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Click to expand and see the snowflakes.
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That's almost, but not quite a bad meet. A brief history of the troubled
orienteering meet at Whoop Um Up:
In June of 2024 I expanded the map
across Highway 21 to the west and northwest and scheduled a meet for
July. Smoke from forest fires caused 2 postponements. (Maybe more, I
lost track) A case of Covid caused an other postponement. I finally
gave up on 2024 and rescheduled for June 7, 2025, which I rescheduled
to June 21 for personal reasons.
Even on Friday evening with a forecast
of overnight rain, wind, and potentially more rain during the day it
seemed that Whoop 2025 was fated to be a disappointment. By 10
o'clock in the morning
the tide had turned. The vegetation was wet threatening some
discomfort, but fully within the tolerance of orienteers. And,
importantly, Andy Hill had helped me correct some design flaws in the
courses. So, after many delays this meet actually happened, and it
happened with some good weather as the adjacent photo of Peter Auman attests and some good results.
And it happened in spite of some
inexcusable errors in the map that confused and delayed orienteers. A
very confusing trail near the start appeared on the map, but did not
exist on the ground. Nearby a recently constructed bridge was missing
from the map. One two-track appeared as a trail. On the Advanced
Course I misplaced a control on a boulder cluster on the east side of
a spur instead of on a cliff on the west side. Those errors are just
some of the causes of my mea culpa.
If I had been orienteering on this map,
I believe I would have been confused and grouchy. Maybe I've just
reached the curmudgeon stage of life. Nevertheless, I was surprised
that Saturday's orienteers returned to the finish with smiles on
their faces and seemed generally to have enjoyed themselves. I know
most of these people to be kind and gracious. That's one explanation
for the smiles. Another incident sheds some light on their character.
One control had been placed on a root stock well off a trail where I
believed it was safe from disturbance by passersby. Several
orienteers spent as much as 20 minutes searching for it after a
nearby camper removed it. I believe it was Peter Friedewald who ran
down the camper and recovered the control to its proper location.
Peter, his wife Ruth, and notably their
daughter Edie navigated the Sport Course. Edie took her compass in
hand and turned in a winning time. What a great way to begin the
sport of orienteering. Any time Sergey Velichko is absent from a
meet, he is missed in large part because he sets the standard on the
Advanced Course. The particular reason Sergey was missed is because
after completing the Sport Course Peter ran the Advanced Course in an
impressive 1:15:51. I wish we had Sergey's standard for comparison.
As interesting as the results might be,
they should be considered in light of the map deficiencies noted
above and the purloined/replaced control. That control penalized
early starts Kirsten and Andy. Kirsten, for example, estimated she
lost as much as 20 minutes searching for the missing control. As
noted above, it wasn't until Peter Friedewald came along later that
early orienteers got back on track. Also, there was a control
numbering error that might have affected some, but not others.
Special thanks to Andy Hill for setting
some missing controls as well as helping with pickup. Peter Auman,
David Murray, and Liam Murray also helped with pickup. Their help
relieved me of returning another day to clean up. Photos courtesy of Andy and Kirsten.
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| Andy and Peter Aumann Approaching a Control |
The next meet is Sunday, June 29 at
Bear Basin in McCall directed by Karin Didisse on national
championship terrain. I hope to see you there.
John Murray
Meet Director
