Creek Stewart discusses his philosophy as a survival instructor. At his core, he believes in teaching practical survival skills that can be applied in real-world scenarios. The most important aspect of survival is the mental side - specifically, not giving up, being innovative, and eliminating negative thoughts. He recommends the first step in disaster preparation is assembling a bug out bag with the essentials of shelter, water, fire, and food. While survival situations cannot be fully controlled, controlling one's mental state is key to avoiding poor decisions caused by fear and panic.

1. 47
CR: Thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to sit
down 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 and
eventually became an eagle scout. How valuable were those
experiences to you?
Creek: That’s really where I got my start. I fell in love with
the woods through scouting. There’s a part of every boy that
yearns to be out in the woods camping and learning how to
use knives and hatchets. I’ll never forget my wilderness sur-
vival merit badge. It was one of the best moments of my life
and to this day it still is. That was the very first night of my
life that I camped alone in a primitive shelter, and that first
night is kind of monumental in a survival guy’s career.
I learned a lot from scouting, not only the physical outdoor
skills but also about how to grow up with character and in-
tegrity. These are things that are very important
for young men and boys. I’m still actively in-
volved with scouting, and I volunteer and talk to
scouts as much as possible. I also help with the
merit badges, and I try to give back because it’s
a really great organization. I’m really thankful
and 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. They
were from the generation that did a lot of the sur-
vival skills that we teach now as special skills
every day of their lives. I was really young when
they were very old and looking back, I could
have learned so much more from them so I kind
of regret not spending more time as a teenager in
the woods with my grandfathers. They were a
wealth of knowledge for wild edible plants and
hunting, and also with the things that are sort of
becoming the lost art of survival and woodsman-
ship. I would definitely consider them my men-
tors, but as far as training with any well-known
survival experts the answer is no. My experience
comes from one thing, and that is time out in the
field. Literally on my hands and knees in the dirt
practicing the skills that I teach.
CR: While in college, you had a significant mo-
ment in your life that involved an encounter with
a crow. How did that change your life?
Creek: It’s actually a pretty funny story. To this
day when I see a crow, I look at it in a very spe-
cial way because that bird represents a moment
in my life when something changed in me. It did
happen while attending college, and there’s
something about going to a school in a city that
is 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 attend
Butler University, there weren’t a lot of wooded areas around
the campus. I lost sight of what made me happy and at the time
I didn’t even realize it. I was pursuing a major in pharmacy
that 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 on
the dormitory courtyard and squawked starting around 5:00
a.m. It was quite the wake-up call, and for a college student
nothing made you angrier than getting woke up like that. After
a week with this crow, I became fed up with it and I decided
to make a trap and kill it. I rigged up this little snare trap based
on some old Boy Scout manuals with dental floss and a pine
tree that was out in the courtyard. So I set this snare trap up
and attached some bells to the trigger line of this snare. One
morning, the bells started going off and the snare line went
running out my window that was cracked open. I grabbed
hold of the line, and ended up pulling this crow squawking
and flapping up the side of the dormitory lawn. I can still
Photo by RIVR Media

2. 48
remember the look of horror on this girl’s face that was
across the courtyard, and I still like to imagine that she was
happy that I was ending this horrible escapade with this
crow. I ended up dragging it up to my room and finally got
it inside, I didn’t have the heart to kill it. But it was in those
moments of setting up the snare and capturing that crow that
something changed in me. I realized that for the first time in a
long time what I had been missing in my life, and it was those
moments where you challenge yourself and face nature.
Where you kind of put it all out there and test your wits against
natural wits.
Literally in that week, I changed my major to business and
made 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 writing
my first survival book. That
was definitely the moment
where it all changed for me.
CR: Was there ever a time
when you were struggling
where you thought about giv-
ing up your dream?
Creek: I don’t think there has
ever been a time in my career
when I wasn’t struggling. I
think that’s when you really
know for sure that you’re
doing what your passion is.
It’s when you want to keep
doing it despite the fact that
it’s a constant struggle and
you’re not getting positive
feedback, and that also means
not getting the money that
you were hoping for. I spent years and years not getting the
feedback, students, and money that I wanted, and I worked for
a long time doing various full-time & part-time jobs while tak-
ing survival classes on the side. It was a huge sacrifice but I
still loved what I was doing.
It was never easy not getting those things but ultimately I
got into this business because it was fun for me. Even when I
was practicing and teaching these skills, it was still fun. De-
spite the fact that maybe not a lot of students showed up for
my classes or I didn’t sell a lot of books, I still loved survival
and 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 there
one 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 to
get away from urban life and modern conveniences. Disaster
survival and disaster preparedness has a lot to do with those
urban things. It has a lot to do with storing food, cache sup-
plies, and maintaining your house & vehicle. Those are the
kind of things that people don’t really want to think about. It
can feel more like a chore and most people come to my course
to get away from the office. They want to connect with nature
and that has driven my school. I try to give people what they
want and because of that I’ve been very successful at my
courses. I help connect people with nature through survival
skills 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 to
evolve as you do. As I get older and become more mature in
this industry, my philosophy evolves. At the core I’m not
primitive, tactical or urban. I
feel that I’m a very practical
survival instructor. I’m a be-
liever that real survival sce-
narios happen to real people
on a regular basis, and that
survival skills are important
for everyone. My philosophy
is that we will hardly ever be
in a situation where we will
strictly have only natural
tools. The fact of the matter is
that we live in a modern world
and modern things surround
us. Even when we have noth-
ing, we have modern things on
our person.
If I had to say what is at
the core of my survival train-
ing it’s the mental aspect of
survival, 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 to
think about what that really means. Your body does what your
mind decides. A survival scenario is determined first mentally
and 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 that
get someone through a survival situation. The mental skills
that are necessary to get someone through a survival sce-
nario and those that make our life extraordinary. What I mean
by that is if you live your life everyday with the same urgency
of a survival scenario, your life would change. A lot of people
aren’t necessarily happy with their lives and ultimately that
has a lot to do with their mental attitude.
I try every day to live my life with the urgency of a survival
situation. As crazy as it sounds, if you live every day like
you’re going to die in the next few hours, you will behave like
there’s a sense of urgency and purpose. In a survival scenario,
people work harder, they take everything more seriously, they
think about the people they love and don’t take the simple
things for granted. Maybe you never pray but in a survival
scenario, you start praying.
A primitive shelter that was built by Creek and his students.
Photo by Creek Stewart

3. 49
CR: What are three mental survival skills that a person could
use every day in their lives?
Creek: The top one would be not giving up. Giving up on the
big things in your life is a series of giving up on the small
things as well, and it’s also a mental skill just like the bow drill
is a physical skill. In order to master the bow drill it takes
practice. In order to master not giving up, it takes practice.
Even on the small things in life. When I walk into a hardware
store and I pull a shopping cart out and it’s stuck to the one in
front of it, I never push that one out of the way and leave it for
someone else to deal with. I always solve the problem and un-
stick that cart; I look at it as training for not giving up. Simple
things like that can train you. If you train like it’s a survival
scenario, it becomes easier when it really matters.
Another skill is innovation, and I often argue that the most
important survival skill is to
be able to use what you have
and get what you need. That’s
being innovative and creative.
Often times you don’t have
everything and that’s what
kind of defines a survival sce-
nario. Lastly, I would say
eliminating negative thoughts
and negative people. In a sur-
vival situation, you cannot af-
ford to think about the
negative side of things. Posi-
tive thinking will almost dic-
tate the outcome of a survival
scenario, and so it will in life.
Some other mental sides of
survival skills are also very
interesting to me like perse-
verance, hard work, com-
radery, teamwork, and adaptation. These are all skills that if
they’re applied to your everyday life, they can be life chang-
ing.
CR: What is the most important thing that you try to teach to
one of your students?
Creek: If I had to pick a physical skill it would be fire because
I 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 basic
survival needs. It becomes a shelter, it can also make up for
an incredible amount of incompetencies & inadequacies in the
shelter-building department. Obviously, it can help regulate
body core temperature. Fire can also boil and purify water,
signal for rescue, cook food, make tools; it can provide all
kinds of things. As far as a mental skill goes, I would have to
say it’s eliminating self-doubt and building confidence, which
goes a long way in helping people conquer and master fear,
panic, and all of the physical skills that are involved in getting
through a survival situation.
CR: Do you think that we’re at the point in our society where
every 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 business
and in life, it’s to “Remember, it’s not If but When”. At some
point in his or her life, I truly believe that every person will be
faced with a sudden and unexpected survival scenario where
the outcome will depend on what they know. It may only be
five minutes long but you could really screw your life up in
five minutes. It may happen while on a cruise vacation, a trip
overseas 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 biggest
difference.
CR: What do you consider to be the first step in preparing for
a 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 a
grab-in-go bag if anything
strikes. Having enough food,
water, supplies, and gear to
get you through 72 hours of
independent survival is a re-
ally good start. It’s also prac-
tical and doesn’t cost a whole
lot of money, maybe a few
hundred bucks. Anybody can
do this and in just a couple of
weeks you can assemble a
bug out bag. By assembling
the bag, you’re literally get-
ting your hands on all differ-
ent types of survival tools and
gear. It allows you to exper-
iment with that gear, realize
what you’re capable with and
what you’re not capable with. You kind of wet your teeth with
a variety of survival subjects without spending a lot of time,
money, and energy.
CR: What are some of the fundamental things that you should
have in a bug out bag?
Creek: I always start with what I call the core four. These are
the four items that help you meet the top four survival priori-
ties, which are shelter, water, fire and food. Everyone that is
in the survival industry has heard of the survival rules of three,
and these four cores are based on those rules. You can live for
three hours in extreme conditions, three hours without shelter,
three days without water, and three weeks without food. If
you cover those core four priorities, you are leaps and bounds
above not having them.
CR: You talk a lot about the word “control” and the lack of
control that a person has in an extreme survival situation.
What’s the best advice that you have for someone who is in
this 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 vehicle
Photo by Creek Stewart

4. tain level of control over Mother Nature. You can manipulate
her into shelter, fire, water, and food but ultimately the only
thing that you can completely control is yourself and your im-
mediate reactions to the situation once you have realized that
it has gone south, which is the moments that most mistakes
are made.
The biggest piece of advice that I would give is to slow
down your decision making because fear and panic can make
bad things become horrible. Often times a survival scenario
is not life threatening until horrible decisions are made. You
have to do whatever it is to slow yourself down and it’s dif-
ferent for everybody when dealing with fear and panic. The
immediate rushed decisions that
come strictly from the emotions of
fear and panic can make people do
things that are completely irra-
tional.
CR: What is the most common sur-
vival mistake that a lot of people
make?
Creek: I often say that the number
one survival mistake is not telling at
least three people where you’re
going and when to expect you back.
Sometimes the mistakes are made
before a survival situation actually
begins. A lot of survival scenarios
are based on people getting lost.
Telling at least three people where
you are going can go a long way in
preventing these types of situations
from getting really bad.
CR: In what ways has preparing for
a potential natural disaster or sur-
vival situation changed in the last
decade?
Creek: We have experienced some
very large-scale disasters in the last
decade that were survival & pre-
paredness oriented. The one thing
that has changed is awareness.
People just seem to be much more
aware of survival and preparedness compared to when I was
growing up. It’s kind of become a theme in our society. A lot
of things are now themed with survival & preparedness. You
have survival themes in movies and in reality shows, and then
you have all the crazy things going on in our world that make
everyone uneasy.
Awareness is probably the biggest change in the industry
in the past decade, but at the same time the past decade has in-
troduced an aspect of survival and preparedness that I don’t
feel existed that much as a kid and that is terrorism. That has
certainly 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 if
countries are preparing for things like that, then I believe that
individuals should also be preparing for such things.
CR: As the host of the Weather Channel’s “Fat Guys In The
Woods”, what do you get personally out of hosting this show?
Creek: I take three to four guys for five nights and six days
out in the woods. I spend four days with them and then they
have one day out on their own. These men are all guys that
are at a point in their lives where they are stuck in a rut and
out of shape. They need a little kick in the pants and they want
to make a positive change in their life. They also all believe
that a survival and wilderness ex-
perience can help bring about that
change, and I certainly believe that
as well.
sThe kicker is that we go out
with hardly anything. Often times
just a knife and a canteen. We
build our own shelter and we make
our own fire from natural and man-
made resources. We also hunt our
own food and gather our own wild
edible plants. It’s the whole deal
and some of these guys are
changed 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 and
pick-up a variety of survival skills.
That is really my focus. The show
is a little different, it’s all about
helping these guys learn some-
thing about themselves through
survival and I’ve been a long time
believer in the fact that the wilder-
ness can change people. There’s
something about Mother Nature
that can have her way with you.
She can bring about a sense of per-
spective, connection, peace, and
meaningfulness in your life that
you can’t get from anywhere else.
The idea that a survival scenario can bring about perspective
and change in people is what I love the most about hosting this
show.
Please check out these books by Creek Stewart. Build The
Perfect Bug Out Survival Skills and Build The Perfect Bug Out
Bag are both available at backwoodsmercantile.com. Build
The Perfect Bug Out Vehicle, and The Unofficial Hunger
Games Wilderness Survival Guide can be found at most book-
stores and at amazon.com. Stuck: a Survival Short Story is an
eBook 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
50
Creek with his knife of choice, the Blackbird SK 5
made by the Ontario Knife Company.
Photo by The Weather Channel