Nomad Overland Rally 2024

Nomad Overland Rally Highlights: Week Three

June 24, 2024 – USA: The 2024 Nomad Teams really began hitting their stride this week and the top three teams have passed the 2,000-point mark.  More teams set off on their Overland Stages and there were a bunch of training activities happening around the Rally as well as more Stewardship projects this week. By the end of Week Three Nomad Teams were busy exploring in California, Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Montana, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Texas, and Virginia.

Team 117 Lucas reclaimed first place with 2,916 points after a solid week of focused activities and a few more stages. Before leaving Arizona for their next set of Overland Stages to Yellowstone, Lisa and Jeff Lucas joined up with Nomad Team 103 Chasse to check off several Driving Activities together. They headed to “The Waterfall” on Arizona Trust Land around Maricopa where there was some soft sand, rocks and hill climbs as well as a number of Photo Quest items to be found. They used onX Offroad to search for a trail that was “trailer-friendly” and chose the SP Mountain Road to Aso Ranch. “Sooooo dusty,” according to Lisa, who found the old abandoned ranch at the end to be a really cool site. Next Team 117 Lucas headed through Utah and into Idaho where they made a stop at Harriman State Park before continuing towards Yellowstone.

Team 101 Mercer made a huge jump into second place after returning from a series of Overland Stages and earning 2,376 points. Tonya and Chris Mercer completed nine Overland Stages in a loop from their home in Craig, Colorado to Wyoming and Montana over the past two weeks. They had a few challenges along the way, but some amazing adventures as well.

They started out with their first stage along the Seminoe – Alcova Backcountry Byway, but had to stop to camp just outside Seminoe State Park as they were experiencing some front end issues. After sorting that out in the morning they were back on the road with a stop at Fremont Canyon before picking up the South Bighorns Redwall Scenic Byway. Stage Three took the Mercers to Little Goose, where they picked up the Little Goose trail in the Bighorn National Forest. They did Little Goose over two days, camping midway by a creek in a Forest Service campground. “There were very tight trees in spots and deep water crossings. If driving a full-sized vehicle, you’ll want to have above average ground clearance and skid plates for the steep, rocky stretches. There are also a number of fords that can exceed two feet depending on seasonal conditions,” explained Tonya. The Mercer’s Tacoma “Princess” had no trouble.

From Little Goose they headed to Shell Falls, and then tried to reach the Bighorn Medicine Wheel, but were blocked by snow on trail. They turned north into Montana and the Bighorn Canyon National Recreation area where they found the Pryor Mountain Wild Mustangs as they explored the area. For Stage Six the Mercers made an impromptu detour into Yellowstone, where they saw “hundreds of bison and at least seven bears,” according to Tonya. From Yellowstone they continued to Fenton Pass and stopped to check out a car show in the town of Thermopolis. By the time the Mercers made it to South Pass City, the wind was blowing at over 55mph, and the team had to find someplace to camp that was sheltered from the incessant gusts. The next day, the final leg of the loop took them home via a scenic route along the Flaming Gorge. In addition to completing the nine Stages, the Mercers were able to accomplish a lot of the Activities and Photo Quests during their adventure.

Team 130 McClellan also ran into some challenging weather during Week Three. Cara and Matt McClellan encountered some unexpected summer snow and ice on a high narrow shelf road in Idaho during their Stage Five. They were exploring around the Saw Tooth Mountains  and then decided to go check out the summit at Black Lake in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. It was snowing and at one point the situation got sketchy when they had to get over a section of snow and ice where part of the trail had washed out. They hooked up a winch line for safety and drove/winched across it very carefully, expertly navigating the situation with safety top-of-mind. By the end of the week the McClellans had made it to Oregon where they drove 121 miles around Hells Canyon and the Zumwalt Prairie Reserve before finishing up at the Northwest Overland Rally, in Plain, Washington. The Team completed nine Overland Stages and earned 2,350 points, putting them in third place on the Leaderboard for Week Three.

Team 121 Rojas (Team DOGRNR) has been solidly building up points and is now in fourth place on the Leaderboard. This week she completed her second Stewardship Activity, organizing a Tread Lightly cleanup in Arizona sponsored by Summit 4×4 which drew volunteers from as far as California to help clean up the trails.

Dulcy Rojas worked with Tread Lightly and Summit 4×4 to bring a group of her Ladies Night Campout ladies to the Wolf Creek area of the Prescott National Forest in the Bradshaw Mountains to help with the cleanup. “This was a great event and a great feeling to bring a big a large group of ladies to it,” said Rojas. She and the Ladies Night Campout group drove all together along the trails to the Wolf Creek area, and made a weekend of it, camping and running trails the following day.

Together with roughly 60 other volunteers they were able to fill more than 40 bags of trash and about 1/3rd of a dumpster, restoring the area to a pristine condition. Great work and great example of “doing your part!”

Team 124 E.  Stevens was exploring around the Shenandoah National Park and the Rapidan Wildlife Management Area in Virginia on the east coast this week. Erica Stevens, joined by her husband C.B. (Team 123 C. Stevens), set up camp under the stars in a field not far from home. Erica checked off some of the Map and Compass Navigation tasks while out exploring and had some cool wildlife encounters. “Fun was stalking and almost getting a nice photo of the scarlet tanager who crossed my path,” she said. “One stop must have been a mineral source as there were many, many butterflies. It was really magical.” Erica also notices bits of trash around and did an impromptu cleanup as she went, gathering up and removing a full bag of trash from the trails.

By the end of Week Three, the top three teams passed the 2,000-point mark, with several others closing in on them. Seven more teams have reached the 1,000-point level. As the teams currently at the top of the leaderboard max out their available points for Overland Stages and Activities, the gaps will begin to narrow. Some teams are just beginning their Overland Stages this week, and with seven more weeks of competition, we can expect some surprises ahead.

The Week 3 Challenge was all about tires — and overall the teams did fairly well on it. The teams still have one more week to attempt it. Meanwhile Challenge #4 was released this morning and it’s another potentially “hard” one (though we do give them some easy points to capture just for doing it) — plotting and measuring distances on paper maps, old school style!

Check out the Leaderboard to see how everyone ranked at the end of Week Three.

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