NOTES FROM THE ROAD


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A Full Day of Driving and Navigating …


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A beautiful day on the trails…


11 September 2016: Criss-crossing the backcountry in a Barlow Jeep from Sedona to Flagstaff and back as the navigational sim continued, with an extra bonus of incredible landscapes in all the variations that northern Arizona has to offer. The day went well and accuracy improved as I learned to tell when I was “on” the spot using a combination of accurate plotting, precise triangulation and careful distance measures …



Plotting the Day’s Route …


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Up at the crack of dawn to plot CPs…


11 September 2016: Navigation simulation continues today with an early morning wake up to plot the day’s CPs before hitting the trails. Yesterday was slow going as I was working on really being able to interpret which feature on the map was which part of the landscape in front of me. Today I will need to move faster to cover the distances for the remaining CPs …



Beautiful Skies …


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Colorful western skies at day’s end…


10 September 2016: The navigational simulation continued until sunset, with the last checkpoint for the day along the route back to town. Triangulating the location as the sky turned brilliant colors made for an awesome finish…



Triangulation in the field …


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Using Rebelle Rally skills to navigate…


10 September 2016: During the Rebelle Rally there will be “black” checkpoints that are not marked, and we will need to be sure of our position within a narrow margin of error in order to score those points. This requires triangulating off land features in the desert, and much of this weekend’s simulation if focused on this skill …



Driving a Navigation Simulation …


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Training on navigational skills around Sedona…


10 September 2016: Doing a navigational simulation exercise this weekend around Sedona to get a sense of what the Rebelle Rally days will be like. The training scenario is quite realistic with a series of checkpoints set by Nena Barlow of Barlow Adventures covering distances comparable to those we will drive in the rally across roads and trails between Cottonwood, Sedona and Flagstaff …


PREVIOUS NOTES FROM THE ROAD >


THIS WEEK:

Navigation practice in the spectacular red rock landscapes of Sedona and the larger Verde Valley, to work on map reading skills and the intricacies of driving while navigating …


COMING UP SOON:
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Team Engage heads back to the desert for more focused training on navigation and driving, and to practice rally skills in some of the same southwestern desert locations that the rally will be passing through in October …

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Navigational practice via an Orienteering USA sponsored meet at Caumsett State Park on September 25th …

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Competing as Team #124 in the inaugural edition of the Rebelle Rally 13-22 October 2016 …


SPOTLIGHT: TRIANGULATION

Triangulation is a navigational technique using a map, a compass and at least two known terrain features to pinpoint a position. The basic concept is simple. First, identify at least two landmarks that you can see and that are on your map. Ideally the points should be at least 60° apart. Next use a compass to take a bearing off of each point, then plot those lines on the map. Your location is roughly at the intersection of the lines. (For more on map and compass skills, see REI’s navigation basics)…


ABOUT THE REBELLE RALLY


The Rebelle Rally is an off-road navigation rally raid across 2000 km of desert in the southwestern United States. A new kind of competition, it blends the love of driving with the challenge of precision navigation…


ABOUT BARLOW ADVENTURES
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Barlow Adventures provides professional 4×4 driving instruction and training in Sedona, AZ, as well as fully outfitted multi-day trips in Moab and on California’s famous Rubicon Trail. In Moab, the undisputed Jeeping capitol of the world, the Barlow team guides drivers over iconic trails, and helps build 4-wheeling skills in the context of a fun adventure through the rugged high desert landscape….


TEAM ENGAGE

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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



Nesconset | Sedona | Yuma



MORE NOTES FROM THE ROAD:
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
1-14 October – Vermont
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