How to Start Overlanding

Overlanding is more popular than ever. I think this is due to people discovering a love for the great outdoors. Over the last few years, the world has obviously been “weird” and people have had to get creative with how they vacation. With the inability to fly, people have headed out in their cars in search of adventure and have fallen in love with exploring the world around them.

This blog post is made in partnership with our dear friends over at onX Offroad. Thanks to our onX fam, we love you guys and appreciate your never-ending support to help us work on projects that we’re passionate about!

Please note: The links provided in this blog post are affiliate links. If you end up purchasing some of these pieces of gear we get a very small portion of the sales. Thank you as always for supporting us and our life on the road, it gives us the opportunity to share so extensively with you all!

Overlanding can be described as self-reliant adventure travel to remote destinations where the journey is as important as the actual destination. Essentially, it’s car camping that takes it a few steps further into the unknown.

Overlanding is relatively new in the United States but has been around in Australia for a long time. The term was coined in the Australian Outback, where early “overland” routes were formed to facilitate intercontinental cattle drives, travel, and trade. It first started on horseback and later evolved to rail, then finally to motorcycles and automobiles.

When looking on Instagram or YouTube, overlanding can look intimidating to get into. However, with a little knowledge, navigation, a few pieces of gear, and a basic understanding of land stewardship you can be overlanding in no time. So today we’re going to get into how to start overlanding and the essentials that can make that happen!

Knowledge will always be your most powerful tool for overlanding, or any type of travel for that matter. Before you head out to start overlanding it’s important to know camping etiquette, Leave No Trace principles, fire regulations, road conditions, if there is likely to be cellphone service, and if there is any specific gear you need to safely travel that area.

I know that sounds like a lot, but when you go looking for one of those answers, you’ll quickly find all of them. Besides, the more you get out there, the faster the process of learning these things will come to you!

Let’s start with Camping Etiquette.

We camp 99% of the year which makes this a subject that we’re passionate about. Camping allows us to have a deeper and more impactful experience in the places we visit. It’s important that we’re respectful of the land and the other people who are camping so they can have a great experience in the outdoors too. This is a very big topic, and I have a lot to say on the subject. I have another blog post that dives into all things camping etiquette. As part of your knowledge base for overlanding, I HIGHLY recommend checking it out after you finish this blog post.

Camping Etiquette

Leave No Trace:

If you’ve spent time in the outdoors, I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “Leave No Trace”. Leave No Trace (LNT) is a wonderful organization that has seven principles that provide easily understood guidelines of minimum impact practices for anyone visiting the outdoors. The seven Leave No Trace principles are:

Plan ahead and prepare
Travel and camp on durable surfaces
Dispose of waste properly
Leave what you find
Minimize campfire impact
Respect wildlife
Be considerate of other visitors

Though I won’t be getting into the details of each principle, I suggest checking out the LNT website. These are incredibly important to know and understand to ensure that we’re treating these wild spaces, which are often fragile, with the respect they deserve. This helps keep these wild spaces around for all of us to enjoy in the future!

Leave No Trace

Burn Bans:

It’s no secret that fire danger is increasing year after year. Knowing and respecting burn bans is crucial to being sure that these places are around for us to enjoy in the future. It doesn’t take much time to look up and understand if an area you’re traveling to has a burn ban. To know if you’re heading to an area with fire restrictions, you’ll have to check in with the specific land management organization of where you’ll be staying. There are often signs posted at the beginning of trails with current conditions and restrictions. If you see one of those information boards, pull over and give them a quick read before you head on your way.

If you are unable to have a fire, we recommend bringing extra lighting and blankets so you can still enjoy the evening under the stars. In fact, a night sky without a fire is often even better for stargazing!

If you do have a campfire be sure to drown your fire COMPLETELY before going to bed or leaving.

Fire Information

Navigation is the single most important tool for getting into overlanding. Proper navigation can be the difference between a fun/safe trip and a dangerous one. Your navigation tools need to be the one thing that you never leave home without.

For our trail and trip navigation we use onX Offroad because it’s always on our phone and ready to be used. onX helps us find trails that are along our route, then safely navigate them. We also have the ability to save maps offline to be sure that we can reference them if we happen to find ourselves out of service along the way.

When looking for trails, onX gives us a realistic idea of the conditions based on other peoples ratings. This ensures that we are picking trails that are right for us, our skill level and vehicle, as well as helping us understand if any obstacles may require any special gear to successfully run the trail. In short, it takes the guesswork out of how to properly prepare for a trip.

OnX Offroad

There are always a few basic pieces of gear that you’ll want for your own safety before you start overlanding. There are also some other items that you may need that will be made clear when you do your “know before you go” research. Let’s start with the items that we recommend everyone carries.

Navigation tools
Extra water
A shovel
Extra fuel
Emergency communication
A friend
Basic tool kit
First aid kit

Navigation Tools:

As we mentioned, having navigation tools with or without service is crucial. For trail finding and navigation we love onX Offroad for all the reasons we mentioned above, but also because there are tons of handy tools for saving points, logging trails, and estimating distance.

Extra Water:

Bringing more water than you think you’ll need is an easy way to be sure you’re prepared if you end up out on the trail longer than you expected.

Shovel:

As simple as it is, a shovel is a great recovery tool that nearly everyone already has at home. A shovel can go a long way to getting you out of a sandy spot. It can also be used for a LNT bathroom pit stop.

Extra Fuel:

Bringing extra fuel is a low cost way to potentially save you from an expensive recovery or AAA call. When you do your pre-trip research you’ll often get an idea of whether you’ll need extra fuel or not. It’s always nice to have in the event of any unforeseen issues, or if you run into someone on trail who needs some. A great deal of our preparedness if not just for us, but also to assist others in need.

Emergency Communication:

This is something you always hope not to need, but if something were to go wrong and you’re out of service you need to be sure you have a way to communicate with the outside world. We use and love the Garmin InReach mini for this.

A friend:

Ok, so your friend isn’t a piece of gear… But hear me out. As you’re getting started in overlanding, we recommend never going alone. Even if there is just an additional person in the car, it’s good to have another set of eyes on the trail for possible spotting. We also suggest going out with other overlanders in a small convoy for the first few trips to learn the ropes from others who are more experienced.

Basic Tool Kit:

You never know what will happen out on the trail. It’s best to come prepared with at least a basic tool kit for simple repairs.

First Aid Kit:

Again, you never know what will happen out there. Better to come over prepared.

Once you have the basics down and start to get into more aggressive trails and routes, you'll want to be sure that you scale your recovery gear accordingly. I won’t go into specifics on these, but they’re all things you will want to look into based on the severity of the trail:

Recovery gear such as a winch, tow strap, etc.
MaxTrax
Air compressor
Spare parts for your specific vehicle
Additional exterior lighting
The list goes on, but that might have to be a topic for another day…

We’re incredibly lucky to live in a country with so much public land for us all to use and enjoy. Understanding land stewardship is a key aspect of being sure that we’re all doing our part to preserve these places for our own and others' enjoyment in the future. We look at it as being our way to pay these places back for our stay.

Our rule of thumb is “leave it cleaner than you found it''. We always come prepared with extra trash bags and a pair of gloves so that we can take out any trash that has been left behind by other visitors. People are far less likely to leave trash behind in a clean environment. It is rare that we can take everything we find out, but if we all take a little out, it makes a big difference.

Overlanding can appear to be hard to get into, and sometimes down right unapproachable. However, that is far from the case! You really don’t need a whole lot other than a set of wheels and a few pieces of gear. Then you can get yourself out there and enjoy all that our world has to offer! Just be sure to do your research ahead of time, bring your navigation tools, your safety gear, and be a steward of the land. Following those simple steps will guarantee that you have a great time and see something new in the process!

We’d love to hear what pieces of gear are in your must have collection for getting out on some trails! Toss em’ in the comments so we can help each other get out there!