Today seemed like a tough one. We pulled #1 off the line so 7am sharp we would be heading out for our day. Each day you have roughly 10 hours from the moment you are off the line to last moment you are allowed to check in to base camp without penalty.

When we woke up (at 5am to the sound of a cowbell we grew to love) we also heard that the water truck had frozen as we had been sleeping in 17 degree weather that night!!!

As we got into the car, Alicia decided to make sure we had our best chances in the Enduro that morning and part of our issue was desert sand...everywhere. We had a kilometer odometer that sat on our dash as the Subaru doesn't change into km's. It was held in place by a sticky pad on the bottom. The sticky pad and sand didn't mix well so she took one for the team and straight licked the sticky pad. It worked, we did an amazing job on the Enduro and felt our brains kick into high Rally gear.

At one point during the day the Navigation went south and we ended up on the wrong side of a lake. Well, we decided we had to get around the lake and back on track. This ended in Emily getting out of the car multiple times to put her muscles to use lugging rocks out of the way of the car so we could continue. We don't give up!!!

We also had to tackle Amargosa Dune later that day. Neither of us was super excited or comfortable in sand and we were nervous to get to this point. Who knew what our crossover could do when faced with that type of terrain. Well, it did great! We just kept the motto "just keep moving" and had a lot of fun. Turns out Alicia is really good at reading the topography of sand dunes (as well as hoofing it to the checkpoint when the car won't quite make it). We had a great time and only had to use our Max Trax once in an ill timed sand stop.

We finally crossed back into California at some point in the day and ended the first half of our marathon leg at China Ranch Date Farm. An oasis for our bodies and minds.

Feelings about the Enduro Challenge: Decided we actually love the challenge. Minds changed!!

As we woke up we discussed the coyotes we heard howling around camp during the night. Emily thought they sounded cute as she was missing her cats. Alicia lectured her on how the coyotes had probably killed something. This is why we are a great team, we see things from different angles!

Starting out from the Date Farm, we headed into an Enduro and onto Route 66 and the Mojave! We enjoyed the day and had a lot of success, until 30 minutes from our close time.

We were traversing through Johnson Valley OHV park and ended up in the dry lake bed that wasn't so dry due to storms earlier that week. As we slowly realized we were surrounded by mud and water we knew we had to stop and fix ourselves. Not so easy to do when you know you have 30 minutes to get unstuck, hit a checkpoint and get back to base camp for your points to count. Of course, as life goes, this is the moment the drone found us for some footage. Alicia decided to be a lady and keep her curse words and rude gestures where only she could see them.

We wandered around, looked at lines to drive, then Emily hopped into the car and Alicia guided her out of the mess. With 8 minutes left, Alicia jumped into the car and Emily (with some cheering from Alicia) got them to the final blue checkpoint and to base camp, 3 minutes to spare!!!

As we had spun up the clutch a bit while we were slogging through the lake area, we had a smell that we couldn't hide as we waited in line. There was no shortage of questions as to why we smelled so "clutchy" but I like to think of it as free advertisement that we were one of only two manual vehicles in the rally.

As the day started we knew we were possibly going to have a challenging day. Johnson Valley is the largest OHV area in North America, and as a bone stock crossover vehicle, it isn't necessarily a shiny playground for us that it is for aftermarket suspension crossovers or 4x4s. Our motto was slow and steady because "slow is smooth and smooth is fast". The first half of the day consisted of us doing a great job of following our motto, hiking up hills for a checkpoint and generally navigating and driving the crazy desert, filled with bumps and whoops, as well as we could hope!

Mid day we headed to the other side of the Valley and things got rough. Emily, working to get to a checkpoint, got us into the King of the Hammers course. Hello bone stock Subaru!!! Alicia did some serious rock crawling and got to show off her impressive slow and controlled driving skills, too bad only Emily got to witness the feats!! We were off-camber at least once. In all honesty, the slowness cost us major points and even though we found an elusive green with the assistance of a 4x4 team, our day derailed. Sometimes just one team member is enough to throw the team off course, especially when there are only two team members. Emily had a tough time with this part of the desert and ended up getting pretty frustrated with the conditions we had to drive the small car with daily driver suspension. Even though Alicia handled the desert like she has been driving it for years, we did not succeed.

As the day wore on and points were lost, we ended up just having to get back to camp before dark. Alicia decided the 4x4 road (marked on the map) was the way to go. Per usual, she and the car handled it like they were born for it.

When we got back to camp we had a serious discussion of issues through the day and how to fix it for the rest of the rally.

Once we got to the finish line, there was a challenge! Even though we weren't in the mood for any more of anything that day, we looked at each other and both said "yes" to the unknown at the same time. We shared a smile, counted on the shared love and confidence we have in each other and hopped to it.

Because Emily practiced before the rally, we ended up winning the Falken Tire Change Challenge and even though we didn't win the free set of tires, we had a great time and received a ton of congratulatory high fives!

Putting a rough day behind us is something we are good at. We both felt the need to succeed as well as knowing we couldn't change anything that had already happened.

We started with a very slow/navigational enduro called a Precision Enduro. It was more difficult as there were controls that weren't necessarily meant for your team (and would get you a penalty if you drove by them) but was also based solely on distance and heading. Hope you declinated those compasses!!! (We did!) Even though we had not done this specific type before, we succeeded and ended up getting all of the points!

Then we headed into a long enduro past Joshua Tree, the Salton Sea, Slab City and Salvation Mountain. There was an area with black checkpoints (Alicia can't say no to a black checkpoint) so we headed off and drove next to a VERY well marked active bombing range.

There was a blue checkpoint to hit after the black and it ended up being on a closed for construction road. In true Alicia and Emily fashion, we had a difference of opinion. Alicia said do it and Emily said we shouldn't. Finally Alicia's adventurous sense won out and we carefully maneuvered, some on foot, to get the blue points.

After we enjoyed all that Salvation Mountain and the black checkpoint had to offer, we headed out on the long drive to Glamis.

As the Rally takes most everything off of your maps except for the topographical elements, we ended up a bit off course but found our way using geographical landmarks and some team logic. This was closer to home for Alicia and she knew the 78 highway should be marked on the map. It was at this point we realized how scrubbed and stripped down the maps were.

It was finally time to swap drivers and Emily drove the dunes for the second half of the day. As something we were still a bit wary of, we ended up having a great time. Emily handled the dunes with confidence.

The final day and the dunes!! The day was met with a sense of impossibility that we were at the end. I distinctly remember laying in the tent after day 3 and thinking, how will we ever survive 4 more days of this. All the sudden it is the end of the Rally and we desperately wish it wasn't.

We aired down our tires and suction cupped our whip flag on the car and were off.

We decided, being noobs to the desert, to take headings off of a large radio towers and other tall things we thought we could use. Welp! Joke was on us, we never ended up seeing ANY of the things we had taken headings off of, until we finished the day back at camp.

As the day went on we realized that Alicia has a weird knack of reading dunes and knowing where they are on the map. Emily had a great time going up and down dunes and generally driving through the sand to her hearts content.

Around midday we realized it had been a few hours since we had seen anyone else. In the odd and honest conversations you end up having through 10 hours of driving, we each admitted that we were feeling weirdly claustrophobic. How does that happen in the wide open of the desert? It is simply that we are so used to be inundated with humanity, the feeling of being alone was huge and unsettling. You never knew if 20 people were just on the other side of the dune or if no one was around for miles.

The day ended with us searching but not finding a final blue. Alicia wanted to get the last point and was hoping by hoofing around a dune she might find it. We found out that night, there were LARGE cat prints in the sand around the trees of the oasis. We never did find the blue, but we made it to camp on time. We didn't make up the points needed to secure first place but we did stay point for point with more experienced teams that day so we will take that as a win.

As a fun treat we had grabbed a bottle of champagne and used our KAVU wine pouch to keep it safe. It bumped and jostled along with us for the whole Rally and we felt nothing would end it better than popping the cork at camp.

There isn't much else to say and way more that could be shared. This is such a special, large, humbling and personal experience that it is hard to put into words. Ask us out for coffee sometime, we would LOVE to share more.