Welcome to Botches Off -Road Solo Edition. This
is your host, Gavin. I'm going solo today. We
had an episode, and long story short, I guess
we've been really lucky to have made it this
far without any issues, and we've been kind of
coming across issues. I accidentally recorded
in a higher bitrate. on the last episode and
our tempos were off. So actually impossible to
get all of our tracks to sync while in edit mode.
So I am going to do an episode on back to kind
of the basics. There are a lot of different styles
and a lot of different ways to plan for overlanding.
And I just kind of want to go through my version
because, I mean... Alex's version might be very
different for me. I'm a big planner. I like to
plan, I like to have a plan, and I like to be
in control of said plan. So I'm going to deal
with something a little different. I'm going
to use ChatGPT to help me plan this. So obviously
the first thing that you want to do when you're
planning a trip is to know where you're going
to go. So for instance... I will use the UP again
because that's the easiest place. I know it.
One, you want to know where you want to go. So
I want to go to the UP. What section do I want
to go? So I'm going to check out Google Maps,
look at attractions, and I'll go to Google Maps
and then I'll look at the attractions around
the area. I'll pick something within my time
frame. within my days off. So let's say I have
three days off. I'm probably going to stay to
the east side of UP. That way it gives me plenty
of time to see those couple of things and still
enjoy. If I'm going to have closer to a week
off and I really want to check some things off
the list, maybe I will extend that area and go
west a little bit. So when I'm planning that,
I really want to know where I want to go. How
many days I'm going to be gone? And then we'll
start from there, right? So are we going to be
remote? Are we going to try and do scenic routes?
Are we going to do technical off -road areas?
So that's important to know. And you can kind
of check that out when you lock down those key
places that you know you want to go. So for instance,
let's say I want to go up and I want to see Whitefish
Point in the UP. I want to see the Soo Locks.
I want to see... Graham Marias, Taquamanon Falls,
Chris Point, and Two Hearted. Those are just
kind of the ones on the top of my head. So if
I wanted to do that and I knew I was going to
have four days to do it, if I left on Thursday,
I have Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and Sunday
would be my way back. So this is kind of my trip
planning process, but I'm going to try and use
ChatGBT to help me. And I'm going to talk it
through with you guys to see if any of this really
aligns with how I plan. And maybe is ChatGPT
a good tool to help you kind of get to a spot
to where you can do it on your own. Or maybe
you can use it in the future to help you narrow
things down or think of things that you didn't
know of. So the first one. is, you know, define
your purpose and scope, which I just kind of
talked about. And, of course, the third point
on that one is to check season and weather. So,
yeah, I mean, if you're going to go in the UP
in the middle of winter, a lot of those trails
are going to be non -doable for any vehicle,
really, except a snowmobile. They're also going
to be closed because of snowmobile trails. So
a lot of the times in the winter, trails become
snowmobile trails and you're not allowed to drive
on them because they're groomed. It's a danger
for those guys. So you really want to check in
the season. You know, bugs and heat, they all
play a time too. So there are certain times in
the year where the bugs are really heavy. There's
a certain time of year, obviously, where the
heat is really hot. I like to go into the UP
in the beginning of summer and in the fall -ish,
August, you know, July, August, around that,
just because it's kind of cooling down a little
bit. It's not smoldering hot. In the UP, it's
never super smoldering hot. You're usually by
a lake, like Superior or something like that,
so you always have a good breeze, but it can
get pretty warm. And you just want to be ready
for that. So you want to be ready for storms.
You want to be ready for any kind of inclement
weather. And of course, any kind of issues that
may happen while you're up there because self
-service is such a premium in some of these areas.
So we'll start with choose your route. So you
want to research your trails. Once you have your
places, you know, tracked down, let's say Two
Hearted. Two Hearted's got a lot of trails to
get to it. So you want to kind of plan those
out. Don't use Google Drive or I'm sorry, Google
Maps. for any of the trail side of it i like
to use a mix between google maps and onyx some
people like gaia um i use that if i really need
a backup but i like you onyx it's really user
friendly i can do all my routes from there so
i like to use google maps to get to the area
and then i like to use onyx to navigate that
certain trail area so i already have the area
I want planned out, which is the Two -Hearted
area. And I know that I'm not going to have cell
service. So I'm actually going to download every
trail in that area. So with Onyx, you can actually
download the trails to use offline so that while
you're off, you have a detailed trail picture
of where you're at or where you're supposed to
be. And that's going to be very useful for you.
Obviously, paper maps help too, but Onyx, you
can always kind of tell where you're at. So that's
super useful. And then you're going to want to
look at the terrain. Onyx can also help with
this a little bit. Obviously, some research like
Facebook groups asking how the terrain was last
month. But I have been up there before, so I
kind of know the terrain. It's usually just kind
of sandy in that area. So I know it's going to
be like that thicker beach sand, couple inches
thick. um maybe some washboard some dusty dirt
nothing too crazy nothing too hard so i know
that i'm going to need to air down um i know
that there's going to be some dirt roads there's
not going to be any rocky passes there might
be some water crossing but not severe enough
um in the area that i'm going now there is a
trail to whitefish point that used to be really
bad for a water crossing but i think since then
they actually uh like dozed it and cleared that
up so We're good there. So once you have your
area and the trail that you want to do, I always
like to plan at least one alternative route too.
So you have your one trail that you think is
going to work. If you haven't ever been up there
or you don't know the area very well, you have
your one ideal trail that you want to use that's
going to get you to point A to point B. And then
I always like to have an alternative trail in
case there's a blockage or there's something
that goes wrong. what trails are where i want
to know if i have to if this trail is inaccessible
or i come across something i just cannot get
across or past then i have another trail as a
backup okay and then you want to mark out fuel
points so in onyx i cross reference with google
maps find the fuel points on google maps tag
the location using the coordinates and then i
take those coordinates move them to onyx and
then tag the fuel stops on onyx with a fuel indicator
um the little icon so that way i know while i'm
driving if i zoom out a little bit i could tell
where each fuel stop is around me and that is
very useful if you're out there for a day or
two and you're just trailing and you're getting
close to the end you're like man am i going to
be able to make it to this next fuel stop you
can actually zoom out check okay yep i got one
and 14 some miles we're good Because they do
get pretty scarce out there. Third, you're going
to want to go and look at vehicle prep. You want
to make sure your maintenance, your tires, recovery
gear, and weight management is all good. So maintenance,
obviously, your oils need to be topped off, changed,
and checked. Your fluids need to be topped, like
your antifreeze, window cleaning fluid, power
steering, transmission. Obviously, you don't
top off some of these, but you want to make sure
that they're okay. If you can and you have the
time and you haven't checked in a while, check
your def fluid or diff fluid. Def too, I guess,
if you're running diesel. Check your tires. Make
sure that you have good tread. There's no holes
or any kind of cracking on it. Make sure that
they are properly aired up for the long highway
drive. I actually have a small leak in, I think,
a valve stem or my rim. one of the seals so i
always check my psi to make sure that all tires
are at the same psi because i did one time do
a road trip didn't check and my one tire by the
time i got to where i was going was at like 20
15 20 psi so that can affect a few things um
how your truck sits how it affects the tread
um and i'm assuming it affects your fuel mileage
too so make sure you have all your recovery gear
that you need Do pre -checks before you leave.
That's very, very important. I make a list, and
this is something that you can help with, CHAP
GPT can help you with. Ask them to make a list
of pre -checks that you can do for your vehicle
before you overland. So I'm going to go to CHAP
GPT now, and let's just see what it tells me.
So I'm going to ask, make a pre -trip checklist.
for my overland trip okay so vehicle prep yep
fluids engine oil coolant brake fluid transmission
fluid power steering fluid windshield and washer
fluid then it wants you to check belts and hoses
check for wearing and cracking that's perfect
battery check your terminals your charge level
and check your spare battery if you have one
like the house battery perfect Tires, pressure,
exactly, including the spare. That's a good point.
My spare is actually flat. If I didn't have a
compressor, I would want to make sure that was
aired up before I left. So that's nice. Tread
depth and no visible damage. Make sure you have
your tools with you, your jack, your lug wrench,
tire repair kits, and air compressor. So making
sure you have sidewall repair kits. I actually
don't have one right now, so I'm kind of the
evil guy on this one. I want to get one. I have
regular tire repair kit. I just don't have sidewall
repair kits. Make sure you have your recovery
gear. Check your recovery gear too. So check
your tow straps, your shackles, traction boards,
shovel, winch. Check your winch cable. Make sure
your winch cable isn't fused together. Unleash
some of that rope off of there, like loosen the
winch, pull the line in. Make sure everything
is still working before you go out there. If
you go out there, you get in a situation where
you're stuck and you're like, well, I have a
winch, no big deal. You go to start your winch,
your winch controller's dead, or your cable is
so frayed and dry rotted that it's broke because
you're not maintaining it, then that's going
to cause you issues down the road. So make sure
you're checking all this before you actually
go to avoid any kind of issues because that's
easily avoidable. It takes five minutes, and
you really should be using your winch here and
there anyway just to make sure that everything's
working, keep yourself familiar with it, etc.
You want to check your lights. Make sure headlights,
taillights, turn signals, and auxiliary lights
work. I've actually had to where one of my auxiliary
lights stopped working, and I had to fix it on
the trail. It wasn't a big issue, but if I would
have addressed that the day before when I do
pre -checks. I could have had that done, and
it would have took time out of my relaxing. It
would have gave me more of that relaxing time.
So instead, I used it to fix the light. Yep,
check your skid plates for loose bolts or leaks.
Always check for loose bolts. Rattle anything
that typically shouldn't rattle. Your wheels,
check your wheels. Make your skid plates are
tightened. Make sure all your pulleys are tight.
Things that should be bolted down and tight.
Just try to move everything. Try to rattle it.
I actually, Alex had an issue with this where
he was doing, I think, third gen weekend. And
he had some stuff rattle off. So it's definitely
something that you're going to want to check.
So then you go into your tools and spare parts.
You want to make sure you have your basic hand
tools. You want wrenches, sockets, screwdrivers,
pliers. You're going to want spare fuses, bulbs,
belts, hoses, and any kind of parts that frequently
break on your vehicle. You can use ChatGPT to
figure that out. You can also look in forums
to see what are regularly damaged parts. For
anything running a CV axle, CV axles are always
useful to have. Maybe some spare brake line in
a flare kit, stuff like that. Um, make sure you
have some extra fluids on you, some extra oil,
coolant, brake fluid, power steering fluid. Um,
and if you're like me, power steering fluid and
transmission fluid are the same thing, uh, for
my vehicle. So that'll be fine for me. Uh, make
sure you have the basics, uh, duct tape, zip
ties and electrical tape. Everybody needs those.
I've used those multiple times on the trail,
uh, multimeter for electrical issues. Very good
for, uh, diagnostics to see what's, working and
what's not if you don't know how to use one of
those pick up a cheap one on amazon watch a youtube
video get a feel for it and it's pretty easy
after that and then you want to check and make
sure you have camping gear make sure you have
your tent It can be whatever kind you want to
do, a tent, an awning, or a rooftop tent kind
of deal. Just make sure you have something to
sleep in, whether it's your truck or a tent or
a hammock. Make sure you have a sleeping pad,
sleeping bag, something like that. Make sure
you have a pillow. A pillow is like the thing
I forget the most. Now I take my house pillows.
I'm looking to eventually change that to something
more compact, but I really like having a house
pillow, like a big pillow. Make sure you have
your camp chairs and a table if you want a table.
Camp chairs are really nice to have. Make sure
you have your camp stove and always, always,
always check your fuel before you go. I've been
on a couple trips where other people have ran
out of fuel during the camp trip. Thankfully,
everybody else is there, but it would be a pain
to run out of fuel while you're cooking like
they did on the last trip. And thankfully someone
had a propane tank, but otherwise then you'd
have to start a fire. Then you'd have to move
everything to a fire. And sometimes people's
pans aren't really made for over the fire cooking.
I mean, they can be used for it, but you know,
sometimes it's just not what they're made for.
So check your cooking stove and fuel cookware.
Make sure I always keep my cookware in my truck
until a week before I leave. And then I bring
it all inside. I wash it, dry it, and then bring
it right back out and store it back in the truck.
I just want to make sure I get a good clean on
them before I go back. Same thing with like your
plates, cups, cutlery. I always check my fridge.
So I empty my fridge out after I come back. I
wipe it down, get all the condensation out of
it. And then again, a week before, because I
do this in... stages so a week before a couple
days before i take bleach spray clorox wipe spray
spray the hole inside of it soak it open the
drink plug on the bottom of the fridge just to
get any kind of smell Any kind of bacteria that
might have been from a leaky chicken I might
have had to a can of pop that might have exploded.
You know, just want to make sure everything's
cleaned out of there for the next time I put
food in. Because sometimes I do put like a banana
or an apple in there and I don't have like a
plastic bag over it. So I just want to make sure
the surface is clean. I also do that with the
cutting board in my truck as well. Make sure
you have trash bags. We use trash bags not only
for trash, but for waste, soil waste, poop. So
just making sure you have those. And to add on
to that, make sure they're not like menthol flavored.
I know that seems funny, but Alex recently had
an issue to where he bought trash bags that were
mint scented. And while he was pooping, it felt
like he had Icy Hot on his butthole. So yeah,
fun fact. I guess he didn't like that. I really
think that would have been very refreshing, like
a boo day in the woods, but apparently not refreshing.
So make sure that you get something that isn't
scented like mint. We try to use some kind of
scented because it kind of helps keep some of
the smell down. And then make sure you have your
food and water. You know, judging by how long
you're going to be out, your water consumption
also is dictated by the season. But I usually
start with 30 gallons of water. And the way that
I do it is I don't have another water tank. I
am actually going to get one. It's another three
gallon tank. But if you're going to be out for
six days, three gallons shouldn't last you that
long. It should it should take you. I go through
about three. gallons a day and that's i'm sorry
three gallons a day three gallons in three days
and that's probably less than you really should
i don't use it to wash dishes all the time i
use it to refill our water bottles only and to
drink from or to put a little bit on the pan
to help clean it uh but if you use it a lot like
to wash dishes or you want to try to shower you
need to make sure that you carry plenty of water
and try to stay away from like disposable water
bottles because that's like just a fucking waste
so Make sure you have some non -perishable foods.
Always really good. Tips and tricks for cheap
non -perishable camp foods. They make like super
easy dried rice in a bag. They make $1 potatoes
in a bag. They make $1 mac and cheese. Just things
that if you're more on a budget like ramen, mac
and cheese, canned vegetables, they tend to help
you out. You're getting some sides with your
main dish. that aren't going to cost you an arm
and a leg. Now, if you have the money to grab
fresh potatoes and fresh green beans and all
that, and you have the time to cook it, sweet.
But sometimes we don't really have the time to
do an extravagant dinner. And when my son's hungry,
he's hungry. So I try to make things go as quick
as possible. So make sure you have your non -perishable
food. Make sure you have the fresh food and try
to use that within the first couple days, unless
you have a way to keep it cool. throughout. Make
sure you have your full coffee and tea set up.
I keep my French press out there. I bring my
coffee beans inside and put them in the freezer
when I'm done, when I'm done with them. And then
when I come back out, they go back into the fridge
for camping so that I can freshly grind them.
And they always stay fresh. Seasonings, get your
seasonings out there, cooking oil, condiments.
The only thing that actually comes inside is
the condiments. I don't have space to keep them
and I don't have the fridge. I'm just going to
keep the fridge on to keep them cold. They'll
go back into the door and then I'm ready for
them. I usually grab a grocery bag and throw
all of my condiments, butter, coffee, and the
fresh food that I'm going to take and bring it
out to the fridge and store it. So moving away
from that, we're going to go to navigation, communication.
So we're going to move past communication really
because we're going to... practice this as a
solo you want paper maps for the area a lot of
like visitor centers have some paper maps of
each area that you'll be in make sure you have
one of those it's always really good to have
an atlas and then make sure you have your gps
or a garmin not like an inreach an inreach would
be nice too if you're solo but like you're the
garmin satellite tracking navigation That kind
of thing. I use my phone. I use Onyx. I have
a subscription through there, and I save the
maps and download them and use that and cross
-reference with Gaia and Maps, depending on where
I'm at. So make sure that you have your trip
itinerary or your trip plan shared with someone
that you know who is going to care enough to
check in on you if you don't make a peep in a
few days. We share our trip plans with our dad.
And if anything happens and he doesn't hear from
us, he doesn't get a text every so now and then,
he'll ask if we're okay. And if not, he can give
that trip itinerary to someone who can go and
track us and make sure we're okay. So moving
on from that, we have safety and first aid. You
want a first aid kit always. At the very least,
a first aid kit, it doesn't matter. You want
something that's Band -Aids, disinfectant, wraps,
gauze, depending on who you're talking to, splints,
tourniquets, IFAC, stuff like that. That's very
important. And if you don't know how to use it,
you need to watch videos and you need to practice
using it before you go. You need a basic understanding
of how to stop someone's bleeding. where to apply
the tourniquet, how hard to apply the tourniquet,
when to pack a wound, and when not to pack a
wound. I know the basics. I took some first aid
when I was a volunteer firefighter. I've also
done a lot of research on YouTube to try to learn
how to do this, but I'm going to be taking classes
soon to get re -CPR certified, child CPR certified,
and... I'm going to try to get first aid, go
through a first aid class to be able to handle
trauma first aid, something like that. That's
on my list. You never want to be solo and not
be able to get a handle on a situation. This
is a pride thing, but as a man, I want to make
sure that if my family gets hurt or put in danger,
I want to make sure that it's handled, and I
want to make sure that I handle it. If something
happens to where my wife gets hurt or my son
gets hurt, I want to make sure that I have the
training to keep them safe or to keep them from
dying. It's kind of like dark, but it happens.
Accidents happen. Unfortunately, we just had
a horrible loss with Toyota World Runners who
just tragically passed away. They were my age.
It was an accident that happened, and honestly,
there probably wasn't much that they could have
done on that one. But if I was to ever come across
a similar situation to where, let's say, I just
lost control driving down a trail and we hit
a tree or something. If something like that happened,
my wife had uncontrollable bleeding in her leg,
I need to know how to apply that tourniquet because
that makes the difference between whether she
might live or she might die. And that's up to
me. That's my responsibility. So making sure
that you're trained and you know how to use that
first aid because it really can become a life
and death thing. And then to kind of pair with
the first aid, if you know the area that you're
going into, make sure you know the dangers of
the natural area around you. So that doesn't
just mean animals. That actually means plants.
Make sure you know what the berries are. Make
sure you know what plants are poisonous. Of course,
make sure you know what animals travel the area.
Are there bears? What kind of bears? Black bears
and brown bears act differently. So black bears
are kind of scared of you, to be honest. So they're
not super big of a worry. Whereas brown bears
are a little bit more territorial and they have
been known to be a little bit more aggressive
towards humans. And then you have like snakes,
of course. Make sure you know snakes. Michigan
has them as soccer rattler. They're typically
in swampland areas. You want to make sure that
you know what's there. You want to know how to
spot it. You want to make sure you know what
it looks like. That way you can describe it when
you're bit. Same thing with spiders. Like the
only ones we have in Michigan natively are the
brown recluse. And the black widow, the black
widow is less dangerous. It's also known to dry
bite. And it's not known to kill humans unless
there's already something going on, typically.
But the brown recluse actually, like, I don't
know how to eat. The poison, like, eats at your
skin. So it's something that you want to watch.
Make sure you know what kind of, like, if you're
allergic to bees, make sure you're paying attention
to the bees in the area, obviously. Stuff like
that. Moving on from safety and first aid, because
this is just all stuff that you should know.
You want personal gear, so you want to make sure
you have weather appropriate clothing. Depending
on the area that you're in, you want to make
sure you're dressing for that area. If you know
it's going to be cold, you need to make sure
you layer so you don't over sweat. Make sure
you carry the right amount of clothing and be
honest about how much you're going to change.
You know, at the end of the day, you're still
camping. I was leaving for seven days and I brought
14 pairs of clothing, like full pairs of clothing.
I'd be lying to myself if I said that I was going
to be changing twice a day. You know what I'm
saying? I'd be lying to myself if I said I was
going to be changing seven times a day if I was
out for seven days. I'll change my underwear.
I'll change my socks. But my pants are going
to be for three days, if more. My shorts will
be for three days, if more. Honestly, I'll wear
my shorts until they're so dirty or smelly. That
I can't wear them. And that's just the honest
truth. Like you don't need a lot of clothes out
there. You are camping. You are overlanding.
Like if you want to go to a nice restaurant.
Make sure you have a nice pair of clothes to
go into. But make sure when you're out in camp.
Like those are camp clothes. Like you're supposed
to be out there in the middle of nowhere. No
one cares what you look like when you're out
there. That's kind of a beauty of it. So I typically
in the summer I don't even have. I don't even
like. I'll pack one pair of socks. Because I
don't wear socks. And the only reason I pack
the socks. is because if it gets cold, I just
want an extra layer over my feet because I'm
wearing sandals. So it's just kind of think about
where you're at. Lake Superior is kind of fun
and tricky in that way. I have a sweatshirt that
I pack, and then I have tall pants, regular -sized
pants, and then I have tall socks for the colder
days. My wife, she has a couple of those because
she tends to get colder more often. I only need
one pair. Long pants, long sweatshirt, and long
socks just to last through that. And that's all
I need. The rest of it's summer clothing, right?
So just make sure you do your research. And then,
of course, if it's supposed to rain, make sure
you have your rain jacket, this and that. Make
sure you have sunglasses, extra contacts, stuff
like that. Make sure you bring toiletries, toilet
paper, the little toilet packs that you put in
the bag. wet wipes we're actually going from
um paper towel we're going to switch fully to
the cheap walmart wet wipes because you can get
way more for cheaper and they clean you better
and you can use them to actually just clean your
body instead uh doing little wipey baths as they
say so we're going to actually switch from toilet
paper too because also if toilet paper gets wet
it's ruined if wet wipes get wet they're already
wet so Not a big deal. Something you can keep
in your little pop -up bathroom if it rains and
they get wet. No big deal. They were there that
way before. So personal documents, IDs, permits,
insurance, obviously make sure you have all that
on you. And then final checks before departure,
fill fuel tank, extra jerry cans, load gear securely,
evenly, and organized. So if you know that your
first night you're going to be grabbing your
tent, try to make sure that's at the top of the
pile, not the bottom, right? Pack it away in
the order that you're going to be taking it out
first. So if you're not going to be touching
your clothes till you get everything put away,
maybe you put your clothes towards the bottom.
If you know you're going to be doing your tent
first when you get out, obviously. So you put
your tent at the top, sleeping bags under that,
pads along with it, and you have your air mattress
blower or whatever that right there next to it.
So all you have to do is throw all that out there
and you're good to go. So check brakes, check
your steering, check for weather and road conditions,
like I said, notify someone over your route,
like I said, and lock up your home and secure
your valuables. And if you carry a firearm, make
sure that's locked away and secured properly
on your persons. So that was a pre -check trip
checklist for an overland trip. And that was
something that chat GPT actually just gave me.
So that is, I mean, that's very, um, informative.
That really fills in a lot of the holes that
you might need. So, um, uh, you know, preparing
for an overland trip to you go in here and you
look, they want to make sure that you have a
lot of the same thing like water filtration.
That's something I didn't mention earlier, but
water filtration is really nice when you don't
have, um, a clean water source nearby, like a
hose. Um, so what I do is I get potable water
from state campgrounds. So when three days or
so go up and I'm starting to get low on water,
we'll take a quick trip to a state campground.
Um, we'll get rid of garbage. We will use the
restroom. If they have restroom facilities, we
will refill all of our waters in all of our water
bottles and our water tank. You know, we'll just
get kind of refreshed for the next couple days
and we'll go. If they have showers, we pay for
a shower. Then, you know, you make sure that
you have all that. Filtration is nice because
you can use the stream water and you can filter
that and make sure you have nice potable drinking
water. So that is nice. Making sure you have
headlamps, camp batteries, stuff like that. Check
-in plans, permits. And doing a shakedown trip
about a week before you go is nice too. It doesn't
have to be a camping trip. Just drive it, take
some trails, make sure everything's not rattly
and everything's good to go. I do that a lot
too. And then make sure you're flexible. Like
it's always good to plan overlanding trips. And
like I do, and I've talked about, I'm very thorough
when I plan. My checklist is very large when
I plan. I like to have everything. I do not like
to go unprepared. But when you get up there,
things happen. And I like to have a plan until
I get up there, kind of. So I like to know where
I want to go. But I'm also okay with not doing
it, too. So if I wanted to, like I was saying
earlier, I wanted to do Sulox, Whitefish Point,
Two -Hearted, Crisp Point, and Grand Marias.
If I wasn't going to be able to make it all the
way over to Grand Marias, and I was only going
to be able to do Two -Hearted, Whitefish Point,
and crisp, then you just be okay with it. You
have more trips that you can do in the future,
and honestly, it's not that big of a deal. If
you spend more time, that really means you are
enjoying it more. So, you know, take that with
what you will. Now, if you were to ask Alex on
his trip planning, he might be very, very different
on this, and Mark as well. But I do like to have
a good plan. I like to be very in control of
the situation. I hate being out of control. Um,
but yeah, there is a time when I'm out there
camping where I can let go a little bit and go,
Hey, remember, we're supposed to be enjoying
this. So here that's, that's a, a really quick,
fast rundown on some of the stuff that you need
when you're doing that. And if chat GPT can't
help you. And honestly, there's not much here
that I wouldn't, um, that I wouldn't recommend.
So, um, use it, use it to help give you a basis
of idea. copy and paste it onto a list, like
a checklist, and then add whatever other stuff
that you need to check. But this is really good.
Both of them are really good. So overlanding,
so the prompts that I actually put in were, how
should I plan an overlanding trip? And then on
the other thing is, what do I need to start overlanding?
So a lot of those kind of coincide, but... Some
of them are a little bit different, like the
how do I start overlanding helps you with what
vehicles are typically used, the tires typically
used. You want to make sure you have good recovery
points and basic maintenance done. So using ChatGPT
absolutely can help you. I asked on another prompt
to make a pre -trip checklist for my overlanding
trip, and they gave me a massive checklist that
was all sorted by area that I might actually
use this in the future. Um, it's well organized.
I can copy and paste this onto my checklist app,
like notes app. And then I can add other things
that I want for just my checklist prep. And then
that is a checklist that you can reuse actually.
So on my notes app, it's a checklist that I can
check on and check off. So as I'm doing this
as a pre -trip before I go, I could check all
this off. And then the next time I go out, I
can just redo the same thing. I think I'm done.
I've been talking a lot. I've been trying to
bust out an episode and just kind of help get
one out. Thank you guys for listening. I hope
you enjoyed this. AI, how to use AI to help with
your overlanding. So, hey, thanks for listening.