Fascinated with overlanding, is the only way to ‘try it’ to literally buy your own truck?

I understand that for a million reasons this isn’t an activity that you can easily rent to someone with no experience and set them loose.

That being said, if I want to try it, is the only way for me to literally buy my own $50k+ truck and all the accessories?

I’m in socal so there should be no shortage of routes of various low level difficulties. Any tips for a newbie that wants to try some easy routes and build from there?