August 6, 2014

August 3 Meet Report - Dutch lake mystery

Congratulations to all who tried very demanding and technical terrain at Dutch lake near Stanley last Sunday!

Group photo at the start - lots of smiles!



The Dutch lake map is not really ready yet so we used a basemap for the day with few sample boulders and trails.

On beginner course Rosie with her dad Andy Hill and Dondi Black with friend Toby successfully navigated easy 4 first controls and really advanced last 2 controls. Rosie and Andy on the photo - ready to navigate!



Intermediate and advanced courses attracted the biggest crowd .

My apologies to all for misplacing control 4! It was placed wrongfully in parallel similar hill/depression pair ~100m West of where it should. I make mistakes too :) Extra points to Ben, Levi, and Karin who made sure to find the right feature! Even more extra points to all who found it in the wrong place!

Ben Brock and Levi Schmitt navigated extra difficult advanced course in 1:54 while Karin Didisse finished it in 2:35. They were the only trio who completed the entire course.

Chris and Mikayla Rose, Bob Didisse, Jerry Stewart, Bill Leahy, Jay Morgen, Kerry Davis, Jeff Black, John Murray, and Andy Hill - all receive credit for trying hard to complete either red level intermediate or blue level advanced course.

This kind of moraine terrain is pretty unique. Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan have some of this terrain. We are blessed in Idaho to have such a diversity of terrains ranging from open prairie, complex ridge, re-entrant, and spur mountain pine woods, and finishing with intricate moraine. A maze of depressins, hills, small lakes, re-entrants, and spurs of moraine terrain requires special tactics and route choices. I will publish soon an article on it here at our blog.

Famous depressions require some thinking!



More of depressions



John traverses un-mapped stream 



Some discussion over the map



Many thanks go to John for discovering and initially assessing this area together with Karin! He is awarded with Idaho honorable chain of discovery!



I really hope that Alexei will transform basemaps for both Dutch lake and Trap creek areas into jewels that our club and national orienteering community will enjoy for years to come.

Big thanks to Jeff Black for photos on this page!

Our next event is a National orienteering day meet at Veteran's park Saturday September 13. Jeff and Dondi Black are creating courses for us to enjoy. See you all there!

Yours,
Sergey Velichko