outdoors Archives : American Adventurist

Building a Community in the Desert

Desert Rendezvous began as a modest effort to build a community by creating opportunities around our shared interests and values. Building a community was a conscious choice back then, and today it requires continued dedication, vision, and consistency in order to remain successful and relevant. Most don’t realize it, but there’s a lot more to organizing these large-scale Rendezvous events than meets the eye. It takes many months of hard work behind the scenes with …

American Adventures Gear and Skills Vehicles

The International 4WD Trainers Association: Inside the Testing for Certification

This is an inside look at the I4WDTA. My goal here is to provide some level of transparency for an organization I believe in. To that end, I’d like to provide you with a glimpse inside their Testing for Certification process and the extremely diverse knowledge, skills, and aptitudes required to be successful. There were eight Candidate Trainers and a large number of I4WDTA staff present whom I will refer to here as Cadre during …

Adventure American Adventures Gear and Skills Vehicles

Overland Expo East 2021

This was a busy year. Overland Expo East was to be our third Overland Expo event within the space of a few weeks, and it seemed like I had just returned from Colorado when it was time to go again. Overlanding is different east of the Mississippi, and I was keen on seeing how the East Coast version of Expo was doing. As usual, I left Northwest Florida a couple days early for a bit …

Adventure American Adventures Gear and Skills Vehicles

Colorado or Bust: Overland Expo Mountain West 2021

Overland Expo Mountain West almost didn’t happen. For most of us, the last year+ was like a dystopian B movie on many levels, complete with terrible casting and an even worse plot line. Because of all that, there was an uncomfortable feeling right up until the day I drove away from Florida for Colorado that this event would somehow get derailed too. I know the event organizers likely aged a few years with worry and …

Adventure Gear and Skills

Throwing Shade

Reviewing Force Protector Gear's entry into the Overland vehicle market

Adventure Gear and Skills

Fishing for Fun & Survival

In a backcountry survival situation, fishing is an excellent source of food, and in some environments it may be your sole source of food. During normal times, trying your hand at fishing with some of the more arcane techniques covered here can also be a whole lot of fun! As Hank Williams Jr once said, “We’re from North California and South Alabam’, And little towns all around this land. And we can skin a buck …

Gear and Skills Vehicles

TESTED: Lightforce Lights HTX2 Twin Pack

For the last ten years, I’ve had a pair of Lightforce Blitz lights on the front of my Tacoma – and they’ve been awesome lights. Ten years is a long time to have any product, and it’s even more impressive when you consider that these lights have been outside for that entire time. These lights have baked in the Arizona sun, and frozen in the Colorado winter. They’ve held up to more than 150,000 miles …

Gear and Skills Guest Articles

Adventure Downtime

As lock downs are lifting, I wanted to stop and reflect on some new hobbies I’ve been keeping busy with. The activities are overland-related and should improve your overall experience on your next trip.

Gear and Skills

A Better Way to Leave No Trace

We review Last US Bag's latest foray into the 4WD utility bag market, aptly code named "Oscar's Mobile Hideout"

American Adventures

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 …

Public Lands

Public Land Use: Closure Isn’t The Answer

Sadly, as covered in my previous article, Locked Gates Ahead, we continue to lose access to our public lands across America. This is in part because of an ongoing drum beat by well funded special interest groups who seek to control access to public lands. Our ancestors fought for these lands and our rights, and today those rights are in jeopardy. Once public access is denied it seldom returns. Real Talk Clearly, our rights come …

Gear and Skills

TESTED: Offgrid Trek 215w Solar Blanket Bug Out Kit

I’ve been going back and forth trying to decide between adding a dual battery setup to the Jeep, or finding a better solar option for “unlimited power” when stationary. Like most of you, I need peace of mind running the fridge in camp and easy access to power for charging USB devices. At Overland Expo East 2019 I ran across a veteran owned Canadian company that makes serious expeditionary grade kits that are ready for …