Yet again, Expedition BC had a blast at the 2017 Northwest Overland Rally! We were getting excited spotting other rigs while on the drive down, despite the pouring rain. The sights of Plain, WA became familiar as we rolled into check-in on Thursday afternoon.
Since we had the kids along, we crawled our way to the far corner of the “Quiet Zone” of the camping area.
It rained most of Thursday evening and into the morning, however, Friday and Saturday were mainly warm and dry which made for a nice atmosphere. It was a struggle to fit our setup in the allotted 20′ x 20′ spot, but we made it work and it turned out to be a really comfortable living arrangement for the weekend.
There are many things to do during the Rally and you have to plan your time a bit to fit in the classes, presentations, trail runs, and to tour the vendors and camping areas. The nightly group campfire and prize giveaway is often the highlight.
Between the raffle draws, many vendors offered up goodies to be thrown out into the crowd (t-shirts, hats, patches/stickers, etc). The young ones in attendance would swarm the presenters, trying to get a prize or two! At one point they even tackled one poor guy down to the ground and crawled all over him, to which he happily played along. Some of the big raffle prize winners walked away with a new CVT Rooftop tent, Warn Zeon winch, and Tembo Tusk Skottle, among other cool gear.
Another highlight is walking around and scoping out all the camp setups and overland rigs. There was a large variety of setups and vehicle types, ranging from big dollar rigs and trailers to weekend warrior setups. Here are some we liked:
The XpedBC Sequoia (dubbed the “Endurance”) went through the off road technical course. We were happy to crawl through in 4low without any issues. There were experienced spotters and recovery experts on hand if anyone had troubles, and while there were some minor scrapes/dents suffered on rigs with less clearance – there were no major flops!
This was our second year in attendance and we will be back next year. Besides all the rigs, vendors and cool gear, the people were the best. Everyone was cheery and completely open to chatting regarding their setup or experiences. We met a bunch of cool characters and enjoyed hearing their stories and overlanding passions.
We enjoyed many conversations with our two camping neighbours – Justin on one side in his Sportsmobile, and Leif on the other side with his crazy unique kitchen setup. Justin is just beginning his trek north to the Yukon and Alaska, planning to head all the way north to Prudhoe Bay. Thanks for giving us an inside tour of your rig! And Leif, who designed and built an impressive kitchen/cooking contraption – we look forward to seeing it on the market at next year’s rally!
We even managed to cruise on some dirt during the drive home to snap some photos of the updated look of the Kakadu Bushranger 250XT.
We will see some of you at the BC Overland Rally in the Hemlock Valley next weekend!
EXPEDITION BC 