Nomad Overland Rally 2023

Nomad Overland Rally Highlights: Week Seven

July 24, 2023 – USA: The first two Nomad Teams to complete all 12 Overland Stages of the Nomad Overland Virtual Adventure Rally logged their 12th Stage this week! Meanwhile, other Teams continue to build their scores, narrowing the gaps on the Leaderboard. At the end of Week Seven, 18 Teams have over 1,000 points, 10 Teams have reached the 2,000 point level, and 4 Teams are over 3,000 points. The three teams leading the rankings are the same, but the first and second place teams have swapped positions. Team 101 Mercer grabbed First Place with 3,783 points but Team 116 Tembreull is only 80 points behind, in Second Place with 3,703 points. Team 123 Roderick with 3,613 points has held onto Third Place for the third week in a row.

Team 101 Mercer has taken the lead after a busy week, pushing Team 116 Tembreull into second place by only a few points. Tonya and Chris Mercer headed from Colorado to Wyoming to complete Overland Stages Seven through Nine. Their route took them to historic South Pass City, Sinks Canyon and the Staumbaugh Loop Road. They were also able to get in some Recovery and Winching training with the Craig Fire Rescue Department where they practiced winching the quick attack trucks and learned about safety, techniques, tools, mechanical advantage, and the importance of the weight ratings on winches. One more highlight of the week, was finally getting the “Beaver” photo for the PhotoQuest. Tonya knew this beaver was there, in a pond not far from her home, but throughout the entire period of the Rally she never saw it — until this week. And it’s the “first” beaver of the 2023 PhotoQuest, too!

After holding onto First Place for three Weeks in a row, Team 116 Tembreull slipped into Second Place this Week, but they are still going strong after completing their twelfth and final Overland Stage this week. For Stages Eleven and Twelve Amber and Dave Tembreull headed to the water and were lucky to get one of the most coveted campsites in this area at the mouth of the Huron River. The next morning they were able to get in a nice river visit, but halfway through the day the weather turned from hot and sunny to severely stormy and they had to hide out for 4 hours until the severe weather passed — a dramatic close to their Overland Stages this year!  Though their Stages are complete the Tembruells are keeping up the momentum and checking off Activities and PhotoQuests as they push to regain the lead.

Team 123 Roderick remains close behind in third place. Raelynn completed her final Overland Stage this week (and was the first to complete all 12 Stages) and she turned her full attention to the Activities and PhotoQuest, picking up almost 300 points for Activities this week alone.  Raelynn headed out to Volunteer Canyon with a group from Summit 4×4 Offroad to enjoy some shared trail time and also began checking off some of the high-point-value Navigation and Routeplanning tasks.

Team 125 Schleppi got a nice bump in points after completing several Overland Stages this week. Ann, traveling with her husband Craig for this segment of the Rally, made her way from Arizona, Utah and Idaho on the way to Washington State. Ann and Craig stopped to camp, explore and check out some trails as they made their way northwest. They had some fun at Antelope Island State park in Utah and Ann was able to check off some PhotoQuest items including the “fluffy cows” (aka bison). And they “almost” got lost in the Umatillo National Forest after making a wrong turn, but luckily Ann had downloaded her OnX offline map for the area before she left and they were easily able to find their way back to camp.

Team 139 Anderson is continuing to build his score slowly but steadily, checking off Overland Stages and Activities each week. Scott Anderson is exploring around northern California and has been focusing on the Driving Activities and Stages, though he has also been checking off some of the Backcountry Activities as he goes. Scott has been very consistent with the Weekly Challenges as well, scoring near the top for every one so far.  With nine of his twelve Overland Stages completed so far, Scott is keeping up his momentum.

A few Nomad Teams who were pretty quiet early on are now out on the trails making up for lost time, and we will see how they come through over the next few weeks. Teams are currently active in Georgia, Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Arizona, Colorado, California, Wyoming, Texas, Iowa, Michigan, Virginia, North Carolina and Utah. There are still three more Weeks of competition, which is plenty of time for Rankings to change! Check out the Leaderboard to see how everyone ranked at the end of Week 7.

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Check out these updates, or go to the main news page for more articles and information about what is happening around the 2023 edition of the Nomad Overland Virtual Adventure Rally.

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