You're forty-five minutes from kickstands up and suddenly every piece of gear you own is on the floor. We've all been there—overpacked, overweight, and overwhelmed by the volume of stuff we think we need to survive a weekend in the dirt.
If our mission at We Love ADV is to find an exit ramp from the modern echo chamber, that journey has to start with what we carry.
The Zero-Sum Game of Pannier Space
In the backcountry, intentionality isn't just a high-brow concept; it's a survival tactic. Whether I'm rocking my Mosko Motos or Jonathan is securing camera gear in his Touratech hard cases, real estate is gold.
You have a finite amount of space. Every extra layer of "just in case" gear is a literal pound of weight that makes the bike harder to handle when the road turns to deep sand.
Our kit philosophy is built on a hard truth: The story comes first. Camera gear, camping essentials, and tools earn their place. Everything else is negotiable.
The 80/20 Rule: 80% of your utility comes from 20% of your gear. Once the essentials are packed, we ruthlessly edit the rest.
The First Cut: Why Clothes Are Always the Sacrifice
When professional glass and camping kits take up 70% of your volume before you even think about clothing, something has to give. For us, it's always the wardrobe. As a husband and wife team, we can't exactly share clothes (though we've tried in a pinch—it wasn't pretty). This makes the space crunch even tighter.
Our secret? Merino wool. High-quality merino layers allow us to travel for a week with just one or two changes of clothes thanks to their natural temperature regulation and antimicrobial properties. By treating our wardrobe as a "minimalist base," we suddenly find room for what actually matters—like that extra lens or backup GoPro battery.
Full disclosure: While I'd love to look my best on camera (we have them rolling constantly), I struggle to be as fashionable as those slick outdoor adventure folks. Our priority is function over form, garage to trail, with maybe just enough style to not look ridiculous at Zeki's.
The Shoe Situation (Our Necessary Evil)
We've learned the hard way that footwear is the one area where we struggle to be minimalists:
The Baseline: Flip-flops for the shower/creek and hiking boots for the trail.
The Comfort: Camp slip-ons (Ash prefers Vans or Blundstones) are non-negotiable for relaxing by the fire.
The Hardcore: For Death Valley or expert BDR routes, we add Tech 7 motorcycle boots to the mix. Yes, it's a lot of shoes. No, we haven't solved this puzzle yet.
Intentional Luxury: The Helinox Exception
People often talk about "essential gear" as if it has to be purely utilitarian, but we believe in intentional luxury. For us, that means our beloved Helinox Sunset Chairs we received as wedding gifts. They pack down small enough to carabiner to the frame, but after a day wrestling a heavy bike through deep sand while hauling camera equipment, being able to actually lean your head back at camp is everything. They're a reminder that even when you're off the grid, you can carry a piece of home with you. 10/10 would recommend.
Why We Carry the Heavy Stuff
People often ask why we bother hauling heavy Nikon bodies, drones, and tripods into the backcountry. "Why not just use a phone?" Because a smartphone is a distraction; a dedicated camera is a tool for presence.
Carrying real lenses, audio equipment, and video gear forces you to slow down, to hunt for the shot, to separate signal from noise in a landscape. When we print these moments as gallery-grade photography or edit them into stories for The Journal, we aren't just sharing a picture—we're sharing what it feels like to be fully present in a place that's hard to reach.
The We Love ADV Loadout
Here's what actually makes it into our bags—organized by packing priority, not by how critical the gear is to survival. The Creative Kit goes in first because without it, there's no story. Everything else follows.
| Priority | Category | The Must-Haves |
| 1 | The Creative Kit | Nikon D750 and D810 camera bodies, bag o' lenses, DJI Mavic 2 drone, tripod, GoPros, external mics, rugged SSD, and oh so many cords |
| 2 | Camping Essentials | Tent, high-loft sleeping bag, insulated pad, compact stove, Camelbak or Platypus water bladder, water filtration, headlamps (yes, plural), Luci light, hammock |
| 3 | Tools & Safety | Paracord, Spyderco knives (his and hers), multi-tool, tire repair kit, trauma first aid kit, portable power banks, small solar charger |
| 4 | Apparel | Merino base layers (2 max), We Love ADV premium tee, packable mid-layer, beanie, sun hat, Klim/Alpinestars Goretex riding jacket, rain gear (JIC) |
| 5 | Footwear | Hiking boots (the all-rounders), Tech 7 boots (hardcore riding), Vans/Blundstones (camp), flip-flops (swim and stroll) |
The Final Question
Before you close the panniers, ask yourself three things:
- Can I tell the story without this?
- Can I survive the night without it?
- Can I fix the bike without it?
If the answer is yes to all three, it stays in the garage.
What's the one piece of gear you've realized you don't actually need? Or the one thing you'll never leave behind?
Tag us using #WeLoveADV—we want to see how you're cutting through the noise.
