Adventure Advice Vol. 1 With Luno Marketing Manager, Landon B.
Welcome to our new series, Adventure Advice. Each month, we’ll highlight a Luno team member, sharing both a snapshot of their story and a few of their favorite camping tips. Expect us to cover everything from their go-to road trip snacks to car camping hacks they learned the hard way. Long story short? If you want to step up your game and camp like a pro, you’re in the right place.
Who Is Landon?
There’s no better person to kick off our Adventure Advice series than Landon, Luno’s multi-talented marketing manager. Landon grew up in Reno, Nevada, where he fell in love with the outdoors as a kid on fly fishing, backpacking, and camping trips through the Sierras with his family. While studying industrial engineering at Cal Poly about six years ago, he happened to buy one of Luno’s first mattresses. He brought that mattress on road trips exploring the California coast, always with a camera in tow, and the photos he snapped quickly caught the eye of our team.
Since then, Landon:
- graduated with a master's degree in engineering
- joined Luno in 2021, helping out with social media, content creation, and community management
- relocated to our headquarters in Bend
- camped countless nights in the back of his Toyota 4Runner testing and shooting Luno gear, often with mountain bikes and fly rods in tow
Over the years, Landon’s been promoted several times, and he’s now our Marketing Manager of Social Media and Content. He handles everything from social strategy and our growing ambassador program to knocking out remote photo and video shoots. And his engineering degree comes in handy during our research and development of new products, too–he has an engineer’s eye and loves to nerd out on gear. Read on for Landon’s go-to Luno gear, guilty pleasure gas station snacks, adventure advice, and more.
Pit Stops: Rapid-Fire Q & A Interview
Q: What’s a bucket list road trip for you?
A: Road-tripping Alaska from Seward to Deadhorse. You can drive from the southern part of Alaska up to the northern zone on the Dalton Highway–made infamous on Ice Road Truckers–and you end up in the Arctic Circle. It’s really remote and seems like an epic trip.
Q: What’s your go-to Luno mattress and why?
A: Definitely the new 4Runner AIR+FOAM Pro. It’s built specifically for the 4Runner, which I love, and the AIR+FOAM Pro construction is incredibly comfortable and cushy. Plus, I camp solo a lot, so being able to unzip half of the mattress and leave that at home is a major benefit. I set up a single side of the mattress in my 4Runner, then organize my gear next to me in the trunk. It makes solo adventure easier and gives me more space for gear–it’s super handy!
Q: What Luno accessories are you packing on a road trip?
A: It’s hard to pick–I usually travel with a bunch of them! But for me, the Cargo Hammock is definitely a must-have. It’s really easy to install, super low-profile, and it adds a mind-boggling amount of storage space. I keep my extra layers, fishing net, and headlamp up there so they are up and out of the way. Plus, I always know where my gear is and it’s easy to grab whatever I need it. The transparent media pocket is perfect for stashing your phone, and it’s a treat for watching movies on rainy nights at camp, too!
I also always camp with the Car Camping Fan in the summer. Between the white noise and the airflow, it improves my sleep dramatically on warm, muggy nights.
Q: Any other gear you don’t like to camp without?
A: For sure. Three essentials come to mind.
⚡My Goal Zero Yeti Power Station, because I always have electronics to charge. I like to unplug sometimes, too, but I usually have laptops, cameras, GoPros–all the content creation tools.
👀My Nocs binoculars. I never would have bought them for myself, but I got these binoculars as a gift, and I love using them while sitting at my campsite. They’re perfect for checking out the wildlife or scouting for fishing locations, too!
📷Last but not least, I don't go anywhere without a camera. I shoot on a Nikon Z6ii and Z8 for work, and a Fujifilm x100v for fun. Depending what kind of trip I'm going on, at least one of them is always with me.
Q: Favorite road trip snack?
A: My guilty pleasure gas station snack has to be Hostess Zingers–vanilla only, not the chocolate ones. And I always keep a bag of Trader Joe’s rice cracker snack mix with me. So good.
Q: Favorite camping meal?
Mini street tacos. They’re super easy to prep ahead of time. I usually cook the fillings the night before, chop my onions and cilantro and stuff ahead of time, and then just reheat and put them together at the campsite. They’re easy to make for just yourself or for a big group.
Q: You’re heading out on a 3-hour drive tomorrow–what are you listening to?
A Lord of the Rings audiobook.
Q: If you could have a car camping superpower, what would it be?
Whenever I roll up to the spot with the best view, it's never taken.
Adventure Advice: Landon’s 5 Tips For Car Campers
Tip #1: Be Ready To Wipe Down Anything And Everything
This isn’t a particularly exciting tip, but it’s number one for me–bring extra rags, paper towels, and more so you can wipe down anything and everything. Keeping a clean camp makes daily life much easier on the road, and many clean-up jobs can be tackled with a quick wipe-down. It might be some spilled stir-fry on your camp table, or condensation forming on your vehicle windows. Whatever it is, it pays to be prepared with cleaning rags and wipes. I like to go the extra mile here, and I usually camp with a beach towel, extra toilet paper, hand wipes, paper towels, a small rag, you name it. Some of these essentials won’t ever leave my car or camping kit.
Tip # 2: Find A Camp Hobby
I highly recommend you learn a hobby or skill that you only do while camping. Any sort of art or craft that you can do at the campsite will work. Maybe it’s whittling or carving wood. Maybe it's watercolor painting or sketching. Maybe it's photography. Whatever it is, you’ll have a form of entertainment when you’re far from the realm of wifi and cell service. It’ll help you stay busy, relax, enjoy rainy days, and you can look forward to progressing on that hobby when you're out there.
Tip # 3: Don’t Gamble On Gas
We’ve all been there–nervously eyeing the gas light, hazards flashing, fingers crossed, crawling towards a gas station on a wing, a prayer, and fumes… It’s so stressful! Gambling on gas can kill the otherwise epic vibes on any road trip.
If you’re ever questioning if you need more gas, my advice is simple: just fill up to be safe. The anxiety and pressure of wondering if you’re going to run out is so not worth it. So fill up when you can, and top off if you’re going on a remote adventure. And if you’re going really deep into the wilderness? A jerry can is always a smart play.
Tip #4: Always Put Your Keys In The Exact Same Place
Ever lost your keys miles from the nearest paved road? It’s no fun. To avoid this common car camping conundrum, put your car keys in the exact same spot every time you roll up to camp. Simply put, having a designated key stash spot alleviates stress and minimizes the chances of lost keys. Whether it's on your dash, in your cupholder, or in your seatback organizer, just make sure they're always in the same spot.
Tip #5: Become A Pro At Google Maps
While there are plenty of camping-specific apps available, one of the apps I use the most for trip planning is plain, old Google Maps. Unlike many of those pay-to-play adventure apps, Google Maps is free and accessible to all.
I like to use earthview to get a feel for where I’m going–clicking on points of interest, perusing photos, reading reviews, so on and so forth. You can get really good at identifying forest service roads to find free car camping–those are usually demarcated as “FS” followed by a number. You can find dispersed campsites simply by looking for little pull-offs or clearings along those roads on satellite view. You can also use the overlays to determine what zones are public land (and camping friendly) compared to private land. And of course, you can download data for offline use on your phone, which is super crucial on remote trips.
Just by dragging and clicking and exploring a zone digitally, you can get a really solid feel for a destination you’ve never been to before. And the more you use Google Maps, the better and faster you get at researching and trip planning. I could go on and on about this tip–maybe we’ll write a full article on Google Maps someday soon!
A Little Adventure Advice Goes A Long Way
Whether you’re new to the game or you’re a road trip veteran, learning from the pros can be super beneficial. That’s why we started this series–to help you level up and camp like a champ–and we hope you enjoyed this month’s edition of Adventure Advice. Maybe you learned a new gear storage hack, got inspired to try a new camping recipe, or simply gained the confidence to embark on that adventure you’ve been dreaming of for years. Regardless, thank you for reading, and stay tuned for more Adventure Advice in the not-so-distant future!
