Nomad Overland Rally 2024

Nomad Overland Rally Highlights: Week Six

July 15, 2024 – USA: Week Six of the 2024 Nomad Overland Rally saw more teams finishing up their Overland Stages, more Falken Tire Precision Challenges completed and more Stewardship activities undertaken. There are now seven teams with over 3,000 points, and more than half the teams have surpassed the 1,000 level.

There was some shuffling around the top of the Leaderboard again this week, but Team 117 Lucas has managed to keep a hold on first place for the fourth week in a row, with a whopping 4,486 points. Lisa and Jeff Lucas made it to Alaska, where they are picking up a lot of wildlife for the PhotoQuest. Their multi-stage Overland trip has extended well beyond the 12 Stages they were able to earn points for, but they are using the rest of their time on the road to find some of the more “difficult” animals.  They found the moose and antelope easily in Alaska.

“I am a little over being on the road though,” explains Lisa,  “We left on June 18th and we’ve got another five days in Alaska before flying back to Washington and then the drive to Arizona.”

Team 121 Rojas (aka DOGRNR) climbed back into second place with 4,115 points after completing the Falken Tire Precision Challenge this week. Dulcy Rojas continued steadily building up points as she completed more Overland Stages and Activities in Arizona.

For her Stage Eight, Dulcy began at Stoneman Lake, where she was surprised to actually see water in the lake. She explained, “Sometimes some ‘lakes’ are just marsh areas in Arizona, unless we have a lot of winter snow or a heavy monsoon season. This is the first time I have seen water in Stoneman Lake.”

Though the Grand Canyon was not part of her original route plan, the next leg of the journey brought the Team close to it, and Dulcy made a spontaneous decision to check it out as she hadn’t been there in a number of years. On the way she stopped to do some of the map and compass navigation Activities.

Summer storms plagued her Stage Nine where she had planned to do the Falken Tire Challenge but had to abandon the attempt when the monsoon kicked in. “I had an “uh-oh” moment in the mud – slid sideways partially down a hill, Zingo was in his glory biting at the mud chunks flying off the tires though,” said Dulcy. After that she decided to call it, and find someplace to camp safely. On the “up” side, she was able to get a great camp spot that is usually occupied — and she and the dogs hunkered down for the night at Camp Wood.

Stage Ten took the Team to Alamo Lake, some soft sand and a bit of the Arizona Peace Trail. After the “uh-oh” moment during Stage Nine Dulcy thought it might be a better idea to go down in elevation, as the weather report was for more heavy monsoons across the area. She figured the high temperatures wouldn’t be so bad with a breeze by the lake. “I was very wrong – it was 111 degrees at the lake and almost unbearable…I debated leaving but thought, I am already here and the sun will go down in a bit. It was a bit better after dark but not comfortable. I will definitely deal with storms over heat in the future,” she explained.

But she was able to finally get the Falken Tire Precision Challenge done, and had a lot of fun with it — the dogs did, too, especially when they got “new hats” at the end.

Team 110 Smigiel jumped into third place with 4,000 points after a busy week on the trails in California. Aga and Darius Smigiel completed Stewardship activities as well as the Falken Tire Precision Challenge this week, which gave them a big points boost. They started off the week by doing the Challenge, with both Aga and Darius taking turns driving the course, and having fun checking their tire placement skills. Later in the week, the Team took a day-trip to Natural Bridges State Beach, near Santa Cruz where they were able to grab a bunch of PhotoQuests before making their way to the Hollister Hills State Vehicular Recreation Area.

At Hollister Hills the Smigiels strategically focused on checking off multiple Activities while running the trails. They had some “trail fun” climbing up the lookout tower, but after noticing a lot of trash around the lookout, they decided to do an “impromptu” trail cleanup. The team picked up and removed a bag full of litter from the area before continuing their day. While they were at Hollister Hills they also tackled the map and compass navigation tasks.

Team 123 C. Stevens  was exploring with Team 124 E. Stevens around Virginia and West Virgina during Week Six. While they were out in the George Washington National Forest, C.B. and Erica Stevens took some time to check off some of the navigation tasks. C.B. used OnX Offroad to scout some Forest Service roads with beautiful views of the Appalachian Mountains, then stopped to do some map and compass Activities along the way.

The Teams also returned to the Rapidan Wildlife Resource Management Area, where C.B and Erica took their new puppy, Hector, on the trail with them. “He had a great time finding out what real running water is for the first time,” recalled C.B.

Team 119 Archer had some fun out on the trails with Team 111 Potter and Team 118 Macy in Colorado. For Stage Six Robin Archer travelled with Potter and Macy to visit some mine sites and hike to the troll sculpture known as “Rita the Rock Planter.” After their hike, the group continued on a loop to Victor, exploring more mine sites, a cool old railroad tunnel, and some waterfalls. Robin was able to capture a number of PhotoQuests, and the group just had a really fun day of exploring with lots of laughter.

During Stage Seven Robin checked off a few more driving Activities, taking Corona Pass (aka Rollins Pass West), an easy trail rated 2 by Trails Off-road. She found no major obstacles but the road was extremely rough and rocky with endless potholes making for slow going. When she got to the top she didn’t have time to hike to the Moffit Tunnel West Portal as planned, but she still made several stops on they way back down for scenery and history. Robin particularly liked the old historic trellis for the Denver and Salt Lake Railway.

There are still four more weeks of competition and most of the other Nomad Teams are finishing up or in the middle of Overland Stages  in California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, North Carolina, Wyoming, Arizona, Texas and Arkansas.

The Week 6 Challenge, “Roadbooks and Maps,” gave the Teams a chance to test their skills with Rally Roadbook navigation, and many of them did quite well with it.  Teams still have one more week to complete it. Meanwhile Challenge #7 was released this morning and it’s a fun, hands-on, one — “Ropes and Knots.

Check out the Leaderboard to see where all the Teams ranked at the end of Week 6.

More News

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.

with