August 16, 2022 – USA: Week Ten of the Nomad Overland Virtual Adventure Rally was the final week of the competition. The Nomad Teams made their final pushes to add more points to their scores as the deadline approached, and activity was intense. At the close of competition, eight Teams completed all twelve of the Overland Stages and six Teams had surpassed the 4,000+ points level.
Team 136 Anderson finished in first place with an impressive 4,899 points. Cheryl Anderson completed her Stage Twelve on the final weekend of competition, during the Cal4WD Association’s Sierra Trek. From her camp at Meadow Lake, Cheryl joined a guided group as part of the event, and drove the Bear Valley Loop to Sierraville to wrap up her Nomad Rally Overland Stages. Cheryl also continued to pick up Photo Quest items, and her strategy of staking out locations wildlife were known to frequent paid off — she finally got her owl this week.
Team 104 Swenson re-captured 2nd place with 4,541 points after a heavy week of activity. Sara Swenson and Dave Hopkins completed their last two Overland Stages near Santa Cruz this week. For Stage Eleven Sara and Dave headed out to Mount Madonna taking Summit Road to Old San Jose-Soquel. Then they hit Scotts Valley for a stop at an archeological site before continuing along Summit Road to Buzzard’s Lagoon and the Nisene Marks State Park, where they did an impromptu trail cleanup to finish up their Stage Twelve.
Team 111 Potter finished in 3rd place with a total of 4,534 points. Lisa Potter completed her final two Overland Stages this week as well as the last remaining Activity Tasks. She used Stage Eleven to complete the map and compass navigation tasks in the Boulder Canyon District of the Roosevelt National Forest, and chose the Boulder Canyon to Magnolia route which was one of the onX Offroad “featured trails.” Lisa did some impromptu clean ups of campsites along West Magnolia loop, and was pleasantly surprised to the area relatively clean! To finish up her Nomad Rally, she decided to do some more hard core trails for Stage Twelve and chose Red Cone Trail (Rated 7 out of 10) and Webster Pass Trail (Rated 4 out of 10) in the Pike-San Isabel National Forest. Red Cone is characterized by large boulders, a rock garden, steep hill climb(s), hairpin turns and awesome views, and it connects to the Webster Pass trail, a challenging narrow shelf road. On the scenic route home via Guanella Pass Lisa saw one lone young big horn sheep — and got the photo!
Team 132 Kienlen had a huge week, adding over 1,500 points to finish with a total of 4,513. Jenn Kienlen completed her Overland Stages 8-12 and multiple Activity Tasks during this final week. Jenn had planned a route that followed part of the Washington Back Country Discovery Route (BDR), and Stage Eight went from Bethel Ridge to Lion Rock Spring Campground. From there she continued on the BDR stopping to camp at Lake Chelan State Park and Blackpine Lake Campground for Stages Nine and Ten. She completed two section of the BDR during Stage Eleven making it all the way to camp in the Okanogan National Forest. For Stage Twelve Jenn and her family left their dispersed campsite in Okanogan National Forest and officially ended her off-road portion of the Nomad Rally at the Canadian Border!
Team 116 Tembreull focused their energy on Activities this week and finished their Nomad Rally with 4,358. Amber and Dave Tembreull hit the trails in Michigan to do some Stewardship Activities, and they brought along some friends. Amber and Dave went out on the Bill Nichols Trail, part of the State of Michigan Trail system where they removed a 30-gallon bag of trash and two old heavy iron rail pieces and picked up another 40-gallons of trash along Trail 12 in the Ottawa National Forest. The Tembreulls and friends also did an impromptu cleanup while on the trails in Baraga State Forest. While they were there, one of the vehicles got stuck and needed to be winched out — great final photo of “winching on a trail”.
Team 122 Norton had a busy week finishing up the final Overland Stages and multiple Activities to reach a total of 4,189 points. After having adventured all over the U.S. this summer (traveling from home in Kansas to California to explore out west, and then continuing to do Rally activities while on an Alaska trip), Wendi Norton wrapped up her Nomad Rally close to home. She started her Stage Nine exploring the dirt and gravel roads around Lawrence, Kansas, in search of missing Photo Quest items, then made a stop to go fishing in Ozawkie, before setting up camp on private land nearby. For Stage Ten, Wendi went to Clinton State Park and did some of the Map and Compass activities, then ended her day in a dispersed campsite at Woodbridge Park. Wendi decided to do her last two Stages at the Tuttle Creek ORV Park where she hit the Hilltop Loop, The Ledges, Horseshoe Creek, and Falsetto Lane before returning home to Lawrence. And during the final week of the Rally Wendi snagged both the buffalo and the owl for the Photo Quest!
The inaugural edition of the Nomad Overland Virtual Adventure Rally is complete! It was an amazing ten weeks of adventure and fun. Teams pushed themselves far outside their comfort zones and accomplished more than they thought they could — and in that sense, everyone who participated came out a winner. See everyone next year for the 2023 edition! (Early Registration opens at the end of the month!)