“Birds and animals had never seen humans, warblers flew to me and touched my face, a badger trotted up and sniffed my boot, coyotes sat watching me walk by, an antelope paced for a mile. In complete silence and isolation, it was like what walking on the moon must be.” Julian D. Hayden (1911-1998), from The Sierra Pinacate
Travel Tunes: The Overland Playlist
We’ve all got them, those treasured playlists we save for kicking up dust on our favorite backcountry trail, or hammering out long miles on some grand trip. They might be filled with throwback tunes from the…
Great Plains Drifter
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Overland Journal, Winter 2017. Like all young boys, my childhood was filled with fanciful tales of soldiers clad in shining armor, new lands explored, and the quest for…
What We Can Learn From The Jeep Fire Video
On September 16, an overland YouTube channel called Coyote Works published a video titled Jeep Wrangler Catches Fire & Burns—Overland Car Camping Trip Ends in Disaster. As you can imagine, it generated a bit of a…
Nitro Gear’s Adventure RV
For most people, an RV is not an all-terrain vehicle. It’s a bus, a home on wheels, and a reason to own tiki lights and pink flamingoes. If anything, they encourage their owners to stick closer…
Tips on Keeping your Overland Vehicle safe, low-budget style
What if you want to keep your vehicle burglarproof for an overland journey without spending a fortune on car alarms, GPS tracking devices, and other expensive temptations? After 15 years on the road without a break-in,…
The Modern Classic
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Overland Journal, Gear Guide 2018. Photography by Chris Cordes, Scott Brady and Sarah Ramm The grass is greener on the other side, at least when it comes to…
Shelter From the Storm
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Overland Journal, Gear Guide 2018 For many travelers, a tent is not just a weekend retreat, it is home on the road for weeks if not months on…
The Gear Goody Bag
Anyone that has ever walked into an REI or Cabelas will know that there’s basically an endless supply of widgets and gadgets available for camping. Do you want an outdoor oven? Sure, they make that. How…
The Outpost Trade Retreat
I’d like you to take a moment to close your eyes and envision a trade show. What do you see? Images of little white booths, plastic folding tables, and long conversations might drift through your mind….
Support the BDRs and Win a KTM 1090
A lot of us are probably familiar with the Backcountry Discovery Routes (BDR) by now and know that these amazing trails run border to border across some of our country’s most beautiful states. What you may…
Old Dogs, New Tricks: Testing Cummins R2.8 Turbo Diesel Crate Engine
I settle into the driver’s seat of a clean 1996 Toyota FZJ80 and ask Stephen Sanders, program leader for the Cummins Repower Crate Engine Program if I should keep the RPMs below a certain mark, stick…
Overland Skills: Make Power or Store Power, Which is Best for You?
If you follow Expedition Portal with any regularity, you know we cover the topic of power management quite often. The business of watts and amps has become inextricably intertwined with the pursuit of overland travel. Even…
Video of the Week: The Swift Campout
We love four-wheel drives here at Expedition Portal, but occasionally we prefer something a little different. Be it the lapping of waves on a paddle board, the silence of a hike on a misty morning, or…
The Overland Commute: Mauritania
Mauritania has an air of infinite sunburned monotony, the entire country a distant sandy horizon wallowing under a powder-blue sky. Maps of the country only highlight the emptiness, the few landmarks achingly lonely amongst the dunes….
A New Overland Vehicle From Kia?
It’s abundantly clear that adventure sells these days. Advertisements featuring foreign landscapes and hip traveling couples are the new norm, and the number of vintage four-wheel drives and motorcycles appearing in imagery is downright staggering. With…
Bonafide Moto Adventure to Sani Pass
When we planned this recent adventure we had these crazy ideas and high hopes to summit Sani Pass in the middle of winter with snow all around us. Thankfully that was not the case and somehow we managed to pick the perfect weekend that gave us a nice mix of slightly warm weather in the low lying areas and some very cold moments up at the top of the pass.
A Look at Outworld and Their Toyotas
A while back, I was browsing through Instagram when a 2000 4Runner popped up in front of me. I had seen this awesome Toyota several times now, and I felt like I need to learn a…
Chevy’s New ZR2 Bison Just Changed the Game
Just over a year ago Chevrolet unveiled the ZR2, a high-clearance, high-performance, off-road version of their already capable Colorado. (You can read about it here.) With an optional diesel motor, sliders, skid plates, a lift, and…
The Cradle of Adventure
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in Overland Journal, Spring 2017. Kenya stretched out before us. We moved slowly and deliberately along a rogue track through the rugged and sparsely vegetated area near Sogwass Mountain…