{"id":43974,"date":"2021-11-02T01:13:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-02T07:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gade-navigates-way-through-rebelle-rally\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:16:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:16:35","slug":"gade-navigates-way-through-rebelle-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/gade-navigates-way-through-rebelle-rally\/","title":{"rendered":"Gade navigates way through Rebelle Rally"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Jessica
Jessica Gade and her partner Tasha Booth drive across the desert during the Rebelle Rally. Gade was in charge of the navigating them to secret checkpoints. (Courtesy Jessica Gade)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The goal of the Rebelle Rally is to find secret checkpoints hidden throughout the desert in Nevada, Arizona and California.<\/p>\n

The competitors, all women, can\u2019t use GPS devices or cellphones to navigate. Instead, they have to rely on paper maps, compasses and road books to find their way.<\/p>\n

Jessica Gade, who recently moved to Durango from Tempe, Arizona, for a change of pace and smaller community, finished 13th out of 42 teams with her partner, Tasha Booth. Gade is now a physical therapist at the Mercy Regional Medical Center.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty incredible,\u201d Gade said. \u201cIt was a very unique event.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jessica
Jessica Gade, left, and Tasha Booth enjoy a moment at the Rebelle Rally. (Courtesy Jessica Gade)<\/span>Courtesy Jessica Gade<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The rally, now in its sixth year, is the first women\u2019s off-road navigation rally raid in the U.S. It is not a race for speed, but a unique and demanding event based on the elements of headings, hidden checkpoints, time and distance, using maps, a compass and roadbooks.<\/p>\n

Gade served as her team\u2019s navigator. Booth, whom she met in December on Facebook, was the driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a navigator, I had to learn a whole new skill set,\u201d Gade said. \u201cYou have to just know if you made a wrong turn.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said there were 20 to 25 checkpoints for the competitors to find each day. Some checkpoints were visible, like flags or poles; others weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

After getting a sheet with all the checkpoints\u2019 GPS locations, she said they had about two hours to plan and would then spend roughly 10 hours driving around searching for them in their Toyota Tacoma.<\/p>\n

Some of the checkpoints also had open and closing times limiting when the competitors could find them.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou really have to plan well what you think you can do and can\u2019t,\u201d Gade said. \u201cYou have to figure out what maps to use and plan what\u2019s reasonable. And sometimes the roads on maps aren\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said her favorite quote from the rally was, \u201cThe road should have been there,\u201d adding, \u201cYou just have to figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Glamis Sand Dunes in California posed extra challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scariest was the dunes,\u201d Gade said. \u201cYou can tip or roll if you aren\u2019t careful.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said they got stuck once during the rally, and it was in the dunes. \u201cLuckily, another team pulled us out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said that day, \u201cstarted as the worst day possible,\u201d with the wind blowing sand in her mouth and eyes and carrying her map away.<\/p>\n

She said they went out and were trying to find a black checkpoint, but had no idea where they were so they had to go back to base. Back at the base, they joined up with a team that had four to five years\u2019 experience who helped them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just a cutthroat competition,\u201d Gade said. \u201cThere\u2019s good camaraderie, and you make some incredible friendships.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jessica
Jessica Gade and her partner, Tasha Booth, drive across the desert during the Rebelle Rally. (Courtesy Jessica Gade)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Participating in the rally also was a big goal for Gade after being diagnosed with Hodgkin\u2019s lymphoma cancer and undergoing six months of chemotherapy and two weeks of radiation.<\/p>\n

She said she wanted to do the rally years ago after her nurse friend did the first Rebelle Rally, but other friends told her it was a waste of money. Entry for the event is $13,000.<\/p>\n

Her illness became the motivation she needed to sign up and do the rally.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter I was diagnosed, I needed some kind of motivation,\u201d she said. \u201cMy husband (Lasse Norgaard-Larsen) was definitely my No. 1 supporter.\u201c<\/p>\n

Some days, she couldn\u2019t get off the couch and, with a pandemic going on, couldn\u2019t really visit with others.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a goal is really important to get you though those bad days,\u201d Gade said, adding, \u201cOne thing I learned in the rally is the little things don\u2019t matter. There\u2019s no reason to get upset if you make a wrong turn; just turn around.\u201d<\/p>\n

A week ago marked one year of being done with chemotherapy for Gade. \u201cI still don\u2019t feel 100%, but I\u2019m getting there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

During the rally, she said she felt underprepared on the first day but improved her compassing and understanding of topography during the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the end, I was like, \u2018I got this,\u2019\u201d Gade said.<\/p>\n

And while finishing 13th placed her team in the top third, she wanted to do better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really hard on myself,\u201d Gade said. \u201cI\u2019m glad we did as well as we did, but now I\u2019m out for blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she\u2019s currently interviewing drivers and would love to do the event again next year but would need sponsors to help her out.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the girls who do this are professionals, but I want to show anyone can do this,\u201d Gade said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know how to navigate a year ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seeing beautiful scenery, making new friendships, acquiring new skills and pushing herself, however, was a special experience for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just an amazing experience, and has so much deep meaning for me now that I\u2019ve experienced it,\u201d she said, repeating the biggest lesson she took away from the rally: \u201cDon\u2019t let the small things get you down; they don\u2019t matter at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eight-day event focuses on map and compass skills<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43975,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43974"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85918,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43974\/revisions\/85918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43974"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}