Overland Journal Gear Guide 2016

Campfire Reading A group of friends and I recently completed the Washington Backcountry Discovery Route and I thought you’d like to know we enjoyed the magazine around our campfires while on the trail. Love the magazine; keep up the good work! Mark Doiron 2007 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Old Rover I recently went to my favorite place, Humbug Valley, California, to wander around, explore, and generally hide from the outside world. Zeitgeist, my 1960 Series II Rover looked at home in front of an old cowboy line shack at Longville, a ghost town which is now gone except for this building. I like the work that you do, especially reviews of vintage camping equipment. When I add another piece to my kit, my criteria is often, “Does it look good in an old Rover?” Chris Marshall 1960 Series II…

MICHAEL RUDD Michael Rudd is a photographer, writer, adventurer, and explorer. His career as a photojournalist began in 1999 as the feature editor for Four Wheeler Magazine. He quickly established a niche in the industry by covering off-road races, expeditions, and adventures in some of the most remote places on earth. His exploits have taken him from the heights of Khardung La, a mountain pass in northern India at 17,582 feet, to Ushuaia, Tierra Del Fuego, the southernmost city in the world. Michael’s work has been published in Four Wheeler, Truck Trends, 4x4 Asia, and local magazines in Hawaii and Nevada. JOEL CALDWELL Joel Caldwell is an expedition photographer and writer living in New York City. His greatest area of interest lies at the crossroads of meaningful work and travel—the spirit of adventure.…

It is hard to deny that the quintessential vision of trekking across the Kalahari, Serengeti, or Sahara involves a Land Rover Defender. There is something about its classic boxy lines, high, windowed roofline, and no-nonsense stance that draws one to dream about towering baobabs, migrating herds of wildebeest, and seas of sand. I recently had a chance to drive a Defender through Cambodia’s hinterlands with Overland Journal contributor and Land Rover aficionado Sam Watson. We spent weeks on the road together, in which time Sam expanded my knowledge of the breed and edified me on a plethora of Defender details. As we navigated our borrowed 110 along off-piste rice paddy tracks to villages seldom seen by outsiders, the thought of the Defender (at least as we know it) being phased…

The venerable Mercedes-Benz Geländewagen is the elder statesman of overland vehicles, having been in production for nearly 40 years. While most G-Class vehicles are relegated to a sentence of domestic carriage for urbanite families, some have been rescued to live the life of a Teutonic adventurer. This is certainly the case for my 1996 W463 G320 wagon, a vehicle purchased new by one of Overland Journal’s charter subscribers and used for travel throughout North America, even venturing as far east as Cape Spear in Newfoundland. In 2009, I purchased the vehicle (thank you again, Mr. Gulden) and it immediately began life as an overland vehicle and training tool for our work with MARSOC. A few years later, longtime friend Thor Jonsson from Thor Motorworks and Viking Offroad contacted me about…

The Deadwood eschews all of the traditional rules of bicycle design, proving once again that working outside of the box can produce impressive results. Over the last several years the pursuit of bicycle touring has grown exponentially. Driving its popularity is a new breed of bicycles with unprecedented performance and capability. No longer is a rider sequestered to a narrow slice of pavement at the road’s edge, but can now cover routes of varied terrain. Whether traversing long tracks of bumpy gravel or serpentine sections of singletrack, the modern bicycle traveler can tackle any surface and cover hundreds, if not thousands, of miles. Central to the adventure by bike movement is Minnesota-based Salsa Cycles. Their extensive catalog of bicycles are built almost exclusively to suit the modern explorer, and their latest drop…

Founded more than three centuries ago in 1697, Swedish manufacturer Hults Bruk is one of the world’s premier makers of hand-forged axes. From their factory located just north of the city of Norrköping, their small but dedicated team of 20 employees produce 100,000 axe heads each year, and they do it all by hand. One of their smaller and more versatile models is the Almike hatchet. With a 16-inch curved hickory handle and a handcrafted, zone-tempered, 1-pound head, the Almike is ideally suited for small chores like making kindling and felling small trees. Balanced for one-handed use, the handle is long enough to accommodate two hands for optimal control. With a slightly longer handle at 20 inches and fitted with a 1.75-pound head, the Aneby is designed for more demanding duties requiring…