The Earthroamer mud bog.
This photo doesn't do this van justice. It was built out by Adventure Trailers and is the best built van I've seen.
And if you really need room, this is your rig.
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May 2015
25 May 2015
Overland Expo 2015 (Part 2) AKA Rig-geekorama
Every year I come back from Overland Expo and get barraged by questions about trucks. Some years, I took almost no photos. This year I took a few walks around and shot a few pics. Many of these I know very little about, a few I do. I was stoked to see the new 4x4 Sprinter van, a version built by Sportsmobile. I expect we'll see many of these in the years to come.
Also. Earthroamer finally announced their new XV-HD, which has been rumored for years. This rendering shows that it is a really big truck. It's also really not cheap. They've sold two already!
This really big banner was dramatically unfurled to reveal the new really big Earthroamer. No, we won't be getting one.
Really nice trailer setup.
This G-Wagen based camper looked really nice, and was for sale!
The GXV is nice. And big.
This is a really nice setup.
This truck has something like 80 miles on it. And is for sale.
Another angle.
Another one of many REALLY big trucks.
Nacho (the van) was driven around the world.
This is the Sportsmobile version of the 4x4 Sprinter
Overland Expo 2015 (Part 1)
The last few years, we've left Overland Expo saying "it's not about the "stuff". So this year, we planned on taking no classes and intended to hang with people we knew and meet new people. Of course, there would be the requisite ogling of rigs (see next post); but our focus was really to reinforce our overlanding community.
The weather made that a bit tougher than we'd imagined. Happily, we were able to quickly find the ATQA gang. We retreated for a "coffee" during a rainshower on Friday and after the third beer, I forgot I had a camera, so this remains my only photo of that dinner.
By the time we left, I felt much like these guys did:
It was good to spend time with @wildernessdave @AmericanSahara @valinreallife on that rainy afternoon. We visited with Neil and Lori at their GXV truck inside the Expo. I bet they sold a truck or two, as their setup is really nice. They were nice enough (and brave enough) to let people come inside their truck and look around. Considering the amount of mud and rain, I would have had a tough time doing that.
On Saturday, it dried out enough for @wildernessdave and @AmericanSahara to do a lap of the lake, and later @valinreallife got back on a bike for the first time since some bimbo blindsided her. She was stoked.
Taking off, between rain showers
Speaking of overlanding rigs..this Subaru has been more places than most fancy-pants trucks, probably including mine.
Blubaru has been all over.
Linda, our neighbor from the Poudre came up from Gilbert to check out the Expo. She was amazed by the array of vehicles and the sense of community. I think she'll be back next year, maybe in a truck of her own.
Linda in the Ural
Pam and Dino came back Sunday and was present when Earthroamer announced their new, really big truck.
Dino to Pam: "The F650 seems just right!"
We also got to hang with Astrid and Anthony of @OverlandNomads. Anthony works with Overland Expo and was busy working much of the day. He did take a moment to give Nancy a spin in the Ural. We planned to camp with them after Expo.
Note the winch. Does YOUR moto have a winch?
It was great to see Beau Johnson @LivingOverland, although Krista was missed! We bumped into him again in Kayenta after leaving Flagstaff.
@ExploringElements was working the show for OurdoorX4 and DeLorme and we bumped into Bryon more than a few times.
Despite the weather and conditions, we were happy to be able to spend time with so many people. I missed meeting @DriveNachoDrive, which I'm sad about. I've followed their blog as they drove their van around the world and wanted to let them know how much I enjoyed their writing.
Also missed were those who are still on the road. This list is too large to mention, but I will mention especially @Lostworldexpedition as last year we spent so little time talking. One of these days...
Mormon Lake 2015
After departing Sunset Crater, we drove into Flag and stopped at the Safeway. Usually, we see any number of overlanders here stocking up before Expo. This was not the case this cold and rainy morning; the closest thing to an overlanding vehicle sighting was an old Shasta that looked like it had been rolled that was ratchet-strapped to a flat-bed trailer. I wish I took a photo.
We drove in, said "Hi!" to Anthony, who was working the Expo, and got our camping pass. As we drove in, we could see the camping area was already full and there were few if any slots for a vehicle our size in the main camping area. So we drove past that, past three ERs that were parked parallel to a barbed wire fence, to the far side of the driving course and backed up to that fence. There were a couple of tents and an expedition trailer nearby. We were probably 400m from the Expo itself. It was kind of a drag as we wound up being even further than that from anyone we knew.
An hour later, this was our view.
It started raining, hard, and the soft mud became a quagmire. We decided to walk over to the Expo area to see who we might bump into. Halfway there, this was the result:
The mud only got worse, as it continued to rain (and snow) all day. We quickly realized that the quarter-mile hike between the truck and the Expo area would take 20 minutes or more; necessitating that we plan on leaving the truck for the day, and returning only to sleep. Fortunately, we had clothes and footwear that would keep us warm and dry. As the weekend progressed and the precipitation continued, any pedestrian thoroughfare became a mud-bog. The Expo area itself featured (mostly) volcanic gravel which prevented mud from being a problem. A notable exception was the Earthroamer booth, where the area between the two demo Earthroamers was ankle deep mud. Anyone who wanted to look inside a truck had to wade through all of that before they entered the truck. I never did see what the floor looked like in the demo rig.
This rig below had far less mud to deal with than may people did. One could have made a fortune renting shipping pallets.
Looks fun, huh?
To make matters worse, we saw a few locals drive into the camping area late Saturday afternoon and do about a dozen laps around the camping area and near the driving course. Until their visit, our drive away from where we were camped would have been across a grassy pasture. After a dozen or so laps around, the area directly in front of our truck was a chewed up, muddy mess. It made walking to and from the truck treacherous and even messier. I would have shot a photo of their license plate, but it was covered with mud.
We started to see people bail by Saturday. Sleeping in a ground tent would have been less fun, and I heard of more than a few people waking up to three inches of water in their tent. The Tacoma parked next to us required a tow to get extracted from the mud, although the driver exhibited little to no off-road driving skill. The woman driving the Jeep pulling the expedition trailer calmly drove away a few minutes later. As the weather forecast was for a sunny Sunday, I opted to stay put, knowing a few hours of sun would make a big difference.
Sunday was warmer and sunny and you could literally watch the mud dry. Despite that, we saw many many rigs getting towed out of the mud. This was a clear demonstration that driving skill can trump "gear" as we watched a Honda Element drive out of their camp spot, while the built Cherokee next to it required a pull after digging itself deeper into the mud.
Mid-day Sunday I drove the Earthroamer out of the back 40 and relocated near the showers (and the gate). I had to rock the truck back and forth once, but the F550 dealt with the mud like a champ.
When we left Mormon Lake later Sunday, I felt bad for anyone behind me, as the 42" tires were throwing off hunks of mud the size of softballs all the way into Flagstaff.
Traveling to Arizona, via the Scenic Route
Pam and Dino, friends and fellow Earthroamer owners, visited recently and drove with us to Flagstaff, Arizona. We intended to attend Overland Expo, and they were returning home to prep for their trip to Alaska later this year. Before we could leave, we had to drive our truck off our backyard grass, which become saturated after the three weeks of constant rain. Our backyard got a bit torn up, driving a 16,000 pound truck across grass that was, kind of mushy. We didn't know it yet, but this would be a recurring theme for this trip.
We hit the road early and were able to get out of Boulder county and onto I-70 without incident. We did stop in Fruita for some diesel fuel and some carnitas meet at the exceptional carniceria there. We exited I-70 at the Cisco off ramp in Utah and drove to Dewey Bridge, then took the Kokopelli trail dirt road to the Cowskin campsite a few miles off the pavement. We went for a hike, and had a nice evening with a campfire there. The next morning, we got back to the pavement JUST as it started raining. It rained off and on as we headed south through Moab, Blanding and Bluff. We intended to camp at Valley of the Gods, as we always do, but it was pouring. With the likelihood of impassible roads, we kept driving south. The further south we went, the less rainy it was, and we finally decided to stop at Sunset Crater, which isn't far from Flagstaff.
We checked into the NPS campsite, which was virtually deserted. After doing so, we saw Neil and Lori, friends of ours from Winter Park, in their very cool GXV truck. The four of us went for a hike while Neil and Lori parked their truck and got squared away. Our hopes for a campfire and dinner were dashed by rain and some snow.
The next morning, Neil and Lori had taken off early so they could set up at Overland Expo (their truck was in the GXV "booth" as a demo vehicle). Pam and Dino took off for Wire Pass to meet up with some friends, and we headed to Overland Expo. By the time we showed up at 1000; the camping area was packed, and we were forced to park on the far side of the camping area. It didn't seem that a 400m walk would be a big deal.
Getting ready to leave.
Find two Earthroamers here...
Sunset Crater is very cool, and easy to drive by, so close to Flagstaff.