freely given.

Which brings me to John

chapter 4 in the Bible.

John chapter 4 verse 13.

Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever

drinks of this water will thirst again.

But whoever drinks of the water that I

shall give him will never thirst.

But the water that I shall give him will

become in him a fountain

of water springing up into

everlasting life."

Jesus was talking to

the woman at the well.

She wasn't living her life the way she

was and was supposed to.

Jesus met this woman.

She came with her jar every day to fill

it up in the middle of the day.

That way she wouldn't have to be around

people so she wouldn't

be ridiculed for her life

choices and stuff like that.

And then Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks

this water will be thirsty again.

Whoever drinks the water I

give them will never thirst."

And that was perfect for this episode

here because that water

that we got off of that

tarp was free.

It was free.

Just like the living water that Jesus is

going to give us is free.

If we drink that living

water from Jesus, it's free.

But we'll never thirst again if we have

that water from him.

But this water right

here, we were thirsty again.

I could drink an entire

bottle of water in an hour.

I could drink this out

here, especially in the sun.

I could drink this bottle of Nalgene

water right here that I have prepared.

I could drink it for just a

few minutes, a couple of gulps.

But spiritually, Jesus says he offers

something different.

He offers us living water, the kind that

does not run out, the

kind that fills you up, the

kind that satisfies you.

It keeps you alive when

everything else leaves you dry.

Now let me ask you this.

How many times have you ever drank a

bottle of water and when

you drank that entire bottle

because you were so thirsty, you drank

that bottle of water and

when you were done, you

were still thirsty.

You could not quench that thirst.

You could not satisfy that thirst.

When I think back to that storm that

night on one of our

early survival trips, I see

grace.

God gave what I could

not make for myself.

He stepped in when we

could not do it for ourselves.

And that's exactly what Jesus was saying

to that woman and to us still today.

And that's straight out of the Bible.

Now we could sit and talk about that for

hours, but that's going

to bring us to our action

step.

Which you all think that's going to be?

This week I want you to

take some time outdoors.

I want you to collect

a little bit of water.

I want you to boil it and then drink it.

Now what I'm going to say is going to be

kind of nasty, but

technically you can boil

sewage water and never

enter it safe to drain.

It's not the best for you.

But this week I want you to boil it and I

want you to drink it.

I want you to purify it and

I want you to drink it slow.

And as you do, I want you to ask

yourself, am I still trying

to fill my spirit with wells

that run dry or am I going back to the

source of living water?

That's deep.

Get out there and practice.

Practice filtering your water.

Practice using a pre-water filter, a

handkerchief, a millbake bag,

a coffee filter or whatever.

Something to get the grit, the ground,

the nasty, the whatever

it is that you don't want

out of the water.

Then boil it, then drink it.

If you do it that way, the water is still

going to taste like the source.

If you run a carbon filter, the carbon is

going to take the nasty flavors out of it

and make it taste better

than the store bought stuff.

There's no right way or

wrong way to do things.

I mentioned that from

day one in this podcast.

There's no right way or wrong way.

But I'm fixing to erase that and I'm

going to tell you there

is a right way and a wrong

way to drink water.

The right way is to make it

purified, to make it drinkable.

The wrong way is just to drink it

straight out of the source.

I guess I'm not right whenever I say

there's no right way or wrong way.

That's the story from this one hot August

survival trip that I took.

No filter came through.

We couldn't get anything to work for us.

The rain did.

It up drinking that water straight off of

the tarp, straight from the sky.

That's crazy how you collect

all these stories over time.

Looking back on everything, all these

trips turn into stories to

share with people experiences

to share with people the

experiences to write books about.

Take a book, go on head over to Amazon,

pick you up a copy or

any online retailer, pick

you up a copy of

primitive camping in Bushcraft.

And then head over to the Facebook page,

primitive camping in Bushcraft.

Join the community, get involved.