Overlanding 101, Joseph Tucker

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 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

a hardshell be better or will a soft shell fit your family the best? Then you have to figure in cost. Yes they are very popular and are sure to add you to the short list of actual “overlanders” but the cost compared to a ground tent can expand from one end of the spectrum to the other.

Clothing and Personal Items

This is a difficult subtopic to cover especially if you are a female or travel with one. To find a partner who knows how to pack conservatively is like finding the elusive four-leafed clover. It does not come around often and is as rare as a Bigfoot sighting. If you are one or have one, I applaud you and consider this my moment of egregious jealousy. Before we leave for any trip, I tell my wife how many days we will be gone and the exact number of clothing items to take. I give her a specific sized carrier to place her items in and state emphatically that every single thing must fit inside this carrier. Consequently, the clothing items do, but then there is the bag for the makeup and cleansing of this or that and the bag for the hair products and the bag for the bathing products. I then must convince her that no she cannot keep these bags under her feet in the front seat because we will be traveling for hundreds of miles for multiple days and for the sanity of both of us we will need to compress and compact, filtering out what is necessary and what she can live without.

Find something good and stackable in which to pack your clothes. Whether a box like a Frontrunner pack or a soft duffel bag. Whatever works best for your setup and packing style. Take one day more than what you will be planning to stay. You never know if you will get hot and sweaty, need another layer, rained on and wet, fall and get muddy, or whatever else that is bound to happen out in the middle of nowhere. On long trips, we have taken soap and line in order to wash clothes. For long trips, you will not want to pack enough clothes for each day. You will want to pack half and go find a laundromat or just wash in a creek and dry on a line. Packing clothes and keeping them easily accessible is one of the biggest frustrations that I have when we go out. I cannot seem to find what I need and another piece of gear is always stacked on top of our clothes. I am still working on and perfecting this part of our setup.

Make sure and take proper clothing for the weather. If it is going to be cold, take long pants, hoodies, jackets and boots of some weatherproof kind, etc. You can always put more on. In warm to hot weather take shorts and water shoes, flip flops, etc. Make sure you take bug, mosquito and gnat spray as summer time always seems to make the hungry bugs search for campers. Always have some kind of rain gear handy and never leave home without your deodorant. You are going to need it. A toiletry kit is necessary with the essentials of toothbrush, toothpaste, Triple Antibiotic ointment and sunscreen.

Now you do not have to have a $500 medical trauma kit but it does not hurt. You know how far you push yourself. Make sure you always keep a medical kit that meets or exceeds your daredevil lifestyle. Many different kits out there are available with a wide range of prices. Also make sure and install or just carry with you (wish easy access) a fire extinguisher. You do not want to find yourself neck deep in a grease fire or a fire that has escaped the fire ring with risk of setting the National Forest on fire without a fire extinguisher. Remember to pack necessary daily medicine and any medicine that might be needed for special illnesses. You most likely will not be anywhere near a 24/7 pharmacy.

Conclusion

This is an area of trial and error for everyone. There is really no better way to discover the how and why of this except to just get out there and get some experience. Just like everything else, we have changed the way we pack and what we pack our items in, multiple times. There is no set way that would encompass everyone and no “How to” book that could possibly be made to fit everyone’s lifestyle, and needs. There are all different sizes of rigs so you might be more limited or freer with space. You may have a trailer and have much more space than others have. You may have a large family and be extremely limited or even have to take more than one vehicle on your adventures just to be able to fit everyone, along with their gear and supplies, and make it to any certain destination. I do not know and do not have all of the questions. All I can do is offer proven tips that we have tried and proved to be useful to us and hopefully help you in some way make your experience a little better.

I hope you have thought this out. I hope this does not keep you from getting out and enjoying the outdoor lifestyle that we love. Being able to live without certain items is part of the fun. Having the thought process to (as Clint Eastwood stated in Heartbreak Ridge) “Improvise, Overcome, Adapt” will make your experiences better each time. Find ways to make it work. If not, find a Dollar General as they are everywhere, and buy what you need. Plan your routes to replenish items you know you will run out of. Think through and plan. You will not regret it and will get better and better each time you leave the house.

Joseph Slayton

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