If you’d have asked us one year ago, we would have said we were perfectly happy with our adventures in our Hummer H3. We would perhaps have been considering something larger, more like an Overlanding RV… an LMTV based vehicle, something like a Bi-Mobil if you’ve seen those… and maybe someday in the future we WILL find ourselves in something like that. That’s the beauty of living this life that we do. Things change… they change quickly and sometimes in directions that are unanticipated.

We DO still love our H3! And plan to have many, many more adventures in it. But, as we have discovered, there is not always a need to be low-locked on 35’s. To be prepared, absolutely, but for much of the time we spend off the beaten path, it tends to be forest service roads, back country paths and for us even rolling across the sandy beaches in search of the perfect sunset.

Over the course of the past year, with the pandemic in full effect and really just having the time to look at what we enjoy most about our adventures, we were able to weigh in on what aspects were most important. We decided that what we needed was simply a vehicle that would allow us to get to a trailhead so that we could go on another ultralight backpacking trip. We needed something that we could toss the surfboards and beach chairs on and not worry about getting stuck in the sand somewhere. And most definitely, a vehicle with very low miles on and yet still tough enough to make those runs across the desert in Nevada or with equal comfort cruise up the Cali coast to San Francisco or beyond. We realized that we’d rather spend time with a backpack and just being one with the surroundings than trying to push a vehicle through a rock garden.

After some real soul searching, we found ourselves at Carvana, waiting for our new (to us) adventure machine to come rolling out of the vending machine.

We had come across a 2018 Subaru Outback with a mere 20,000 miles on it and it was a deal we just couldn’t pass up on. A 3.6 L boxer engine helps keep the center of gravity low while producing enough throttle response to easily urn the All-Terrain tires it would soon have. We love the interior of the Limited package and features like heated rear leather seats for when we take friends up to those snowy mountain hikes and LED headlights that turn in conjunction with the steering wheel. Sure it doesn’t have a dedicated lo-range transfer case. Time will tell how much we miss that but to be honest we didn’t really use low range all that often. Over our adventures to come we will be showcasing the capabilities of this vehicle which seems to have a huge following in the outdoorsy crowd and to be honest again, we simply can’t wait to put it through its paces.

In the first 2 weeks of having the Outback, it has already been through a test drive from Vegas through the Mojave and a quick trip around Big Bear before heading back to San Diego and we have already starting piling on some pieces that will allow us to do the adventures that we like to do.

We really look forward to sharing the build, the adventures and as always our journey together as the SunChaser’s