Innehållsförteckning för Winter 2016 från Overland Journal

Best Present Ever I had been a subscriber to Overland Journal for several years, but had to stop for budget reasons. I relied on my well-loved collection until my wife gave me a surprise Christmas present of another subscription. Just before we were married last August we decided to make a camping goal and travel to my wife’s favorite place: Yosemite National Park. While not the rugged, austere desert camping I’m used to, we found a way to challenge ourselves by visiting the park in all four seasons. In this photo I’m enjoying one of my favorite past issues of the Journal in one of the most beautiful places on Earth during (in my current opinion) its most beautiful season. Now for spring and fall! Andrew Valdez 2010 Toyota Tacoma…

Growing up we had a policy of “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it,” which is why up until last month I still used the same sleeping bag my father bought me when I was 10 years old. Clearly, a lot has changed since then. The first thing I noticed was the difference in comfort level. Unlike the inner liner in my Kelty, which tends to stick to you at night, the Hog Park’s cotton/polyester blend feels just like sleeping under your sheets at home. It is roomy enough to roll from side to side, which is saying something for my 240-pound, 6-foot 4-inch frame, and the heat retention is phenomenal thanks to simulated down filling and no-draft wedges. As wonderful as the size and materials are, it was the…

Back in the early ’70s I remember thumbing through drawers of topographical maps at the local sporting goods store with my dad. Excited about exploring new routes with our backpacks and fishing poles, I loved tracing the squiggly contour lines of the Eastern Sierra to places like Long Lake, Muir Lake, Chocolate Lakes, and Mount Whitney. While I thought this was great, I’m sure the process, as well as the cost of buying a half dozen quad maps was not my dad’s idea of fun. National Geographic Maps has put an end to the tedium with their new online, printable USGS topo maps. The process is as simple as searching for your favorite lake, peak, or trail, zooming in, and clicking the icon. Voilà, you are ready to print. Page…

Cutting Edge Any survivalist will tell you that a good knife is the most valuable tool you can have when the world goes sideways. I agree. Though I’ve always carried a jackknife in my pocket, the Benchmade Mini-Presidio 527 has become my grab-and-go pocketknife. The 440C stainless steel blade is easily deployed with a thumb, the 6061-T6 aluminum handle provides excellent grip, and its 4.15-inch closed length is barely noticeable in a front pocket. I bought my first Leatherman, the Pocket Survival Tool (PST), in the 1980s and it got me out of more pickles than MacGyver on a good day. The Wave replaced my PST after I snapped the blade prying a mussel off a rock in Mexico, and it is always on my belt. Its 17 tools are…

The mud tires on my Toyota 4Runner kicked up hot summer dust as U.S. Marine veteran Jed Morgan and I navigated the vehicle toward Dutchman Peak, a prime lookout point tucked away in the foothills of Southern Oregon. Suddenly, Jed, a double amputee, turned to me and said, “That smell really takes me back.” I immediately knew what he was referring to. It smelled like the same dust that we (and countless other veterans) grew familiar with while conducting patrols through villages and towns in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Yeah,” I said. “That smell used to get me too.” Later, as we gazed across the broad blue expanse of the Cascade Range, I realized just how profoundly my response revealed my progress. Time in the outdoors, adventuring and exploring, had changed…

As Old Man Winter blankets fall color with fluffy crystalline flakes, our thoughts gravitate to snow runs, sipping coffee by a warm fire in a rustic mountain cabin, and for many of us, Christmas. If this vision finds you reaching for your keys and a thermos of steamy joe, we suggest you turn your wheels toward historic Georgetown, California, for the 3rd annual El Dorado Jeep-herders Christmas Toy Drive and snow run. After dropping off toys at the Jeepers Jamboree headquarters, you’ll make your way up Wentworth Springs Road, the original route to the Rubicon Trail, through sleepy logging towns to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, an iconic 150-year-old outpost from the Gold Rush. Once at Uncle Tom’s, the Jeepherders will be firing up a mountain-style barbeque and the day will wrap…

Pros • Extremely solid, well- balanced feel• Compact• Superior construction• Wide blade for its size Cons • Cost• Step could be wider (to match larger blade) Lamborghini once made a 4WD like no other: the LM002. With a manual 5-speed transmission bolted to a V12 motor borrowed from the venerable Countach, only 301 of these off-pavement beauties were ever produced. What shovel would be mounted to this Italian rarity? Will the Lamborghini SUV of shovels please rise. Enter the Ampco S-84FG. The 9- by 11-inch blade is a standard size, and the overall length from the D-grip to blade edge is a handy 37 inches. Here is where the specifications get interesting. The blade is made of an aluminum bronze copper alloy that is nonsparking, nonmagnetic, and corrosion resistant. It also meets or exceeds the National…

Delorme inReach Explorer I first got my hands on Delorme’s SE satellite communicator while compiling a review of personal locator beacons for our Winter 2013 issue. It performed so well that it easily claimed our Editor’s Choice Award. Shortly after, I acquired the updated Explorer model equipped with basic GPS navigational features and it has become my favorite backcountry tool. Over the course of the last 3 years I have sent and received thousands of signals and messages from eight countries on four continents. From the beaches of Mexico, the Peruvian Andes, high reaches of the Himalayas, and Iceland’s interior, it has never failed to send or receive. As someone prone to travel solo to remote destinations around the world, the ability to stay connected to loved ones at home,…

The wind is always blowing on Alaska’s North Slope and on this particular day it was in rare form, buffeting the Tacoma and reducing visibility to a few meters. It was the middle of winter, the temperatures were well below zero, conditions unforgiving, and we were testing the new TRD Pro on the Dalton Highway. With each gust the snow piled higher against the shoulder, filling the road with massive drifts that pounded the suspension, jerking the truck up and sideways. We had safely arrived in Prudhoe Bay, but as any overlander knows, reaching the summit (or in our case the Arctic Ocean) is only half of the battle. The Dalton Highway haul road was constructed in the 1970s to provide access to substantial oil reserves along the North Slope.…

THREE OPTIONS TO NEUTRALIZE A THREAT While traveling abroad, excited about your newest destination and thinking about a dozen things, you’re suddenly confronted by two thugs who pop out of nowhere. They’re so close you can smell their bad breath, and one of them pokes a gun in your face, grunting something in broken English that you can’t quite decipher. Your heart starts to race as your brain registers DANGER! Odds are you’re probably not carrying a firearm, but there you are standing between Scylla and Charybdis; now what? In today’s world, bad things happen to good people more often than we’d like to admit. It’s an undeniable part of our reality and should make us consider what to do if we are caught off guard. It’s a scary topic.…

Dressed in the tattered remnants of a T-shirt and shorts, thin and wild-eyed, he pointed a machine gun in my friend’s face. On this particular day I was in convoy with a Dutch couple and their Land Rover Defender. I had met them a few weeks before in Mauritania and had teamed up with them then to cross an open section of the Sahara Desert. We had gotten on great and decided to stick together for a while. I was now driving with them in southern Senegal en route to the seaside town of Cap Skirring for some rest and relaxation on the coast. Our research indicated that the area was unstable due to rebel incursions from neighbouring Guinea-Bissau, but the latest information on the ground was that things were…

Overlanding with bicycles is becoming increasingly popular, but transporting them presents unique challenges. Many bike racks are underbuilt and not up to the task of carrying bikes on bumpy back roads. After a comprehensive evaluation of the leading bike haulers on the market, we concluded that the Quik rack is one of the best. Constructed exclusively of machined aluminum and without a single plastic component, the Quik rack is robust and capable of enduring the rigors of overland travel. Dual ratcheting wheel clamps hold securely and only contact the bike’s tires, not the more delicate frame. A modular system, this rack can be configured for one, two, or three bikes, and can accommodate virtually any width or diameter wheel. A wedged quill insert in the receiver hitch assembly keeps it…

LIFELESS EYES STARED BACK AT ME FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GLASS, their hollowed and blackened recesses screaming out in anguish, begging me to listen, to understand a tortured existence. A web of fissures radiated from a dime-sized hole in their stained and hairless temporal lobe, terminating at the rear of the parietal bone. My peripheral vision detected a second pair of empty sockets to the left, then another to the right, another above, and yet another below. Stepping back revealed thousands of soiled, oatmeal-colored skulls, each defaced in similar fashion—the physical remains of entire families and villages. Beneath my feet, bone fragments, teeth, and clothes leached up through the muddy soil, gruesome evidence of a horrific chapter in the annals of this small country in Southeast Asia. This…

During the past few years, I had been looking at doing something never done before, ideally with a few like-minded people. When the Adventurists approached me and asked if I would like to be one of the pioneers for a crazy project, they had my full attention. Their aim was to see if it was possible to circumnavigate Lake Baikal on old Russian Urals, in winter, on the ice. If successful they would take the lessons learned and try and commercialise it as they had done with the Mongol Rally and several other ridiculously amusing adventures around the world. As I researched Lake Baikal, I found that it is the oldest and deepest lake in the world and contains about 1/5 of the fresh water on Earth’s surface. It’s over…

Touratech Aventuro Carbon Helmet After a neck injury near Nordkapp, Norway, I searched in vain to find a helmet that was both lightweight and appropriate for crossing continents. Adventure helmets have important features for the traveler, which include the ability to fit goggles and guard against the sun glare with a substantial visor. The Touratech Aventuro Carbon does all of this and still looks great hanging from a mirror on my GSA. I particularly like the comfort and fit of the padding and appreciate the entirely modular design, which allows for tool-free removal of the visor and face shield. The ventilation is generous and all can be closed for extreme conditions. It has never fogged with the Pinlock insert, exceeds DOT and ECE 22.05 standards, and weighs 3.2 pounds. Aether…

It’s easy to see the allure of national parks like Yellowstone and Yosemite, where breathtaking views and lush ecosystems are just steps from the pavement, but many struggle to appreciate the desolate nature and arid expanses of Death Valley. Here you have to look for beauty, or even work for it, with a hike up a hill or drive down rough roads. This doesn’t suit the fancy of many parkgoers, but for those who love to journey off the beaten track, the unique and strange sights of this desert make it well worth the trip. As the name suggests, Death Valley has never been the most hospitable place, and without large deposits of gold or silver its human history is fairly short. The first people of European descent didn’t arrive…

MENU MAIN: Pulled Pork Sandwich SIDES: Sweet corn and salad BEVERAGE: Ice-cold beer PULLED PORK SANDWICHES Serves: 4 | Prep time: 20 minutes | Cook time: 3-5 hours Equipment: Large pot, mixing bowl 3-4 pounds pork 8 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped 3 tablespoons chili powder or paprika 2 tablespoons sugar, preferably brown 2 teaspoons cumin 2 teaspoons pepper 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 teaspoon basil 1 teaspoon oregano 6-12 ounces beer or water Bread BBQ sauce Pulled pork is a recipe made for overlanding. It’s the perfect way to occupy a slow afternoon at the campsite and provides lots of leftovers for lunches on the go. You can serve it hot or cold on bread, tortillas, or tostadas, add it to soup or chili, or top it…