‘Outdoor Boys’ is back on YouTube — sort of

The wildly popular “Outdoor Boys” will be back on YouTube this weekend — in a limited engagement.

Creator Luke Nichols announced in May that he was shutting down the channel that entertained millions of people with his extreme camping, fishing and hunting exploits in the Alaska wilderness for a decade.

“This is going to be my last video for a while,” Nichols said then, citing the unwanted attention it brought to his family, among other reasons. “It’s been a wild ride.”

But he also said at the time that he has a lot of half-finished videos, including the homestead project and travel adventures and extreme camping trips he has been planning for the past six months. If he decided to finish them, he said he would post them in one big dump at the end of the year.

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Well, that time has come.

“I’ve got three videos for you. Ah, and they’re nice ones, too,” Nichols said in a brief YouTube video.

He plans to post one for the next three Saturdays starting Nov. 8 at 7 a.m. ET.

“So, for at least three weeks, Saturday morning ”Outdoor Boys” videos are back on the menu,” Nichols said.

He also answered the obvious question about the future of his channel.

“Does this mean I’m back and posting videos again? Nope. Just doing exactly what I told you I was going to do,” Nichols said. “And will I post any more videos after that? I don’t know.”

Nichols goes on to say he doesn’t regret his decision to say goodbye. “And I’m happy the way things are,” he said.

As of Wednesday morning, his YouTube post had 116,000 likes.

 

Why did “Outdoor Boys” go away?

Nichols’ videos often included his three boys — Tom, Nathan and Jacob — and his wife Rebecca.

In the 11 years he created online content — the first year with “Catfish and Carp” and the 10 with “Outdoor Boys,” he said he had made 1,110 videos. “Outdoor Boys” had 15.3 million YouTube subscribers when Nichols shut it down.

He said at the time that it’s hard to communicate the amount of time and energy it takes to make videos, including late-night editing, packing and unpacking for trips, camping with pneumonia and rebuilding a homestead while injured. Creating content, he said, has allowed him to provide for his family while making “wonderful” memories with his family.

“But even good things can be taken too far and I think I’m starting to reach that point. But I’m not just talking about the time and energy I spend making YouTube videos. I’m mostly talking about the attention it brings,” he said.

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Nichols noted in May that his channel had gained 12 million subscribers in just the past 18 months. And because of people “stealing” his content and posting it on other platforms, he and his family have been viewed 4 billion times. That’s in addition to the 2.8 billion on YouTube.

“The sheer volume of fans trying to contact me, trying to take pictures with me or just trying to come up and talk to me in public can be a bit overwhelming at times,” Nichols said.

“My wife and I, we both have real concerns about what this will do to our family if I keep growing my YouTube channel at this pace. And the time to stop is before this problem gets so out of hand that my family and I can’t live normal lives.”

In his farewell video, Nichols said he also wanted to spend more time helping his son with his YouTube channel “Outdoor Tom.” As of Wednesday, it had 1.57 million followers. One short titled “Dad’s Knife Collection” had 9.8 million views.

Who is Luke Nichols?

 

Nichols was born in Anchorage, Alaska, where he developed a love for the outdoors from an early age. He is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and earned a political science degree from church-sponsored Brigham Young University. He earned a law degree at George Mason University and practiced law in Virginia for 10 years, specializing in criminal defense, before moving his family to Alaska.

A few years ago, the Nichols talked about their faith and family in a YouTube video that received 1.4 million views and more than 3,000 comments.

In the post, Nichols talks about his missionary service in Japan and meeting Rebecca at church after he returned.

Nichols started posting fishing videos while still working as an attorney. Traveling and fishing became bigger than his law practice. While some might see it as a dream job, he said he had other priorities in life.