The Northwest Overland Rally is always a highlight of my travels each year, as it is an intimate gathering of the overland tribe in a truly beautiful location. It has a very inclusive feel to it, and is a gathering of overlanders that features far less safari clothing than other similar events. Check out my post that focuses on the many faces from around the event this year (FACES: Northwest Overland Rally 2016), and my post about the amazing adventuremobile in attendance (Northwest Overland Rally 2016: Top 10 Adventuremobile). The event is held in Plain, WA, and is full of trail runs, demonstrations, seminars, vendors, wine tastings, huge raffles and the annual Overland Trophy event. The highlight for me this year was Saturday evening’s talk from Ray & Maryanne Hyland, about their recent drive from London to Singapore in a Series 1 Land Rover station wagon with their 3 boys. Enjoy the visual journey through the Northwest Overland Rally 2016 below, and be sure to check out the other two stories about this year’s event linked above. 
The nightly raffles have HUGE attendance. Everyone that shows up gets a free raffle ticket, with no tickets sold. With LOTS of awesome prizes up for grabs there ends up being LOTS of happy campers.
Rain or shine the raffle goes on! Luckily Ninkasi Brewing stepped up and supplied some awesome pop-up-tents to keep the crowd out of the weather.
The sunsets are pretty spectacular in the Washington mountains!
Fun was had by all during the nightly raffles. The ladies of Xelles Racing did a great job announcing winners and handing out prizes.
Campfire in a can is always a good way to get your friends to gather around, especially when there is a local fire ban.
The annual wine tasting, put on by Mercedes & Andy Lilenthal of Sub Compact Culture, is always a crowd favorite, and had record attendance this year. What’s not to like about learning about and tasting a wide variety of local PNW wines?!?!
Turtleback Trailers introduced their new upgraded kitchen option, which features a Partner Stove and Dometic sink system. The upgrade will run you $600 over the standard system, which doubles the BTU output of the stove and considerably upgrades the sink. 
Selway Fabrication introduced the overland market to their proven portable toilet system, which has been a staple in the rafting industry for years, at the Rally this year. The full system retails for $369. 
Earth Cruiser introduced the GZL truck camper for medium sized pickups at the Rally. Impressive European Overland style camper that will be in production here in the US in only a few months. A reasonable price tag, low weight and quality components will easily set this apart from the other options currently available in North America.
Bahn Camper Works introduced their first camper at the Rally. This truck camper is completely customizable to fit a variety of trucks, with long, short, flat, etc… beds on them, and features HUGE rear entry doors and an interior that is completely modular. Be sure to keep an eye on this new company for many innovative and cool things to come.
ROAM Built is doing some pretty innovative things with the 4×4 Sprinter platform, inside, outside and underneath. If you want to take your Sprinter to the next level, be sure to look into new Roam Built products coming soon.
The world famous Scheel-Mann vehicle seats are now available in North America again. These seats are handmade in Germany, are extremely supportive, comfortable and feature a “Vario XXL” model that is great for people with long torsos, like me. They debuted at the Rally this year, and are about $1,000-$1,800 a piece. 
The local Taco truck is always a big hit with the crowd. Tasty Mexican food for reasonable prices is hard to beat.
Ray & Maryanne Hyland with their Series 1 Land Rover station wagon, which they recently drove from London to Singapore, with their 3 boys. And yes, it did break down in every country, but those mechanical issues lead to some amazing experiences. Sometimes the adventure only truly begins when… 🙂
Andy Lilenthal, of Warn Industries, taught an advanced winching class.
There were a wide range of classes included in the entry price of the event, which was extremely minimal, which provided expert instruction on a wide range of overland, off-road and adventure skills.
Owen Mesdag showcased MSR’s water filtration system by making true “Dirty” Martini.
Mario Donovan, of AT Overland Equipment, did a great roundtable session on Death Valley.
Jason A. Ramos, of Product Research Gear, did a fun class on some of the hot new gadgets and gear available on the market today.
Rachelle and Rhonda from Xelles Racing and Expedition Overland were busy teaching a plethora of classes all weekend.
Here they are teaching an all women’s off-road driving class.
The Northwest Overland Rally is fun for all ages!
The new Land Rover Range Rover Diesel negotiating the reversing obstacle challenge at the Overland Trophy event.
The second, of two, challenges in the Overland Trophy event is a timed obstacle drive while trying to keep as much water in a cup taped to the hood of your vehicle as possible.
You see funny stuff at events like this.
You can also see disturbing stuff at events like this!
A very confused 5th Gen Toyota 4Runner!
While the Touratech Rally was not combined with the Northwest Overland Rally this year, they were on fields next to each other on the same weekend. It was great to catch up with so many of my moto adventurer friends as well. There were a lot of new Honda Africa Twin in attendance, and yes I want one!
Cute dogs were all over the place at this year’s event. Sadly Hamilton, one of Mosko Moto‘s dogs, had a fatal run in with a vehicle a few weeks after the event. R.I.P little buddy, you made a ton of people smile, and hopefully this photo will help keep that legacy alive.
For more information on the Northwest Overland Rally be sure to check out the events official website and Facebook. Also have a look at the other two posts I created about my experience at this year’s event: FACES and ADVENTUEMOBILE.
