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14 October 2016: The day started out with a bit of chaos in the dark, as we prepared to leave for the location of the morning briefing. It was cold and raining outside. Rally officials told us to hold up, there was going to be a change of plans. Apparently there was a forest fire raging not far from the Valhalla location and the road was closed. It was just after six am, and as teams hunkered down over breakfast around town, the organizers scrambled to respond to the emergency. News reports were saying local residents were being evacuated. Well, at least it wasn’t snowing. It seemed our rally experience was going to be full of surprises. The organizers did an amazingly quick job of relocating the meeting site and even managed to bring in coffee and pastries for the whole group, as we gathered in the new location for the promised “rally school” briefing. Starting with a slide show and a preview of the maps (but still not giving us copies that we could actually read), Emily Miller and the Rebelle organization outlined some of the specifics that we had all been puzzling over for months. The maps would mostly be 1 to 100,000 and 1 to 50,000 scale, with a few 1 to 200,000 ones. And the gridlines would be printed on them (during training we often had to draw in our own!). With this news and a few more informational briefings we were handed “roadbooks” that would take us to our first Base Camp, and told to arrive between 3p and 5p. Then we were released. Looking at the “Road Book” which was a kind of turn by turn directional guide, we could see that our location would be not far beyond Fallon, Nevada, and in fact that was the last town we would hit where we could gas up before arriving…
14 October 2016: We left the shores of Lake Tahoe this morning, and headed down from the mighty Sierra Nevada mountains into the Nevada desert, traveling east north-east. There was a strange feeling of transition as we drove, seemingly through time, space, climate, terrain and even weather. The cold wet air became warmer and drier. The landscape harsher and more desolate. A familiar desert sprawled out endlessly under an open sky. The transition was temporal as well as technical as we also left behind the technological modern world of our daily lives to enter a surreal “separate” rally world, for a week of unplugging and isolation face-to-face with the desert’s challenges. Teams of women from all walks of life (and from across the united states and abroad) were coming together out here in a new kind of endeavor. There was excitement in the air as we peeled off miles of highway to reach Fallon, Nevada, the last town before turning off pavement and into adventure. 60 miles east of Reno on Highway 50, Fallon is surrounded by farms, ranches, and the desert beyond. Most famous as the location of the U.S. Navy’s “Top Gun” school, Fallon traces its roots back to the California gold rush when waves of settlers migrated west along the “Emigrant Trail. Our “base camp” would be some where south east of here. Continuing east on Highway 50, we drove past the alkali flats across from the Sand Mountain recreation area, then turned south onto RTE 839 which runs along the Sand Springs Mountains until we turned off onto dirt at “Base Camp One” in the Gabbs Valley. Our base camp was located near an area known as the historic Rawhide Mining district, which contains a network of interlaced 4WD trails not far from the Sand Mountain Recreation area. The Rawhide Mining district got its start when Jim Swanson discovered gold in the vicinity on Christmas Day 1906. The ore he found was determined to be high grade, setting off a “gold rush” in the area. According to “Nevada Trails Western Region,” the name Rawhide can be credited to Charles Holman, a rancher and prospector, who had relocated to the new mining camp after having been banned from prospecting around the nearby camp know and “Buckskin”. He suggested naming the new camp “Rawhide” as a play on words, to mark his contempt for Buckskin. At its peak during 1907-08 the Rawhide was booming, with a population of between 7,000-10,000 and a sprawling town that contained more than 40 saloons (but only two churches). There is nothing left of Rawhide now, apart from the cemetery, and the area is characterized by the familiar treeless terrain typical of the Nevada high desert, sprinkled with sagebrush and rabbit brush. The wind picks up and the sky seems to “darken” through a screen of fine sand. Sometimes a swirling wind even creates small dust funnel clouds…
14 October 2016: Though most of our day’s drive was on pavement today, it was in a sense the beginning of our rally and the day was all about enthusiasm and anticipation as we got closer to our first desert base camp. The rally organizers had given us a few “road book” sections that let us check the calibration of our odometer and our terratrip against “rally” measurements. These “calibrations” will tell us (and each team) by exactly how much our odometers and terratrips are “off” from the official distance measures. We will then have a co-efficient that we can use to determine a “precise” distance. We also have our first opportunity to practice a real “TSD” (time-speed-distance) segment. This morning we learned that we would have to be within a margin of error of five SECONDS in order to score any points for these sections of the rally. As we did the “practice” TSD, we began to realize how hard that would actually be. The 150-mile “transfer” to base camp seemed to pass quickly and we were excited to see the line of Rebelle flags at the entry to our first desert outpost. We made it in time for the 5pm deadline and finally received our first set of maps in the evening…
14 October 2016 Rebelle Rally official update: Navigation rallies aren’t easy. Once you put aside the difficulties of living out of your vehicle in the desert for a week, tackling technical off-road obstacles, and inevitable vehicle issues; you’re still in the middle of nowhere with only a compass and a map. Despite a fire totaling almost 200-acres overtaking the forest nearby Valhalla Estate, forcing us to relocate to a new location only hours before rally school was scheduled to start, things went off with only minimal delay. Which is important, because rally school ensures that everyone has a fair chance, at the same time, to understand the rules of the rally, the format and how things will be run. This isn’t where you learn how to navigate—that’s something done by teams in the weeks prior to prepare. “It’s important to make sure the rally isn’t just challenging, but it’s fair to all teams—and above all, fun for everyone participating.” Said Chrissie Beavis, Head Rally Judge. Scoring is an essential part of this rally, it’s what decides who wins, who loses, and where people place in between. For example—if a team arrives after a deadline, or is caught speeding—points will be taken away from those they’ve earned. The team with the most points at the end of the competition will win the Rebelle Rally in their class. For more information on how the course was developed, see the video below. (Photo: Rebelle Rally/Nicole Dreon)…
THIS WEEK:
Team Engage is competing as Team #124 in the inaugural edition of the Rebelle Rally 13-22 October 2016. The Rebelle launches on the shores of iconic Lake Tahoe with 76 women from 19 states and 4 countries becoming the first competitors to take part in the women’s 10-day off-road navigation rally raid. The Rebelle Rally is not a race for speed but an event based on traditional compass, map, and roadbook navigation. GPS devices and cell phones will be sealed and prohibited from team use until the event concludes as navigators and drivers traverse the stunning Nevada and California terrain in stock 4-wheel drive and all-wheel drive vehicles. The route covers primarily land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and takes place on legal dirt roads, trails, and OHV areas. The participants will also travel through two National Parks. The unique rally is a hybrid of sorts, combining traditional compass and map navigation with time, speed, and distance sections where the teams use roadbooks and must maintain average, safe speeds. However, the bulk of the challenge is finding hidden checkpoints in a difficulty rating system similar to ski or bike trails, with the highest score winning. Smart, careful driving coupled with the ability to plot latitude and longitude, triangulate using topographic maps and handheld compasses, and mastery of distance and heading are among the skills. A diverse field of vehicles will take to the start, including both new and older models of Land Rovers, Mercedes, Jeeps, and Toyotas in the 4×4 class, and an interesting mix of the new Honda Ridgeline, Porsche Cayenne, and Jaguar F-PACE in the Crossover Class. Jeeps will make a strong presence in the first time event with 15 total ranging from a 1982 Scrambler to a 2016 Rubicon, and a notable showing will also be from Land Rover (6) and Toyota (6). The goal of the rally is to showcase the capabilities of manufacturer vehicles in people’s driveways, as well as the tenacity, teamwork, and capabilities of women off-road. The competition portion will end in the desert near the California-Arizona border and wrap up on the shores of the Pacific Ocean with the final Awards Gala, where competitors will wash off the dirt and celebrate in style at the historic Del Mar Racetrack. For daily updates during the competition or to follow the event online, visit www.rebellerally.com. Viewers can also track the teams live beginning October 15th via: rebellerally.com/live.
TEAM ENGAGE
Team Engage is JoMarie Fecci of USnomads and Tracey Ristow driving “Sable,” a Barlow Jeep Wrangler Rubicon, across the American southwest in the inaugural edition of the Rebelle Rally, 13-22 October 2016. The team, hailing from opposite coasts of the USA, came together to compete in the Rebelle with a shared commitment to humanitarian ideals in addition to a love of overland exploration. During the rally Team Engage will be showing its support for the Blue Heart Campaign to raise awareness and help victims of human trafficking through the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking…
THE BLUE HEART CAMPAIGN
Team Engage supports the UN’s Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking and the Blue Heart Campaign as their platform to raise awareness about global human trafficking— an issue which disproportionately effects women. Human trafficking is modern day slavery and includes sex trafficking (forced prostitution and forced marriage), labor trafficking (domestic servitude, sweatshops and fraudulent bonded labor contracts), child soldiers and organ trafficking. According to the International Labor Organization, nearly 21 million people or 3 out of every 1,000 people worldwide are victims of human trafficking. The UN Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking was established in 2010 and provides direct humanitarian, legal and financial aid to human trafficking victims. They provide grants to small grassroot NGOs that directly assist victims with housing, food, legal aid, access to justice, psychosocial support, medical care and training. Click here to donate directly to the Fund…
RAWHIDE MINING DISTRICT TRAILS
There are some great opportunities for recreational 4WD trail exploration around this area. One route begins directly off Highway 50, just south of the Sand Springs Pony Express Station historical marker and the Sand Mountain Recreation Area. A wide, maintained, sandy and rocky road runs south across an alkali flat. Approaching the hills of the Cocoon Mountains to the southwest and the Sand Springs Range to the east, the trail proceeds south through historic Rawhide Mining District. The area has many easygoing trails across a variety of terrain, with a whole network of 4WD roads to explore off the main trail. The historic town of Rawhide itself has been dismantled by recent mining activity, with little or nothing remaining to be seen. The story of Rawhide is typical of many of the towns which sprang up in Nevada during the silver and gold rushes. It’s “boom” was a result of the manipulation of greed and desire for “the next big thing” rather than the actual silver or gold deposits found there. While there was definitely silver and gold in the hills surrounding Rawhide, the town’s reputation was based on promotion, self-serving aggrandizement, and showy displays by the promoters and developers of the town alluding to wealth and success that didn’t exist relative to the size of the town. Unscrupulous mining stock brokers funneled millions into the accounts of the manipulators, but gave little return on investment to the stockholders. In two years the town fell from its peak population of 7,000 people to fewer than 500 people by the latter part of 1910. The only thing left of the old town site is a small cemetery was still visible near Stingaree Gulch. (See the Rawhide Mining District Trail details on a 56.4 mile point-to-point trail route located near Fallon, NV or this excerpt from Nevada Trails Western Region for GPS waypoints.)
WHERE WE ARE
The teams transferred to the first Base Camp, traveling roughly 150 miles east from south Lake Tahoe, crossing the California/Nevada state line and following HWY 50 east to Fallon, Nevada, where they refueled before continuing the rest of the way to the Base Camp location, southeast of Fallon. (click on the map below to view larger).
MORE NOTES FROM THE ROAD:
13 Oct – Rebelle: Tech Day
8-12 Oct – Reno
1-7 Oct – NY to Reno
26-30 Sep – Rally Prep
19-25 Sep – Long Island
12-18 Sep – Yuma and Glamis
5-11 Sep – Sedona
29 Aug – 4 Sep – Long Island
23-28 August – Rod Hall Drive Training
15-22 August – Reno Rebelle Training
8-14 August – TFT8
1-7 August – Serbia overland
July – Serbia, Rally planning
June – Mongolia
16-31 May – Overland Expo, Mongolia
1-15 May – Paris
April – training desert prep
March – Long Island
February – California deserts
January – El Camino del Diablo
December – Long Island
November – New York
15-31 October – Moab
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Detailed series on a solo scouting journey into some of the remotest backcountry around Moab. The six day 450-mile off-pavement trip into the Maze district of the Canyonlands National Park offers insight into the challenges of expedition planning… [read]
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SCOUTING THE SAHARA IN MAURITANIA: WAYPOINT NOUAKCHOTT
The first in a series of reports from our scouting trip in Mauritania takes and indepth look at the capital city of Nouakchott, and its fishing port… [read]
