Woo hooo I'm back! What a blast! Totally loved it! Camaraderie, challenge, great people (it was especially important for us since I've never met guys from other rig on our team in my life, IMHO it worked out great) etc.

We took off early Thursday morning, wasted an hour in Portland traffic, finally 11 hours later arrived in Lovelock, NV via beautiful eastern Oregon / Nothern Nevada. Eyed Steens Mountain from the distance.

At first tech inspector gave me some grief over poorly secured snow chains but one ratchet strap later and we have clean bill of health. Met my teammates Bill and Christopher out of Denver CO, driving clean, nicely equipped Lexus LX450 (Land Cruiser 80). Finally we received our way points for next day. Unfortunately organizer's laptop couldn't link up with either my ancient Garmin Legend GPS or my laptop's National Geographic Topo, so I ended up entering all 65 by hand.

7:30 in the morning at drivers meeting we were given our task: get to as many way points as we can in 12 hour period. We were to look for yellow circles hidden away in bush, on a tree, on stake, some old falling apart cabin or machinery, etc. Usually circles will contain a phrase we must enter in our log book.

Different way points carry different weights (points) depending on how easy/hard they are to reach and/or to find. Sometimes they are close to the road at others considerable travel by foot may be required. Be at mandatory special stage between 12 and 5 or penalized. Be back in 12 hours after start or suffer late penalty as well.

8:00 we lined up for the start. Event was dominated by Land Rovers: 6 defenders, 1 discovery, one stray Montero and 4Runner, 2 FJ80s and one 40-series Land Cruisers and 4 Hummers (the real deal H1s). Were they stock cars, not quite but none was overly modified as well. Mostly: aggressive tires, winches, and various overlanding equipment such as bumpers with tire mounts, gas can, high-lift, shovel mounts etc. Big emphasis on keeping everything secured.

For awhile we proceeded smoothly. Collected every way point we reached. Few were easy and some required fairly serious 4 wheeling. Climbed up some nice vistas.

Periodically we traded space in the lead with Lexus team or should say we trade space in the back for who eats the dust.


Eventually we made it to special stage. That's where my carnage started. First I busted right front tire, it was no match to 1/4" angle iron with edges roughened by cutting torch.

Then just before starting special stage I noticed right rear shock is leaking. So much for Old Man Emu!
That explained though, why my ride felt a little bouncy that day. Obviously I didn't have replacement at hand so I decided there is no point of procrastinating over those since by now shocks were definite throw away.

We kept pressing on. Ride progressively got worse. Had to ease off a little on skinny pedal. By closing of the day in the dusk we entered a canyon with idea to score few way points and possibly making a short cut through exiting at the top. There wasn't much road there but dry creek bed. Scored few additional way points. Learned a lesson that sometimes heading straight up and over side of canyon to way point is sometimes not the best, easiest, and fastest track. Hint: look for the spur!

By now going over washouts my truck's back was hopping like a bunny. "Definitely second shock gave out" I thoght. We kept pressing on. It was getting dark and track kept diminishing. It was becoming not so obvious that we can get out of that canyon in time if keep heading straight or that there is a way out at all. With some procrastination we decided to turn around realizing we going to be late. Finally tracking back through canyon in total darkness I went little too fast over some washout I missed with vision additionally obscured by clouds of dust. Truck bounced quite hard following by mighty bang in back. "Yep those shocks didn't like that for sure". Then all got quiet. In the end we got back to hotel about 30 min late loosing points as the result. Upon inspection, both bottom bushings were literally ripped off the shocks which were dangling hanging off top mount! Overall we finished 4th that day.



Prospects weren't particularly good for second day: no shocks, no spare. I've been guessing that town of Lovelock, NV population of 1900 wouldn't provide much help in term of locating spares quickly so next morning after getting our logbooks, instead of starting on the course our team headed about 60 miles south-west to bigger town of Fallon. There are several different auto parts stores in town (Autozone, Kragen, NAPA) none of course had shocks for Montero. That didn't surprise me really!

Working with Steve, a very nice store manager (big kudos) from Autozone, we found set of truck shocks in stock which pretty closely matched ones I needed (later I checked they are intended for Isuzu Rodeo). That is with exception of bushing bolt. My original is M16 and those shocks only asked for 9/16". Off to ACE hardware we go. Found good grade 8 substitute. Quick install in parking lot. I took remnants of old shocks earlier in the morning still in Lovelock. Now the last problem - spare. We had one between 2 trucks. Not very good for traveling in rocky desert. Quick track to Les Schwab found me used Toyo AT of correct size. By now my truck wore between 5 wheels 3 brands of tires: Yokohamas, BFG from my spare, and finally Toyo. My companions joked I should charge them all of advertising. Big kudos to Bill and Chris for perseverance through fixing all my troubles.

One positive side of trip to Fallon was that it had positioned us not too far away from very southern tip of course orgs laid out for this day.

First way point was in drop dead gorgeous location. Little canyon carved in solid granite, cool air, luscious green grass, trickle of water, cool solid rock walls all around provided stark contrast to blaring sun in valley.


After that we wondered around, up and down canyons,mountain sides, and grand vistas not seeing single sole.
[img]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_Z1rSWYyrUT4/SeyX7xiJR1I/AAAAAAAADl8/UfEpTtxgYPg/s800/DSCF7305-1.JPG[/img]
[img]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_Z1rSWYyrUT4/SfAvCvJSZqI/AAAAAAAADno/uozwJQ4WZ74/s800/DSCF7306-1.JPG[/img]
Only cows, and lots of them. It's open range so you find signs of their presence (big round ones on the ground, watch your step) everywhere; up the mountains down in valley, in the canyons etc. Sometimes nature gets better of them though. We have seen and well, smelled a least two carcasses.

Finally, early in the evening working our way up narrow overgrown, then muddy, Job canyon road group of 2 Defenders caught up with us. They really wanted to get ahead of us.
[img]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Z1rSWYyrUT4/SeyX3Uut3eI/AAAAAAAADls/Wd52l1Mh5qY/s800/DSCF7307-1.JPG[/img]
[img]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_Z1rSWYyrUT4/SeyX6LZQGXI/AAAAAAAADl0/3MXvf0QV_LU/s800/DSCF7317-1.JPG[/img]
Here you can see Defender's nose sticking out from behind.
[img]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_Z1rSWYyrUT4/SfAyX2T2NiI/AAAAAAAADn4/qJPkkJqhftA/s800/DSCF7314-1.JPG[/img]
We let them through only to find them 1/4 mile further up the road filling up with gas and then finally another short quarter mile marred in mud & snow not making any progress.

After watch their struggle we walked further up the mountain. Road wasn't getting any better. Land Rover team by then was playing with winch cable. After assessing situation: road is bad, there is a team ahead of us possibly making it worse with big ruts, only 3 more way points, day light running out, we decided to back down that same 1/4 mile to spot where we could turn around. We proceeded down slowly and cautiously. In the mean time lead Defender got sideways and almost went off the side of mountain. Eventually they followed our "lead" and backed off the mountain as well.
[img]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Z1rSWYyrUT4/SfAxvyTjbEI/AAAAAAAADnw/E3skrMag8BE/s800/DSCF7319.JPG[/img]
Next day we learned that one team indeed made it through that road late at night. That involved some multiple heavy duty winchings and precarious dangling off the mountain side. All at a cost though. They collected all way points worth 4000 points while suffering from being late 1 1/2 hour and loosing about 7000 points as result. Big nod to their determination and effort though.

From then on we proceeded to collect 2 more very refreshing way points on low lands. One was armored anti-aircraft battery then another commander tank. It was very nice touch. It was refreshing find way point on something other then bush, stake, tree or some old mining cabin.
[img]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_Z1rSWYyrUT4/SeyXkzoFktI/AAAAAAAADkQ/037JmIuZD8I/s800/DSCF7323.JPG[/img]
[img]http://lh5.ggpht.com/_Z1rSWYyrUT4/SeyXmqK6DWI/AAAAAAAADkc/V-GiLn2CbBQ/s800/DSCF7326.JPG[/img]
Organizers definately applied good deal of sence of humor to naming waypoints. Other notable mentions would "How's you engine temp?" or "Time waster" etc.
[img]http://lh6.ggpht.com/_Z1rSWYyrUT4/SeyXpTGA9tI/AAAAAAAADks/xDSTQYPo6w0/s400/DSCF7333.JPG[/img]
Now it was getting dark.
[img]http://lh3.ggpht.com/_Z1rSWYyrUT4/SeyXrzB_p-I/AAAAAAAADk8/jO6oTwJh2v4/s800/DSCF7338.JPG[/img]
Time return to base. Initially it all went well: wide open gravel road, lot of dust but at least we moved with pretty brisk pace. Even picked up couple more way points alongside. Then it all turned into maze of narrow rough dirt tracks going in each and every direction. Several times we had to back up and restart after taking wrong turn in the dark.

Finally at one point we went through (open and closed behind us) cattle gate, around some farm machinery and water truck parked right in the middle of the road. "Hope we are not lost", I thought. Some kind of the trouble is brewing. I didn't like the feeling, although looking at my laptop it appeared we were on the right track. Then I see two headlights pull up to LX450 which was in the lead at that point. Some guy gets out, starts talking to my teammates. "Cool maybe we can find out if we heading right way". Then I realize he is only wearing shirt and underwear and he is not being nice and polite. I slowly backed off to give lead car space to turn around. At some point he had enough talk with them so he jumps into his utility truck pulls up to me almost ramming my door jumps out all red faced and steaming, start yelling spewing saliva, with excessive amount of expletives: "WHO THE F.... ARE YOU, WHAT THE F.. YOU ARE DOING HERE. WHY THE F... YOU OPEN MY F... GATE...., MY F... DOGS ARE OUT.... I PULL YOU OUT AND BEAT YOU TO PULP...", etc. I didn't want to be confrontational, tried to play it cool, tried to apologize for disturbing his peace, we "discussed" my country of origin, he assured us that he'll do something really bad if anyone else shows up, etc. He also looked like he is ready to pull out a peace or something along those lines.

Eventually I think he run out of words so we took off, closed gate behind us. Behold we meet the team we run into in Job canyon. They were heading in that same direction. We stopped and convinced them they better not going there. After some discussion over possible ways out we chose to follow them over Fencemaker pass. Fairly technical but relatively short climb over the mountain rage separating us from road to Lovelock. It proved to be indeed fairly rough and having the locker made it easier. We made it across unscathed. Later been told that it has some precarious drop-offs but we didn't see any in total darkness. We made it to Lovelock with surprisingly only 28 minutes penalty.

The place we met that mad rancher rather appropriately is called "Seven Devils Ranch". As we later joked, we found one of them. One other team run into him later on. He might have had shot gun with him by then. Later on discussing it with organizers we definitely had right of way there. It was public road cutting across or close by his property, there were neither "private property" or "no trespassing" signs nor gate/posts were painted orange/red, we opened and closed gate appropriately.

We finished the day and overall in in second before last position thanks largely to my "shocking" problem.

Overall it was great experience. Big thanks to all participants and organizers. We covered area of at least 100+ square miles (size of small eastern state) seeing very few people. There are still open areas out there <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/patriot.gif" alt="" />

Would I do it again? Absolutely.
<img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Very cool and both of those rigs look well suited. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Yeah and now I'm thinking adopting Bilstein 7100 or something along those lines. Rebuildable with remote reservoir
http://www.bilstein.com/offroad.php

Sounds like a great time, even if you had to deal with one of the <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/evil.gif" alt="" />

Now you know who owns the tank!
Excellent photos too!

Nice write up and pics. I'd like to try something like that someday...I'd need a navigator and a mechanic. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Thats awesome man. I would love to do an event like that. You'll know what to expect next time too. So what postion did you end up coming in, second from last cause of the trouble you had with the shocks?

Either way, I'm sure you'll be back in full force, this time more prepared. Wish there was something like that out here for me to do too. What upgrades or extra equipment would you bring next time if you did it again. What would you do different?

Good Job <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/kewl.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the write up, That looks like a lot of fun. Maybe we could get a all Mistu team to go. Do they do it around the same time each year?

We came in 7th on second day and overall. As for equipment shocks are definitely on my mind. Would I go with OME again - hmm. I'm really thinking of those 7100s but I would need new top mount. Also front suspension too of course. More travel would be nice. I'm talking about down-travel, cranked up torsion bars are really out of place there. Mine are practically stock height but I still could feel top bump stops constantly hitting. Of course not compromising strength is paramount. Otherwise winch, 33" MT on/or near stock height are plenty for this kind of event. Upgraded solid rear bumper is nice to have. Too many opportunities to rip stock one off. I will also take less camping gear. There is no time to stop for lunch and worm up your food. Newer USB based GPS would be nice. My laptop running National Geographic Topo with GlobalSat BU-353 GPS Receiver worked great. But you need hand held once you get out of the car plus typing in way points was time consuming.
They used to do it every year but this time previous one was in Dec 2006 I think.

What type of speeds were you traveling at. Go with KYB shocks or go full out with expensive remote reservoir type shocks.

How much of the competition was based on speed vs navigation skills ?

Although it's not a race, at not point we were racing/trying to overtake somebody but that competition feeling does entice you to travel faster between way points. Many roads were well graded gravel you can travel pretty much any speed you feel comfortable but then you may suddenly turn into rough 2 track with 1-2-3 feet deep washouts. I have KYB Monomax upfront. They did well but were on a bit harsh side.