Sometimes it takes getting lost to find your way again. And, it’s the tracks along the journey that tell the tale. The origin of Off Route is the climax of such a story.  

In 2013, photographer and filmmaker Gary Breece found his world spinning out of control, literally. A rare disease called Ramsay Hunt Syndrome, affecting the inner ear and nervous system, induced facial paralysis, nerve damage, and vertigo, leaving the former L.A. turned NYC city boy desperate to escape his bustling Brooklyn neighborhood. 

The gnawing buzz and often excruciating pain in his inner ear along with the extreme dizziness caused by the disease made any additional noise or movement unbearable. Walking out onto the streets of Williamsburg landed him on his knees in seconds. The adverse impacts of urban life suddenly bowled him over. And, his enduring quest to escape the commotion humans have created, and the anxiety that it causes in so many at various levels, began. Breece returned to his North Carolina home to seek respite and recovery in Wilmington, NC, a city bordering several small beach towns. 

Six to eight months later, although driving was still a distant possibility, the noise and pace even in his small city made him eager to escape. When he was finally able to drive an hour without stopping to orient himself, he fled from Wilmington every chance he got. He started camping for the first time since teenage surf trips with his brother. He began taking photos again. He’d sit for hours watching a wolf spider construct a web, waiting for the fog to lift enough for a stream of light to strike the dew resting on its anchor points. The tranquility and connection made him feel whole again. 

Breece was able to unwrap his life on still, hazy mornings looking out through the opening of his tent. His reaction to everything in his life – marriage, divorce, a new relationship, the loss of his brother – had been to either push harder and dive deeper into the life he’d gotten himself into or to go completely stagnant for long periods. And, while he certainly wasn’t pushing out here – sleeping under the stars, cooking over a fire, and watching a rising sun splash dewey morning light onto the pond he was adjacent to – he felt anything but stagnant. He was more alive.

Breece had become captivated by vanlifers, overlanders, adventure motorcyclists, and the like who spent the better part of their lives on the road. He outfitted a van to make it both travel and production-worthy and he hit the road. He quickly began identifying and later documenting like-minded neo-nomads in effort to inspire more people to flee from the commotion and insurmountable pressure of city life by going off route. 

After two years of recording the stories of off route travelers, the pandemic snuck in in 2020 to shake things up. People across the country scrambled out of confinement eager for exposure to something besides the four walls of their homes. While the circumstances were indeed different, Breece felt a kinship to this response and welcomed it. 

It didn’t take long, though, to see the issue that this mass exodus could create long term. 

The more popular state parks and federal areas began overflowing, campgrounds were borderline loud and booked out for months, and waterways and bike routes became crowded with quarantine-escapees. Off Route destinations suddenly became more precious and harder to find. 

So, where would all the neo-nomads go with day trippers and weekenders flooding onto the scene? Deeper, of course. 

“I’ve always felt that you have to peel back the layers of a place to truly discover its beauty,” Breece said. “And this is what we’re here for, so that people who really want to be a part of that, can find it.” 

Off Route suddenly became less about inspiring people to go and more about inspiring people to go deeper. 

“After doing this for a while, you realize that vanlifing, overlanding and adventure motorcycling are all gateway drugs to becoming a nature junkie,” Breece said. 

Being more a part of the landscape makes you more aware of every aspect of it. When you start camping, you naturally begin conserving water. You become hypersensitive to waste. You begin trail riding and hiking. You start bird watching, because they’re suddenly everywhere. And the next thing you know, you’ve memorized bird calls and you’re randomly whistling and whirring back to them with a hand cupped over your ear waiting for a reply. 

This phenomenon (along with Covid) has inspired us to shift our focus. The main character of Off Route is now  the place – its topography, its biosphere, its history, and how to preserve it for future adventure travelers. Land management, conservation, and preservation are now at the forefront – how it’s being done, where it’s being done best, and how and where we could be doing so much more of it. 

And, Breece, still behind the camera and in the director’s chair, is more at home than ever.