The Adventure Blueprint
Get out there.
Spend less.
Stay longer.
A field guide for the person who keeps saying someday.
The guide I wish someone had handed me before I loaded my truck at eighteen and drove off into the unknown. Everything in here I’ve run myself — 43 states, three months in New Zealand on $32 a day, and the long drive up to the Arctic Circle.
PDF · 27 pages · instant download · 2,500+ downloads
Free, like everything I make. If you pay something, that’s what keeps it free — this guide, the weekly essays, whatever comes next.
Or decide the amount at checkout →
New Zealand, on $32 a day.
Before the road
It was never
the money.
Ask someone why they haven’t gone and you’ll hear the same word: money. Too expensive. Not yet. Someday. It’s rarely the money. Money is what fear hides behind, because money sounds responsible. The quieter question is the real one: what if I’m not the kind of person who does this.
So I priced the guide at whatever you want, down to nothing. Take the excuse off the table and all that’s left is about five minutes of courage in a driver’s seat. Everything after the ignition is just logistics, and logistics is what this guide is for.
As far north as the road goes. The whole thing started in a driveway.
What’s inside
The whole guide,
page by page.
Two parts: road trips first, then everything that changes once you cross a border. You learn the system at home and take it anywhere.
Part One · Road Trips
Part Two · Going International
Look inside
Every photo in here is one I took. Nothing bought, nothing borrowed.
Milford Sound, first light.
The receipts
From someone who’s
actually lived it.
Every system in here comes from trips I actually took and paid for myself, plus a fair pile of mistakes I made so you can skip them.
Every photo in here is one of mine.
“I didn’t find peace sitting still. I found it out there.”
On the house
Take this part now.
No email, no checkout. This is the stuff that keeps first trips out of trouble, and it works whether or not you ever pay me a cent.
- Check the spare, the jack and the tire pressure in the driveway. Most trips that end early end on the shoulder, and almost always over something you could have caught at home.
- A gallon of water per person per day, and more than you think for the truck. Carry it yourself instead of buying it. It’s the single cheapest thing you can get right.
- Dispersed camping on BLM and National Forest land is legal and costs nothing. Fourteen days in one spot, then you move. That one rule unlocks most of the West.
- Where you sleep matters more than what you sleep in. Get in late, leave early, no lights, don’t announce yourself. A stealthy nobody is a safe nobody.
- In bear country, your food sleeps somewhere you don’t. Locker, canister, or hung. Same goes for toothpaste, wrappers and the trash you forgot in the door pocket.
The Sleep & Safety page, straight from the guide.
Who it’s for
You’ve got a vehicle in the driveway, or a plane ticket booked, and a feeling you can’t shake, and you keep telling people someday. You’re more capable than you think, working with less money than the people who make this look easy, and a little suffocated by the ordinary. This is built for your first real trip.
What it won’t do
It won’t rebuild your transmission or map a two-year expedition. It’s the on-ramp: the permission and the practical calls that get a first trip out the door, with the fumbling already done for you.
Before you buy
Questions.
What exactly do I get? +
A 27-page PDF, downloaded the second you check out. Cover to back cover, yours to keep. No shipping, no waiting, no account to make.
What can I read it on? +
Anything. Phone, tablet, laptop — or print it and throw it in the glovebox, which is honestly how I’d use it. Service disappears exactly when you need the answer.
How does this fit with the region guides? +
This is the system; the region guides are the layer on top. The Blueprint teaches water, food, sleep, campsites and borders once, so a guide like California can skip the universals and get straight to the place.
What did you leave out, on purpose? +
Anything that changes country to country — visa rules, which side you drive on, local camping law, what's legal where. That's not universal, so it's not in here; it belongs in the region guide, not the system. This one teaches what actually travels: water, food, sleep, money, the calls that don't change no matter which border you're standing at.
I’ve never done a trip like this. Is it too basic, or too much? +
It’s built for the person who hasn’t gone yet. It won’t rebuild your transmission or plan a two-year expedition, and it doesn’t assume you own a rooftop tent. It assumes you have a vehicle or a plane ticket and a feeling you can’t shake.
Why is it free? +
Because I want it read more than I want it sold. Members of the Out There Club cover the cost at \$7 a month, and that keeps every guide free for everyone else. Pay something at checkout if you want — it goes to the same place.
One last thing
The key’s in your hand.
Pay what it’s worth to you, or take it for nothing. Then go. Skip my mistakes, make your own, and let the road teach you the rest.
The whole guide argues that money was never what kept you home. I’m not going to say that and then put a price on the door.
The Adventure Blueprint
PDF · 27 pages · instant download · 2,500+ downloads
Free, like everything I make. If you pay something, that’s what keeps it free — this guide, the weekly essays, whatever comes next.
If you pay something, that’s the next guide getting made. It also keeps this one sitting at zero for whoever needs it and can’t pay, which is the point.
— Bryce
More from Out There
The rest of the shelf.
The Blueprint is the system. These are the places you take it, and the tools I use out there.
The California Guide
Free download →
The Autumn Guide
Free download →Guide
The New Zealand Guide
Coming soonGuide
The Winter Guide
Coming soon
The Out There Presets
Free download →