Mark, a former NBA referee, goes on weeks-long expeditions in his Jeep Rubicon to photograph wildlife.
Mark, a former NBA referee, goes on weeks-long expeditions in his Jeep Rubicon to photograph wildlife. For Mark, overlanding is about solitude. His thing is taking his Jeep out for weeks on end, alone, to stalk and hunt wildlife—but for photography. “The process is almost identical to hunting,” he says. “Get up early, stake out a spot, and wait. Same outfit, knee pads, everything.” He’s got a stoic manner. The thing he keeps ranting about is the noise. The chatter. The phones. His belief, he reiterates over our second Coors, is that by getting out here alone, with only yourself to rely on, you’re tapping into what’s real. There’s an undeniably libertarian, borderline prepper quality to some of these characters, whose extreme readiness can feel like a vehicular manifestation of the Second Amendment. On Saturday, I get a full tour of an outrageous new off-road trailer made by Mammoth Overland, the Seattle-based former aircraft manufacturer, called the Extinction-Level Event camper....