When Everything Fails: Overlanding Through My Hardest Week on the Road

Written By Kyle Ledeboer

Sometimes the road gives you wide-open skies, perfect light, and smooth miles. Other times… it fights back.

Episode 05 of This Way Wild was supposed to be a straightforward push north from Colorado into Wyoming. Instead, it became the week where nearly everything I rely on broke — my drone, my solar setup, my awning — all in rapid succession. This is the story behind the story, the version you didn’t see on YouTube.

The First Domino

The first crack in the plan came outside of Silverton. I was bringing the drone in for a clean hood landing when a rogue gust hit mid-sequence. Instead of settling, it drifted, over-corrected, and slammed into my fender hard enough to snap an arm.

No aerials for the rest of the trip. At the time, I figured that would be my only curveball. I was wrong.

A Calm Morning Turns Violent

After a quick reset in town — truck washed, laundry done, propane topped off — I headed toward Taylor Park Reservoir. A few days later, I woke to a calm morning: five miles per hour of steady breeze, the kind you barely notice.

The awning had been staked down overnight during a rainstorm, but as I packed up, I pulled the stakes. Thirty seconds later, a 60-mile-per-hour gust came out of nowhere, slamming into camp from one direction before reversing like a whip crack.

The OVS XD 270 didn’t stand a chance. Arms and fabric yard-sailed across the top of the Moonlander X. And just as quickly as it came, it was gone — silence in the wake of destruction.


Power Failure in the Middle of Nowhere

The solar problem had been brewing for a while. My connector had a bad habit of working loose whenever I hit rough ground, so I’d gotten into the habit of pulling over to check it. This time, when I opened the lid, I froze.

The plastic around the adapter plug was warped and blackened, the port on the battery side bubbled and scorched. Both ends had cooked themselves. Just like that, my entire off-grid power plan was gone.

There was no clever trail fix. I ordered a new battery and adapter cord as soon as I could — only to realize I’d ordered the wrong cord. Another dead end in a week full of them.

The Small Wins That Kept Me Going

It wasn’t all frustration. Somewhere between breakdowns, I saw a lone fox cross the road in Big Sky, its coat lit gold in the evening light. On the Buffalo Fork, I landed the largest Snake River cutthroat I’ve ever caught — a reminder that the river doesn’t care about your gear list, only your patience.

The real reset came in Big Sky with my friend Porter. He poured a bottle of Willamette Valley red from his own vineyard, served elk, and let me park in his driveway for two nights while storms hammered the surrounding hills. It was Porter who suggested the Beartooth Pass, and he wasn’t wrong — the drive was one of the most beautiful of my life.

From there, I looped through the east entrance of Yellowstone by way of Cody before heading back south toward Dubois and the Wind River.

Headspace on the Hard Weeks

Quitting never crossed my mind. When the headspace got rough, I fished. I stayed busy. The river has a way of stripping away whatever’s rattling in your head until all that’s left is the next cast, the next drift. Out here, you either keep moving or you don’t — and I wasn’t about to stop.

Watch the Episode

If you want to see how it all unfolded, you can watch Episode 05 here:
Watch on YouTube →

Gear That Made the Difference

(Partner links soon to be Affiliate links — Support the amazing humans who support me.)

Truck & Camper

Power & Shelter

Cooking & Camera

Music Licensed From — http://www.artlist.io

#Overlanding #TruckCamper #ThisWayWild #OverlandingDisaster #FieldRepairs #WyomingOverlanding #FullTimeTruckLife #MoonlanderX #EcoFlow #GoalZero #Roofnest #OVS #TemboTusk #OMSYSTEM #Artlist

Kyle Ledeboer
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From Studio to the Wild: Episode 04 – Living and Working Out of My Truck Camper in Colorado