< more recent | 1-7 March 2022 | older >
7 March 2022: Left the sand dunes and headed north to the area around Laughlin, NV, where it was time for a few days of administrative things and sorting out logistics for the next part of the journey..…
6 March 2022: The last day in the dunes was a lot of fun. We chased some “checkpoints” and did a kind of “rally sim” which offered a great opportunity to figure out “best practices” without the pressure of the actual competition. And we got to play in the big dunes some more.…
5 March 2022: We spent the day working on sand driving skills while the wind picked up creating a real desert sand storm. By the time we were done for the day the sand was swirling mightily and our tents were buried.…
4 March 2022: Interesting light out on the dunes today. We transferred from Yuma to the Imperial Sand Dune Recreation Area at Glamis to start the driving portion of the training, where we got to practice some of the roadbook Time-Speed-Distance challenges the Rebelle calls “Enduros.” Then it was time to start driving in sand. I was back in my “happy place.” We set up camp down in the southern section of the dunes, near Buttercup.…
3 March 2022: Joined the Barlow Adventures group for a few days of Rebelle Rally-focused training, starting with a deep-dive into specific navigation skills such as accurately plotting coordinates, determining azimuths to and from points on the map, route plannning and distance measurements and roadbook calculations.…
2 March 2022: Had a lot of miles to cover today to make it to Yuma — and I needed to arrive before midnight. A lot of highway driving, but managed to take some time to stop and check out the petroglyphs at the Signal Hill area of Saguaro National Park just before sunset…
1 March 2022: Heavy wind and dust last night at camp, and a little difficult trying to sleep without being able to actually close the tent. Packed up quickly in the morning and Left Big Bend National Park by way of Terlingua where I took a little bit of time to explore the ghost town before continuing on towards El Paso, and the night’s camp at Franklin Mountain State Park. There was less wind at Franklin Mountain, and the sun was just getting ready to set by the time I got there and got set up.…
THIS MONTH:
Getting ready for the next big road trip. Heading southwest and into the desert for some new exploration as well as a few of our favorite events. We will be road tripping south and then west, with some stops planned in Louisiana and Texas, before honing in on Arizona, SoCal and Nevada for a month or so…
COMING UP SOON:
Every Day Is a Clean Up Day in 2021. Ladies Offroad Network has partnered with TreadLightly! to create a year-long program that encourages members to pick up trash on the trails whenever they are out off-roading. Participants simply pick up the trash, weigh it, take a photo, and log the location and time it took, then upload the details. At the end of the year there will be a series of prizes based on pounds of trash removed from the trails as well as participation in other TreadLightly! initiatives. This is a great way to do some good on a local level and make a larger impact via the national program…
Advanced sand dune training with Barlow Adventures at the Imperial Sand Dunes in southern California. This three day driving and navigation program focuses on moving safely and effectively through large dunefields. Skills-building exercises are intended to improve pace, line choice and vehicle control, as well as developing precision map and compass navigation technique…
Trail Guiding for the California 4-Wheel Drive Association’s second annual Death Valley Experience fundraiser event running March 30-April 2, 2022. Each day will feature a choice of runs to some famous, some infamous and some secretive points of interest within Death Valley National Park. The runs will depart from Furnace Creek and from Stovepipe Wells. Some of the points of interest we will visit during Death Valley Experience 2022 include Zabriskie Point (famous), Barker Ranch (infamous) and the Racetrack (learn the secret of the moving rocks). Other points of interest include Dante’s View, 20 Mule Team Canyon, Artists’ Drive, Chloride Cliffs, Aguereberry Point, Skidoo, Titus Canyon, and Darwin Falls. All of the trail runs are suitable for novice drivers and SUVs with high clearance and 4-wheel drive…
USnomads.org is very proud to be presenting a brand new kind of rally experience for 2022 — the Nomad Overland Virtual Adventure Rally a ten week event that participants can do from anywhere within the continental U.S.A. Competitors design their own routes as part of the rally, then drive it in a points-based online competition that includes optional activity tasks, quests and weekly challenges. The rally will run from 6 June – 14 August and is open to any driver within the United States who has an off-road capable vehicle — stock or modified. Registration is now open and continues until 31 March or until the event is full, whichever comes first. For more information see the Rally website or Register Now …
ABOUT TERLINGUA TX:
This spectacularly primitive Texas landscape, situated between Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park in a dusty corner of West Texas has a scenic ghost town with a storied history. In the mid-1880s, a discovery was made in the Chisos Mountains that would change the fate of the area: mercury, also known as quicksilver, was prominent, and mines were quickly built. Terlingua, as we know it today, exploded thanks to this discovery, and within a couple of decades was a thriving boomtown of over 1,000. By 1913 Terlingua’s 1,000 inhabitants had access to a company-owned commissary and hotel, a company doctor, erratic telephone service, a dependable water supply, and three-times-a-week mail delivery. Brewster County organized the first public school at Terlingua in 1907; the first classes were held in a tent-house structure. In 1930 the mining company erected the permanent Perry School. Terlingua remained a segregated village. Mexican families lived east of the company store while Anglos lived on the village’s west side, a section dominated by mine owner Howard E. Perry’s mansion, erected sometime prior to 1910. Quicksilver production peaked during WWI (1914-1918), but soon after, Terlingua’s fate changed. The market for mercury mining steadily declined throughout the 1930s. The Chisos Mining Company, which employed virtually all of Terlingua directly or indirectly, filed for bankruptcy in 1942. After WWII, Terlingua’s population declined so sharply that it became a ghost town. Tourism started to revive Terlingua Ghost Town starting in the 1960s and 1970s, and today, the town is a small, dusty, and beloved stop on many Big Bend road trips…
MORE NOTES FROM THE ROAD:
16-28 February – Roadtrip Southwest
1-15 February – Long Island
8-31 January – Long Island
1-7 January – Florida to NY
28-31 December – Okefenokee NWR
24-27 December – Ocala National Forest
19-23 December – Heading South
10-18 December – Long Island
1-9 December – Paris
16-30 November – Paris
1-15 November – Roadtrip East
25-31 October – Roadtrip East
17-24 October – LON Top Ten
7-16 October – Rebelle Rally
1-6 October – Rebelle Training
24-30 September – Rebelle Training
16-23 September – Roadtrip West
1-15 September – CT Training
August – Paris
July – LI & CT
June – LI & VA
16-31 May – Long Island
8-15 May – Return to NY
1-7 May – Southeast Utah
23-30 April – LON Bogi’s & 5+
16-22 April – LON Navigation
8-15 April – Sedona
1-7 April – Nevada
16-31 March – New York
8-15 March – Death Valley
1-7 March – Arizona
22-28 Februay – Alabama Hills
15-21 Februay – Mojave Road
8-14 Februay – Death Valley
Archive
SPECIAL REPORT
All about exploring ghost towns and abandoned places in the USA and beyond, with tips, and information on the many different types of sites to be found across the globe, including detailed guides for eight specific sites… [read]
REFLECTIONS
EGYPT: CAIRO REFLECTIONS
A quick overview of impressions from a stop in Cairo during our recent scouting mission in Egypt and Sudan … [read]
SPECIAL REPORT
A look into south-eastern Algeria on the border with Libya and Niger: overlanding with the Tuareg in one of the most remote corners of the Sahara … [read]
