The 2020 Desert Rendezvous

Editor’s note: Back in 2010, our “Rendezvous Conspiracy” of like minded Adventurists sat around a campfire in the Southern California desert dreaming up ideas to get out and explore more often. That quiet conversation resulted in the first Desert Rendezvous. Fast forward ten years and American Adventurist grew to tens of thousands of followers across the social media spectrum with members in all 50 states. Early on we made it our business to promote responsible outdoor recreation, 4WD education, and Tread Lightly principles and we’re still doing it today – I honestly never imagined that so many other people had similar dreams and interests, or that this would grow to be what it is. We’ve held Rendezvous events in California, North Carolina and now Arizona and partnered with dozens of amazing brands and events like Overland Expo along the way. So this year’s theme is gratitude – we’re grateful for those who believed in us and what we’re about, and for all of you who chose to be a part of this journey. In the end, it’s the people, the family and friends that made this all possible, and you are why we do what we do. THANK YOU for making these last 10 years, and this Community that we’ve built, something that we can all be extremely proud of. 

Dave Bennett, Founder

Since this was our 10-year anniversary of Rendezvous events, we wanted to give this event a special touch. After bouncing around several desert locations in SoCal over the last decade, the consensus was to change it up a bit and shift the event to just north of the KOFA Wildlife Refuge on BLM land near Quartzsite, Arizona. Luckily, we had a good man there to do some reconnaissance and boots on the ground coordination, our fellow Adventurist and staff member John Rhoades. Many, many thanks to John for putting in the legwork and finding this wonderful spot for the 10th Annual Desert Rendezvous.

With the Rendezvous site finally nailed down, and the planning and coordination completed, it all came down to how we were going to get there. For most of us, we’d either take a few dirt roads in our 4WD vehicles, or just hardball it straight from home direct to the coordinates. For myself, I decided to take on a slightly different adventure for most people here, and that was to get there by motorcycle a few days earlier. I had coordinated with another member and friend here at American Adventurist, Tim S. and we had decided to take a portion of the Nevada Backcountry Discovery Route from Pahrump, NV to Oatman, AZ and from there we’d hard slab it down to Quartzsite, AZ.  Now, this would be my first big trip on a motorcycle, and not only that, but the longest ever in the saddle, and my first time on dirt, and on a Back Country Discovery Route no less… this would truly be an adventure for me!

You can read about my short Moto Adventure on the way to Desert Rendezvous [here]

Our arrival at the Desert Rendezvous was fairly late in the day on Friday afternoon, but we were just in time for the start of the festivities. There were already a good number of Adventurists there and all set up, which made for a very welcoming sight. Just as we finished unloading our bikes and setting up camp, the BBQ social was about to begin as a large group of 4WD’s was just returning from their days’ planned trail run out to the KOFA Wilderness area led by the fine folks at Canyon State Overland. Thank you for putting the trail run together!

With everyone back in camp, the smell of cooking burgers and dogs drew the hungry folks toward the main camp area. Many props to Mountain Hatch for sponsoring the BBQ social, as we sourced the beef for the burgers and dogs, and the freshly made buns from a local butcher and bakery nearby. Skottles were lined up and even chili was being cooked over the fire as everyone gathered around.

We love travelling and visiting the towns and cities that we pass through, and we love to support local mom and pop businesses whenever we can. The local beef made for the most delicious burgers we’ve had in a long time and those freshly baked old west style buns were incredible. The campfire was set, bellies were full, beverages in hand, and the social continued throughout the night with another spectacular sunset.

A small rain storm passed through in the night so it made a bit of pitter patter on the ground tent. It had been very a long time since I’ve camped in a ground tent, and especially when it was raining. But it was sublime after a long three day ride to get here.

We awakened Saturday morning to a break in the rain, damp ground, and nice rainbow off to the West. While the coffee was brewing and breakfast was being cooked around camp, we could see dark looming clouds off in the distance and the wind constantly changing directions. A small swirl just off camp began forming and the next thing we knew, it began raining pretty hard. This rain continued for the next couple hours so many folks took shelter under awnings or in their tents until the storm passed through, brewing lots of hot coffee and making sure all the Bailey’s Irish Creme in camp was accounted for. Small rivers began to form through the many satellite camps spread around but luckily the ground was hard and dry enough to allow the water to absorb quickly.

As the clouds parted and clear skies were just off in the distance, the rain let up and folks began coming out from their covers. Kids were launched in every direction on our Scavenger Hunt, and it was just about time for Dave’s 4WD Recovery Basic Course. Dave is a Certified Trainer with the  International 4WD Trainers Association, and his class covered a 202 Level class based off his previous 101 Level class presented at the last Rendezvous. These events are great to attend, as not only do they help you brush up on current knowledge and new ideas, but they also give you an edge on doing things right. The devil is in the details… especially with people’s safety and lives at stake.

At the same time of the 4WD Recovery Course, a few of the other adventure moto riders had formed up to go for a trail run off to the East of camp. Even though I could have joined them with my bike, I figured it would be too technical considering my setup, plus I had to shoot photos for the event. When they returned, it was a good choice as Tim had mentioned it was not ideal for my bike and I probably would not have had a good time, but the guys who went out had a great time of course!

As Dave’s period of instruction came to an end, the Kid’s Scavenger Hunt was wrapping up and the many kids began lining up at Stuart’s camp to collect their prizes. This part of the Rendezvous is always a big hit with the children and the parents. To keep the kids interested and challenged, this particular scavenger hunt was an evolution from the previous years’ and it turned out great!

The rest of the day was left to your own devices and whatever you’d like to do. Naps are authorized and even encouraged at a Rendezvous. With a good break midday, the only event left for the day was the Camp Cooking Competition and Potluck. Even by just after lunch, folks were already prepping around the main camp fire and getting their meals ready to go. It wasn’t long before the entire area was infused with the various aromas of special dishes and secret recipes.

As the time for the Camp Cooking Competition/Potluck started closing in, more dishes began showing up on the table whether they were main dishes, side dishes, or even contributions to the potluck for all to share. There was a great variety of dishes from the numerous competitors, from several varieties of excellent chili to Korean tacos, ramen salad, and even apple cobbler. All the dishes were mouth watering as the Adventurists cast their votes, dropping their tickets into their chosen dishes. A massive thank you to all those who participated as this one really brings the community together. The prizes for this competition were sponsored by L.T. Wright Knives and the competitors were itching to reach the top three and win one of their amazing, handcrafted made in USA blades.

Through community vote, the winners of this years 2020 Desert Rendezvous Camp Cooking Competition are:

Third Place: @aherrera with his Lazy Lasagna, winning a Kitchen/Boning Knife from L.T. Wright Knives

Second Place: @ TACMEDIC with his Dutch Oven Apple Cobbler, winning the Machete from L.T,Wright Knives

And First Place: @Bald_taco and their Korean BBQ Beef Tacos, winning the Grand Prize pack of a Boning Knife, Machete and Hat from L.T. Wright Knives.

Congratulations to the winners! And again, a HUGE thank you to those who participated in this very important part of every Rendezvous event. It’s always fun to try new things but also even more fun to one-up the last winner’s dish. Don’t forget that you can use whatever means you’d like to use to cook with (dutch oven, camp stove, smoker, open flame etc), but we always encourage you to bring the cooking over to the main fire pit so as to bring the competitors together to see what others are doing and to possibly stir up fun and new ideas for next time. And don’t forget to bring your own plate – no one goes hungry at a Rendezvous!

With half a cord of wood left for Saturday night, locally sourced and graciously brought to camp by the Mr. John Rhoades, we needed to burn the rest of it as this would be our last night before we needed to pack up and head home the next day. We all gathered around the main camp fire, while others gathered around satellite campfires, and with beverages in hand and full bellies, the socializing continued into the night.

With a clear and crisp morning, eventually all the Adventurists were ready for the raffle after their breakfast and social meanderings. But first we had to take our traditional group photo taken by our good friend and fellow Adventurist Brent Haywood of Brent Haywood Photography. With the group wrangled, group photos/videos taken, and folks back in their seats, the raffle began. We want to massively thank our many, many sponsors for contributing to the American Adventurist raffle for the many years we’ve held these Rendezvous events. Thank you!!

As everyone packed up and left (some with MAJOR new loot!), the staff started breaking camp as well, but first making sure to police the area for cleanliness to abide by our Tread Lightly! principles. No trace of our Rendezvous was left behind, fires were out, doused, stirred and scraped. You could not tell that hundreds of people had spent four days there in the Arizona desert.

Thank you to our wonderful Community for supporting American Adventurist for the 10 years we’ve had thus far, and to the many more years to come!

 

Long Term Review: Blue Ridge Overland Gear

That old saying of “a place for everything and everything in its place” really is the guiding principle when loading up your vehicle for a trip.  Quick access to neatly organized gear can make a real difference when it comes things like a medical kit, and an organized tool kit is a pleasure to work with in your driveway or on the trail, especially if you’ve had to deal with your buddy’s collection of odds and ends for tools. With good gear organization and storage, you can find what you need quickly and easily, and you can safely transport things like tools and chainsaws which can damage anything they come into contact with if they’re loose in your vehicle.  Blue Ridge Overland Gear (BROG) has built a reputation for making innovative, bombproof gear in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia, and I’ve been putting their Tool Bag, Large First Aid Kit, and Chainsaw Bra to the test for the last few months.

The first time I came across a BROG Tool Bag was in Sandstone Canyon in Anza Borrego, shortly after a 100 Series Land Cruiser decided that we really needed to change it’s CV axle.  Like most trail repairs it started with a good measure of standing around and assessing, which really means that a bunch of folks started saying how they would go about fixing things, but no one was actually turning wrenches.  Then this guy walked up with a black tool bag and got to work.  This black bag was just over a foot wide and tall, and only a few inches thick, but it held a staggering number of tools.  It was like he had taken a several hundred-piece mechanic’s tools set and managed to fit it all in this bag that was a fraction of the size of the original packaging.  I was quite impressed, so naturally when I got my BROG Tool Bag, the first thing I did was pack a whole mechanics tool set into it – and then I packed in a few more tools, because I still had room.

You read that right – a whole mechanics tool set.  SAE and Metric sockets, combination wrenches, screwdrivers, and other hand tools – it all fits in to the BROG Tool Bag.  Inside the Tool Bag’s 12” by 12” by 5.5” main bag you’ll find six equally sized pouches which you can use to divide up your kit as you see fit.  These pouches attach to the main bag with some properly stout Velcro that’s passed the “I’m an idiot and forgot to zip up my tool bag, I hope my tool pouches don’t fall out when I pick up the bag” test. Each pouch has a string-reinforced vinyl front that somewhat lets you see inside, but I found it much more effective to bust out a roll of cleanroom tape (it doesn’t leave sticky residue behind when you pull it off) and just write the contents on the bag.  Plus, I’d rather have the burlier string reinforced front than regular vinyl.  The whole thing is made from 500D Cordura, and features MOLLE/PALS webbing on the front, and a pocket on the back, which is perfect for quickly stashing those tools that take a minute to make it back from your buddy’s rig.

If you’re trying to figure out how you’re going to find the right sized socket when you’ve only got six pouches to divide up your entire tool kit, go and buy a bunch of socket sticks so that all your sockets are organized and easy to find.  So no, you don’t have to give up organization when you give up that crappy blow molded case your socket set came in.  In use, I’ve found that folks who are unfamiliar with my tool bag can find tools in my bag faster than they can find tools in their own blow molded socket cases.  The six pouches get you to the right style of tool, and from there it’s as simple as pulling out the right sized tool.

The BROG Tool Bag has logged thousands of miles of travel in my trucks over the last few months.  Its been set on the snow, sand, dirt, and rocks, and bounced on the floor board 5.2 kabillion times, but it appears no worse for wear after a quick shower and new label tape to clean everything up for photos.  I can’t say the same for the blow molded cases that I’ve seen fail in my lifetime. The BROG Tool Bag is built to last. So it’s no surprise then that BROG has taken this winning recipe for building a burly bag to create their Large First Aid Kit Bag.

The Large First Aid Kit (LFAK) Bag is quite similar to the Tool Bag in that uses the same concept of pouches that all mount into a large clamshell bag.  This clamshell main bag makes it easy to lay your whole kit out to find what you need quickly and easily.  There’s no unroll, unzip, unfold like you get with other commercially available kits.  The pouches on the LFAK share the same design with the string reinforced front as the Tool Bag, but they’re taller, so only 4 pouches come with the LFAK.  Again, I opted for the cleanroom tape label approach here, as having a quick list of what’s in each pouch seemed like a good way to go.  The tape also provides a quick spot to write a note, such as when you’re taking notes on an injury or situation.  The simple tape setup is what worked for me – I would strongly encourage you to configure and label your gear in a way that works best for you.

The fact that it’s colored red makes it stand out from any other bag and ensures it can be located in a hurry. The LFAK can swallow up a pile of medical gear, and the exercise of building your own first aid kit is invaluable – if you’ve ever found yourself working a patient where you didn’t have the one thing you needed because of an off the shelf kit, you know what I’m talking about.  With the LFAK I can pack enough kit to manage multiple patients for an extended period of time to the limits of my scope of training.  It’s future-proof as I’ve got room to add more gear to the LFAK as I get more training, and the MOLLE/PALS and the pocket on the exterior give me a place to stash quick access items when I’m working in a hurry.  After carrying the LFAK for the last few months, I see no reason to ever have to buy another first aid kit bag.

BROG also makes a number of innovative products that help you carry specialty items like their chainsaw bra, which enables you to carry a saw in a hard case on your roof rack.  Chainsaws are wonderfully messy tools and a pain to transport.  Even if you’re one of the few people who can avoid overfilling the bar oil and fuel tanks on your saw, there’s still sawdust, two stroke spooge, and the occasional drip of bar oil from your bar that causes most folks to carry their saws in their truck beds or in a way that puts layers of protection between the saw and their vehicles interior.  Yet, with the chainsaw bra, you can simply pop your saw in it’s hard case, and with 4 1-inch in cam straps secure it to your roof where it’s unable to drip or destroy anything in or on your vehicle you care about.

Securing the chainsaw bra takes less than a couple of minutes, and after you’ve figured out the best strap placement on your rig, the process is even faster.  With the hard case for my STIHL saws, I was able to remove only two of the straps to access the saw, so the process is actually faster than opening up my camper shell to get my saw out of my truck bed.  When cinched down, the chainsaw bra holds your saw case (not the actually saw, it will move within your case) perfectly tight, and no amount of go-fast driving was able to loosen the cam straps or the saw case.  The only downside to carrying your saw up on your roof is that the case isn’t waterproof, so if you’re going to be driving through a ton of rain, beware of the potential for water ingress.  Your saw could also be stolen while using the chainsaw bra, so I would encourage you to not let your saw live on your vehicle’s roof.  Yet both of these potential issues are found when carrying your saw in your truck bed, and are no fault of the Chainsaw Bra.  For what it’s designed to do, the BROG Chainsaw Bra works very well.

For me, Blue Ridge Overland Gear delivered on quality and durability here.  Each one of these items has proven to be a highly functional, well made piece of gear that offers ample storage for everything that I would want to have with me.  The Tool Bag swallows up a proper mechanics tool set and then some (match your tools to your rigs – don’t trust that an off the shelf kit will have what you need.) with ease, and it all packs in to one bag that takes up a fraction of the space of a blow molded case.  The LFAK allowed me to create and organize a robust first aid kit that I know is stocked for what I’m trained to treat.  Just like the Tool Bag, the pouch system (with added label tape) has proven to be a great way to subdivide your kits into the items you need and makes it easy to access said items.  Both of these bags have held up great so far, and I expect them to last for many years.  Likewise, the Chainsaw Bra does a great job securing a saw in a protective case that keeps it from rolling around, and it’s become my go to method for carrying a saw.

There’s no shortage of cheap bags and cases out there, and it’s been my experience that you get what you pay for.  With BROG, you’re getting handmade gear that’s designed by a team of folks who are clearly putting some thought and effort into functional, made in USA gear that is going to last.  I think the last line of their warranty sums the company up perfectly: “People who are hard on gear are our kind of people.”  Blue Ridge Overland Gear has it all covered, so no matter what you’re trying to find a place for they most likely make something that will help you stay organized no matter how crazy the trail gets.

Full Disclosure:  Blue Ridge Overland Gear provided these products to the author for the purposes of this long term independent review.