Environmentally responsible, vehicle-dependent back-country exploration and 4x4 adventure travel in the Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia).
About
The website was originally formed in February of 2006 as a regional website for Land Rover owners. By 2007 it was renamed the "Northwest Overland Society" and opened up to any make/model of vehicle or dual sport motorcycle. The commonality amongst our members isn't their vehicle but rather a strong interest in vehicle dependent primitive back-country camping and 4x4 travel. We now have members that drive Land Rovers, Mercedes G-wagens, Pinzgauers, Unimogs, Toyota Land Cruisers, Jeep Rubicon's, Sportsmobile Vans, VW Synchro Vanagons and other makes/models suitable for sustained Overland Travel. If you drive a capable, well maintained offroad vehicle. enjoy primitive back-country 4x4 exploration, and subscribe to the Tread Lightly principles then you will be warmly welcomed.
Getting Involved
Anyone looking to get involved with the group will find a culture where members are dedicated, treat each other with respect, exercise Tread Lightly principles, help each other on/off the trail, and give their personal time/effort to make the NW Overland Society a better group. This is not a place to come and watch while others organize events, post in the forums, help people fix their trucks, coordinate clothing purchases, etc. A NW Overlander has made a decision to commit to regular participation and to find a way to get involved regardless of skill level. The reward is that all members quickly make lasting friendships with people of solid character and everyone benefits from the increased activity. Nobody cares how setup your truck is, how much mechanical experience you have, or how much offroad driving experience you have. The commitment is to learn, grow, participate, and give back to the group.
Activities
While the Northwest Overland Society doesn't sanction events our members very actively use the website to coordinate their own activities. The Event Calendar and discussion forums are open to any member who wants to use them to coordinate an activity. Members have organized Overland trips, meet and greets, tech sessions, wrenching sessions, etc. See the photo gallery and trip reports for details.
A sampling of trips
2006 - Quilomene Overland Adventure - Featured in Land Rover Monthly magazine
2006 - Whipsaw Trail - British Columbia - Featured in Land Rover Monthly magazine
2007 - Sunset Mine primitive camping and Lake Isabelle trail run with Scott Brady, of Expeditions West, on the return leg of his Arctic Expedition.
2008 - 2 weeks in the Alvord Desert / Steens Mountains
2009 - Hells Canyon rim trail
Education
- Winchline.com / Viking offroad demonstrated proper winch rope splicing techniques and covered the pros/cons of synthetic winchline.
- ARB provided a day of Intermediate Offroad Driving and Safety Instruction
- ARB in Renton had us down for an in-depth demonstration of their gear, tour of the shop, and pizza.
- Bradford Rovers did a session on getting your truck ready for the trail
- Bradford Rovers did a session on CVs and Axles
- Old Town Garage presented a 3 part class on what to do when your vehicle won't start.
- Spatial Minds presented a 3 part course on Navigation.
- Columbia Rovers - Winching / Winch Safety
- Bill Burke Trail Leader Training
- Field replacement of broken U-joints
Guest Adventure Speakers
Beginning in the fall of 2009 we've been trying to bring in speakers to give slideshows of their adventures.
2009 - Bill Burke - Land Rover Camel Trophy - hosted by ARB
2009 - Moto Brothers - give a presentation on their trip from Portland, OR to Tierra Del Fuego.�
Meet and Greets
- Regular group that meets for a family dinner, beer, or "cultural food" potlucks in the greater Seattle-Tacoma-Bellingham area.
- Regular group that meets in the Portland, OR area.
- Growing Central Washington membership
- Encouraging BC and ID area growth
About the website hardware: After experimenting with various cheap website hosting providers we migrated the NW Overland Society website to a dedicated server. The server itself has redundant power supplies, redundant mirrored hard disks, regular automated backups, and is regularly maintained. The server is co-located in a secure data center with fire supression, diesel backup power (and guaranteed fuel delivery), redundant temperature, humidity controls, anti-static environment, seismic zone 3 standard survivability, located away from major metropolitan areas (won't get bombed), multi-homed redundant internet backbone connections, etc (seriously, there is more). The redundant internet connections are routed through Seattle and Vancouver, BC. The Seattle connection is one of the top 5 internet backbone connections in the world. If we're all dead, the server will probably still be running.
The site is based on a highly customized version of DotNetNuke running on top of Microsoft SQL Server. We've incorporated a variety of commercial and privately developed modules and a custom skin. Most of the graphics were member submitted. Most notably, the banner photos were mostly taken by Peter Carey of Hidden Creek Photography, and the logo was provided by Mellie Price.