Real skills. Real conditions.
Real community.
Built for people who are done winging it. 15 field guides, a trip-planning app with an AI Coach, and a community that actually goes. Where the map ends, the wild begins.
200+ members and counting, and a top 200 hobby community on Skool. Built by the people in it.
Join CWS. Upgrade when you’re ready.
- Join THE CAMPFIRE.Enter Skool and start with the community and free lessons.
- Explore the system.Open the Classroom, choose Hiker, Paddler, or Hunter, and try the free lessons.
- See the full library inside Skool.When you want the full library, Field Manual, app, and weekly call, pricing and billing are handled there.
Three ways in, one system
THE CAMPFIRE
A real crew of hikers, paddlers, and hunters who share what actually holds up in the field. $19 a month, or $190 a year.
Join CWS ›The CWS app
Trip planner, offline satellite maps, live weather and USGS river gauges, GPS tracking, and an AI Coach that knows your route.
See the app ›15 field guides
From your first overnight to leading a self-reliant expedition. Navigation, canoe, hunting, survival, first response, and more.
Browse the guides ›
Coming soon
What's inside CWS
Not just a link to a community. A full system you can put to work tonight — the training, the book, the app, and a crew that answers when you ask.
Want to judge it for yourself first? Read real lessons free, across land, water, and hunt, no signup ›
15 field guides · 160+ lessons
From your first overnight to leading an expedition. Real topics: reading a river, loading a canoe for a headwind, meat care in the heat, land nav with a dead phone, shelter when the weather turns.
See the guides ›582 pages, searchable
Every guide in one book you can flip through or search for any word you need in the field. Included with a paid membership.
See it in THE CAMPFIRE ›Plan the whole trip
Offline satellite maps, live weather and USGS river gauges, GPS tracking, and an AI Coach that knows your route.
See the app ›Real trips, broken down
Our films and paddles written up into what worked, what didn't, and what we'd pack differently. Free to read — no signup.
Read Field Notes ›How THE CAMPFIRE actually works
"Join the community" is vague, so here's the real thing: you post a question, people who've actually done it answer, and you plan trips together. The kind of questions that get worked out at the fire:
Three steps, no stumbling
1 — Say hey at the Campfire so we know you're here. · 2 — Pick your trail: Hiker, Paddler, or Hunter. · 3 — Open the Classroom tab and start your first lesson. That's it — you'll never be left wondering where to start.
Join THE CAMPFIRE ›Most people learn by getting it wrong out there.
Dead phone GPS at mile 12. A canoe loaded wrong in a headwind. Meat spoiled because nobody knew the 30-minute rule. These are not gear failures, they are preparation failures. CWS is the system you build before you leave the truck.
Where do you want to go?
Pick your trail. We will show you exactly where to start.
Hiker & Backpacker
Navigation, survival, all-weather skills, and traditional woodcraft that does not need a signal.
Start with Foundations ›Paddler & Canoe
Canoe camping systems, river reading, advanced strokes, and expedition fishing.
Start with Canoe ›Hunter & Angler
Ethical scouting, shot placement, field dressing, and field-to-freezer processing.
Start with Hunter's ›
The whole curriculum, in one field manual.
All 15 guides and 160+ modules come together in a 582-page book you can flip through or search by any word. It comes with a paid membership, alongside the full library, the app, and the weekly call.
Real people. Real results.
The app goes in the boat with you
Offline satellite maps, live weather and USGS river gauges, GPS tracking, and an AI Coach that knows your route. It runs in your browser on any phone, and it is on Google Play for Android. Comes with your membership.
Rodney and Tina Thompson
Everything taught here came off the water first. We run these rivers out of Saint George, Georgia, film every trip as it actually happened, and write up what went wrong along with what held. CWS is simply the system we use, handed over. One thing worth saying plainly: I am not a certified instructor. What I have is years of running these rivers and a camera that was running when it went wrong. That is what this is built on. The first response course will teach you how to think when help is hours away, but it is not a certification, so get properly trained for that as well.
Stop winging it.
Join 200+ members at THE CAMPFIRE for $19 a month, and get the full library, the app, and the Field Manual with it.
Join THE CAMPFIRENot ready to join yet?
Get the field notes. Water levels, what is running, and what we learned the hard way, a few times a month, straight from the river. No course, no pitch, and you can leave any time.