Our story
A van, a tent and a long list of dirt roads
Compass and Crumb began in 2019 when Marcus Hale sold most of what he owned, bought a high-mileage van named Mabel, and pointed her toward the Utah desert. Seven years later the van has a rebuilt engine, the journal has readers in forty countries, and the rule hasn't changed: go slow, write it down, share the practical parts.
Wren Hollis joined in 2021 with a camera and a stricter packing list. Together they publish one honest story a week — what a place costs, what it asks of you, and whether the sunrise was worth the alarm.
7
years on the road
31
countries wandered
240
trails walked
48k
Sunday readers
Writer & photographer
Wren Hollis
What we believe
Three rules of the road
01
Slow beats fast
Three nights minimum, one neighbourhood at a time. The best stories start after the day-trippers leave.
02
Honest numbers
Every guide lists real costs, real distances and what went wrong — never a highlight reel pretending to be a plan.
03
Leave it better
Pack-it-out ethics, local guides, shoulder-season travel. Tread lightly is a practice, not a slogan.
Good to know
Questions, answered
How do you afford full-time travel?
Frugally and transparently: the journal, the trail shop and a small number of partnerships cover fuel, food and park fees. Every paid collaboration is labelled, and costs in our guides are what we actually paid.
Can I reuse your photos or routes?
Routes and packing lists are yours to use and share with credit. Photos are available as prints in the shop — for anything else, send a note through the contact page and we usually say yes.
Do you take trip-planning requests?
We read every message and the most-asked places become future stories. For personalised help, the starter kit on the landing page covers our exact planning process.
How often do you publish?
One long story every week and one newsletter every Sunday morning, Mountain Time. No noise in between.
Where are you right now?
Home base is Moab, Utah. The map on the front page marks the current season's loop — this autumn it's the high desert and the Colorado Plateau.