In a recent article on the excellent Overland Tech & Travel blog, Jonathan Hanson touts his favorite overland storage solution as the Front Runner Wolf Pack, a $40 black storage bin based on a former South African military ammo case. It got me thinking about the solutions I’ve used and seen, so I thought I’d share them with you from least expensive to most expensive. Read the rest of this entry »
In these two videos, South African 4×4 expert Andrew St. Pierre White puts 30 years of off-road experience into building a Land Cruiser 70-Series. He aims to create the most robust and simple-to-operate rig he can.
The first video shows the build, which includes a custom interior, roof-top tent, and suspension modifications.
In second video, he and his daughter take the new Land Cruiser out into the bush where Andrew goes into further detail about the trucks features, including the newly fitted turbo-charger.
Find the second video after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
A new year brings new adventures. As you go about planning your trips, I thought you might like to see how we prep for ours.
I went on a nice little solo trip up to the Sierra Nevada this past summer, found some great back country camp sites, and thought I’d share them with you. Keep these in mind for next summer when the snow clears.
See the map at the end of the post for exact locations. Read the rest of this entry »
Check out this innovative camper. Not only does the Doubleback top pop like a traditional VW camper, but the back also telescopes out, doubling the usable interior space. This clever camper is based on the European VW T5.
If you’re heading to the U.K., you can pick one up for about £55,000.
I realized I hadn’t written anything about our Southwest trip for awhile and, since we’re heading out on another trip soon, I thought I’d better get cracking. So here it is: Part 3.
After Canyon de Chelly we headed to Sedona, AZ. I’ll tell you right off the bat, it’s not much to see. It is beautifully situated, I’ll give it that. Towering walls of red rock surround it in dramatic fashion, but the town itself looked upscale suburban. We couldn’t even find a historic downtown, just a retail strip.
The road getting there was pretty good though. We came in on Schnebly Hill Road off of Highway 17. (See map below). Read the rest of this entry »
A friend of mine just told me about the Cricket Trailer. It’s a lightweight, pop-up trailer for sports adventures or basic camping with a small family. It has clever features like ambient LED lighting, “loft” sleeping for kids, wide doors on the side and rear for getting gear in and out, and an optional rack for putting more gear on the roof. The rear door opens upwards, simultaneously creating an airy opening to the living space and a shade structure.
The windows are also very clever. A shade can be pulled up from below and a mosquito screen can be pulled down from above. You can slide the point where they meet down, or up, so you can have 100% shade, 100% mosquito screen, any combination in between, or no screens at all.
It comes in two floor plans (one with a couch/bed, one with a “v-berth”). Both include a sink, portapotty, and shower sprayer. You can hose off inside or out.
It looks like a very stylish, very well thought out trailer. Well done!
See the rest of the post for a video tour.
We just bought this REI Base Camp 4 tent. After camping for a couple of years in my smaller Half Dome 2 (which still looks great after six summers of use) Natalie convinced me of the benefits of having more space. In this tent we each have a door, as before, but have the space to keep our backpacks inside. The extra room is also nice to move blankets out of the way, if they get too hot. There’s hardly room for that in a 2-person tent. The 5 feet of headroom also make moving around and getting dressed a lot easier.
The included rainfly creates a large vestibule on one side of the tent and a smaller one on the other, handy for shoes and bins of camping gear. The rainfly will fit over the tent in either orientation, so you can choose which end gets the larger vestibule (and window).
We took it for a test camp the other day and really liked it. It’s very roomy, and pockets and gear loops abound. Set-up takes about 15 minutes including the rainfly.
We’re looking forward to many trips with this tent.
Alex Hutchinson for The New York TimesThere was a great article in the New York Times Travel section last month detailing four mens’ 12-day journey down the Snake River in the northern half of Canada’s remote Yukon territory.
A float plane drops them off at the Snake’s headwaters in the Mackenzie Mountains and from there they’re on their own, riding the 9-knot current north towards the Arctic Circle. It’s a great read and a rare glimpse into a virgin piece of wilderness.
Photo: Greg MacDonaldA few weeks ago my friend Greg and I headed up to the Mendocino National Forest for a couple of nights of camping, off-roading, and target shooting in Deer Valley and French Ridge. We, well I, saw a fat rattlesnake crossing the road and then Greg managed to startle me pretty well with Hubert, the rubber rattlesnake that lives in his truck. He left it under some bags and when I went to throw away a beer can, I almost jumped out of my boots.
Heading out on Sunday, we explored one more trail and ended up at the High Glade fire lookout. Annelle, the friendly ranger on duty there, was kind enough to invite us up for a visit. It was really interesting to see how the lookout station worked and, of course, the views were amazing. Check out the gallery. Read the rest of this entry »
