Nomad Overland Rally 2024

Nomad Overland Rally Highlights: Week Four

July 1, 2024 – USA: The Nomad Teams have been amassing those points at a record pace during Week Four. Many teams are in the middle of Overland Stages and there were a lot of training and stewardship activities happening over this week.  The top eight teams have all passed the 2,000-point mark, and five more have reached the 1,000-point level.

There was some movement around the leaderboard as teams narrowed some gaps, but by the end of the week, Team 117 Lucas managed to hold onto first place with 3,469 points. Lisa and Jeff Lucas started the week exploring around Yellowstone National Park, where they were able to  pick up lots of the “hard” animal PhotoQuests.  They set up camp in the Custer Gallatin National Forest. It was their first experience staying in a campground with food storage requirements for bear activity. “I did have to take a cursory look around to be extra sure there were no glowing eyes looking back at me before I made the trek to the bathroom in the middle of the night,” said Lisa. But despite nighttime temperatures of 37°F, she was awestruck by the night sky. “The sky was AMAZING! I was tempted to take my blanket outside and just sit and watch the stars for a while.”

For their Stage Seven, Lisa and Jeff drove 48 miles of dirt road in 5 hrs 44 minutes exploring around the Gallatin National Forest, just looking for great views and PhotoQuests. The next day they set out for Cody, Wyoming taking the Beartooth Scenic Byway, Nez Pearce Trail, and Chief Joseph Scenic Byway. The weather was great at the beginning of the day with beautiful blue skies until some menacing clouds started moving in and by the time they made it to camp, the wind was howling all around them.

Team 121 Rojas (Team DOGRNR) jumped into second place, with 2,469 points, after four weeks of solidly building up points across the board. At the start of Week Four Dulcy Rojas went “storm chasing” in an attempt to get “driving in mud” checked off. She headed to the Senator highway in Prescott, following the track of the evening monsoon storms, and ended up doing the trail at night! But the big payoff was a bear sighting for her “wildcard wildlife” PhotoQuest. Rojas also did “a totally spontaneous stage” for her Overland Stage Five this week with a stop at the Montezuma Castle National Monument and then just winged a big loop as she went, with the only goal being to end up near Flagstaff.

While at the monument, Rojas checked out the interpretive information and learned how the ancestral puebloans built the cliff side “apartment”, sloping the outside walls and building thicker bases. The upper most room was the only room that was actually in the cliff cave. They also built their doorways “T”-shaped, possibly to allow room for their arms to bring in loads, as they had to carry everything they used up ladders to reach the dwelling.

From the Montezuma Castle she went to Wet Beaver Creek and the Crane Petroglyph Heritage Site, stopping along the way to let dogs play in water and to make a short hike before continuing along a series of Forest Roads, and camping not far from Lake Mary.

Week Four saw Team 101 Mercer drop back into third place with 2,376 points, but the Mercers were the first 2024 Nomad Team to  complete all their Overland Stages, finishing their Stage Twelve while battling some violent “death wobble.”

Tonya and Chris Mercer were in the middle of Stage Ten, where they hit the Walden Sand Dunes before continuing on to camp at Hohnholz Lake Campground when they started to feel something wonky going on with the front-end. The next day it got a lot worse, but they still managed to complete the last two Stages, finishing with a loop out to the Rio Grande National Forest, Near Saguache, with a stop at the Great Sand Dunes, where they wheeled in the park, and went to Zapata Falls before making the final trek home via back roads.

Team 129 Astor (Team NC Old Man Overland) spent Week Four continuing their multi-stage trip in Colorado, where it seems to rain every night at camp. Despite the weather, Max and Rhonda Astor have been able to check off a lot of points in addition to their Overland Stages, and are moving up in the rankings.

This week they explored the beauty of the San Juan Mountains, starting from Silverton for Stage Two and attempting to go over the Ophir Pass, but it was closed and they had to turn around — though they did stop to help the rider of an adventure bike that had gotten stuck. They continued their exploration along the Million Dollar Highway, with stops in Ouray and Telluride. For Stage Three, they picked up the next segment of their route, passing the Alta Gold ghost town and setting up camp at the Alta Lakes campground, where they had an “eventful” night. “It’s haunted, we heard strange noises all night,” Max said.

The next day on Stage Four, the team made four separate river crossings and hit Red Mountain Pass, Red Mountain Mines and Yankee Girl Mine. After spending the last six nights camping in the rain, they decided to take an AirBnB for a break.

But by the end of the week they were back out on the trail with their Fifth Stage going from Dinosaur National Monument to Echo Park Trail.

Team 110 Smigiel has been busy exploring around the Sierra Nevadas in California, where they are strategically picking up as many points as possible, and steadily making their way up the Leaderboard.

This week Aga and Darius Smigiel completed five fun-filled Overland Stages while sharing the trail with some of their Santa Cruz Jeep club members. They started the week with their Stage Four, taking the OHV Rock Creek Road to “Banana Camp,” where they established a basecamp for the next several days of exploration. The real adventure began the following day while they were on Stage Five, playing around Rock Creek, when one of their club members had a medical emergency and needed a rapid evac to the hospital for an appendectomy!!!

After their friend was safely under medical care, the group got back to exploring. Stage Six included a full day on a challenging trail to Brewer Lake that was rated “7” out of “10” on OnX Offroad, then for Stage Seven, Aga and Darius explored the west side of Bald Mountain trail and took some time to stop and enjoy the views from the Bald Mountain Lookout Tower. Unfortunately the smoke from wildfires obstructed the view somewhat. The next day they tackled the east side of Bald Mountain trail with some really huge boulders.

With six more weeks of competition, the Teams are almost at the halfway point in the rally. Their Week 4 Challenge involved plotting GPS coordinates on paper maps — and only a few teams have attempted it so far, but those who tried it, did quite well. Teams still have one more week to get it in. Meanwhile Weekly Challenge 5 was released and it focuses on “outdoor skills.”

As more and more Teams complete Overland Stages, and other Activities, the focus will begin to move to the search for the most difficult PhotoQuests. We may have some surprises as the remaining weeks unfold, but you can check out the Leaderboard to see where the Teams rank at the end of Week 4.

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