What happened to all the true adventurers?

I just like the outdoors. Sometimes it includes camping and sometimes it doesn't. Truth be told, I am pretty happy in a campground at an offroad park. I'm also pretty happy in the mountains, by a river or at a lake. I used to love sports but I barely watch or play them now. I would be just fine without any TV too. I don't have a lot of need for social media but if it encourages people to get out, that's great. I am all for any trend that gets the public off their couch and out from in front of their TVs. I think it makes us better people.
 
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I've been doing basically the same thing for 20 years, which is just wheeling and camping.

What has changed?

I now have the most comfortable, capable, and reliable rig I've ever had. Because of my accumulation of leave with my employer, I have more time than ever to spend in the woods. Gear I couldn't have imagined when I started is now not only available, but available at a price the average person can afford.

Instead of sleeping on my truck bench seat, I'm sleeping in a rooftop tent. Instead of eating cold pizza and tuna kits, I'm making French toast and grilling hamburgers. Instead of cleaning up from cooler water and a soapy rag, I'm taking hot showers with a Zodi in a little pop-up shelter.

I call it overlanding now because it tends to help people better understand what I do. It's not really any different from what I've always done, it just has a new name and generally we're more likely to share pics and info on social media instead of forum posts.

But now is the best time I've ever seen to get into this. Call it whatever you like.

My first truck on my first trip:
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28 years old and already changed a dozen trucks, proud of traveling 6 states (not even outside USA?)..and define himself as old school, or anything?
What about just a bit of self modesty?

I wheeled longer then his existence, before I learned there is a definition to what drives me, literally, out to the open, before there was internet and Instagram.. didn’t own as much trucks as he.. and don’t waste my time categorizing people.. just trying to get of the pavement as much as I can.

Did I miss something along the way?
 
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DBs said:
28 years old and already changed a dozen trucks, proud of traveling 6 states (not even outside USA?)..and define himself as old school, or anything?
What about just a bit of self modesty?

I wheeled longer then his existence, before I learned there is a definition to what drives me, literally, out to the open, before there was internet and Instagram.. didn’t own as much trucks as he.. and don’t waste my time categorizing people.. just trying to get of the pavement as much as I can.

Did I miss something along the way?
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Youre doing it right
 
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This guy wins the Internet. Cliff Tubbs (response to the article).

Matt, I have always liked you as an individual but this is simply a case of your mightier than thou arrogance clouding your memory. Lets be very clear, you are literally the epitome of the "millennial" you're putting on blast in this editorial. Any notoriety or credibility that you have centers back to a mildly built 2010 Tacoma that you dubbed the "RebelTaco" which was nothing short of an obnoxious Instagram eyesore with teeth taped to the side. You are not "old school" and you "do it for the gram" just as hard as any of these newbies (I mean have you looked at your Instagram lately? I haven't because I have never followed you) Its one thing to troll these newcomers as many of us do in good humor, its another to call them out for the same shit you're guilty of yourself. Get off your high horse and quit demonizing people for following the same path that people like you laid the groundwork for a couple years ago. If anything, you are equally to blame for this influx of newcomers in new expensive rigs as any social media platform is.
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ScorpioVI said:
The "true adventurers":
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We can even go back to the people who crossed the Bering strait, but we don't have pictures from back then.
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And you can bet the descendants of those who crossed the Bering strait were critical of the pioneers and their wagons. They just didn't have a technologically advanced means of expressing their criticism.

I think we can trace overlanding at least as far back as Abraham and his departure from Haran. He probably had his critics too.
 
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I wouldn't consider myself an adventurer, I mean I grew up in the era of Randolph Fines and Cousteau and Bear Gryllis (hehehehe). I do like to go on adventures, and on such expeditions I am an 'adventurer' of sorts. I can agree with, in part, the attitudes of the writer towards those new into the field. I get a bit of "go f**k yourself" when I see a 24 year old kid cruising in a $40k vehicle with obvious high dollar mods. I also think they are a bit of a trail princess, spending more time worrying about lines and angles so they don't scrape or mark up their rigs. It gives me even more pride in my basic b**ch, low budget, KISS overland rig.

I've read so many posts and travel reports on the 'hot ticket' places, that truthfully, I don't have a desire to go there. Save the grand canyon (north rim), I have a ton of other places to go visit before I waste time at the busy, tourist and expensive places that the writer talks about being over run. Is it really an adventure if everyone and their grandparents are doing it? I'd much rather find a back country byway or discovery trail and go spend days on that adventure, then do the same ol' thing that everyone is doing.

There are so many back country routes and old roads and primative passes, who needs the touristy stuff? Once those get abused and trashed, I may get upset and take up arms. For now, I'm going to avoid the crowds and still see some amazing shit.
 
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Ashton said:
I wouldn't consider myself an adventurer, I mean I grew up in the era of Randolph Fines and Cousteau and Bear Gryllis (hehehehe). I do like to go on adventures, and on such expeditions I am an 'adventurer' of sorts. I can agree with, in part, the attitudes of the writer towards those new into the field. I get a bit of "go f**k yourself" when I see a 24 year old kid cruising in a $40k vehicle with obvious high dollar mods. I also think they are a bit of a trail princess, spending more time worrying about lines and angles so they don't scrape or mark up their rigs. It gives me even more pride in my basic b**ch, low budget, KISS overland rig.

I've read so many posts and travel reports on the 'hot ticket' places, that truthfully, I don't have a desire to go there. Save the grand canyon (north rim), I have a ton of other places to go visit before I waste time at the busy, tourist and expensive places that the writer talks about being over run. Is it really an adventure if everyone and their grandparents are doing it? I'd much rather find a back country byway or discovery trail and go spend days on that adventure, then do the same ol' thing that everyone is doing.

There are so many back country routes and old roads and primative passes, who needs the touristy stuff? Once those get abused and trashed, I may get upset and take up arms. For now, I'm going to avoid the crowds and still see some amazing shit.
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I like it! sounds like you would fit right in with our Sierra Foothills Overlanders Meet-Up.
 
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Kent R said:
I like it! sounds like you would fit right in with our Sierra Foothills Overlanders Meet-Up.
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I absolutely hope to soon. I would love more exposure to the great wild places we have around us here. I gotta do a few things on the rig before she's trail worthy for the summer, but I'm keeping an eye out for the next meeting and see when my days off are.
 
Ashton said:
I absolutely hope to soon. I would love more exposure to the great wild places we have around us here. I gotta do a few things on the rig before she's trail worthy for the summer, but I'm keeping an eye out for the next meeting and see when my days off are.
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We meet the third Tuesday of the month at 1830 hrs in Diamond Springs at Solid Ground Brewing
 
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I guess my Grandparents were doing something else when they hauled my Mother and siblings all over Africa and around Europe exploring on their summer holidays. If nothing else I am grateful for the inheriting the genes of adventure from both sides of my parents families. (After serving faithfully for years my grandparents loaded the Bedford onto a cargo ship and sent it over to Canada in the 1960's. They then drove it clear across Canada, and while stopped at a random gas station in Dogwood Valley BC my Grandfather saw a plot of land for sale, bought it, built a cabin , eventually a home, and spent the remainder of their lives there)

CCE00000.jpg 15965126_10210765105710977_5259704728660891274_n.jpg
 
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We now judge too many things based on how they appear to others or the response we get from others. Based on that thinking, adventure is that which appears adventurous to others on social media, or evokes a sense of adventure in others. In reality, the measure of adventure really remains up to the individual or those engaging in the adventure. The last time I drove through a state forest that I had never seen before, I felt very adventurous. That was good enough for me.
 
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As much as some may not like the young author of this article, he does raise some valid points, and it's not just overlanding that's experiencing this influx.

The number of people able to travel has exploded over the last decade or so. Rising incomes, lower airfares and package tours are enticing the multitudes to get out there.

Cruise ships dump thousands of tourists a day into Venice. They take the requisite selfie in St. Mark's square and gaze at the gondolas; mill about for a few hours and then back to the ship.

Have they been to Venice? Technically yes, and they've got the all important pictures to prove it, but in reality, no. It's a touristic hit and run job.

It shouldn't be a surprise that some like to outfit but not really explore. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and their corresponding views, subscribers, followers/friends and likes really are drivers in some people's lives.

I don't have a solution for this. It does sadden me.

P.s. I'm not on YT, FB or "the gram."

Sent from my HTC U11 using OB Talk mobile app
 
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