How do you get started overlanding?

Yeah, I know there is another thread on beginning over-landing but my question is a bit different.

My background I feel leaves me pretty well prepared in terms of gear knowledge and driving experience, and in any case, its easy to find countless pages of info on overland gear and builds.

What I want to know, is how to you find places to do it?? There are thousands of miles of trails literally connected to my driveway, but I don't know of any place where you could drive for more than an hour or two before running out of trail and either reaching a dead end, or a real road...or private property, etc.

How and where do you find places where you can spend DAYS driving off road?

This is a hobby that at least on paper, hits all the boxes for things I like to do, but I remain mystified how you actual go about it.

My second question is what really makes up an 'overland' trail. Most of the youtube video's on it seem to show either technical rock crawling, or people driving down what looks like a regular county road. When I think of overlanding I think of heading out over roadless terrain, is that a myth? What does a real overland trip look like from start to finish? What are we really talking about here?

Or in other words....if I decided right now that I wanted to start 'overlanding' this summer...where would you actually start in my area? When I tell my wife that I'm outfitting the Tundra as an expedition vehicle and she asks "What are you ACTUALLY going to do with it?" what do I tell her?

 

Good resource here
https://www.trailsoffroad.com/

 

Yeah, thats kind of what I was afraid of.

 

I think youd have to look up a lot o trails in your area and chart out a route that takes more than a day. It might involve some city driving between sections.

I often think of this, in California its probably harder than Montana to stay out of civilization for long.

 

So....is does make the whole camping aspect just a gimmick? I mean, what is the point of an 'expedition' that crosses back into civilization during the same day? Is it just going camping at the end of a off road trail?

As you can tell, there seems to be some part of this that I'm missing. Lots of build threads all over the place....but I don't see many talking about what really constitutes the actual activity.

 

That depends greatly on where you're driving I think. Where I live I cant imagine getting lost for more than 2 days without running into a city. In AZ or NV or even UT I think a greater voyage could be had.

I would bet that the large majority of overlanders in the States only go out for weekends really.

 

Honestly, even up here I can't imagine getting off road for more than a couple of hours, unless you break down or get stuck. Lots of dirt roads you could drive all day on...but nothing you couldn't drive on with any normal car either.

 

I think it’s more about driving slow, stopping to bbq, hike, enjoy scenery, than just driving straight through. Even if some trails cross over roads or require to drive a paved road as part of it, that doesn’t mean you have to eat in a restaurant or stay in a hotel. You can still camp on the trail.

 

Never realized it then, but we used to ‘Overland’ all the time in a 1965 2wd beater car driving on hunting trails and camping for days at a time. Some trails were sketchy and we’d get stuck and have to get out to push and unstick ourselves with tree limbs and a collapsable shovel (smartly packed/thanks pops!). That was before my hands got discovered.

What I’m getting at is with your mentioned trails in close proximity, I’d just pick one and start driving. Pitch tent for the night and come back home. Get a few of those under your belt and keep branching out with longer extended stays.

Once you start dialing it in, then you can get some of those really cool plastic traction pad thingys for getting unstuck. They come in all sorts of cool colors to make you look cool.

BLMS website can help you with public trails, as well.

 

You might consider reaching out to your Local Land Cruiser chapter. The Land Cruiser chapter here in Salt Lake is an excellent resource for overloading. As many of the members here use their Land Cruisers for just that. I've taken my Tundra to a few of their events, and they have been very kind (a little teasing about the Tundra every so often), and have shown me a lot of off highway roads. Here in Utah there are a TON of off roading opportunities. With 5 National Parks, and a TON of BLM land to choose from, it's easy to overland most of Utah without running into civilization for days.

Also, many of the original highways that have since been replaced by modern roadways (usually with better routes) can be driven. Some end up in dead ends on peoples properties and such, but many go on for miles, and you often find the asphalt in ill repair, or large sections have eroded into the land scape. I've driven extensively off road in Montana's East Glacier area. I was able to stay off road for a few days. Some logging roads, as well as smoother trails. I never needed to winch out, but having a winch gives you a greater peace of mind.

There are a huge abundance of online resources for Overlanding. There are Overlanding and other off road chapters and forums for Montana. Just do a Google search, and you'll be surprised what you'll find. (one example)
https://www.overlandbound.com/forums/threads/montana-off-road-trails.3288/

I am a cell phone tower field engineer, and my Tundra is outfitted for extreme terrain in all seasons. Important things for me are a winch for self recovery (never use to get yourself into somewhere, as getting out can be even more difficult), winch recovery kit, frame sliders, good quality deeper tread off road tires, an air tank and compressor (for airing down your tires on rocky or sandy terrain--it gives your tires more footprint and isn't as hard on your tires. Prevents punctures), Good quality off road lights for front and rear, I installed ditch lights on my hood cowl for those scary around the bend and steep drop offs I often come into at night when coming down a mountain, recovery gear--several headlamps with spare batteries, and good hand held D battery size flashlight, shovel, axe, tire repair kit, tool box with sockets/hammer/sledge/leather gloves/bailing wire/duct tape/electrical tape/variety of wrenches/extra fluids/whatever else you think you might need, first aid kit for backcountry emergencies, emergency food rations for 2 people for 3 days, extra fuel cans (our Tundra's are thirsty), CB.

One of the first things many overlanders do it upgrade their rear bumper. This will give you good mounting points for mounting a spare tire carrier, fuel can's, CB antenna, other off road lights.

My Tundra looks stock. I did a Hidden Winch mount behind my front bumper--as I rarely use my winch. I know it's there incase of an emergency. When I carry extra fuel cans, I do it in the bed of my truck. I went inexpensive on my LED lights. The stuff on Amazon or eBay isn't bad. But you have to make them better. I run a bead of clear silicone around the lens and any other gasket areas on the light housing--I also Rhino/bed line each light to make them as impervious to the elements as possible. I also upgraded all of the mounting hardware so they stay put for longer periods of time.

Overlanding can be expensive. But you don't have to drop thousands to get started. Start out with short weekend trips so you become familiar with your trucks limitations, and things you might think you'll need. At the very least make sure you have a tool kit, good tires, first aid kit, air tank that's filled up to re-inflate tires, and a good map of the area.

I carry a map book as well as my windshield mount GPS. Cell phone GPS's are good until there isn't any coverage. Lots of good online resources for off road trail maps. REI has a good selection, as well as many off road specialty shops.

I hope that isn't too much information. I'm sure others will agree or disagree with some of what I said. But this is what I've done, and what has worked for me. Happy trails.

 

i bought 6 books for 4x4 off roaring in az. ut. col. calif. or. an just picked up" adventures in America's public lands" all used but the roads r still there!

 

Southern Utah definitely has some multi day trips all on dirt. “Off-road “ overlanding, move to Australia

 

The term overlanding is the stupidest shit ever. It's an instagram jerk off term for going camping, but camping is too basic a term when you can use your decked out Subaru!

Don't focus on joining the dumb shits of society who overland/broverland/dayverland/circle jerk everywhere. Get a topo map, research trails, get LeadNav or Gaia, what I do for 99% of trips is just go on Google maps (usually if you go to the topographic overlay so you can see elevation that makes things easy) and then just start plotting waypoints. I would imagine in Montana of all places you can get pretty far with minimal highway use. Find a lake up in the mountains or a national park or a cliff that looks cool, then just work from your house to there on the maps and find dirt roads.

It's about the journey, not the destination. Find cool things, be open to changing your plan, camp in some random spot because it's dope. That can lead into days of never seeing pavement or potentially another person.

 

Start with this. https://www.transamtrail.com/

 

Back country and Gaia are great apps for plotting trips. Passing through "civilization" can afford you the opportunity to to refuel and pick up Ice or other sundries. Most trips require a good deal of planning and plotting the route. @joonbug, @GodlessPro and @osidepunker are all really good at planning routes and I've learned a ton, especially about using topography to pick possible campsites without having previously visited the area.

 

Lots of good info in here, thank you

 

OMG Warren, were we overlanding in Mojave?? I thot I signed up for the Fast Fhart and BASTRD stuff!

 

Have you purchased these map packages? Is it well worth the money?

 

Not yet, but I saw plenty of you tube reviews and they are legit. Expedition Overland featured them in one of their episodes.

 

transam trail has been on my list for many years. hope i get to it do one day.

i would also add the routes from BDR. yes, they were originally designed for dual sport bikes but they do not cover any single track. i'm going to try and do the CO and NM routes this year. maybe combine them into a single trip. i'd also like to try and hit the rim rocker trail this summer as well.

also, overland journal publishes some routes as well. i'm in the process of scanning many many routes from past issues.

here's a continental divide route from expo...
https://expeditionportal.com/overland-routes-new-mexico-and-the-continental-divide/

 

Awesome!!!! I’m in Minnesota. We are planning a trip to Colorado this summer, route TBD. I will most likely order the trans am trail maps. I can let you guys know once I get them.

 

the bdr related maps from butler are excellent. i can also highly recommend the maps and atlases from benchmark.

 

I agree.

I just got my IDBDR Butler map yesterday. Doing the southern 3/4 of the trail this summer. The maps come highly recommended indeed.

 

When thru hiking the Appalachian trail, you pass through many towns (civilization) and that’s on foot going days on the trail. So with vehicles you have to realize that’s just how our country is designed now in 2020. Unless you pay money for a true overseas trip to South Africa or Australia where roof top tents were invented to keep you alive from everything that can kill you unlike the states, then you will always come into contact with humans. Even Moab or parts of Nevada or New Mexico will still have you running into towns or other humans.
You can rent Toyota’s in Greenland and Iceland also for a real experience if you don’t like hot Australia or South Africa. Plus they are much easier to fly to.

If you really want to overland, save thousands of dollars, buy the best ultra light backpacking gear you like instead of truck mods and walk the PCT or Arizona trail or portions of them. That’s overlanding.

 

Take a trip up through the Gravelly Range. Or the Little Belts. Or the Missouri Breaks (north or south). Or the MacGruder Corridor.

 

OP you also have massive opportunities for exploration just north of you over the border.

 

Um. Huh?