The Complete Guide to Overlanding

Chapter 1: What Is Overlanding and Why People Love It

Let's start with a scene, because that's the easiest way to understand what overlanding actually is.

It's a Friday morning in June. You've packed your vehicle the night before - not because you're hyper-organized, but because you know from experience that packing in the dark while tired is a recipe for forgetting your stove fuel. Your rig is a 10-year-old SUV with all-season tires that have maybe 60 percent tread left. You're not a hardcore off-roader. You've never taken a recovery class. But you did watch a few videos last winter, and you've got a rough idea of a route mapped out on your phone: a two-day loop through a national forest, mostly dirt roads, one stream crossing that might be shallow enough to drive through, and a campsite you found on a free app called iOverlander.

You've got a basic dome tent that cost $80, a two-burner camp stove that's been in your family for a decade, a cooler with food for two days, a 5-gallon water jug, and a bag of clothes that you'll probably wear in the wrong order. That's it. That's your entire setup. Total cost of gear you bought specifically for this trip: about $150, because you already owned most of it.

Here's what overlanding is, in plain terms: it's traveling to remote places in a self-contained vehicle, carrying everything you need to camp, cook, and survive for multiple days, and doing it mostly on