OverlandSphere
Overland Travel, Expedition & Adventure Information for 4x4, motorcycle and truck overlanders
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Like a good first aid kit or a winch, we hope we never need chains, but we know better. In snow, packed ice or mud, chains are often mandatory, even with our aggressive Michelin XZL tires. From experience, we know that chains on the rear wheels are often enough to move forward, but in very icy conditions, we also need to steer. Pewag nickel…
As the old proverb goes “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” (James Howell’s Proverbs in English, Italian, French and Spanish (1659)) It is Winter here in the mountains of the beautiful California High Sierras, our backyard, and we are only 15 minutes from Bear Valley, (great snowshoeing and X-country skiing), and less than an hour from…
As our departure date gets closer, we made a quick trip to San Francisco to pick up Gary’s special 6-month visa for the EU/Schengen countries at the Swiss Consulate. It has been our tradition, whenever we go to San Francisco, to buy a fresh crab at Fishermen’s Wharf, a loaf of sour dough bread at the famous Boudin Bakery and…
Superdawg shows his devotion. Granville King is an ornery Cuss. What makes him likeable is that he knows it: He’s proud of being an ornery cuss. Despite his mean streak, we’ve grown quite fond of the old desert rat. Monika and I have a lot in common with Granville. Neither he nor The Turtle Expedition have what you’d really…
It isn’t often that we find an adventure as tempting as Arizona’s Devil’s Highway, otherwise known as “El Camino Del Diablo”, who could resist a name like that. Paging through the Backcountry Adventures of Arizona guidebook, published byAlder Backcountry Guides, we found the trailhead off I-80 just outside of Yuma. That was convenient. Since we were headed to the…
We had just come up from the north end of the Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Utah, and stopped at the Visitors Center in Rock Springs, Wyoming. Surrounding Sweetwater County is home to 10,500 square miles of pure, high desert adventure, so it sounded like an easy place to get lost or find nowhere. There was a notice on the…
It was the rainy season in Chihuahua. Creeks had swollen and afternoon thunderstorms were the norm. From The Turtle Expedition’s earliest days of exploring Mexico in our old blue Land Rover, otherwise known as La Tortuga Azul, we have always been fascinated by the backroads. They invariably have led to the most interesting places and people. A little mud and…
We sat patiently in the 22-foot Mexican fishing skiff that seemed to get smaller the farther we got from shore. We were in the middle of the emerald green San Ignacio Lagoon, near its mouth where it opens up into the Pacific. As we waited, the little outboard engine idling quietly, we could hear and see whales breaching and spouting…
Storage in a small expedition camper like The Turtle V is critical. Clothes for four seasons, medical supplies, camera equipment, computers, tools and spare parts, food—it’s a long list, whether it’s for three days or three years. In addition to the Weatherguard box on the front rack, we needed more storage for light equipment and winter clothes. All of the…
Have we left yet? Not quite, but have we moved? Yes, and what a move it was. When we drove away from our “small house” in Nevada City, Calif. the last time, headed for Siberia, it was just that, a “small house”. Now, having lived in it for several years, it became a “home”, with stuff. Lots of stuff!! Furniture,…
Following our brief stop at MagnaFlow Performance Exhaust, we continued up the California coast to Huntington Beach for a visit to the Dynatrac headquarters and factory. Dynatrac has been an important sponsor since they introduced their Free-Spin Heavy-Duty Front Hub & Bearing Kit which replaced the problematic factory unit-bearing on all Ford 4X4 Super Duty trucks. In addition to checking…
As we returned from the 2012 Overland Expo, there were several of our sponsors we visited to make final mechanical checks on The Turtle V before we head east to ship to Europe for the beginning of The Trans-Eurasian Odyssey. Our first stop was National Spring in El Cajon, Calif. (www.nationalsprings.com) They have been designing our springs for many years.…
There were literally hundreds of expedition campers at this year’s Overland Expo. Which one would you choose to travel or work in? All of these examples have the basic comforts. A bed, a place to cook healthy food, a place to go to the bathroom and a place to get clean. EarthCruiser on a Fuso from Australia. Land Rover 111…
At this year’s Overland Expo, there were some very impressive campers. GXV has made an honest attempt to duplicate a few of the concepts of The Turtle Expedition’s Tortuga Camper, but we still think it needs to be smaller to follow the roads we travel. Close but no cigar. On the final day, some of the big rigs ran the…
For those of you who may have missed it, this year’s Overland Expo was a huge success. Gathering at the Mormon Lake Lodge facilities south of Flagstaff, Arizona, some 5,000 people attended the three day event to take classes on the tips and techniques of Overland Travel, watch travel movies, and stroll through over 100 companies displaying their specialized products,…
Yes, we are packing and getting our home ready to rent but when it snows, what can you do? Sugar Bowl Ski Area is 50 minutes from our driveway to the slopes, and with a foot of fresh powder, we couldn’t resists. Now it’s back to loading boxes.…
We took advantage of recent snowstorms to carve some turns at beautiful Squaw Valley Ski Resort. Taking the amazing gondola up to the top of the mountain, there was time to visit the Olympic Museum at High Camp where Monika could pretend she had just won the Women’s Downhill. I guess that should be a [...]…
Winter has finally come to the California Sierras, and the slopes at Squaw Valley overlooking the north shore of Lake Tahoe were measuring their snow from recent storms in feet not inches. Instead of starting at the base of Squaw Valley, home of the 1960 Winter Olympics, we drove to the Resort at Squaw Creek [...]…
When The Turtle V first started to have front wheel bearings self-destruct, we just carried a spare unit with us all the time and changed them every 20,000 miles. Then Dynatrac Products (www.dynatrac.com), came to the rescue. The factory “unit bearings” were a problem for many Ford Super Duty owners. Dynatrac’s Free-Spin™ Heavy Duty Hub [...]…
It was sunny yesterday, reminding us that there are two types of people who predict weather in the mountains: Damn Tourists and Damn Fools. It started about 5:00 AM, and by the time we were up, we needed 4X4 and chains to safely negotiate the snow-clogged roads. Installing our Pewag Cross-Link chains, (www.pewagchain.com), on the [...]…
The scenery is memorable from almost anywhere on the shore of Lake Tahoe, the “Jewel of the Sierra”. For a special treat, we jumped into a R44 Raven II helicopter (operated by Reno-Tahoe Helicopters) for a birds-eye view of the South Shore including Emerald Bay and Cascade Lake, backed by the Winter Wonderland of Desolation [...]…
A short fishing trip on Lake Tahoe for the famed Mackinaw trout was successful. Even if we had not caught more fish that we could eat, the scenery from Tahoe Sport Fishing’s Hopper IV was awe inspiring, (www.tahoesportfishing.com). There are three parts of fishing. Actually fishing. Can be boring. Catching fish. Can be fun. Eating [...]…
Our week long camp on the beautiful shore of Agua Verde Bay in Baja California was idyllic. Now heading north to re-visit other lonely beaches, our journey was abruptly interrupted by what could only be described as a catastrophic tire blow-out. Limping off to the side of the highway, we assessed the damage and quickly [...]…
We have just updated the magazine section with the newest published articles. In particular, take a look at Four Wheeler with the link for their 50th anniversary issue where Trevor Reed put together a six page feature on all The Turtle vehicles: Original Overlanders. The Turtle Expedition is celebrating 40 years of back-road overland adventure. [...]…
In case you missed this article in Power Stroke Registry or Four Wheeler magazine, check out our newly uploaded adventure under Mexico and Baja California: Agua Verde, a hidden Paradise in the Sea of Cortez. You can also go to the World Map page on our site and zoom in to the beach where we [...]…
Celebrating Gary’s birthday at Point Reyes National Seashore: It was refreshing to find so much natural beauty and wilderness so close to San Francisco. The nine-mile beach north of the Point Reyes light house begged to be strolled on. Instead we made the 4.7 mile hike out to Tomales Point. We were fortunate to see [...]…
Poised for Departure! Well, almost. Garage is finished and being packed, and The Turtle V is undergoing mechanical refinements for the long journey ahead. In a couple of months we’ll start looking for a renter for our home, and a serious countdown will begin. We’ve done this before, so we remember how many details pop [...]…
For what was our last Christmas at home for several years, we celebrated with friends and family in the Swiss tradition with a live tree and real candles. The ornaments have been collected from our travels and each has a special memory. For sure, this will not be our last Christmas tree. It may be [...]…
Since back in the early 80s when we met one of the founders of K&N Air Filters, Ken Johnson, we have used K&N High-Flow Washable Air Filters in all of our expedition vehicles. From the silt bed traps of Baja California to the Atacama Desert in Chile and across the frozen Steppes of Siberia, K&N [...]…
With the help of Jack Wardlow, an old friend and an expert woodworker himself, we finished the outside workbench on the new garage, a place for dirty tools like grinders and a drill press. With many projects to tackle on The Turtle V expedition truck in preparation for the upcoming Trans-Eurasian Odyssey, it will prove to be [...]…