Overlanding 101 Packing
One major problem in the overlanding world is feeling the need to take everything along with you. I have been through it and go through it just about every time we pack to leave. “I feel like we are forgetting something.” “We need this and this and this…” Without fail, what we feel like we “need” is never used, we just haul it around for miles and days. It is a hard thing to learn. What to take and what to leave at home. One thing is for sure, you cannot fit all of your household conveniences in your rig, so some things must be culled. Although most of the following topics will be expanded in this series, I will try and break the necessities down for you and give you helpful pointers as to what should stay and what should go.
Cooking How much do you love cooking in the outdoors? Personally, I enjoy it just about as much as anything so I go overboard on cooking items. With the size of our rig, I am limited to what I can take and still must have to go through a small decision process as to thinking about our meal preparations and deciding how I am going to prepare those meals. I have to have answers to a few questions when making this decision. Can we have a fire? Can we have charcoal? Several places we went this past summer had burn bans on and did not allow fires or even charcoal while camping there. That told me I would be using propane to do all of our cooking. If we can have a fire then I can do open flame roasting. If I can use charcoal, then we can grill and even bust out the Dutch oven. Since we could not have either, I took along the Coleman folding oven that sits on top of the propane stove to cook cinnamon rolls, biscuits and other baked items. For some reason we always take too much food. It is hard to determine how much food you will need for a trip. If you plan to be out for a weekend and have 5 meals to plan for, then think in your head, make a note on your phone, or write down what you would like to prepare. If there is any prep work with any of these meals, I highly recommend doing as much prep work beforehand at home and putting those chopped up onions and other vegetables, cracked eggs, or any other item you can prep at home inside a freezer bag, reusable silicone bag, or sealable container to 14
be placed in your fridge or cooler. That saves you a ton of time to enjoy other things and also helps with cleanup and limiting the amount of trash you create while outdoors. If you do not want to cook for one reason or another, think about Mountain House, REI, Patagonia Provisions or other freezedried meals. Most of these are high quality meals that only require you to boil water and cook in the bags that the meals come in. This also cuts down on cookware you have to bring and again, the amount of trash you accumulate. Cookware is one of my downfalls. I love cast iron. Even though it is heavy and bulky, I do my best to make room for it as it is my preferred way to cook all of our meals. It is easy to clean and holds heat extremely well, but again, it is very heavy and takes up a lot of space. If you do not want a lot of cookware taking up your space, try looking at the Jetboil series all in one with a burner and container. You also will not go wrong with any of the GSI packages found just about anywhere online. It is all about preference and what you are used to. It also depends on how much space you have and how much space you can dedicate to this part of your kit.
Tent and Bedding We sure have done our part in flip-flopping around this area. We have ground tents and rooftop tents. We have everything you need and more for our Oztent with the cots and little nifty nightstands to go in the corner. We were spoiled to this setup as it has many different awnings that go up and a special place outside the tent that covers you from the weather elements. But it is an extravagant setup and takes a while to get everything in its place. Others I know have different types of ground tents, which also go up very easy. The Gazelle family of tents are really nice and easy to set up. But the comforts that you decide on may depend on whether the complete setup is easy or not. Cots are nice and comfortable but take up a ton of room and many are very heavy. Then you will need some form of sleeping pad, sleeping bag or cover and pillow. All of these things, again, will have to be packed separately, which takes up space and weight. The rooftop tent option has its pro’s and con’s as well. Although you can pack up your bedding, mattress and pillows inside the tent, you add the component of having to climb up and down a ladder each time you enter and exit the tent. This could make it difficult with small children, pets and even with the capacity of your bladder overnight. Then you have to think about other things. Will you leave it on your vehicle or take it on and off? Do you have to worry about theft? Do you park in your garage and will it fit? Will
