Nomad Overland Rally 2024

Nomad Overland Rally Highlights: Week Two

June 17, 2024 – USA: As Week two of the Nomad Overland Rally came to a close, there were already a record five teams with more than 1,000 points. Many Nomad Teams were out on Overland Stages during these first two weeks. Multiple Stewardship Projects were being undertaken, and two teams had completed the Falken Tires Precision Challenge which gives them the possibility of earning up to an additional 250 points. Our Nomad Teams were busy exploring in California, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, Alaska, Virginia, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah and Texas during the second week of the event.

Team 130 McClellan continued their journey in the west, turning northwards as they set off towards the Northwest Overland Rally which they will be attending as one of their Sponsored Events. Cara McClellan met up with her husband Matt for this segment of the journey, and together they travelled a combination of dirt and highway miles through Utah and into Idaho. Over the course of Week 2, they were able to complete multiple driving and backcountry activities, capturing some more photoquest points along the way. They explored Craters of the Moon National Monument and enjoyed camping in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. McClellan finished out the week in first place on the Leaderboard.

Team 117 Lucas focused on completing a number of Backcountry Activities and going after the photoquests, as well as systematically checking off social media bonuses for the Overland Stages they completed during Week One. Lisa and Jeff Lucas  spent the week exploring around Colorado and Arizona. They also checked off the high-point value Falken Tires Precision Challenge this week.  The Team finished out the week in second place on the Leaderboard.

Team 114 Dolbow completed their first Overland Stage of the rally and it included some really fun beach camping at Port Aransas, Texas. Sheila Dolbow and her son Daniel Seeger who is competing as Team 122 Seeger connected to do this segment of the event together. They had to take a vehicle ferry across to reach the beach where they then set up camp. “I haven’t put a tent up on the beach in YEARS!!!! I am not even sure if I have ever put a tent up on the beach!!! It was a fun experience,” recalled Dolbow. Later in the Week they checked out the Waco Mammoth National Monument which has an active archeaological dig site, with a section that can be viewed by the public. The enormous fossilized bones are exposed in situ giving some really good insight into how the excavation is conducted. Dolbow held steady in Third Place on the Leaderboard.

Team 134 Fribley had a busy week that also included some beach time on the Oregon coast near Eugene. For her first Overland Stage Jenna Fribley chose to connect some forest roads with the “Oregon Coast Trail to Sea Lion Caves” shown on OnX Offroad. After an impromptu detour to check out the Alderwood State Park and hike the Pawn Grove old growth trail, she turned back to the main route out to the coast where she visited the lighthouse and saw lots of noisy sea lions. Fribley ended the day at one of her favorite beach camping spots in the Oregon Dunes. And by a fortunate stroke of serendipity she ended up crossing paths with some friends who were on their own overland trip from California to Alaska!

Team 119 Archer got off to a solid Week Two that included “doing her part” in a big group trail cleanup in the Clear Creek Ranger District. Robin Archer joined with other volunteers to help out with this Stewardship Project that was organized by the Colorado 4×4 Girls group. The cleanup focused on a specific section of the forest where people had been living before abandoning the site and leaving everything behind. It was a heavy lift for the volunteers who removed bits of furniture, trash, and even several bags of human waste that had been left there. The rest of Week Two proved a lot more pleasant for Archer who completed her first Overland Stage around LaJunta, Colorado. She stopped at the Bents Fort site, then continued to the Comanche National Grasslands — an area that hosts the largest dinosaur track site in the country along with a lot of early American history. Archer joined a Ranger-led tour of Picket Wire canyon where she was able to see some petroglyphs and ancestral puebloan artifacts.

By the end of Week Two, many of the Nomad Teams had begun their Overland Stages (or were in the middle of them). The teams were racking up points on their Photo Quests, too. Only two weeks in to the event we have already seen a number of the “hard-to-find” animals checked off the lists of multiple teams! Will this year be the first time someone gets ALL the Photo Quests? You never know. For now, check out the Leaderboard to see how everyone ranked at the end of Week 2.

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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 2024 edition of the Nomad Overland Virtual Adventure Rally.

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