#dirtbagswag whips 007: My 2003 Toyota Room With a View

Josh makes some tailgate coffee in Diablo Canyon, New Mexico

Toyota Tacomas go with rock climbing like Black Diamond cams, dirty Carhart pants, and empty cans of PBR. On any given weekend, you'd be hard pressed to not see one of these fine products of Japanese engineering at any given crag in the United States. And for good reason too. They're dadgum near bullet proof, they hold their shelf life longer than canned yams, and they get pretty good gas mileage to boot.

For the climbing bum, it doesn't take much to make one of these vehicles inhabitable: a camper top and crashpad will do. But dirtbag savants have created all kinds of sophisticated truck bed sleeping apparatuses to enhance the slumber experience. I kept my methodology simple, imitating a popular tripartite system with a removable top platform and plenty of storage space along the two sides.

With the top platform in place, the bed can sleep two comfortably above the wheel wells. Slide the platform out and down and one can sleep down low with ample headroom for sitting up or for stealth camping in Wal Mart parking lots.

I dropped $360 on the Craigslist camper shell and about $100 for the bed platform materials. That's less than $500 for a mountain front room-with-a-view whenever and wherever I want. No reservations required. I can't put a price tag on the simple joy of falling asleep to the dim light of the moon, the cool breeze blowing through the screened windows, and the sound of wind in the trees. Or waking up with the sun, crawling out of my truck, brewing up a cup of coffee on the tailgate, and thumbing through the guidebook to find a place to climb that day. Those are memories that last a lifetime.

If climbing is my conduit for travel, then my truck is the means by which I experience these beautiful places. Many of which a non-climber would never see or feel. When is the last time a non-climber hiked up to the beautiful, geologically perplexing, cobble stone conglomerate walls of El Rito? Or wandered past the roadside overlooks to take in the monstrously steep sandstone cliffs of the wild and scenic Obed River gorge? I spent the past summer driving up the Mountain Standard Time Zone from Diablo Canyon, New Mexico to Ten Sleep, Wyoming. The big mountains and deep canyons are nice but I'm glad to be back in the South; waking up to fleeting fall foliage, foggy mountain mornings, and Cumberland Plateau sandstone.

A room with a view, whenever and wherever I want.

Wild Iris, Wyoming

whip specs

make and model: 2003 Toyota Tacoma Pre-Runner
moniker: pootermobile 2.0
under the hood: 2.7 L DOHC EFI 4-cylinder
gas mileage: 19-23 mpg
dirtbag mods: casette tape adapter, camper shell, bed platform, BF Goodrich All Terrains, and a "Namaste Y'all" bumper sticker

home is where you park it. 

#dirtbagswag whips 006: Caleb's B2500 & The Making of a Dirtless Dirtbag

#dirtbagswag

Caleb James is the anti-dirtbag.

He is always clean.

He hates being dirty.

He openly hates dirt.

He hates sleeping in it.

He hates being covered in it.

He perpetually makes fun of me for my dirty fingernails, greasy hair, tattered and unwashed clothes. I don't know how he does it, but after a week in the mountains, Caleb looks like he just got out of the shower.

In fact, if you saw Caleb in the wild, your first thought would most likely be, Man who let this insanely good looking John Stamos-Rob Lowe hybrid with cheek bones like granite and back muscles like a sack of potatoes out of the super-top-secret underground-Calvin-Klein-underwear-model-laboratory? 

But don't let his dashing good looks and disdain for dirt fool you. Caleb loves mountains. And he loves the freedom and feeling he gets when moving vertically in their midst; whether in the Southeast or the Mountain West, either steep jug hunting or thin ice climbing, whether on foot or the sharp end of the rope. So he's always just dealt with the dirt.

Caleb does it all and he looks good doing it.

That is, he dealt with it until he found his 1996 Dodge B2500 conversion van at a dirtbag deal in Salida, Colorado where he works in the summers. He drove it back to Chattanooga, Tennessee where he studies outdoor education and business; sets boulder problems in the campus climbing gym; fixes bicycles; and takes Greek-lifers top-roping at Rocktown, SUPing on the Tennessee River, and leading ski trips to North Carolina.

Caleb has swagged out his van into a full-on dirtbag adventure mobile complete with bed, gear storage, and an enormous roof rack. But he hasn't sacrificed his penchant for the aesthetically pleasing either. "Tito" is decked out with interior mood lighting, shag carpet, and a Nintendo 64.

At the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, students often mistake his van for an ambulance. And while that mistake would have made sense in the early 90s, Caleb's Dodge conversion van is, in fact, a lifesaver of sorts because now he doesn't have to sleep in all that dang dirt anymore.

whip specs

make and model: 1996 Dodge B2500
moniker: "Tito"
under the hood: 5.2L V8
gas mileage: see above
dirtbag mods: safari sized roof rack; DIY paint job; shag carpet yanked from his parents' old house; 12" Kicker subwoofer; Nintendo 64; eagle hood mount (sits on the spare tire cover). The bed comes with the van.

Caleb graduates in May and plans on dirtless dirtbagging across the United States before returning as a guide for the summer in Colorado. I'm hoping to meet up with him in the mountains at some point. You can catch him and Tito at a crag near you, but remember to kick the dirt off your shoes before you do.

#dirtbagswag whips 005: Kyle's Mighty Morphin' White Ford Ranger

Kyle emanates the #dirtbagswag spirit

For those of us who remember the every-movement-over-exaggerated, gratuitously-electric-guitar-laden-soundtracked, live action children's television series, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, few things were as egregiously epic and anxiously anticipated as Tommy Oliver's revelation as the White Ranger. Together with his talking ninja saber, "Saba," the White Ranger summons Tigerzord and finally defeats the evil Lord Zedd and his minions (or at least, that's what I learned from wikipedia). 

Or who could forget Tommy, the White Ranger, skydiving -- on a snowboard! -- in the opening scene of Power Rangers: The Movie? (That, I actually remember.) Basically, Tommy was a total bad astronaut and was asked by Zordon to be the new leader of the Rangers , completely usurping power over Jason, the Red Ranger, who was a total poser anyway. Ivan Ooze and his Ectomorphicon Titans never stood a chance. 

Like most of our goateed, bleached tipped, spiked haired heroes of the nineties, Tommy Oliver faded into obscurity. Or, according to the internet, became a washed-up, poorly tattooed, mixed martial arts fighter doing appearances at sci-fi, comic book conventions. But the legend of the White Ranger lives on, forever a figment of our childhood nostalgia. And, of course, as my friend Kyle's 2008, white, Ford Ranger. 

Tommy in the Rockies 

Kyle bought his truck used from a commercial fleet; meaning it has no bells and whistles or fancy thing-a-mabobs. It's just a truck, as a truck should be. And he has driven it to climbing destinations all over the United States. He has to, because he lives in Florida. The Power Rangers needed Tommy to create the Ninja Falcon Megazord and fly Ivan Ooze outer space to his cosmic end. Likewise, Kyle needs a Ranger of his own to get to higher elevations. And it's a beautiful thing.

After a multi-week, cross country road trip with little to no rain the whole time, it finally deluged in Colorado Springs and Kyle learned the hard way about not having a truck bed top. Back at home, Kyle set Tommy up with this sweet dirtbag rig that keeps him and his girlfriend snug and dry during the cool, wet, southeastern climbing seasons and stores all of his climbing gear and vegan friendly kitchen.

Kyle and Tommy spent the summer in central Florida, working on a farm and learning about permaculture. But not without going climbing at the Obed first. And rumor has it he wandered out west again too. You can watch a beautiful and short travel video of a climbing trip Kyle, Tommy, and myself took a few years ago HERE.

Tommy at the Obed

Whip Specs

make and model: 2008 Ford Ranger
moniker: "Tommy,"  AKA "Dirtbag Dragon," AKA "Piece of Trash"
under the hood: 4.0 L SOHC V6
dirtbag mods: truck bed cover, shelving unit, raised platform bed with essential storage cubbies underneath.

#dirtbagswag

#dirtbagswag whips 004: Mark and Alex's 1971 Manabago

Makin' friends, Manabago style!

Remember when dreams were fueled by little more than peanut butter and jelly? When choosy moms chose to send their kids outside to imagine better worlds powered by high caloric food paste made from dry roasted peanuts? When Peter Pan was a tight-wearing, pirate-fighting hero and a delicious sandwich spread? Not a psychiatric syndrome or a psychological complex? When spreading the fun was all that mattered?

Well, those days never ended for two mustached dreamers named Mark Slagle and Alex Cox. 

Mark and Alex have a dream to reduce severe acute malnutrition across the globe. And like so many big dreams, this one starts on the open road.

Shortly after the turn of the decade (the 2010 one), Mark and Alex partnered with MANA, a non-profit company that makes Ready-To-Use Therapeutic Food (RTUF). Three servings of RTUF a day can totally save a child's life by providing basic nutritional needs. And people needed to know. 

So they bought a 1971 Winnebago.

whip specs

make and model: 1971 Winnebago Brave
moniker: The Manabago
under the hood: Dodge 318 cubic inch V8
gas mileage: "9 miles to the gallon, if the wind was at our back."
dirtbag mods: Ejection button (!), 20 ft. military tent strapped on top, mood lighting and orange leather, shag carpet, 8-track player, brodie knob, homemade paint job, swivel pilot seats, and basically everything you've ever wanted.

They took "The Manabago" from MANA's headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina to preach RTUF's evangel in the halls of the nation's capital and then across the United States -- roughly following the I-40 corridor -- through Tennessee, Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, and on to California.

One of those stops was at a bar -- the Cannery Ballroom -- in Nashville, Tennessee where I stood in the back waiting for the lights to dim. It was the day after I moved for grad school and I knew absolutely nobody. A big guy with a bigger mustache introduced himself to me as "Mark" and he was driving across the country with his friend in an old camper. He was literally the first person to talk to me in my new city. I found out later that evening why he was driving across the country and I found out two years later that he worked for the same mountain guiding outfitter in Salida, Colorado that I now work for. 


According to Mark, The Managabo had "the shape of a toaster oven, but the spirit of a rebel pirate ship." And driving her "felt like waltzing with an elderly woman." An elderly woman who had once been a flamenco expert.

But she was still an old woman after all, and a few short months after my encounter with Mark and Alex in Tennessee, she had to go in for a brake tune up somewhere along California's State Highway 1. 

Minutes later, what sounded like a canon went off and a small flame erupted from the rear tire well. By the time the fire department got to her, the two rear propane tanks caught and exploded into a raging, 30 ft. tall cloud of black smoke and open flame. And in less than 25 minutes, over 2,600 miles of hopes, dreams and memories turned to ash.

Yet, like a phoenix, the dream rose from the ashes and while The Manabago took to the great highway in sky, Mark and Alex took to the great highway by foot. And after 2,500 miles of hitchhiking, the peanut butter company, Good Spread was born.

Good Spread exists to help good spread. And for every individual pack of all natural peanut butter mixed with organic honey you buy, a packet of ready-to-use therapeutic food is sent to a child in need. And that's pretty neat. Because unlike TOMS or other 1 for 1 business models, Good Spread provides a simple, healthy, ready-to-eat life-saving food that otherwise could not have been provided. It won't solve world hunger or global starvation, but it will feed a starving child in the arms of a desperate mother.

Help good spread, help Good Spread.

Big things are happening for Good Spread. You can still order packets online. They have jars now. The Southeastern grocery chain, Harris Teeters, now carries it on their shelves. I ate a whole jar in a less-than 24 hour period more than once now. They even have (unpaid) interns. And they're helping more and more mothers feed malnourished, starving children everyday. 

Mark and Alex keep some of the ashes in an urn in their Good Spread office so they never forget. The spirit of the Manabago lives on. Never underestimate the power of the great American road trip -- where miles turn into dreams and dreams turn into conversations and conversations turn into reality. 

Fuel your next road trip, your next climbing weekend, and feed a malnourished child. Help good spread.


learn more about MANA here. 
learn more about Good Spread here.
watch The Manabago in action here. 

#dirtbagswag whips 003: Graham's $500 Volvo

Graham (orange jacket), his boys, and his beloved Volvo

Some people can buy a new car and not drive but ten miles before having to go to a mechanic. Others can buy a twenty-five years old beat up Volvo for $500 with over 100,0000 miles, and only pay for gas, an oil change, and a window sized sheet of plexiglass. Graham is a lucky son of a gun in the latter group.

When Graham came into the guides' bunkhouse and said he was going to buy an old Volvo station wagon for $500 to drive 1,242 miles from Salida, Colorado back home to Nashville, Tennessee most of us laughed. Others offered wise economic council that Dave Ramsey would have been proud of. But Graham wasn't kidding.

The Swedish engineered, 90 degree, V6 engine rumbled like a good, old fashioned, American monster truck. The rear right panel window was missing. And the registration was of questionable legality but it had enough room for his gear, his bicycles, and his girlfriend so it was a done deal. All he had to do was drive it clear across the country.

Not only did "Marley" make it to Nashville, but in December it made it back to Salida for the ski season with four other passengers and only a few minor hiccups. And it almost made it back to Nashville again too -- and it did eventually get there -- but not without a tow truck. You can peep a rad little video of Graham and his buddies' cross country adventures HERE.




Whip Specs
make and model: 1988 Volvo 240DL 4 Door Station Wagon
under the hood: PRV 2.8L V6
gas mileage: "we'll get there when we get there... we're here."
dirtbag mods: plexiglass rear right window, homemade ski and snowboard rack

 

Graham's other vehicles include a 4x4 19XX Chevy Blazer lifted up on tires bigger than Muggsy Bogues, a bicycle he attached a lawn mower engine to, and a bicycle he just spent the last five days peddling the length of the Natchez Trace Trail (444 miles).

After putting some work into the engine, Graham brought Marley back to Wilderness Expeditions in 2014 and is leading groups to trailheads each week. And it's still the best $500 he ever spent (in one place).

#dirtbagswag approved (peep the guide's bunkhouse in the reflection)

#dirtbagswag whips 002: Eli and His Subaru

Many say it is the greatest public works project in history. Some say it was a military conspiracy to transport  nuclear missiles during the cold war. Some say it helped destroy small highway towns like those along Route 66 (re: Cars). Still others, hopeful romantics like myself, claim that the United States Interstate Highway System is a testament that the best parts of the human spirit are still alive.

When Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, he could not have anticipated the far reaching impact it would have. It's not perfect, but its 47,000 miles of highway are the physical manifestation of the human desire to go. To go where we haven't been before. To go to the places we love, the places we need. Driving is, for me, a sacred space where human spirit, deep thought, and the open road meet in an almost divine triune.

There is a stretch of Interstate 40 that runs 105 miles across Tennessee between Nashville and Crossville that holds a very special place in my heart. It is the quickest route to my favorite place in the world, the confluence of Clear Creek and the Obed River. And most of those trips have taken place riding shotgun in Elijah's 2004 Subaru Forester. In that liminal space between origin and destination, we've talked about our differing but deep appreciation for Quakerism, how Renaissance era humanism propelled French exploration, and asked why yogurt companies advertise almost exclusively to women. Over the course of two years, Elijah has become one of my closest friends and I owe much of that to Dwight D. Eisenhower and Japanese auto engineering.

They say there's more Subarus per capita in Boulder, Colorado than there are broken down RV's in the entire state of Alabama. And it's rumored that some Subaru dealerships give out free whey grass and coconut water enemas with every test drive. In 2010, a Subaru study showed that "lesbians are four more times likely to own a Subaru than their heterosexual counterparts." And in 2013, Subaru basically told the Super Bowl, "we're not a part of your system," and opted to buy ad time during Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl instead. When my roommate suggested buying one, his American-made car dealer father replied, "No son of mine will drive one of them hippie cars." And oh, by the way, Subaru's signature, symmetrical All Wheel Drive drivetrain is more rugged than John Wayne and Ronald Reagan combined. 

When it comes to Subaru's consumer demographics, Elijah is the standard -- the poster child. He is an Ellen Degeneres doppleganger, a coffee fanatic, a "grow local, eat local" enthusiast, and a pretty darn good climber too. And he has the bumper stickers to prove it. Subaru, if you're reading this and looking for a commercial or advertisement model, Eli won't answer his phone but I know where he lives and he accepts payment in Coronas and burritos. 

the quintessential

Eli may be the embodiment of Subaru's stereotypical marketing demographics, but he is also the embodiment of the human spirit and desire to go. From the northeast to Southern California, from Okinawa to Nashville, he's lived in more places than I've traveled to and he has traveled to even more. He's seen covetous amounts of the world over and yet no place enraptures his soul like the burnt orange desert landscapes of Moab, Utah and the hidden strips of sandstone along the Obed River. To hear him talk about these places is to listen to Edward Abbey or Wendell Berry or even Jefferson himself. Elijah's desire to go has never triumphed his love of place and his 2004 Subaru Forester is the mode in which those best parts of the human spirit stay alive.

Whip Specs

make and model: 2004 Subaru Forester X
under the hood: 2.5 liters and 173 wild ponies
dirtbag mods: Eli installed curtains, a bed platform, and cooking apparatus for his cross country road trip around Edward Abbey's American West, but now just prefers to lay the seats down and roll up in a comforter with his dog Rocky. It also has a CD player.

Elijah and I graduated this May and we just had our last climbing trip at the Obed for a while. Life -- the human necessity to go -- means I'm leaving for guiding work in Colorado and he'll be God only knows where (possibly Antarctica) when I get back. The good news about the interstate is it is a never ending thing. It is as unending as the human necessity and desire to move and to go. And just as the interstate's 47,000 miles merge and intersect, so does the limitless movement of our lives.

Here's to Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Father of the Interstate Highway System.

Here's to Subaru Foresters marketed almost exclusively to outdoor enthusiasts, lesbians, and outdoor enthusiast lesbian look-a-likes.

Here's to Elijah, a travel companion, study buddy, lunch date, margarita enthusiast, belay partner, and friend.

#dirtbagswag whips 001: The Vinson Van

Andrew, Bethany, and their big green van

I met Andrew in high school, and for a season of my life, we, for all intents and purposes, lived together. Skipping school, skateboarding, listening to punk music, and eating honey butter chicken biscuits; we were, at that moment, living the dream. 

But dreams change and I think that's a good thing. I moved away to grad school and his band started to get to get serious. So he bought a big green van. They toured a little bit. They were living the dream. 

But dreams change and Andrew fell in love and got married. They had a little house, a little cat, and they still had a giant green van. All in all, they were living the dream.

But dreams change and now they're selling their things, moving into that same giant green van, driving across the country, working at Yosemite Park, and living every dirtbag's dream.

Andrew and Beth are teaming up with ACMNP (A Christian Ministry in the National Parks) to help lead Sunday services for staff and guests, while also serving the park's rangers, hospitality staff, and the

hundreds of other people employed there. They'll be there all summer and through the fall, leaving with the last bit of committed, cold-weathered climbers. Andrew prefers surfing, but I have a feeling he'll send The Freerider in a day within months of moving there.

Dreams change and I think that's a good thing. And I think this one is totally awesome. They leave at the beginning of May and you can follow their adventures through the eyes of Gatlin, their garden gnome totem to all things fun on instagram @gatlintravels

WHIP SPECS
make and model: Ford Econoline 150 Hi-Top Conversion Van
under the hood: 5.4L Triton V8
gas mileage: "not great"
dirtbag mods: took out the passenger seats and put in a raised double bed with storage space beneath; surf board rack; privacy curtains.
Andrew's favorite: the comfy captain seats
Bethany's favorite: the handmade curtains (not pictured)

@gatlintravels