Whenever we’ve got some down time in the evenings, we enjoy watching YouTube videos from survivalists and bushcrafters. It’s a great way to relax while also learning some valuable skills — the more time you spend observing and learning, the more likely you’ll be to remember useful tips and techniques on your next outdoor adventure. It sure beats watching Keeping Up with the Kardashians or whatever vapid TV show happens to be on.
One YouTuber we follow is Joe Robinet, an outdoorsman from southern Ontario, Canada. Those of you who watched Alone season one on History may remember him from his brief appearance there. He tapped out after four days on the island, as a result of losing the only fire-starting tool he was allowed to bring (listen to his explanation of what happened). But don’t discount Joe’s survival skills because of this one mistake — he has many hours of informative content that shows he’s the real deal.
A recent video series on Joe Robinet’s channel documents an overnight camping trip from this spring. In the first video, he shows his basic overnight kit, and it’s not what we’d consider a typical loadout. For example, he doesn’t carry a fixed-blade survival knife, instead opting for an ax and a small Swiss Army Knife. He challenges himself by carrying only an ordinary book of matches for fire-starting, and his food supplies are minimal, so he’ll rely on catching wild trout or crayfish and gathering wild mushrooms and edible fiddlehead ferns.
In the next two 44- and 51-minute videos, Joe tests out his gear and skills, and records the process. It’s relaxing and informative — if you’ve got some time to spare, check them out below.
