THIS MONTH:

Taking part in the annual Ladies Offroad Network Challenge, with 10 Challenges to complete by the end of August covering categories such as building an adventure, going offroad, mapping, welding and land use/stewardship activities…

USnomads.org is very proud to be presenting the second edition of the Nomad Overland Virtual Adventure Rally in 2023. This is a new kind of rally experience — 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 2023 rally will run from 5 June – 13 August and is open to any driver within the United States who has an off-road capable vehicle — stock or modified. Registration for 2023 is open now. For more information see the Rally website …

COMING UP SOON:

Attending the Ladies Offroad Network Convention in Moab, UT. The 7th annual convention will be held September 11-15, 2023, with lots of hands-on opportunities to gain all types of offroading skills, learn and engage with other offroad ladies as they share their stories, and laugh the whole way. The convention is an action-packed, interactive week of educating, motivating, and guiding offroad ladies…

MONTEZUMA NWR

The Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge encompasses part of the Montezuma Swamp at the north end of Cayuga Lake. The 10,004-acre preserve is composed of swamps, pools and channels and is a significant spot along the Atlantic Flyway, providing crucial habitat for migratory waterfowl and other birds. After the Finger Lakes Region was formed by the melting glaciers over ten thousand years ago, the northern and southern ends of the lakes gradually developed into extensive marshes. First the Algonquin Indians and later the Cayugas of the Iroquois Nation were the earliest known inhabitants to reap the rewards of the bountiful life in the marsh. The name “Montezuma” was first used in 1806 when Dr. Peter Clark named his hilltop home “Montezuma” after the palace of the Aztec Emperor Montezuma in Mexico City. Eventually the Marsh, the Village, and the Refuge all acquired the name. There were no dramatic changes in the marsh until the development of the Erie Canal in the 19th century, when it became apparent that feeder canals from Seneca Lake and Cayuga Lake would in time link these lakes with the main line. With canal construction, there arose the possibility of draining the marshes, and an act was passed relative to the draining of the Cayuga Marshes. Work first began on the canal system on July 4, 1817, and the completion was marked by the first passage from Lake Erie to New York City on October 26, 1825. Construction of the Seneca-Cayuga canal began in 1818 and by 1828 boats passed from Geneva to the Erie Canal at Montezuma. The Erie Canal did not greatly affect the marshes as the Seneca River still flowed directly from Cayuga Lake into the marshes. In 1910, the widening and reconstruction of the Seneca and Cayuga extension of the New York State Barge Canal altered the marshes. A lock was built at the north end of Cayuga Lake and a dam was constructed at the outlet of the lake. This effectively lowered the level of the river by eight to ten feet and the waters drained from the marshes. The meandering rivers were straightened and deepened, thereby creating additional drainage-ways. In 1937 the Bureau of Biological Survey, which later became the US Fish and Wildlife Service, purchased 6,432 acres of the former marsh. The Civilian Conservation Corps began work on a series of low dikes which would hold water and restore part of the marsh habitat that had once existed. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 7971 which established the Refuge on September 12, 1938…

WATKINS GLEN

Watkins Glen State Park, south of Seneca Lake in Schuyler County in New York’s Finger Lakes region, is centered around a 400-foot-deep narrow gorge cut through rock by Glen Creek. Around two million years ago the first of many continental glaciers of the Laurentide Ice Sheet moved southward from the Hudson Bay area, initiating the Pleistocene glaciation. During the Pleistocene era, the area was covered by ice. The movement of glaciers from the Laurentide and Wisconsin ice sheets shaped the Finger Lakes region, and the glaciers widened, deepened and accentuated existing river valleys. Glacial debris, possibly including terminal moraines, left behind by the receding ice acted as dams, allowing lakes to form. Despite the deep erosion of the valleys, the surrounding uplands show little evidence of glaciation, suggesting that the ice was thin, or at least unable to cause much erosion at these higher altitudes. The deep cutting of the valleys by the ice left some tributaries hanging high above the lakes: both Seneca and Cayuga have tributaries hanging as much as 390 feet above the valley floors. One such hanging valley, overlooking the south end of the Seneca Lake valley, evolved into the deep gorge of Watkins Glen. The steep drop of Glen Creek into Seneca Valley created a powerful torrent that eroded the underlying rock, cutting further and further back towards the stream’s headwaters. This erosion was not a uniform process: the rock here includes shale, limestone, and sandstone, and these types of rock erode at different rates, leaving behind a staircase of waterfalls, cascades, plunge pools, and potholes. Watkins Glen State Park now encompasses nineteen waterfalls spaced along a trail roughly two miles long…

Nesconset | Paris | Belgrade

MORE NOTES FROM THE ROAD:
June – Nomad Rally Start
23-31 May – Nomad Prep
16-22 May – Nomad Prep
8-15 May – Long Island
1-7 May – Long Island
16-30 April – East Coast
8-15 April – Long Island
1-7 April – Roadtrip Home
1-7 April – Roadtrip Home
22-31 March – DVE
15-21 March – Arizona
8-14 March – Joshua Tree
1-7 March – Glamis
20-28 February – Southwest Roadtrip
1-19 February – Woman and Machine
January – Woman and Machine
22-31 December – Holiday Roadtrip
16-21 December – Holiday Roadtrip
1-15 December – Long Island
November – Long Island
22-31 October – Roadtrip East
15-21 October – Moab LONCON
8-14 October – Moab LONCON
1-7 October – Roadtrip West
22-30 September – Roadtrip West
16-21 September – Roadtrip West
1-15 September – Long Island
August – Long Island
Archive

SPECIAL REPORT

GHOST TOWNS

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

ALGERIA SCOUTING

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]