Bear Basin Results 2011

It was a hot (90 degrees), sunny day in the mountains for our score meet. The area is undergoing extensive thinning (logging) activity and our course design had to be adjusted accordingly. Should be better for us in the long run after the logging debris is cleaned up and the dust settles. Also new single track mtn. bike trails seem to appear daily and old roads either get gated or "decommissioned". Huckleberries were sparse due to unusual weather conditions, and the bears hungry!
Runners were allowed 90 mins. to get as many controls as they could, starting individually. The six easy controls in the meadow near the start were worth one point each (and also made up the beginner course), the rest were worth 2 points, with a one point per minute overtime penalty. The score format allowed participants to select which controls to try for and their route to them, it also would allow one to give up on a control if they couldn't find it and move on to other controls. Some of the controls gave people some trouble with ZZ on the west side of the map being a real mystery with Andy and Elijah never finding it and Sergey making a rare 7 min. error there. Most other participants found it easily. Sergey also had a problem with his next control XF because he hit the trail west of where he thought he was and went west by mistake instead of east. He then tried to climb straight up to the upper trail which was probably a bad choice because that steep hillside is very dense with logging debris and thick bushes. On the right is Andy's route as recorded by his GPS (firmly placed in his back pocket during the course), they went in a clockwise direction.

We can see by Andy's GPS that we need to adjust some of the trail locations a bit, but the control locations are pretty good. Bill and his two dogs decided to get a good workout and go for all the controls and came in just a bit late. David brought his friend Steve to try orienteering for the first time and he went for the gusto. His inexperience caused him to be unable to find several controls, but his athleticism got him to all corners of the map, still a very impressive showing for a first timer. Bob helped me out by checking four of the farthest out controls on bike to make sure they hadn't disappeared since being placed several days earlier.
It was good to hear that several of our CTOC members are planning on going to the Sierra 3-day A meet coming up soon, it will be a great orienteering experience! Thanks to Andy, Ole, Jeff D., Bill, and Jeff B. for control pick up help.
- Karin Didisse

Score Course - 32 pts. possible 7.3km 210m. climb (all)

Name - Time (rel. to limit) - Points - Final Points
Sergey Velichko, -19, 32, 32
Ole Bergset, 0, 29, 29
David Murray, -2, 28, 28
Jeff Black, +2, 29, 27
Andy & Elijah Hill, 0, 17, 17
Jeff Decker, +2, 18, 16
Steve Raeder, -1, 15, 15
John Murray, +3, 15, 12
Bob Didisse (bike), 0, 8, 8
Bill Pilcher, +38, 32, -6

Beginner Course 1.8km
Dondi Black & Toby dog 26:43