Overland Journey

In the previous blog entry you can see the Overland Journal sign on display in our safari tent at the Overland Expo 2010. We also used it in our booth at the Whiskey Off-Road mountain bike race at the end of April. That sign is now proudly hanging above the door of our office/shop in Prescott, AZ. It is lightweight so that we can take it to other events in the future.

Its that time of year! Getting your off-road vehicle ready after the winter beating is normal routine here in Colorado. 4 Wheel Parts is having a big sale this weekend, April 10-11! Now is your chance to get some nice savings on parts to get your rig up to snuff! Ill be at the Denver store location on Saturday for a time and will have The Badlander with me. Hope to see you guys there!

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For anyone who has not overlanded in AZ, better get their quick. If not you will missing out on some great sights!

Arizona State Parks Keeps Nine Parks Open. Thirteen will Close.

The public listens as the Board discusses Park closures at the January 15, 2010 meeting, held at the Phoenix Zoo.

Media: Download High Resolution JPG (5 MB) Photo Credit: Arizona State Parks

Originally published: January 15, 2010
Updated: February 17, 2010 (Closure of Riordan Mansion SHP changed to March 29)

This Press Release has been superseded by more recent information. Learn More

The Arizona State Parks Board voted January 15 to keep nine parks open and close the remaining thirteen State Parks in a phased series of closures starting February 22, 2010 due to six different State Parks funds being swept of $8.6 million. In addition, four parks remain closed due to previous budget reductions.

The nine parks that will remain open are ones that generate the most revenue back into the parks operating revolving funds. The parks that will remain open include Buckskin Mountain State Park in Parker, Catalina State Park near Tucson, Cattail Cove State Park in Lake Havasu City, Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, Fool Hollow Lake Recreation Area in Show Low, Kartchner Caverns State Park in Benson, Lake Havasu State Park, Patagonia Lake State Park and Slide Rock State Park in Sedona.

The remaining parks will be closed in a phased sequence starting on February 22, 2010 and include Homolovi Ruins State Park in Winslow, and Lyman Lake State Park in St. Johns.

The next park closings will occur on March 29, 2010 and will include Fort Verde State Historic Park in Camp Verde, Roper Lake State Park in Safford, Tombstone Courthouse State Historic Park, Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park, Tubac Presidio State Historic Park, and Riordan Mansion State Historic Park in Flagstaff.

The final phased closings will occur on June 3, 2010 and will include Tonto Natural Bridge State Park near Payson, Alamo Lake State Park in Wenden, Lost Dutchman State Park in Apache Junction, Picacho Peak State Park and Red Rock State Park in Sedona.

The remaining parks will continue their agreements with other entities or will be passively managed by an adjacent park. These include Boyce Thompson Arboretum State Park in Superior, Sonoita Creek State Natural Area, Verde River Greenway State Natural Area and Yuma Quartermaster Depot State Historic Park.

Four parks would remain closed. These include Jerome State Historic Park, McFarland State Historic Park in Florence, Oracle State Park, and San Rafael State Natural Area.

For more information about the 27 State Parks, statewide hiking opportunities, off-highway vehicle trails, and other outdoor recreational and cultural opportunities in Arizona, call (602) 542-4174 (outside of the Phoenix metro area call toll-free 800-285-3703) or visit AZStateParks.com. Follow us on twitter.com/AZStateParks.

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Learn More About the Arizona State Parks Board

Watch Public Comment Video Clips

Read Public Comments fromr our Website

Related: Arizona State Parks Department Facing Budget Crisis

Learn More About the Arizona State Parks Foundation

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From the Expo:

Sportsmobile West sent this email out, please be aware:

Joyce Hoffman, the owner of the Yella Fella, the bright yellow Sportsmobile that has been in many advertisements, just informed me that it was stolen yesterday from Oceanside at 1 PM. She was attending the opening of the Woman’s Surfing museum when it was stolen. This van is very high profile and visible, can you put the work out for everyone to keep an eye out for it, and report sightings to the police.

Anyone who sees a bright yellow SMB in the western USA or Northern Mex please contact the cops.

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The 2nd Annual RGS Overland Travel Workshop

LRO’s Sam Watson has let us know that the second Royal Geographical Survey Overland Travel Workshop is scheduled to take place in Yorkshire on May 29-30 in the same location as last year; YO60 6PR, Terrington Hall School. 
Plans for this useful event include; 1. Two days of talks and workshops, rather than one as per last year. 2. Extended catering arrangements, courtesy of HM Forces. 3. Off-road tuition at a neighboring location. 4. Several overland film presentations. 5. Traders present in the main hall where the talks are, instead of at a separate location.  Apparently the Overlander beer will be making a repeat appearance… The costs is a bargain £10 per vehicle and will be by registration and payment in advance please.

Additionally, a local specialist vehicle outfitters is offering us a ‘Bush Mechanics’ Course that will be a full day dealing with on-the-road fixes and fault diagnosis. Costs are still floating around and being worked out but will be over £200 per head. Let Sam know if you would be interested, and with what vehicle?
Contact Sam Watson at watsonsam@talk21.com

Source: Land Rover Owner International

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Overland Journal was selected by Pangolin Pictures and the SPEED Channel for their prime-time television series Dangerous Drives, which will be broadcast to 78 million households worldwide.

Overland Journal will be featured in episode 12, which was produced in December 2009, and documents the testing procedures Overland Journal staff use to evaluate vehicles and equipment. “Overland Journal has a reputation of conducting the most exhaustive and abusive equipment testing in the industry, which piqued SPEED Channel’s interest in following along on one of our trips” says Scott Brady. For the testing, Overland Journal’s Publisher, Scott Brady and Senior Photographer, Sinuhe Xavier traveled through 500 miles of Utah backcountry testing American Expedition Vehicle’s (AEV) Brute and new Hemi powered Jeep Unlimited in the worst snow condition recorded in 40 years. The route ascended to over 8,000 feet, where the team encountered 40 inches of snow at the summit, requiring winching and progress at times measured in feet per hour.

In addition to testing the AEV trucks, Scott and his team were evaluating tents from Nemo Equipment, clothing from Arcteryx. Exofficio and Mountain Khaki, Lightforce lighting, BFGoodrich tires, ARB suspension components and rack/awning combination, and recovery equipment from Viking Offroad and Warn. Scott’s vehicle was the popular Overland JK, built by the Jeep Skunkworks team with components from AEV, ARB, Adventure Trailers, Equipt Expedition Outfitters and Mobil1.

Scott Brady, the publisher of Overland Journal, recently had an eye opening experience with English food. We were on our way north out of London to visit some overland companies. We had set off very early, and by the likes of 8am we were famished and ready for some relief. Stopping in a small town off the motorway provided no obvious place for refreshment. The town seemed hardly awake and, grim morning that it was, we had to stop and ask for help. The only people we could find were a group of construction workers, and a particularly portly gentleman was happy to direct us to a local establishment for an ‘English breakfast’. To be fair to the English (I am one) English breakfasts can be stellar; this was not one of those. The fried bread had that slightly rancid taste accompanied by pure grease and no discernable flavor. Sort of like eating pressed lard. The sausage was similar to the fried bread; tasteless and greasy, though it was hot. The baked beans were from a can, so they were at least edible and the bacon was passable at the time. Twenty minutes later we both felt like we needed to visit the hospital. My insides were coated like the bottom of a frying pan the day after cooking a pound of bacon; that white congealed grease requiring a scoop to get rid of. Take away lesson was not to rely on large construction workers for dining advice and the parting comment from Scott; “I need to get my stomach pumped!”

Overland Journal has recently been featured in the popular Italian 4WD magazine, Quattro X Quattro.  With permission, they have reprinted our winch comparison article (from the Gear Guide 2009) in their September 2009 issue, translated into Italian.  Their publication covers a wide variety of 4WD topics, and is definitely worth checking out if you know Italian.  Expect to see more of our content there in the future!

http://www.quattroxquattromag.com/

BORN adventurer Brian Milton has finally put his first global exploit down in a book—more than 40 years late.

He’s been too busy working as a journalist, ironically, to put pen to paper about driving across the Sahara in 1968 in a clapped out jalopy to marry his sweetheart.

The 67-year-old intrepid romantic from London’s East End set off 41 years ago in a 1937 Austin 7 Ruby called ‘Alexa’ to reach the other end of Africa.

There were no motorways—and often no roads—on his overland route.

MORE INFO HERE!

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