A quiet evening hunt turns into a full blown adrenaline dump when Chris realizes he forgot his flashlight and something massive is growling in the dark. What starts as a gear lesson about always carrying light turns into a deeper reminder that real confidence in the dark comes from the Light you carry inside
In this episode we are sitting under the tarp at Camp What The Heck with the fire working in the background and talking about something small that becomes a big deal fast in the woods your light
Chris tells the story of a bow hunt in the Mississippi Delta where it got dark fast the mosquitoes were thick the woods went dead quiet and something in the water let out a roar so deep it made every hair stand up
For a minute it felt like hog trouble or worse and he had no sidearm and no flashlight just a bow and a bad decision
You will hear what that sound really was why the dark in the woods can flip peaceful to unsettling in seconds and how sound travels in flooded timber and canals
Then we go into the real point what light does for you mentally out there
Practical talk from the book Primitive Camping and Bushcraft on the gear you should actually carry not just what looks cool online
Why a cheap Energizer headlamp can save you more than a high dollar toy light
Why you should always keep more than one light source on you pocket pack and vehicle and check batteries before every trip
How fast you lose confidence when you cannot see your next step
We also talk about that moment every hunter and camper knows when the sun is gone and now suddenly you feel watched and you feel very small
From there we shift into John 8 verse 12 where Jesus says I am the light of the world and what that means when you are in real darkness with real fear and you cannot see what is in front of you
It is not just outdoor prep It is heart prep
You are going to get
The alligator story from the Delta
The coyote walkout with nothing but a cell phone light
The gear tip that most beginners ignore and regret
The simple checklist to keep you from getting caught blind in the woods
A reminder that physical light and spiritual light both matter when things go dark
Plus a quick update on primitive-camping.com the new store, blog, freeze dried meals, and plans for recording future episodes live from camp and even from the upcoming street fair
If this episode helps you slow down sharpen up or just breathe a little deeper share it with somebody who needs it
(upbeat music)
Welcome to the Primitive
Camping and Bushcraft Podcast.
I'm your host, Chris Speir.
So here we're gonna talk about gear,
red 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, welcome back
to the Primitive Camping
and Bushcraft Podcast.
Today I'm down
underneath the tarp of Camp Wut-Da-Heck
I got the fire rolling in
the background behind you guys.
So you may see some smoke
if you're watching the video.
You may hear some
crackles if you are listening.
So today I want to talk
about something small.
(chuckles)
Something small that always
seems to turn into a big deal.
The flashlight.
Yeah, I mean, man, let me
tell you something small
as a flashlight always
turns into a big deal for me.
I've got countless,
countless stories of me
being out in the great outdoors
and I didn't bring a flashlight.
I didn't bring a solar lantern.
I didn't bring some kind
of way to generate light
so I could see in the
evening other than my campfire.
And man, let me tell you, I
put myself in some pickles.
I have really, really
been in a few situations
to where I really wished I had a
flashlight right now.
And on the opposite
spectrum, I've had flashlights,
but they were the low
quality little dollar store ones
that are not bright at all.
They were just enough to light my path,
where I could see where I was walking,
but not enough to see down range.
I've had situations
where I've been climbing
into a deer stand and I look
up and I could see eyeballs,
but I couldn't tell what it was.
The eyeballs were glowing in the dark.
There was no light around anything else.
And then all of a sudden the eyeballs
start running towards me.
Dude, have you ain't
ever been in that situation
and you're hunting with a bow and you
forgot your sidearm,
which that's another
item I forget all the time.
Dude, it'll send you
for a loop, you know?
But anyway, I always
forget my flashlight.
This story goes back to one
of the most unsettling events
I have ever spent in the woods.
And it reminded me why
light, both the kind you carry
and the kind you live by,
matters more than anything
when you're in the darkness
or when the darkness closes in.
So grab your chair and let's get to it.
So I'll take you on a little story.
And I have everything written down,
but I'm trying to relive it in my mind
to give you a feel for
how this really happened.
It was early bow season and I
was in the Mississippi Delta.
Now it's still warm.
And if you ever hunted the Delta,
you know that it's just like, it is hot.
It's hot, it's humid.
It's almost, I don't
know, it's almost summertime
in October here in South Mississippi.
So the mosquitoes home,
they're gonna buzzers.
They sound like small engines everywhere,
like little weed eaters flying around.
And when the wind dies
down, you can hear every leaf,
every frog, every
small ripple in the water.
You can hear everything.
And then the woods kind of amplifies it.
So I was up in this
tree doing an evening hunt
and it was bow season.
And that's all I had was a
bow and three or four arrows.
And I was in this little bottom.
It was a hardwood bottom
that they flood every year
for the ducks.
The sun was starting to set,
it was coming down through
all the little oak trees.
And I know you know
what I'm talking about,
hunting, fishing,
camping, you know this stillness.
There was a stillness
coming about the woods.
You know what I'm talking about.
It's hard.
If you have not been
in the great outdoors
and know what I'm talking about,
you need to experience
it because it is awesome
because just before dark,
that 30 minute, 45 minute period,
just before you can no longer see,
there is a stillness that always comes
and it comes right before the dark.
And it is so peaceful
until it's unsettling.
So everything was perfect.
Everything was quiet.
And I was just wondering those evenings
where it feels like,
hey, there's fixing to
be a big old 30 point boat
walk out of these woods.
And it never did.
I never even saw anything.
Didn't hear anything.
Only thing I hear is
acorns hitting the ground,
but it got dark.
And just as, you know,
it was one of those where
inside the woods is dark
where you can't really see.
And outside of the woods,
you can still see a little bit
and you can still
walk or make it your way
to wherever you're going.
So I was up in this tree.
It was getting, I was
getting ready to come down
and then I heard it.
At first, I thought this was
just a hog and a very big one.
And I was like, man, if you know hogs,
you know they can mean trouble.
They grunt, they huff.
And if they got little ones with them,
if you get out, you're walking and you
get out in the woods
and they got little
ones, they will charge you.
They will try to intimidate you.
They're, you know, some of them,
the bigger ones will attack you.
And then several of
them get in together on it.
And, you know, they have no hesitation.
They don't know no
fear until they get afraid
and they run off.
So I reach over for my flashlight.
(chuckles) And there it was, gone.
I didn't have it.
Somebody's just shooting
some guns over here right now.
So that sinking feeling kind
of hit me right in the gut.
And, you know, I thought I packed it.
I remember having it,
I had it in my hand.
Maybe I just left it in my truck.
There ain't no telling.
So once I realized that,
hey, this thing is gone,
I was like, man, I got to
walk out of here with no light
and I got hogs around.
And your cell phone light
ain't really gonna help either.
It'll give you some light
so you can see your path.
I've done that before.
But this particular time,
I hear this grunting sound
and I start to climb out of the tree.
And I hear
(roaring)
for a little bit longer than that.
(chuckles)
And I'm like, buddy, I
ain't never heard that before.
Go, go.
I ain't never heard that before.
And I'm like, what was that?
And it was one of those sounds.
It echoed through all these woods.
It was very low, but very loud.
And it echoed through the
woods that it reverberated.
And I'm telling you right now,
every hair on the
back of my neck stood up.
Every hair on my body stood up.
Like, that was ridiculous.
So I was like, man, what is going on?
What is that?
And I go and I start climbing down again.
Somebody's shooting some
target practice around here.
So I start climbing down
again and it does it again.
This time it was so loud.
I don't know if it
was because I was lower
and I could hear it.
And it seemed like it
lasted for 30 seconds.
I mean, forever.
I was like, yep.
I don't even have
flashlight and I found Bigfoot.
I found Bigfoot.
I'm telling you, I
found Bigfoot this time,
in the woods.
And it did it for like 30 seconds.
And my hair stood up again
and it was lump in the back
of the throat when I swallowed
and I've never experienced
anything like this in the woods.
I've seen a lot of things.
I've heard a lot of things.
I've been around a lot of weird
experiences in the woods
that cannot be explained.
But this one was the
weirdest I've ever heard.
I've heard everything
from bears to large game,
large animals.
And I have not ever
attributed anything to this sound.
I couldn't place it.
It was not, it wasn't placing.
So I stopped cold on my
way down on this tree.
And I'm like, man, I am
fixing to have to shoot an arrow
into a hole and do it
blindly because I can't see
because it is getting way too dark.
And then towards the end
of that last howl or growl
or whatever it is you want to call it,
I realized exactly what it was.
It had a more of a electric
sound to it towards the end.
I could hear it break up
into a vibrating type rumble
and I could hear water dancing.
And that's when I
realized it wasn't a Bigfoot.
It wasn't a hog.
It was a male alligator.
So any of the guys,
anybody that's been hunting out
by the swamps and stuff
like that in early October
will be able to say,
well possibly be able to say
they hear it, you know.
But this dude right here was in a canal.
I was about 150 yards from a canal.
And I was hunting into this drainage area
and they had a covert.
And that covert was right above the water
and it allowed the water
from the canal to come up
and fill this area in so
that the ducks could come in
in early spring and they
will have a mating place.
And so this alligator had clogged up
right next to this covert.
And when he come out of the
water to do his little dance,
his little snout and everything come up
and he bends his back or
whatever it is that they do
and he makes his
growl and then he vibrates
and you can hear the water
dancing on top of his back
in between all of his little spines
and his leather armor on his back.
And you could hear that vibration.
And buddy, let me tell
you, I was so pleased
to find out that it was an alligator.
(laughing)
It's amazing to see what
this alligator does in daylight.
But I'm telling you right now,
it is terrifying to just
hear what this alligator does
at night when you can't see.
So that was one of the top like,
gah, leave moments.
And I got so many of them, you know?
But that night with
no flashlight, no clue
where it was coming from,
it scared the fire out of me.
Literally, I literally got scared.
I did not know what it was at first.
I mean, you gotta
understand that this covert
amplified the sound and then being
sitting in this bottom
the way it was, it was just a little bit in this bottom the way it
was, where it was designed
for ducks is like a pond, a dry pond.
Everything echoed so much
that I was just like, wow.
So I sat at the bottom
of the tree for a while
trying to calm down.
The woods were completely dark
and the only light left
was a little faint glow
off of the water.
The evening sun was in
the direction on the west.
It was going, you know,
where it just kind of gives
that little glow and just
right as the moon starts
coming out and that's when it hit me.
Darkness changes everything.
So I'm going to switch
gears a little bit right here
and we're gonna switch over to page 70
in the book, "Preview
of Camping in Bushcraft."
And you know, this is going to show you
the miscellaneous category of the gear.
And this category is
for all the other stuff
you may want on hand
while camping at a minimum,
a good flashlight is
one fairly essential item.
You can camp without one,
which I've done unintentionally.
That's what we're talking about here.
So this is straight out of the book now,
but life is much
simpler if you bring it along.
I personally get a lot of
use out of a cheap headlamp
made by Energizer, the
little three AAA battery ones.
Those are the absolute
most bang for the buck.
It only draws, the only
drawback is that it uses batteries.
Three AAA batteries don't weigh much,
but I can't tell you how many times
I forgot to pack
replacements and my batteries had died.
So I've gone without a light source,
part weight through my trip.
And for that reason, a
small rechargeable LED
handheld flashlight is
an excellent addition
to any camping kit as it allows you to
see greater distances
with then a headlamp
and can be fully charged
before you head out.
So that is the book.
That is my little
exhortation of the book for the day.
And I've learned that
when you cannot see,
your confidence kind of disappears.
The same, same woods
that felt like peaceful
a few moments ago,
like, oh, this is beautiful.
This is awesome.
Suddenly feel alive and
like it's watching you
and everything is watching you.
Everything knows you're
there before you ever know
that they're there.
It doesn't matter how
experienced you are,
when the light goes,
every instinct in your body
starts whispering that something's wrong.
Something's there, something's watching,
something's out there.
And I don't know why that is.
I don't know.
I think I'm pretty sure they call that
some kind of phenomenon they
call it, but it's very true.
No matter what,
whenever that sun goes down,
I don't care who you are.
There's always an
uneasiness in the back of your mind.
I'm still comfortable in the great
outdoors at nighttime.
It doesn't bother me, not one bit,
but there's always that little something
in the back of your mind that can lead
to some kind of uneasiness.
And the truth is, it wasn't
about a flashlight anymore.
It was about what it represented,
being unprepared, being caught off guard,
thinking that you've got
control when you really don't.
So think about that one for a second.
All a flashlight does is give you control
so that you can see.
I didn't have a light,
so I did what I always do.
I improvised, you know, I
whipped out the cell phone
when I used the light on my cell phone.
And speaking of light on the cell phone,
we'll take a little
detour to another story here.
And I was hunting again, and
it seems to be all the time
that I leave my
flashlights when I'm hunting.
But I get, I don't know,
I'm maybe a mile, I followed
this creek up into the woods.
It was really a slough,
and our tributary off of a lake or canal
or something like that, but
it goes way back up in there.
It was about a mile.
And I get all the way up in there,
and I'm hunting, and I
jumped the deer walking in,
and I'm like, well,
there's a chance that, you know,
it's still early bow season.
So we'll see if anything comes out,
there's still a chance.
It got dark, and I
started walking back towards
where my truck was parked.
And so I'm walking
the edge of this creek,
this whatever tributary,
whatever you want to call it.
And I get halfway down, and I stopped
because it was the most
beautiful scene I've seen in years.
Where the sun was going
down, and the sky was orange,
and the sky was blue.
You've seen what I'm talking about.
And the water reflected
everything where the sky was.
And the water was
reflecting blue and orange,
and the moon was coming up.
It was a full moon or the
day after the full moon,
but the moon was
coming up and reflecting.
Dude, let me tell you, I've
never seen a scene like this
that I took a picture of it, and man,
I hope I got it for this.
I'll put it in the cover.
I'll make the cover of it.
But this, it was beautiful.
You had the sun going down on one side,
you had the moon
coming up on the other end,
the opposite is.
Opposite is.
And you could see the
moon reflection in the blue,
and then the orange, and it was just like
the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.
And then I started hearing some coyotes,
and there was a pretty good bit of them.
And I've done some reading
here recently to find out
that two coyotes can make you think
that there's like 20 of them.
And it could be just a mating pair,
and it's just a pair
of coyotes, two of them.
And they can make you
think that there's like 20
actual dogs running around in the woods.
So they were very close,
they were extremely close,
and to the point that
I can hear footsteps
just off in front of me.
Well, all I had was my bow, once again,
didn't even have my
sidearm with me this time.
And I was like, man,
all I have or a flashlight
was my cell phone again.
(laughs) So I ended up doing the long walk,
but I stopped and I recorded the sound
of the coyotes howling
while I was taking pictures
of this beautiful scenery.
Now, I mean, it was gorgeous,
but that was neither here
nor there, but it was awesome.
I finally got back to the truck and
started driving off.
And I realized that how
beautiful that really, really was.
It was crazy.
So that night, the
Delta taught me something
that you can have every
tool at your disposal.
You can have every piece of
gear that you ever wanted.
And every ounce of
experience in the world,
but when you lose your light,
well, you can't see what's next.
That's when the real test begins.
That's when real
knowledge of the outdoors is.
It's easy to trust your instincts,
even when everything's visible, you know?
But it's hard when
you're standing in the dark,
listening to
something that you can't see,
you don't understand,
and it's hard for you to describe.
Those moments, you
don't rise to the occasion
you fall back on what you practiced.
And it's kind of hard to
mingle this into with a flashlight
because all your life you've
practiced with a flashlight,
but you go outside at night,
you have a flashlight.
All of your life you've
practiced with a light,
all of your life you've
always taken a light with you.
But it's just like,
we set our own selves up for failure.
If you want to
practice being in the woods,
go out without a flashlight.
That's what's crazy.
So I'm out here sitting by the campfire
and I'm thinking about that time.
I'm thinking about how it shook me,
how it really disturbed me,
how it really bothered me,
because I forgot to bring a flashlight
because I was unprepared for what I heard
and it rattled my nerves.
And then,
and then thinking about
it, there's something else.
The only thing that
chases away fear is light.
Think about it.
The only thing that
gets rid of fear is light.
Not just physical light,
the kind that comes
from a flashlight or torch,
but your spiritual light.
So the kind that comes
from knowing who's with you,
even when you can't
see what's around you.
So that's where we're gonna
be talking about John 8.12,
where Jesus said, and I quote,
"Then Jesus spoke to them again saying,
"I am the light of the world.
"He who follows me
shall not walk in darkness,
"but have the light of life."
So,
that little verse hits very hard
when you're standing in the woods with
your heart pounding,
and you don't have a
flashlight in your hand.
How many of you would
actually be thinking
about Bible verses at that time?
How many of you would actually be saying,
"Hey, Lord, if you get me out of this,
"I know something's out
there, I don't know what it is,
"but will you get me out of this?"
I mean, let's face it,
when it comes down to it,
and you let fear take over,
you let the unknown take over.
In those moments when
you've lost your sight,
should be when you realize
that you've never really lost your light,
you just forgot to turn it on.
You really just,
you're not exposing,
you're not allowing
the light to take over.
And I know this seems like it's like,
"Oh, they ain't got
no direction with this,
"but yes, I do."
Because he said, "I am
the light of the world."
This little light that you have,
you always sing that little song,
"This little light of
mine, I'm gonna let it shine."
This little light that you have
is nothing compared to him
in the light of your life.
So there's always
practical things that you could do.
And practice this all the time.
Always pack multiple light sources.
When you head out into the woods,
as we have an airplane flying overhead,
put one in your pocket,
and put one in your pack,
and then leave one in your
vehicle or your conveyance,
or whatever, however you got out
to where you're going camping.
Check the batteries before every trip.
Don't assume they are good.
Train yourself to move slow.
You'll think clearer, and
you'll make fewer mistakes
as the smoke's coming
down and choking me off.
Don't just prepare gear,
prepare your spirit.
That's the big one there.
If you only train for what you can see,
the dart will always surprise you.
Now, I've forgotten my
flashlight more than once.
I've forgotten it.
I can't tell you how many times I've
forgotten my flashlight.
But every time I do,
I think back to that one particular hunt.
And this is no joke.
I make fun of myself
now for being worried
about what that noise was.
Thinking that I found Bigfoot.
The world gets dark sometimes.
The woods definitely get dark.
But the light, the real light,
it never fails us.
Jesus is the light of the world.
You just gotta remember to carry it.
So that's it for today's episode.
Thanks for sitting
around a fire with me today.
As it's slowly starting to burn out,
I need to go stoke it and
throw some more logs on there.
It is definitely cooling off now.
Don't forget to swing by the new website,
primitivecamping.com.
And I'll leave a link in the
description of this episode.
And it is now at the
description of all the episodes,
or the footer or whatever page it is.
I've learned so much
about web design, it's silly.
But I still got a long ways to go.
But anyway, head on over,
primitivecamping.com.
Look at the store, read the blog.
And what I'm gonna be
doing is I'm gonna be turning
each one of these
podcasts into blog posts.
And I have a very long,
long backlog of blog posts
to start posting.
And so it's gonna be a while.
I'm prepping up for this weekend.
Once the street fair is
the end of the first week
of November, this coming weekend.
Once the street fair is over with,
then I will be concentrating on the
podcast 100% of the time.
And so I'll be pushing
this puppy out there.
I'll be updating that website.
I'll be concentrating my full 100%
undivided attention there.
We'll be shooting podcast
episodes from the woods,
from the campsite, from everywhere we go.
I'm thinking about
even shooting a podcast
at the street fair,
inviting different individuals
to go ahead and drop in.
So anyway, thanks for sitting
around the fire with me today.
And I hope this was helpful.
If it was, go ahead and
forward it to somebody
that would find it even more helpful,
that they can find it enjoyable.
And I will see you in the
next video or the next podcast.
Remember, in all your
ways, acknowledge him
and I'll see you next time.
God bless you.
(upbeat music)
Thanks for sitting
around the fire with me today.
If this episode gave you
something to think about,
if it helped you feel a
little bit more prepared
or it even stirred your faith a tiny bit,
go ahead and share it with someone else
who might need it as well.
We don't go camping
to run away from life.
We come out here to
slow down and to recharge.
So grab another log, throw it
on the fire and remember this.
In all your ways, acknowledge him.
And he will direct your path.
I'll see you next time.
God bless you.