31st Chelsea Road Rally
Sunday, May 17, 2026 11am

The 31st annual Chelsea Road Rally was held on Sunday, May 17th. It was a beautiful sunny spring day with temperatures in the low 70's and the competitors were all smiles and eager to get started on the course. This year there were 69 vehicles entered with about 220 adult competitors taking part in the brain teasing contest.

Everyone got off to a good start from the Chelsea Waste Water Treatment Facility, with all 69 teams successfully making their way to the Mileage checkpoint, which was located near the Last Chance General Store in West Fairlee, a distance of 13.7 miles. It was at this point that the clues actually began. The course led up Beanville road, turned left into Strafford on the Miller Pond road then right onto Ayers road, which led briefly into Vershire. After traveling back into Strafford on the Old City Falls road, checkpoint number one was reached on the Hemenway road. Sixty-eight cars reached this point. After a ride up the Van Dyke road, the course, once again followed the Old City Falls road back into Strafford, but this time it took the competitors behind the fire station and made its way to the Kibling Hill road. This leg of the course led into Tunbridge, down the Town Farm road to checkpoint two just in front of the Cilley covered bridge and amazingly 67 teams made it to this point. This year's cookout was held right next to the checkpoint. Rob Howe generously allowed Tim Carter, Kathy Myers and Terry and Judy Libby to set up their cooking/feeding station in the edge of his field, to provide 100 cheeseburgers, 95 hot dogs, baked beans, cole slaw and cookies, mostly on the grab and go method. The meal is included in the entry fee.

The third leg of the course, which is where the clues become much more difficult to decipher, led through Tunbridge, up onto Ward Hill, down Russell road and then across the Howe covered bridge and up Belknap Brook road. The course led up Gilley road back into Strafford to checkpoint number three at the trailhead parking on Robinson road. 56 teams were able to make it to this checkpoint.

The final and most difficult leg of the course, headed north on Brook road, down Ames and Carpenter roads, turned right after the Huntington Farm and up the Alger road. The course led past Miller Pond and then back over several of the same roads that were in segment one, back to South Vershire, on to Vershire Center and past the Mountain School. Finally the course arrived at Vershire village and turned left onto the North road and finished at the Vershire Bible church. 50 teams successfully completed the difficult course with ten teams scoring near perfect mileage.

The course this year led through just five townships and like the two previous rallies the route was entirely within Orange County. The route this year was very unusual as the main body of the course traversed only the three towns of Strafford, Tunbridge and Vershire. The total distance of the course this year, including the 13.7 miles to the Mileage checkpoint was 70.6 miles. There were 27 bonus questions this year. Each bonus question correctly answered is worth one half mile deducted from each team's mileage. That means that a perfect score would be 70.6 – 13.5 = 57.1. This year the Gorilla Glue "stick to it" award went to team #3, Michele Downer, Megan Liptak and Brittany Ramsey who successfully completed the course in 102.0 miles. The Ever Ready "bunny rabbit" award for "just keeps on going" went to team #14, Ron and Simone Arms and Chris and Lisa Many, who stuck with it for eight hours and fifty minutes to complete the course.

The top 20 teams this year were, in first place with a perfect mileage and all 27 bonus answers was #59 Calvin Hoyt, Emily Potts, Justin & Randi Merchand, 57.1; 2. #41 Melissa & Amy Kingsbury, Tony McCullough, 57.6; 2. #53 Rawlin & Ashley Hoyt, Chad & Sherilyn Couture, 57.6; 4. #6 Jason & Megan Flye, Donald Smith, 57.7; 5. #1 Jon Beebe, Ron & Cindy Allen, John Parker, Sarah Bailey, 57.9; 5. #26 Chris & Stacey Blanchard, Dan Small, Sierra Courville, 57.9; 7. #32 Ted, Linda & Tyler Hoyt, Sirena Anair, 58.1; 7. #50 Hunter Trombley, Julie Tenney, Carol Higgins, 58.1; 9. #62 Kenny, Nick & Ryan Bresette, 58.2; 10. #69 Mike, Diane & Nathan Lints, 59.0; 11. #66 Casey Reed, Bond Worthington, 59.2; 12. #23 Christina Chamberlain, Jane Ackerman, Amy Parker, 59.6; 13. #17 Ed, Lynn & Cadence Burgess, 59.7; 14. #24 Jerry & Shannon Murphy, Gordy, Luke & Kirsten Barnaby, 60.3; 15. #52 Jason Stride, Lexi Higgins, 60.4; 16. #42 Richard Wood, Alesia McCoy, Leon & Lori Beede, 60.8; 17. #29 Dave Bradshaw, Wayne Coburn, 61.1; 18. #45 Tim & Shelly Parker, Rod & Monica Clark, 61.4; 19. #20 Tanya Stratton, Chandra Miller, Kelsey Jacobs, 61.5; 20. #13 Tom & Marie Robbins, Randy & Nancy Chapman, 62.1; 20. #65 Baron & Tenny Johnson, 62.1.

Will Gilman

Download a sample copy of the clues from 2016.

Examples and (explanations):

14. Go with bow’s companion
(follow the highway Arrow)
15.  Go tight to big blue with Barney access point
(a blue house with a purple door)
16.  No Jayne or Audrey today, but one of these days Alice, right to the moon
(avoid a road with Meadow in its name)
17.  No 12 tons right now
(avoid the load-limited bridge)