The Rugged Outdoorsmen Of Mesquite Hit The Trail

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

In a well known work, American poet Robert Frost testified that taking the “Road Less Travelled” had made all the difference. That has certainly been true for one Mesquite family. The members of the Belanger family spend most weekends exploring the desert hinterlands of southern Nevada and beyond.

What’s more, the father/son team has created an occupation of sharing their adventures with the world.

J.B., a veteran and retired New York Corrections Officer – along with his eleven-year-old son Mike, who is a student at Arthur Hughes Middle School – have established a successful online and social media presence called “The Rugged Outdoorsmen.”

On Instagram, Facebook and their website, theruggedoutdoorsmen.com, they chronicle their many expeditions, broadcast conversations with other well-known outdoorsmen via a popular live IGTV program, and even offer unique gifts and mementos for sale to fellow hikers.

J.B. has been an outdoorsman all of his life, and so has Mike. The family, which also includes three other sons that are now adults, used to go hiking and camping together frequently. But J.B. said that his love of being in the outdoors was taken to a whole new level once he retired.

He and Mike now like best to explore ground that is not often trod by other hikers, J.B. said. “Though we do go once in a while, we are not big on national parks where there are all these designated trails that everyone has got to follow like zombies in line,” J.B. said. “We go to lesser known state parks, preserves, national monuments, BLM land, national forests and things like that. You can hike and climb anywhere you want. It is like an untapped opportunity.”

A wealth of these opportunites is what helped make the decision for J.B. and his wife Michele to move to southern Nevada in 2018. They bought a home in Mesquite and moved here from their home state of New York.

J.B. said that he had previously done various training exercises in the southern Nevada desert during his service in the military. He had gotten hooked on the wide open spaces to explore here.\

“Back then I said, ‘That is where I want to be’, you know?” he said. “Because I’m an outdoorsman and here you can do it literally year round. So we decided to make this our base camp.”

Mike said that he didn’t mind the move too much. At first, he was a little nervous about it, leaving the friends and familiarity of New York. But the southern Nevada winters have definitely grown on him.

“In New York we would go hiking a lot in the summer time,” Mike recalled. “But during the winter its cold and you’re stuck inside. Here you don’t get snow days very often, which I miss a little. But there are a lot of chances to hike here in Nevada. I have enjoyed it.”

The family travels in a Thor 24-foot Class C motorhome that Mike calls “Hercules.” The vehicle is built on a Ford E-450 chassis with a V-10 engine. It has the Rugged Outdoorsmen logo emblazoned boldly across the back of it.

Of course, it also is loaded with other special modifications to make it…well…even more rugged. “I had a custom lift and off-road tires put on it, and we gained seven and a half inches of clearance,” J.B. said. “It is equipped with a 12,000 lb. Warn winch and ample recovery gear so we can go just about anywhere that one would dare to go.”

The modifications also include an expanded 40 gallon water tank, rooftop solar power and an onboard generator. This allows the family to go ‘off the grid’ easily for at least a week at a time, J.B. said.

Nearly every weekend, the Belangers load up in The Hercules and head to some remote spot looking for adventure. On the week The Progress spoke to them, J.B. and Mike had gone out scouting into the Gold Butte National Monument to scope out some good hiking areas and nearby camping sites.

“We found a couple of different rock formations we are interested in,” J.B. said. “So we will choose one of those two and we will camp out there and just go exploring.”

Mike is very adept at scrambling up rock formations. He loves to go climbing in the Valley of Fire State Park. He said that his favorite climb there was a rock formation called Sitting Monkey. He and his dad recently scaled to the top of that formation. At the top, they found a registry containing the names of people who had previously climbed to that point. They each signed their names to the registry.

“The reason I liked it so much is that nobody had been up to that spot since 2018,” Mike said. “That was really cool.”

Mike’s climbing skills was one of the elements that got the two started with their online presence. J.B. said that he had been telling a story about Mike’s climbing abilities and fearless determination to a fellow hiking club member in St. George.

“He told me that we really should be documenting and sharing our father and son adventures with the rest of the outdoor community on social media,” J.B. said.

J.B. went home and spoke with Mike about this and they decided to try it. They opened an Instagram account and decided on the name of Rugged Outdoorsmen.

“Our brand is built simply on the premise of a father and son – and occasionally a mom, too – just having a good time in the outdoors,” J.B. said. “It is to motivate others to get outside and we hope it sets the example for others to follow.”

Around this same time, Mike and J.B. were talking about ideas for building camaraderie among the larger community of hikers. They talked about the concept of offering a line of collectible gifts that hikers could share with one another when they meet out on the trails. With his career history in the military and in law enforcement/corrections, J.B. thought about the tradition of giving challenge coins to honor friends and colleagues. “That is how the idea of hiker’s coins came to be,” he said.

J.B. has created the rough design for a number of these keepsake coins and the Rugged Outdoorsmen now offers 10 different coins for sale on their website.

Some of the coins commemorate epic through-hikes such as the 2,200 mile Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine; or the John Muir Trail encompassing 213 miles from Mount Whitney down to the Yosemite Valley in California.

Others just bear inspirational thoughts pertinent to hiking. One of these has a quote from J.B. which states “As I leave the trailhead, I begin another journey of the mind.”

These coins should always be given in a very unique way, said J.B. “You always pass along a hiker’s coin in the palm of your hand with a handshake,” he said. “That reflects a certain camaraderie that hikers often share on the trail.”

Over the past year, the online presence and the coins have really taken off and gained an audience. “We have met great like-minded people, creating friendships and growing a following of absolutely incredible people,” J.B. said.

This growing group of followers has brought brands of camping and hiking products asking the Rugged Outdoorsmen to promote their wares. J.B. and Mike have seven active accounts and an ongoing collaboration with Rugged Wear Clothing (RWC).

J.B. and Mike have also partnered with a friend and producer, Thurro Alexander to create their own IGTV ‘live’ television show which runs every Tuesday.

On the show, the dad/son team interview other outdoorsmen and small business owners about their adventures.

They usually film the show from the garage at their Mesquite home. “We have a lot of fun with that,” J.B. said. “We have four sponsors that are giving out prizes and gifts to people. It is a lot of fun.”

J.B. said that The Rugged Outdoorsmen has been a life-affirming experience for both he and Mike. “We are just documenting our ride and it is crazy how much that resonates with people out there,” he said. “We are picking up followers all over the place. And we love the feeling of belonging and community that we have experienced. We give a rugged thank you to all who support and follow us.”

J.B. and Mike can be found on Instagram at @theruggedoutdoorsmen.