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CR: Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to sitdown and chat with us.Creek: It’s my pleasure. I’ve been a long time fan of the Back-woodsman and this is quite an honor for me.

CR: Growing up, you were very active in the Boy Scouts andeventually became an eagle scout. How valuable were thoseexperiences to you? Creek: That’s really where I got my start. I fell in love withthe woods through scouting. There’s a part of every boy thatyearns to be out in the woods camping and learning how touse knives and hatchets. I’ll never forget my wilderness sur-vival merit badge. It was one of the best moments of my lifeand to this day it still is. That was the very first night of mylife that I camped alone in a primitive shelter, and that firstnight is kind of monumental in a survival guy’s career.

I learned a lot from scouting, not only the physical outdoorskills but also about how to grow up with character and in-

tegrity. These are things that are very importantfor young men and boys. I’m still actively in-volved with scouting, and I volunteer and talk toscouts as much as possible. I also help with themerit badges, and I try to give back because it’sa really great organization. I’m really thankfuland blessed to be involved with it.

CR: Did you have a mentor that influenced you?Creek: I didn’t really have one. My biggest in-fluences were probably my grandfathers. Theywere from the generation that did a lot of the sur-vival skills that we teach now as special skillsevery day of their lives. I was really young whenthey were very old and looking back, I couldhave learned so much more from them so I kindof regret not spending more time as a teenager inthe woods with my grandfathers. They were awealth of knowledge for wild edible plants andhunting, and also with the things that are sort ofbecoming the lost art of survival and woodsman-ship. I would definitely consider them my men-tors, but as far as training with any well-knownsurvival experts the answer is no. My experiencecomes from one thing, and that is time out in thefield. Literally on my hands and knees in the dirtpracticing the skills that I teach.

CR: While in college, you had a significant mo-ment in your life that involved an encounter witha crow. How did that change your life? Creek: It’s actually a pretty funny story. To thisday when I see a crow, I look at it in a very spe-cial way because that bird represents a momentin my life when something changed in me. It didhappen while attending college, and there’ssomething about going to a school in a city thatis completely different from where you grew up.I was raised in the country and in the woods but

when I went to college and moved to Indianapolis, IN to attendButler University, there weren’t a lot of wooded areas aroundthe campus. I lost sight of what made me happy and at the timeI didn’t even realize it. I was pursuing a major in pharmacythat I didn’t love or enjoy, and it wasn’t my life’s passion.

So every morning for about a week, a crow perched out onthe dormitory courtyard and squawked starting around 5:00a.m. It was quite the wake-up call, and for a college studentnothing made you angrier than getting woke up like that. Aftera week with this crow, I became fed up with it and I decidedto make a trap and kill it. I rigged up this little snare trap basedon some old Boy Scout manuals with dental floss and a pinetree that was out in the courtyard. So I set this snare trap upand attached some bells to the trigger line of this snare. Onemorning, the bells started going off and the snare line wentrunning out my window that was cracked open. I grabbedhold of the line, and ended up pulling this crow squawkingand flapping up the side of the dormitory lawn. I can still

Photo by RIVR Media

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remember the look of horror on this girl’s face that wasacross the courtyard, and I still like to imagine that she washappy that I was ending this horrible escapade with thiscrow. I ended up dragging it up to my room and finally gotit inside, I didn’t have the heart to kill it. But it was in thosemoments of setting up the snare and capturing that crow thatsomething changed in me. I realized that for the first time in along time what I had been missing in my life, and it was thosemoments where you challenge yourself and face nature.Where you kind of put it all out there and test your wits againstnatural wits.

Literally in that week, I changed my major to business andmade the decision to pursue a career in outdoor and self-re-liance skills. That same year, I ended up teaching my first sur-vival class along with writingmy first survival book. Thatwas definitely the momentwhere it all changed for me.

CR: Was there ever a timewhen you were strugglingwhere you thought about giv-ing up your dream?Creek: I don’t think there hasever been a time in my careerwhen I wasn’t struggling. Ithink that’s when you reallyknow for sure that you’redoing what your passion is.It’s when you want to keepdoing it despite the fact thatit’s a constant struggle andyou’re not getting positivefeedback, and that also meansnot getting the money thatyou were hoping for. I spent years and years not getting thefeedback, students, and money that I wanted, and I worked fora long time doing various full-time & part-time jobs while tak-ing survival classes on the side. It was a huge sacrifice but Istill loved what I was doing.

It was never easy not getting those things but ultimately Igot into this business because it was fun for me. Even when Iwas practicing and teaching these skills, it was still fun. De-spite the fact that maybe not a lot of students showed up formy classes or I didn’t sell a lot of books, I still loved survivaland self-reliance skills. It was very intrinsic and that eventu-ally pushed me through a lot of the adversity.

CR: You are highly skilled at both wilderness survival & dis-aster survival. At your school, do you focus on both or is thereone subject that is offered more than the other? Creek: I definitely teach courses that cover both of those sub-jects but I enjoy the wilderness skills more and so do my stu-dents. Most of my students come here because they want toget away from urban life and modern conveniences. Disastersurvival and disaster preparedness has a lot to do with thoseurban things. It has a lot to do with storing food, cache sup-

plies, and maintaining your house & vehicle. Those are thekind of things that people don’t really want to think about. Itcan feel more like a chore and most people come to my courseto get away from the office. They want to connect with natureand that has driven my school. I try to give people what theywant and because of that I’ve been very successful at mycourses. I help connect people with nature through survivalskills so my main focus is on wilderness skills.

CR: Every survival instructor creates his or her own philoso-phy, what is the most important aspect of your philosophy? Creek: I think that it’s impossible for your philosophy not toevolve as you do. As I get older and become more mature inthis industry, my philosophy evolves. At the core I’m not

primitive, tactical or urban. Ifeel that I’m a very practicalsurvival instructor. I’m a be-liever that real survival sce-narios happen to real peopleon a regular basis, and thatsurvival skills are importantfor everyone. My philosophyis that we will hardly ever bein a situation where we willstrictly have only naturaltools. The fact of the matter isthat we live in a modern worldand modern things surroundus. Even when we have noth-ing, we have modern things onour person.

If I had to say what is atthe core of my survival train-ing it’s the mental aspect ofsurvival, and it’s becoming

more and more about that. You often hear that survival is 90%mental and 10% physical, but not many people really stop tothink about what that really means. Your body does what yourmind decides. A survival scenario is determined first mentallyand second physically. I feel that focusing on the mental sur-vival skills is more important than the physical ones.

There are a lot of parallels between the mental skills thatget someone through a survival situation. The mental skillsthat are necessary to get someone through a survival sce-nario and those that make our life extraordinary. What I meanby that is if you live your life everyday with the same urgencyof a survival scenario, your life would change. A lot of peoplearen’t necessarily happy with their lives and ultimately thathas a lot to do with their mental attitude.

I try every day to live my life with the urgency of a survivalsituation. As crazy as it sounds, if you live every day likeyou’re going to die in the next few hours, you will behave likethere’s a sense of urgency and purpose. In a survival scenario,people work harder, they take everything more seriously, theythink about the people they love and don’t take the simplethings for granted. Maybe you never pray but in a survivalscenario, you start praying.

A primitive shelter that was built by Creek and his students.Photo by Creek Stewart

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CR: What are three mental survival skills that a person coulduse every day in their lives? Creek: The top one would be not giving up. Giving up on thebig things in your life is a series of giving up on the smallthings as well, and it’s also a mental skill just like the bow drillis a physical skill. In order to master the bow drill it takespractice. In order to master not giving up, it takes practice.Even on the small things in life. When I walk into a hardwarestore and I pull a shopping cart out and it’s stuck to the one infront of it, I never push that one out of the way and leave it forsomeone else to deal with. I always solve the problem and un-stick that cart; I look at it as training for not giving up. Simplethings like that can train you. If you train like it’s a survivalscenario, it becomes easier when it really matters.

Another skill is innovation, and I often argue that the mostimportant survival skill is tobe able to use what you haveand get what you need. That’sbeing innovative and creative.Often times you don’t haveeverything and that’s whatkind of defines a survival sce-nario. Lastly, I would sayeliminating negative thoughtsand negative people. In a sur-vival situation, you cannot af-ford to think about thenegative side of things. Posi-tive thinking will almost dic-tate the outcome of a survivalscenario, and so it will in life.Some other mental sides ofsurvival skills are also veryinteresting to me like perse-verance, hard work, com-radery, teamwork, and adaptation. These are all skills that ifthey’re applied to your everyday life, they can be life chang-ing.

CR: What is the most important thing that you try to teach toone of your students?Creek: If I had to pick a physical skill it would be fire becauseI believe that the ability to start and build a fire is the most im-portant survival skill. It’s directly related to all of your basicsurvival needs. It becomes a shelter, it can also make up foran incredible amount of incompetencies & inadequacies in theshelter-building department. Obviously, it can help regulatebody core temperature. Fire can also boil and purify water,signal for rescue, cook food, make tools; it can provide allkinds of things. As far as a mental skill goes, I would have tosay it’s eliminating self-doubt and building confidence, whichgoes a long way in helping people conquer and master fear,panic, and all of the physical skills that are involved in gettingthrough a survival situation.CR: Do you think that we’re at the point in our society whereevery family and person should be prepared for a natural dis-aster or some type of survival scenario?

Creek: I absolutely do and I have a simple motto in businessand in life, it’s to “Remember, it’s not If but When”. At somepoint in his or her life, I truly believe that every person will befaced with a sudden and unexpected survival scenario wherethe outcome will depend on what they know. It may only befive minutes long but you could really screw your life up infive minutes. It may happen while on a cruise vacation, a tripoverseas or in your living room during a natural disaster. I re-ally believe that no one is exempt from the risk of it, and some-times it’s the basic survival skills that can make the biggestdifference.

CR: What do you consider to be the first step in preparing fora natural disaster?Creek: I believe that the first step should be building a bug out

bag, which is a 72-hour disas-ter survival kit. Kind of agrab-in-go bag if anythingstrikes. Having enough food,water, supplies, and gear toget you through 72 hours ofindependent survival is a re-ally good start. It’s also prac-tical and doesn’t cost a wholelot of money, maybe a fewhundred bucks. Anybody cando this and in just a couple ofweeks you can assemble abug out bag. By assemblingthe bag, you’re literally get-ting your hands on all differ-ent types of survival tools andgear. It allows you to exper-iment with that gear, realizewhat you’re capable with and

what you’re not capable with. You kind of wet your teeth witha variety of survival subjects without spending a lot of time,money, and energy.

CR: What are some of the fundamental things that you shouldhave in a bug out bag?Creek: I always start with what I call the core four. These arethe four items that help you meet the top four survival priori-ties, which are shelter, water, fire and food. Everyone that isin the survival industry has heard of the survival rules of three,and these four cores are based on those rules. You can live forthree hours in extreme conditions, three hours without shelter,three days without water, and three weeks without food. Ifyou cover those core four priorities, you are leaps and boundsabove not having them.

CR: You talk a lot about the word “control” and the lack ofcontrol that a person has in an extreme survival situation.What’s the best advice that you have for someone who is inthis predicament? Creek: There is only one thing that you can control in a sur-vival scenario and that is yourself. You maybe can have a cer-

Creek's bug out bag and vehiclePhoto by Creek Stewart

tain level of control over Mother Nature. You can manipulateher into shelter, fire, water, and food but ultimately the onlything that you can completely control is yourself and your im-mediate reactions to the situation once you have realized thatit has gone south, which is the moments that most mistakesare made.

The biggest piece of advice that I would give is to slowdown your decision making because fear and panic can makebad things become horrible. Often times a survival scenariois not life threatening until horrible decisions are made. Youhave to do whatever it is to slow yourself down and it’s dif-ferent for everybody when dealing with fear and panic. Theimmediate rushed decisions thatcome strictly from the emotions offear and panic can make people dothings that are completely irra-tional.

CR: What is the most common sur-vival mistake that a lot of peoplemake?Creek: I often say that the numberone survival mistake is not telling atleast three people where you’regoing and when to expect you back.Sometimes the mistakes are madebefore a survival situation actuallybegins. A lot of survival scenariosare based on people getting lost.Telling at least three people whereyou are going can go a long way inpreventing these types of situationsfrom getting really bad.

CR: In what ways has preparing fora potential natural disaster or sur-vival situation changed in the lastdecade?Creek: We have experienced somevery large-scale disasters in the lastdecade that were survival & pre-paredness oriented. The one thingthat has changed is awareness.People just seem to be much moreaware of survival and preparedness compared to when I wasgrowing up. It’s kind of become a theme in our society. A lotof things are now themed with survival & preparedness. Youhave survival themes in movies and in reality shows, and thenyou have all the crazy things going on in our world that makeeveryone uneasy.

Awareness is probably the biggest change in the industryin the past decade, but at the same time the past decade has in-troduced an aspect of survival and preparedness that I don’tfeel existed that much as a kid and that is terrorism. That hascertainly become a new angle in survival and preparedness.It’s definitely something that those who are survival and pre-paredness minded think about, and it’s an obvious threat and

an unfortunate reality. Countries are preparing for it and ifcountries are preparing for things like that, then I believe thatindividuals should also be preparing for such things.

CR: As the host of the Weather Channel’s “Fat Guys In TheWoods”, what do you get personally out of hosting this show? Creek: I take three to four guys for five nights and six daysout in the woods. I spend four days with them and then theyhave one day out on their own. These men are all guys thatare at a point in their lives where they are stuck in a rut andout of shape. They need a little kick in the pants and they wantto make a positive change in their life. They also all believe

that a survival and wilderness ex-perience can help bring about thatchange, and I certainly believe thatas well.

sThe kicker is that we go outwith hardly anything. Often timesjust a knife and a canteen. Webuild our own shelter and we makeour own fire from natural and man-made resources. We also hunt ourown food and gather our own wildedible plants. It’s the whole dealand some of these guys arechanged forever from these expe-riences. When I teach my courses,the focus is on the physical skills.When people come to my courses,I really want them to learn andpick-up a variety of survival skills.That is really my focus. The showis a little different, it’s all abouthelping these guys learn some-thing about themselves throughsurvival and I’ve been a long timebeliever in the fact that the wilder-ness can change people. There’ssomething about Mother Naturethat can have her way with you.She can bring about a sense of per-spective, connection, peace, andmeaningfulness in your life thatyou can’t get from anywhere else.

The idea that a survival scenario can bring about perspectiveand change in people is what I love the most about hosting thisshow.

Please check out these books by Creek Stewart. Build ThePerfect Bug Out Survival Skills and Build The Perfect Bug OutBag are both available at backwoodsmercantile.com. BuildThe Perfect Bug Out Vehicle, and The Unofficial HungerGames Wilderness Survival Guide can be found at most book-stores and at amazon.com. Stuck: a Survival Short Story is aneBook written by Creek and it’s available at amazon.com.Also, please visit the following websites; creekstewart.com,willowhavenoutdoor.com, notifbutwhensurvivalstore.com,and myapocabox.com

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Creek with his knife of choice, the Blackbird SK 5made by the Ontario Knife Company.

Photo by The Weather Channel