Nomad Overland Rally 2024

Nomad Overland Rally Highlights: Week Seven

July 22, 2024 – USA: Week Seven of the 2024 Nomad Overland Rally saw a lot of activity, with our strongest Stewardship week so far, as multiple Teams participated in organized and impromptu clean-ups and other projects around the country. We now have five teams with over 4,000 points, and the gaps are narrowing.

The top of the Leaderboard has shuffled around this week, as Team 121 Rojas (aka DOGRNR) climbed into First Place with 4,558 points. Dulcy Rojas and the dogs finished their Overland Stages in Arizona this week. For Stage Eleven Dulcy headed to Copper Creek, dodging the monsoon storms along the way. She managed to get her “Driving on Rocks” done on Senator Highway where she found some decent sized rocks to crawl. She also made a stop at the Palace Station, one of the oldest structures in Arizona, built in 1874. By the time she got to her preferred camping area at Wolf Creek, it was already occupied and she had to go further south to Copper Creek to set up camp for the night.

Dulcy’s Stage Twelve destination was Skull Valley, and to celebrate the end of her Overland Stages, she brought along her skull fire pit for ambiance. For this final Stage she was joined by Jessica Chasse of Team 103 who was working her way northward on her big Overland trip. When they reached the valley they sought out Arizona’s oldest tree, known as the Fremont Cottonwood. It is 46 feet around the base and about 98 feet tall! The monsoons had cooled things off a bit, and they were able to camp comfortably in a great little spot with some nice tree cover. They finished up the night making s’mores over the fire pit.

Team 117 Lucas slid down into Second Place with 4,499 points after holding onto the top slot for four solid weeks in a row.

Lisa and Jeff Lucas focused on the rounding out their PhotoQuest points this week, looking for the items they still hadn’t managed to capture. They actually found an alligator in Idaho, but it was on private property that had once been an alligator farm, and is now in a fenced enclosure (so it didn’t count for points, even though it was a really cool find in an unlikely place).

Team 101 Mercer pushed back into Third Place with 4,000 points this week as they continued building up points with activities and PhotoQuest items. Tonya and Chris Mercer completed two Stewardship activities during the week–one cleanup at Boreas Pass in Pike National Forest, and another at Red & White Mountain in the White River National Forest.

They also checked off several more PhotoQuests, completing almost all the categories except for a few of the more elusive wildlife and some plants that are not found in their region.

Team 134 Fribley was continuing her Overland Stages in Oregon this week. For her Stage Three, Jenna Fribley did some exploring in the Mt. Hood National Forest where she followed Forest Road 46 for roughly 30 miles. This section of the trail took her through a wildfire burn zone from 2 years ago, where she noted the intense transformation of the landscape. Jenna made her way to Clackamas Lake Campground, where she checked in, picked up a friend, and then headed back out for a little adventuring. They tried to check out the Clear Lake fire tower but the access road was closed, so they continued on to check out the Historic Barlow Wagon Trail instead. Part of the trail follows the actual wagon path, and in other parts it runs in parallel so you can see/appreciate the original untouched trail. There were also amazing views of Mt. Hood along the way, and a really neat landmark with a pioneer woman’s grave site.

Stage Four took Jenna to the Bohemia Mining District in the Umpqua National Forest where she got to explore more history along the Noonday Wagon Trail #1405. The Noonday Wagon Trail is one of Jenna’s favorites, she explains, “There are fun little mining addits and remants all around, and then near the top of the mountain you have the old ghost town at the big mine where there used to be a population of 1,800 people!!!”

The uphill section of the trail was rough and narrow before it reconnected to a gravel forest road. Just past Champion Saddle she detoured to follow a side track to the ghost town of Bohemia City and the old Musick Mine site. After exploring around, she returned to the main trail and continued uphill to Bohemia Saddle. Unfortunately the lookout tower was closed and the access road to the top was gated. “At some of the overlooks throughout the day we could see multiple independent small forest fires in the distance – there had been a lightning storm the night before – we could hear the firefighting helicopters going back and forth all day,” said Jenna.

It was getting late in the day, so she turned back down the mountain via Sharp’s Creek Road, a rough gravel road with lots of “surprises” to keep one focused, and made camp along the creek at the bottom. 

Team 111 Potter completed two Stewardship Activities this week and continued with her Overland Stages in Colorado. She also tackled some of the harder map and compass Navigation activities.

Early in the week Lisa Potter led a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park Taking the Old Fall River Trail up to the Alpine Visitor Center. “It is definitely less used by tourists and is a more scenic option,” she explained.

While at the Visitor Center she checked out the interpretive exhibits and learned more about Native Tribes that used the area and more about the tundra and why people need to stay off of it. Before leaving the area she spotted a family of marmots and stopped to watch them playing for a while. Then we headed back east via Trail Ridge Road.

One of her Stewardship activities this week was a really fun “Kids Trail Cleanup Day” in the Bard Creek/Mad Creek, area of the Clear Creek Ranger District, where Lisa and her 4X4 Colorado Jeep Girls club got Smokey the Bear to come out to meet the kids. The club also created a “trash” scavenger hunt activity to make it more fun for the kids. On the way back from the trail cleanup, Lisa joined up with Robin Archer of Team 119 to go look for Moose exploring around the Arapahoe National Forest and Golden Gate State Park. Unfortunately they didn’t find any moose but did have fun checking out the mining history in the area.

With three more weeks left to the competition and most of the Nomad Teams are finishing up or in the middle of Overland Stages  in California, Idaho, North Carolina, Virginia, Arizona, Texas and Arkansas.

The Week 7 Challenge, “Ropes and Knots,” gave the Teams a fun break where they could demonstrate their knot-tying skills and pick up some relatively easy points.  Teams still have one more week to complete it. Meanwhile Challenge #8 was released this morning and it’s one of the harder ones — “Plotting with Headings.”

Check out the Leaderboard to see where all the Teams ranked at the end of Week 7.

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