Overland Journal Gear Guide 2022

UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN With reluctance, I will not be renewing my subscription this year. I have been a devoted reader of your magazine since 2010 and have enjoyed each and every issue. My family and I are about to embark on our own overland adventure, a one-year driving circumnavigation of North America, and won’t be here to receive new issues in the mail. I’ll look for the latest [ones] on magazine racks along the way to get my fix. Thanks for all of the great stories over the years. Robert Coates 1981 Toyota Land Cruiser, HJ47 Troopy KEEP IT UP I love what you guys are doing and have been following Expedition Portal for 10 years now. Your book and site are literally the only reasons why I got into overlanding. I’m living full-time…

JIM MEYERS Jim Meyers is a bi-coastal adventure photographer, writer, and adrenaline junkie based in Seattle, Washington, and Burlington, Vermont. He cut his teeth wandering the creeks of Appalachia, ultimately falling in love with bigger adventures such as climbing, fishing, biking, and skiing throughout the high and wild places of North America. Combining the experience of backcountry travel with way better food and less exertion has resulted in his current obsession with “faux-verlanding,” and he’s looking forward to some proper overlanding in a distant land. His 1996 4x4 E-350 project is teaching him how to be a better mechanic, while his wife, two kids, and dog teach him to be a better person. MATHIEU GODIN Born and raised on the east coast of Atlantic Canada and now located in Ottawa, Mathieu got his…

Ever think, Man, I’d love to go fora drive—but where? And then, similar to the Netflix scrollie debacle, six hours have passed, and you’re not an inch further toward any adventure, merely questioning the capability of your vehicle after a trail review starts with “Not for the faint of heart…” Get off your couch and get into the driver’s seat ASAP with OnX Offroad as your co-pilot. This GPS-mapping app is solid gold, unlocking 400,000 miles of rugged motorized trails, all of which can be pre-downloaded for the areas you really want to explore, i.e., those without cell service. Other features include trip planning, trail ratings, restrictions, area history, public land information, stop-worthy sites, tracking your progress/speed/distance, 3D/satellite maps, necessary pit stop points like gas stations and campgrounds, a new…

Confession: I don’t actually want to be Brad Pitt, but after my friend’s father handed me a fly rod and I felt the rush of my first catch, I wanted to embody his character, Paul, inA River Runs Through It, and spend every day casting. The initial problem of bringing that dream to reality was equipment. Flooded by advice from seasoned anglers who convinced me success only arrived when I invested serious capital in high-end gear, I see-sawed dozens of times between borrowed hand-me-downs and rentals, believing an entry-level rod and reel would result in an empty net. Now that I’ve debunked those myths over the last decade, do yourself a favor and pick up the Orvis Clearwater, which I’ve nicknamed “Goldilocks” because its action is not too slow, not…

Suffering a medical emergency while traveling is a scary experience, especially when far from home and definitive medical care. For those who travel remotely, I recommend taking a Wilderness First Aid course and bringing an activity-specific first aid kit capable of handling the first 24 hours of an accident or illness. But, what if your travels take you far from medical care? Or perhaps through a region that does not have any medical care at all? In these instances, traveling with a medical kit that contains lifesaving prescription pharmaceuticals may be the fine line between life and death. Knowing what to include, however, can be confusing and logistically difficult. Unless your family physician has advanced training or experience in travel, wilderness, and emergency medicine, prescribing medications for this type of application…

When it comes to running shoes, I’ve found considerable success and comfort with modern zero-drop designs. Because of that, I was a little hesitant to swap out my trusted trail runners for the Salewa Dropline, a neon-green trail option that looks like it was sent to me straight from the future. These super-cushioned above-the-ankle shoes have a 6-millimeter drop from heel to toe and are designed for speed hiking in alpine terrain. Upon lacing up the Dropline for the first time, I was pleasantly surprised by the width of the shoe, which despite being labeled as standard, felt a bit wider than average. The knitted upper felt comfortable and sufficiently flexible. And despite looking overly complicated, the lacing system with speed hooks did a great job securing the shoes to my…