4x4 Tent Trailers for Hauling Your Stuff Off Road

Here's an interesting product if you're using a Jeep or some kind of off-road capable SUV or pickup as a bug-out vehicle and would like to have a minimalist type of mobile retreat in tow rather than camp in an ordinary tent or under a tarp on the ground.  This rugged trailer converts from its compact folded travel configuration that looks like this:

To this well-equipped backcountry mobile retreat that has many of the comforts of a small RV, including a stove, 12-volt electrical system for lights and fans, built-in water tank and fold out sink, and many other available options: 

It's a 4 x 4 Tent Trailer from OverlandTrailers.com. Designed to be rugged enough to go anywhere your vehicle can pull it, this trailer can provide extra gear carrying capacity and comfortable camping accommodations in places ordinary pop-up campers could never go. This was brought to my attention just as I was wrapping up the chapters on Mobile Retreats in my book, Bug Out Vehicles and Shelters.  I thought it would be of interest both to readers of the book and this site as an option to consider for those wanting something simpler than a traditional RV, yet with more comforts than an ordinary tent. Here's the description of the 4x4 Tent Trailer by the company owner and builder:   

"This model is our "4x4 Tent Trailer", they  are built to handle extreme off road abuse. The axles are heavy duty and have a 3000 pound rating. With 33-35-37 inch tires, with a dry weight of less than 900 pounds, and a storage capacity of over 43 cubic feet, it will transport all of your gear with ease to your off road destination."

This rig is not cheap when you add up all the options to equip it as shown in the photo above, but if you want to take many of the comforts of home down the roughest roads you can find, it may work for you as an off-road mobile retreat. Or it may inspire you to design and build something similar that meets your particular needs.  More information on all the options and configurations is available at:  http://www.overlandtrailers.com/

Poling a Canoe Upstream

I've been working on the chapter covering human-powered watercraft this morning for my book project: Bug Out Vehicles and Shelters and one of the topics I am covering are the different methods of propulsion for such watercraft.  Everyone thinks of paddles and oars when it comes to moving small boats, but the simple pole is often forgotten. While poling may be the most primitive way to move a boat known to man, it can also be extremely efficient in certain conditions.

I first began to appreciate the value of poling when my canoeing buddy, Ernest Herndon and I traveled downstream for several days on the Rio Coco, which forms the border between Honduras and Nicaragua.  On that trip, we hired some Miskito Indian guides and one of their long dugout canoes carved from a log to travel downriver, but all along the way we passed other locals poling their dugouts back upstream between the widely scattered villages along the river.  The Rio Coco has a considerable current and some treacherous rapids in some places, but despite this, once they dropped us off at our destination, our three guides would have no way home but to pole their way back up river, staying in the shallows near the bank.  I don't know how many days it took them to get that heavy, 30-something foot canoe back to their home village, but it couldn't have been easy, considering that it was a four-day journey  with all five of us paddling it downstream with the current. 

But in places like Mosquitia, where outboard motors are still rare and gasoline for them is rarer still, if you would use the river as a highway through the jungle, you must be able to travel upstream as well as downstream.  This is also true if you plan to seriously contemplate bugging out into remote wilderness areas where no other boat but a canoe or kayak can go.  On my own long-distance kayak trips, I have had to travel some stretches of river upstream for a few hundred miles in order to reach a divide and cross over to another river where I could go downstream.  It's slow going and a work-out, but an efficient sea kayak can be paddled against the current, especially if you know how to play the eddies.  A canoe is not so easy to paddle against the current as a sea kayak though, and the bow will frequently get swept around when you least expect it, making for frustration as you lose ground you worked so hard to gain.  By standing up and using a long pole to push off the bottom, you are able to put your entire body into the effort and the result is that you can make remarkable progress, even in swift water.  The experts make it look really easy.  I especially like this video I found YouTube, and watching it makes me want to shut down the computer, throw the canoe on the truck racks, cut myself a long pole and go!  Have a look for yourself and see if you don't feel the same way:

Oregon Trip and Interview

The Oregon trip went well and I got to do about everything I'd hoped to during the brief time I was there, including driving more than 500 miles all over the northwestern section of the state and hiking in various locations from Silver Falls State Park to the Mt. Hood area and a rugged section of the coast at Ecola State Park.  Here are a few photos I took, but I still have hundreds to go through and edit, as well as some video footage that will take even more time.

Silver Falls State Park:

 

Mt. Hood:

Ecola State Park:

Those of you who are familiar with Oregon know that this state has no lack of natural beauty and magnificent scenery to enjoy the outdoors in.  But one thing is for sure: despite the rugged topography of this northwestern part of the state, the human population here is dense compared to the areas east of the Cascades and to other western states like Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.  As I mentioned in my book, Bug Out, Oregon has comparatively few large roadless areas for a western state, but some of those remaining areas that do exist are quite inaccessible and could work as bug-out locations for those prepared to deal with the steep terrain and wet conditions.  Another thing about these dense coniferous forests that was evident even on the relatively short hikes I had time to do, is that game is abundant, evidenced by numerous trails and fresh elk tracks and droppings.  Lots of edible plants abound as well, as these forests are incredible green and lush from all the rainfall they receive.

My interview on AM Northwest, a regional morning show on Portland's ABC station: KATU Channel 2, involved a brief discussion of some of the topics of my book, Getting Out Alive: 13 Deadly Scenarios and How Others Survived.  There's never enough time in an interview to go into depth about the subject matter of a book - much less in an interview of just over 5 minutes in length.  But the two hosts asked some good questions, particularly the very first question, with regard to the Canadian woman who recently survived 7 weeks stranded in a van in a remote Nevada wilderness.  Again, there wasn't enough time to respond with everything I would have liked to talk about, but the point is that most of the scenarios in my book involve people going out for a day or weekend outing and getting into a situation that could become a matter of life or death because they simply did not take into account the possibility that something could happen to delay their return.  This happens with automobiles, boats, motorcycles, ATVs, snowmobiles and any other kind of vehicle that can transport a person rapidly into a remote area, much farther than they would normally be able to travel under human power alone.  The technology then fails them in one way or another - either mechanically or by getting stuck somehow, and then people who only planned to be out for a short time are faced with what could be an ordeal of much longer duration - such as this woman's 7-week stranding that few would have survived. 

The lesson here is prepardness.  If you are always in a state of prepardness wherever you go and whatever you do, you are much less likely to find yourself in one of these situations.  This means having adequate shelter, clothing, food and water to last much longer than your planned adventure.  This is why when I ride my dual sport motorcycle into the woods, paddle a kayak off the coast, or sail away from land on a larger boat, I always have extra supplies for those unexpected delays.  I learned this the hard way many years ago when I first started sea kayaking and paddled 12 miles to a barrier island for an overnight trip.  A strong weather system moved into the area, whipping up seas that made my return impossible, and keeping me stormbound on the island for 4 more days.  I had only taken food for one night, but it was a good island for foraging, so I made out okay until the weather broke and I was able to leave - but it was a lesson I never forgot. 

Here is the interview for those who are interested: