Bogus Basin Results and Mea Culpa

August Meet

It's customary to include a notice for the next meet at the end of the current meet report. Because the next meet in Stanley Basin is on the first of our new LiDAR maps, I am choosing to feature it at the top of the report. The new Dutch Lake Map has exceptionally well detailed contours. August 3 will be an opportunity to get a preview of area and what LiDAR technology can do for us. Sergey will have a more complete announcement later, but for now he sends us this note:

The meet is Sunday August 3. It will be run on the Dutch Lake Map. Starts 10am-noon. 3 courses will be offered: longer advanced, shorter intermediate, high level beginner. Beginner course would require venturing into terrain, use of compass, and ability to read contours. It is not suitable for first- comers. Any person on the beginner course would be required to be accompanied by an experienced partner. Driving will involve about 2km on a dirt road. It is relatively fine but very low clearance vehicles are not advised.

Bogus Basin

I have a friend who says that everyone has a purpose, even if it's only to serve as a bad example. I was that person Sunday in my role as the director of the Bogus Basin Meet. Because I truly love this sport, it pains me to make a mess of a meet. I know that most of the meets I direct have a casual, if not disorganized, flavor. I hope that most of you view that as a satisfactory trade for additional mapping. However, this meet fell far short even of my lax standards.

I am posting results as we always do. These results have very little value in comparing performances due to the most egregious of the problems. Jason and Karen Quinn finished Loop 1 without finding Control 7. Since it was located close to the finish I offered to show them where it was. We methodically walked to the boulder marked by Control 7. Much to my surprise and alarm there was no control bag. Without thinking it through I concluded that someone had removed the control. A little reflection led me to a different conclusion. No one would have seen the control and snatched it because it was completely out of the public view. As far as I know, there are no control-eating species endemic to Bogus Basin. I suspect there are some of you who silently harbor the belief that I never set the control. However, I am only able to reach one acceptable explanation. I present the photographic evidence so you can reach the only logical conclusion. Some participants searched long and hard. Others gave up quickly. Yet others found the control I set after discovering the problem. There is no way to handicap the individual loss of time.

 

 

I wish I could call this meet a comedy of errors. There was no comedy, only error. It started with confusion about the date of the meet originally posted as Saturday, July 13. Saturday was July 12. There was the purloined control noted above. And finally, I elected to omit control codes. I retain my opinion that control codes are unnecessary for local meets on a classic course. This was a local meet, but it was not a classic course. All three loops of what is probably best described as a Motala overlapped. Some controls were used on both Loop 1 and Loop 3. On a hot day with fatigue setting in it's possible to become a little confused when you find a control not far from the control you are seeking. I know that I am easily confused and frustrated at such a juncture. Ole, in his gentlemanly way, told me that control codes would have helped. I can see clearly now that he was right. Ole's critique came as I met him while I was picking up Loop 1 controls and he was finishing Loop 3. Completely forgetting that the Loop 1 control I was picking up was also a Loop 3 control, I picked it up. Forty meters on my way I realized my error and returned to the scene of the crime arriving just as Jason Quinn appeared in search of the control then in my hand. Although the control description did not say so, I was the feature he was searching for. He punched his map with the control still in my hand.

Bogus Basin is rough terrain with too much brush to allow fully free navigation. Among the few bright spots in the day were four legs belonging to Natalie and Becca. It's not just that they were pretty legs before they started. These Riverstone students attacked Loop 1 without gaiters and emerged with nary a scratch. It was good to see David Bergset back out on the prowl for controls. And we had the Thomas family complete both Loop 1 and Loop 2. Good job!

Thank you to Ayshe Sert and Jerry Stewart for help at the start table. I really appreciated Greg Davidson's and David Bergset's assistance picking up controls.

 

And one final note on the Bogus Basin mapping project. Loops 1 and 2 expanded the map down to Bogus Creek. If I am still allowed to direct a meet next year, I plan to expand the map into some very appealing terrain. A lot of it is runnable. A lot of it has more rock features. And, while it has significant elevation challenges,  the climbs and descents are much less demanding than those found in the 2014 addition to the map. It should be fun. I can promise the meet will be better managed. How could it not be?

 

John Murray

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