< more recent | 21-26 March 2022 | older >
26 March 2022: The final day of the Ladies Offroad Network Skills Camp was full of fun as the group put together a lot of what was learned and got some practice with speed and sand in addition to more serious work picking lines, recovery scenarios and proper rigging. After a fun day on the trails, the group got ready to say goodbyes.…
25 March 2022: The Ladies Offroad Network group got some practice in spotting and navigation while out on The Rolls today, with a break at Saguaro Lake for lunch. LON founder, Charlene Bower, really challenged participants to work on understanding different vehicle dynamics while spotting each other up increasingly difficult obstacles. Another great day on the trail…
24 March 2022: A long but GREAT day out on the trails with Ladies Offroad Network in Florence, AZ, where we worked on driver training and recovery, putting the vehicles through some fun challenges. We spent so long out on the trails, that we finished Box Canyon in the dark, which was really fun. The experience of driving the canyon at night is totally different…
23 March 2022: Today the Ladies Offroad Network Skills Camp got off to a good start with everyone getting set up and getting underneath the vehicles to review how our drive trains function and how different vehicles have slightly different set ups. There is a nice assortment of Jeeps and one Toyota in the group, giving us a variety of suspension systems to compare, with leaf springs versus coils and IFS versus solid axle. Tomorrow we will get out on the trails and see some of the differences in actual performance. In the evening we all got together around the campfire and got to know each other better.…
22 March 2022: Took some time out to visit some favorite places in the Sedona area today, and braved the crowds of tourists to enjoy a wander around the popular red rock scenic areas. The combination of red rock and blue sky is just good for the soul…
21 March 2022: It was definitely colder in Pine AZ at 5,448 feet, but the AirBnB had a nice wood-buring stove/fireplace that made it very cozy and comfortable for a short stay before heading back down to the desert…
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 THE ROLLS OHV AREA
The Tonto National Forest, with nearly 600,000 acres of wilderness, features some of the most rugged and inherently beautiful land in the country and has many trails for legal motorized recreation. Located in the Mesa Ranger District about one hour from Phoenix, The Rolls is a 27,000 acre area with approximately 65 miles of routes that vary in width. A highlight of this area is Four Peaks Road which travels to the saddle of Four Peaks in the Mazatzal mountain range and over to State Highway 188 at Roosevelt Lake. The Rolls Area also contains a section of the Great Western Trail. This area also provides access to the coves behind Saguaro Lake; four-wheel drive and high clearance is highly recommended. Please remember to stay on the legal routes. Currently, no permit is required for this area. Access points to the Rolls Area include four staging areas: Four Peaks, Pobrecito, Cottonwood and Palo Fierro. The Tonto National Forest has diverse scenery, with elevations ranging from 1,400 feet in the Sonoran Desert to 7,400 feet in the ponderosa pine forests of the Mogollon Rim. It is the most visited “urban” forest in the United States.
The boundaries of the Tonto National Forest are the Phoenix metropolitan area to the south, the Mogollon Rim to the north and the San Carlos and Fort Apache Indian Reservation to the east…
MORE NOTES FROM THE ROAD:
15-20 March – Death Valley
8-14 March – Nevada
1-7 March – Glamis Training
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
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]
