Joey BoernerIt’s 6:30am on Saturday morning.
A misty October fog settles over the field where we’ve parked our Land Rovers next to Oregon’s Wilson River. An occasional bird chirping joins the white noise of rushing water. A generator fires up, signaling the availability of coffee at the start of the day. Where does this fine morning find me? Under my Discovery XD inspecting the bent tie rod and front sway bar damaged during the last 50 feet of the trail known as “Stick-in-the-Nose.” I’m only here to cover the 2022 Pacific Coast Rover Club’s Northwest Challenge (NWC), yet I find myself repairing trail damage. My enthusiasm and poor navigation lost out to several large rocks hidden by the darkness.
In the pantheon of Land Rover events, the NWC may not be as instantly recognizable as the Camel Trophy, G4 Challenge or even the TReK event, but for Rover enthusiasts in the Pacific Northwest, it’s a 30-year tradition that is considered the penultimate off-road event for the Pacific Coast Rover Club.
Doug Shipman created the Northwest Challenge in 1989 as a combined event between the Pacific Coast Rover Club (PCRC, based in Oregon and Washington) and the Rover-Landers out of British Columbia. The event moves annually between the peaks of the Washington mountains, the high desert country of Eastern Oregon, the wondrous foliage of British Columbia – and just about every terrain in between.
This year marked the event’s return to Oregon, specifically to the Tillamook State Forest. The base campsite boasted plenty of room for Rovers (and their owners) to spread out, with easy access to the Wilson River for a quick dip and clean-up after a day in the dust and dirt. However, first, you have to navigate after dark to find the unmarked location! Once there, Wayne and Cathy Phelps direct a rigorous safety inspection: working lights, brakes, winches, and seatbelts all come under scrutiny. As the weekend would prove, the inspection demonstrated its value.
Once completed, competitors receive map waypoints to the first task of the Challenge: a 50-foot-long reverse between two posts – the narrower you have Ryan Phelps move the posts toward your mirrors, the more points you earn. Once measured, the competitors race into the night to the finest trail, “Stick-in-the-Nose.” Following tulip charts and GPS coordinates can be difficult enough in the daytime, but doing so under the moonlight and a headlamp can tax even the most confident navigator. Searching the deep brush of the Oregon rainforest for the well-hidden trails proved futile for some teams, but not the father-and-son team of Allen and Dean Minner, who ran the trail in their well-equipped, “beat, not babied” ‘91 Range Rover Classic.
After three hours in the wilderness searching for the correct trails with waypoints, teams started to roll into base camp for the night. Chauncy Curl and Monica Koldstad destroyed the steering box in their ‘84 RHD D90 thanks to an unseen stump and made the call to limp home rather than risk going over a cliff.
Around 3:00 am, the distinct sound of an infamous ‘91 “O‘Range Rover” Classic (stock 3.9 engine mated to an LT230 transfer case), “my budget off-roader,” made its presence known and marked the arrival of Gord’n Perrot and his navigator, Carey Wright. After attending a wedding that Friday afternoon, they made the three-hour drive down from Seattle, spent several hours in the woods attempting to locate as many waypoints as possible and finally arrived at camp with a few hours to spare before the coffee started brewing for Day 2.
“It’s all part of the fun!” Gord’n declared over breakfast, challenging the rest of the bleary-eyed competitors (and volunteers) to check their attitudes at the flaps of their tents and enjoy every moment of the weekend ahead.
The results of the previous night’s point scores determined the departure times, beginning at 8:30 am. Neal Shipman and navigator Scott Schoenfelder left first in their hybrid Series Rover. Once the last team had rolled out, the volunteers departed in their own convoy to stage the day’s five tasks, dispersed over 58 miles of forested trails. In between the tasks, you had to locate 46 hidden “bogies” – wooden stakes marked with secret words or shapes. To the competitors’ credit, all the teams located at least one of the bogies; ironically, the bogie used at the check-in station proved the most elusive. As Ryan Phelps quipped, “the hardest one was the easiest.” Saturday’s unusual 80˚ temperatures only heated up the competition during the five tasks: a Concrete Pull, a Time Speed Distance (TSD) Rally, the Water Course, a Map Reading Challenge, and a Winch Challenge.
The NW Challenge can cause damage. Jeremy Sells’ kitted-out ‘07 LR3 HSE w/HD package took some pinstriping on Day 1, but on Day 2, one of the early trails ended up being a bit too narrow and the rear door met a tree, causing a nice dent. Later in the day, Gord’n Perrot’s RRC ended up on its side, causing significant body damage and a broken windscreen. Fortunately, with no one hurt and the RRC righted their day of competing continued. Bryce Oliver’s LR3 also ended up on its side up against a tree in a deeply rutted section of the trail. Due to the narrow location, a radio call went out from Dean Minner seeking assistance with nothing more than GPS coordinates and a rough idea of where the trail had turned from the main access road. Jessie and Tim jumped in their Discovery and quickly began the search. After locating the teams on the trail, Jessie and Tim, along with Alan, Dean, Mitch, and Kellen (Bryce’s navigator) used a combination of front, rear, and side winch points to slowly restore the LR3’s proper position on the dirt. A dented passenger roof line, compressed roof rack, and shattered sunroof provided ample evidence of the challenge. With the agreed-upon time to return to camp approaching, the LR3 fired up and successfully transported her crew back to base camp.
Around the campfire, while enjoying a catered pulled pork dinner, stories of the day were relayed with both humor and frustration. The results of a scavenger hunt were announced, and a poem-writing contest produced several humorous homages to Doug Shipman and his beloved blue Series. It had been a long day for the competitors and volunteers and not without its tribulations, but with renewed energy from the dinner and the shared camaraderie of the day’s events, fatigue quickly faded into hearty laughter and stories that will most assuredly live on in the memories of all involved in the Northwest Challenge.
With just two events remaining, Sunday brought another foggy early morning. First up, a winch challenge in the camp that required the use of a snatch block and attaching the winch to a volunteer’s Land Rover parked 30 ft away. The competitors simply needed to pull their trucks 17 feet in the shortest time while adhering to standard winching safety protocols. The ‘97 Discovery SD of Mark Rhoades and Blair Cook was the clear winner.
Only the top six teams took part in the final task. Everyone knew that when Steve Schoenfelder and Doug Shipman stage a task, the challenge will never be easy, and “Doug’s Dirt Mound T-ball Course” did not disappoint. Imagine a roller coaster of twists and turns requiring the driver or passenger to replace a tennis ball while remaining in their truck.
Neil Shipman’s aggressive driving style, paired with his Series Rover’s short wheelbase, gave him an advantage. Mike Bach’s Range Rover Classic also benefited from the experience and skill of its driver. An impromptu winching lesson from Steve, Tim, and Doug occurred when Mark Rhodes’ Discovery I suffered a blown master fuse. And to everyone’s surprise and delight, Jeremy’s LR3 ran the course with ease until the final obstacle forced a quick winch out. With a successful completion time of under 2 minutes, the clear winners were Dean and Allen Minner in their SWB RRC. Each Rover, with its unique configuration, proved a fascinating study in the capabilities of Land Rovers old and new(ish).
Ultimately, the top spot went to Jessie Coombs and Tim Scully in their ‘95 Discovery I. The combination of excellent driver skills, most bogies found, 100% safety check, and strong scores in each task helped them bring home the First Place Trophy. Clearly, judging from the satisfied faces of every participant of the 2022 Northwest Challenge, everyone felt like they had finished on top.
Tim Scully shared his feelings after a successful weekend: “I’m super impressed by the amount of energy and time it takes to get so many moving parts to come off smoothly and flawlessly. In putting together an event like this there are countless, thankless hours spent planning, laying out, and drilling down to get to something this good!”
The 2022 Northwest Challenge is not only a competition that tests the limits of a Land Rover, but a testament to the great people that make events like this possible – in this case, Paul and Ian Tydeman. Twisting trails, elusive bogies, and formidable tasks gave everyone involved a weekend filled with adventure. Not to mention the delicious food and drinks provided around the nightly campfires…
Jessie Coombs summed it up best: “[The NWC] brings the Club together in a setting where we spend real time together camping, working together, setting up and doing tasks, exploring the forest in teams, jumping in to help each other whenever needed, telling stories around the campfire and breaking bread with close friends and new acquaintances.” As photographer/author Nick Dimbleby wrote about the ’96 TreK, “It isn’t winning, it’s the taking part that counts.”
[For more info on the Pacific Northwest Challenge visit www.pcrc.net -ed.]