This episode dives into the role of clothing as the first layer of shelter in outdoor survival, focusing on its ability to protect against the elements, insects, and temperature changes. Chris discusses the importance of choosing the right materials like wool, synthetics, and avoiding cotton in cold weather, emphasizing the significance of layering and maintaining a personal microclimate while out in the wilderness.
Welcome back to the Primitive
Camping & Bushcraft podcast.
My name is Chris Speir
and I'm gonna be your guide
to enjoying the great outdoors.
So last week we talked about shelter.
We moved into the shelter chapter.
This week we're going
to talk about clothing.
That clothing is your
first layer of shelter.
So how is clothing your
first layer of shelter?
(humming)
All right, enough of me playing music.
Now, clothing is basically
your first line of defense
against environmental
factors such as insects, sun, wind,
and rain.
And while we have seasonal clothing,
usually whenever you go
out into a primitive camping
situation, you're not
gonna run out there in shorts,
regardless of the time
of year, some people will.
I have done it before, but seasonal
clothing at a minimum,
you should dress for the
occasion or the environment.
And have you ever noticed
old photos from the 1800s?
People are seen wearing
long pants, long sleeve shirts,
and most of this stuff
was made out of wool.
And it was even in the summertime.
And this was practical
materials like linen, cotton,
and wool, they absorb
sweat and they kept people cool
while they were offering
protection from the sun
and the insects.
And that was a big deal was the insects
and then the sun lights,
sunburns, stuff like that.
Now, I mean, how many
times have you been out
into the yard doing some yard work or
something like that?
You're wearing a cutoff
shirt, sleeveless shirt,
or a v-neck or tank top
or something like that,
and you got massively sunburnt.
Same thing, you go out into the woods,
you can get sunburned in the woods.
I've done it and I take my
hat off for a little while
or whatever, which I hardly ever do,
but you get sunburn on,
especially on my
little bald spot up here,
and that's miserable is
getting sunburn on that.
So we're not gonna dive deep
into the seasonal clothing specifics,
but you always wanna
dress for the environment
in which you're heading out.
Now, clothing is the
first layer of shelter.
It helps create your microclimate.
So whenever you get into your shelter,
you have your clothing
on and stuff like that,
that actually is layers.
You got a layer of clothing on,
and then you add another layer to it,
and then you add another layer to it,
and then you add another layer to it,
and that keeps you
warm, it keeps you dry,
stuff like that,
and it definitely keeps
the insects away from you.
So general clothing recommendations,
whenever you're heading into the woods,
you want to dress appropriately for one,
but me personally, I'm always
gonna have some lightweight,
long pants on,
and usually I will
have a long sleeve shirt,
some kind of
lightweight long sleeve shirt on.
One, to keep the
mosquitoes from biting me,
keep the gnats and the chiggers
and the ticks from getting all over me,
and most of these clothings that I wear
will be treated with permethrin,
and permethrin is one
aspect of insect management,
where you really,
the ticks will not get on you,
any of the red bugs, stuff like that.
If you've never been
introduced to a red bug,
God bless you.
That is just, oh man,
that's some miserable stuff.
So I know there's, at a minimum,
I know there's a lot of people out there
that get all up into
this modern clothing thing,
but you really, when you
head out into the woods,
wear long pants and
lightweight long sleeve shirts,
but back in the old days,
like we was talking about
a while ago with the 1800s
and then before, the old photographs,
you see all these old long sleeve shirts,
and these, they were always dolled up,
and you seen people out
fishing with a suit and tie,
and that always blew my mind,
but still, it was always long sleeves,
and they were always in long pants.
You hardly ever, if
ever, saw anybody in shorts.
Even the women, their dresses
went all the way down to the ground,
and because they
didn't have the short skirts
and stuff like that,
they always had the dresses,
and even under that,
they were in a onesie
or whatever you wanna call it,
and the men would also
be in their undergarment,
their onesie stuff,
and it's protection,
it's protection from the elements,
it's protection from insects,
and that's the basis of clothing,
and so when you get out into the woods,
your clothing is your
first line of shelter,
your clothing is gonna protect you
from all these different things.
Mosquitoes are a huge nuisance,
and we've talked
about those several times
through the last several videos,
that you wear long pants
and long sleeve shirts,
and the only place that
the mosquito can bite you
is where your skin is exposed,
and there's different studies out there
that say that
mosquitoes are more attracted
to people that eat certain things,
that mosquitoes are
more attracted to people
with certain blood types,
there's all kinds of
different stuff out there
with mosquitoes that I'm
not even covered in this book,
I'm not covering in the podcast,
but mosquitoes are a huge nuisance,
and mosquitoes love me
just as much as Jesus does,
to be honest with you,
when I get out into the woods.
Now that was a thing,
I don't know how,
if they were really picking or not,
when I was doing my orientation
at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska,
they had this thing that said,
"Do not go out into the
woods without protection,
because the mosquitoes can
drain you in eight hours."
If you didn't have any clothes on,
and you was out in the woods,
the mosquitoes would drain you
of all your blood in eight hours,
so I don't know how true that was,
but that's what they told us,
and I guess being young
and naive at the time,
because we was always
worried about being able to
follow orders or whatever,
that's what they told
us there at the base.
But one of the benefits
of clothing in the woods,
and general clothing
recommendations of long pants,
long sleeve shirts is,
wear loose fitting long sleeve clothing.
It helps you stay cool
in hotter environments,
and warm in cooler environments.
So this really
pertains to wool and stuff,
and you're noticing here lately
that they're starting
to make your base layers
out of real fine wool.
Like the developments in
wool has really changed.
They're made out of wool,
but they almost feel synthetic.
That's crazy.
And wool retains the heat,
and it wicks away the moisture,
is antibacterial, I mean,
wool is an amazing thing,
especially when
you're out into the woods.
Now removing your clothing in hot weather
speeds up dehydration,
and so whenever you
get out into the woods,
you start sweating.
Let's say you're wearing a cotton shirt,
and you're out there
just sweating to death,
and you're like, man,
forget this, it's hot,
and you take off your shirt.
So what you did is you
removed the wet clothes
that is actually helping
to keep your body cooler,
which is actually
helping you to sweat less.
You remove that,
and it's gonna
actually make you sweat more,
and it's gonna actually
contribute to your dehydration.
So when you get into the
woods, keep your clothing on.
So layering your clothes,
layering your clothing is a
fundamental survival tactic
for maintaining body temperature.
You always want to layer your clothing.
How many deer hunters we got?
If you're a deer hunter, you're a hunter,
wintertime hunter, go ahead
and click the light button,
click the follow button, whatever.
You know, you can learn a lesson
from your true diehard hunters.
All these hunters layer
their clothing when they go out,
and these guys learn it from a young age,
which learned it from
a dad, or a grandpa,
or a great grandpa, all down through,
passed down through tradition.
Layering your clothing is
fundamental for survival tactics.
If you want to go out into the woods,
you wanna layer your clothing.
You wanna start with a base layer,
and then another layer,
and then another layer.
Because as you get hot,
you could take a layer off.
As you start to get cooler,
you could start putting
another layer back on.
And it's almost like in your house,
you have layers of insulation.
You got the
insulation on your outer walls,
and then you got the
insulation in your ceiling,
and stuff like that to keep your house
a certain temperature.
Now, depending on the
thickness of your walls,
and the thickness of your rafters,
you got different
thicknesses of insulation.
It's the same thing.
So whenever you,
it's not really the same
thing, but, you know, it's cynical.
But it's basically the same thing.
It's insulation, and
your clothing is insulation.
The main goal is to keep your body warm,
is to keep your body from
getting bit by diseased animals,
or insects, is to keep
you from getting sunburned.
So the main purpose of your
clothing is to keep you safe.
So for colder climates, start with
thermal base layers.
You really want to have
your thermal base layers.
And I was just talking about the wool.
They got the marina wool,
they got different variations of wool,
and these things are so nicely woven now.
I have a pair of wool socks
that are the most
comfortable socks I've ever worn,
and they're wool, and they
keep my feet nice and toasty.
They keep my feet nice and non-stanky.
You know, I am not gonna be stanky.
And, but wool repels the bacteria,
which causes the foot odor, you know?
All that's, all underarm
odor and all that stuff is,
is bacteria that's growing in sweaty,
nasty parts of your body.
But for colder climates,
start with a thermal base layer,
and then add long sleeve shirts,
and then finish up with an outer layer
like a jacket or overalls,
and then another jacket or whatever.
So when you're
heading out into the woods,
you don't want to,
you don't want to
overweight yourself with clothing
to the point to where you're sweating.
And you don't want to,
if it's gonna be cold,
and this has happened to me,
in South Mississippi during the daytime,
in October, November, or
November, December, really,
it'd be 80,
80-something degrees, all right?
In the middle of winter, be 80 degrees.
You walk to, through the woods,
you find your little deer stand,
you climb up in a tree, you're sweating.
But you know, the evening
before the sun goes down,
it's gonna dip down
into the 30s or the 40s.
It's a wide temperature
swing here in South Mississippi.
So when you get into your tree stand,
and the sun starts going down,
and then the canopy of trees
is starting to make
everything darker in there,
and the sunlight is fading away,
the temperature starts dropping,
and you've been sweating,
now all of a sudden you're shivering.
And it's happened to me so many times
that I didn't take my base layer,
or I didn't take my layers off
while I was walking to the stand.
You don't want to get to your stand,
or you don't want to
get to where you're going,
you don't want to exert yourself so much
that you're sweating
with all these layers on.
You want to take the layers off,
do what you got to do,
and as you get cooler,
you start putting your layers back on.
So, you know, start
with a thermal base layer,
add long sleeve shirts,
finish with an outer layer if you want.
This approach prevents hypothermia,
and it helps regulate your microclimate.
That's, once again, we're
all back into a microclimate,
and that's really what we're doing.
That's really what we're talking about
when we're talking about clothing
as your first layer of shelter.
So, clothing materials.
We got cotton, wool,
and synthetics, okay?
Cotton.
Cotton is great in warm weather
because it absorbs the moisture.
Yeah, I mean, it's absolutely great.
Majority of the time,
I got cotton on when
I'm out in the summertime.
But when it gets wet, it loses all.
And I'm not mean in all,
but I'm saying all, every bit of,
none left, all of its
insulative properties.
So, there's a term, I think,
Alan Kay, the first winner of "Alone,"
he did a video a long time ago,
and he said, "Cotton kills."
You know, he went into his closet,
and he grabbed everything
that was made out of cotton,
he threw it away.
And he went and replaced
it with something else.
So, in cold environments,
wet cotton can cause hypothermia.
Now, always remember that
cotton kills, all right?
Cotton kills.
It's comfortable, it's great.
I ain't gonna lie.
Cotton is absorptive, or it absorbs.
And boy, welcome to
"Spare Outdoors" podcast
because we're going
to make up words here.
(laughs) No, but anyway, cotton's
gonna absorb any kind of moisture.
It's gonna absorb it.
And it is real good at
wicking and absorbing.
And so, once you get your cotton all wet,
it's hard to dry out,
especially when it's cold.
You're gonna have to have
it dried out over a fire.
And that cotton, once it
absorbs all the sweat or liquid,
so you got wet or something like that,
it is actually gonna
keep you cooling you down
to the point where it's
gonna lower your body temperature
and cause you to go into hypothermia.
Now wool, wool works in
both warm and cold climates.
And what it does is it
wicks moisture away from you
and it retains heat even when it's wet.
So it's one of the very few,
I think there's some
synthetics that do the same,
but wool is all natural
stuff that it will actually,
it will actually keep you
warm even when you're wet.
And that's why you see on a
lot of these survival shows,
like Alone or Outlast or
some of these other ones,
not the Naked and Afraid.
But on these little survival shows,
you always see that they're wearing wool.
You see these wool
jackets that they have,
you see the wool caps,
you see the wool socks,
you see the wool underpants,
stuff like that, base layers.
They got the wool on them because the
wool always keeps you
warm even in cold climates.
Now wool has gotten, like I said earlier,
they got some
advancements in wool technology,
believe it or not, that you
can wear wool socks year round.
I do, I wear wool socks.
That's Bass Pro Shops
offers six pairs of wool socks
for 20 bucks.
Wool socks, and it does
have some spandex in there,
but they are wool socks.
They help with doing
what we're talking about.
Now they're not, they're
probably not the best rated
or whatever, but still,
they're very comfortable.
They do their job, they do
what they're supposed to do.
Now, wool is naturally antibacterial,
so it helps reduce body odors.
And by making wool socks and
blankets ideal for camping,
you know, you're always,
you're gonna smell your best.
You're not gonna be stinky.
So when you get out into the woods,
and you're wearing your
wool out there routinely,
you know, it is actually
gonna be antibacterial,
it's gonna cause, it's gonna be less,
it's gonna have less
properties to get you sick, you know,
less growth of bacteria on you.
So, and then while wool,
it can seem very heavy,
these advancements have
made it more comfortable.
Now wool, heavy, when wool is wet,
it'll soak up the water.
But as I mentioned a while ago,
that it will keep you from freezing,
but it will be extremely cumbersome,
it'll be extremely heavy.
And you can wring it
out, you can dry it up,
you can fling it out, the
water will repel off of it.
Wool is awesome, awesome stuff.
Now, synthetic materials
like polyester and nylon
are common for outdoor clothing
because they're waterproof or water
resistant, you know.
And these new materials, you know,
especially the polyester is
made from recycled bottles.
So if you wanna save the
planet, you wanna go green,
you know, get you some
polyester and go for it.
And they got some clothing out there now
made out of polyester that's
made from recycled plastics
that this stuff is soft.
I mean, it is soft, it
almost feels like silk
and it's 100% polyester, you know.
But polyester blends with natural fibers
can offer comfort and durability.
So you got some
polyester and wool blends.
I know there are some
wool blankets out there
that have polyester blends with wool.
And so it's got that dual benefit
where you got the wool that actually
helps with the warmth
and the polyester with the waterproofness
and you know, wool is, it
absorbs, but it wakes away.
But you know, those
blends are pretty cool.
But be cautious with synthetic materials
whenever you get a round of fire.
And one thing about wool is
that wool is fire-retarded.
And it is very fire-retarded.
Cotton is not.
Cotton will catch on fire.
Cotton will burn.
You can burn a hole through
your cotton clothes real quick
with a spark from a ferro rod.
Synthetic materials, you
can burn a hole through
any kind of synthetic anything
with a spark from a ferro
rod or an ember from fire.
But wool will
actually, it retardants that,
it resists any kind of fire.
So it's a fire-retardant.
But you know, that's, you
don't want to get around fire
with a synthetic materials.
Now, while I was living in Alaska,
I learned firsthand how
dangerous wet cotton could be
in cold weather.
It really does lose its
insulative properties,
making wool a very much better choice.
But you know, at the
time when I lived there,
I was a broke airman in the Air Force
and I couldn't afford,
I had a family of four
and all four of us,
but I couldn't afford extra outdoor
clothing at the time.
So I went with what I had.
And we get out there
now, and during the daytime,
the average summer
temperature there was about 72,
between 70 and 75, somewhere in there.
And you get out there
during fishing season
and you get into your
clothes, you get wet,
and usually you got waders on, you know,
but underneath there you got cotton stuff
and that water's still kind of cold.
That water's actually kind of freezing.
And when you get that cotton wet,
it just makes for a miserable time.
It makes, you know,
mosquitoes start coming after you,
they all stinky and
that cotton is just like,
it really is miserable.
And when you're fishing,
say you and your buddies get off work
at four o'clock in the afternoon.
Hey man, you wanna go fishing?
Yeah, absolutely, let's go fishing.
So you go home, you grab your stuff,
y'all head out there at five
o'clock and you start fishing.
Well, it's still daylight.
Well, a couple hours into it,
it's just getting to be like twilight.
And then the sun starts coming back up
and then you realize, oh my God,
we're gonna be late for work
because it's 4.30 in the morning.
You done fished all night long.
And once that sun starts dipping down,
it gets kind of chilly, you know?
And if you accidentally
spring a hole in there
and you got cotton
stuff on up underneath there
and that cotton's
gonna wick all the way up,
so all your clothes are
gonna get wet, like mine did,
it gets kind of cold
and it gets real chilly.
You can end up with the hypothermic
condition real quick.
So if you're using wool,
it's a natural fire retardant.
That makes it a safer option for camping.
So that was a totally
different law of topic there
from my Alaska anecdote.
So yeah, so we're just
cruising right through
with all these little topics here.
So as you prepare for
your next camping adventure,
remember that your clothing is a vital
part of your shelter.
Your clothing is your
first layer of shelter.
You always wanna
consider your base layers
and then your other
substantial layers after that.
So dress smart, layer up and choose what,
the right materials for your environment.
Now here in
Mississippi, and I'll wear cotton,
a lot of times, up
north, I would never touch it
because you get wet and it gets cold
and you end up with hypothermia.
Now, even in Mississippi, you
can end up with hypothermia.
You can have hypothermic situations
and you don't want to do that.
So in the next episode,
we're gonna dive deeper
into advanced shelter setups.
We're gonna get into
primitive camping and bushcraft.
So really, pick up a copy of the book.
We're gonna follow along
and we're going to really get
into advanced shelter setups with tarps
and stuff like that.
So be sure to grab your copy.
And I just wanna say
thank you for following along.
If you have not done so already,
go ahead and hit that like button,
hit the subscribe button and go ahead
and rate and review this podcast
on whatever platform you're listening to.
So if you got any
questions, send me an email.
It's listed in the
discussion or the show notes.
And also leave a comment on YouTube
or whatever platform you're watching.
So I wanna say thank you
so much for joining me today
and I'll see you next time.
God bless you.