July 20, 2015

Bogus Basin 2015 Results

The Johnson and Wears families prepare to plunge into Intermediate Course navigation

There's a cliff above the parking lot near the Simplot Lodge. The map shows it as impassable. Strictly speaking it's not entirely impassable. Almost any cliff can be climbed, and we now know this cliff is no exception. This particular cliff sits in the middle of the path from Control 10 to Control 11, posing a choice of routes either to the east or west. Madison Thomas informed me that there is a third choice—directly up the cliff. The Thomas family (dad Dustin, mom Heidi, son Quentin and the aforementioned intrepid Madison) finished the Intermediate Course in a respectable hour and fifty-two minutes to earn a fourth place. How much time they saved via the direct route is unknown. Although the things I learn about CTOC orienteers no longer surprise me, they do still amaze me.

Carrie with Kerry Davis
And then there is Carrie Magnuson who finished third on the Intermediate Course. When Carrie reserved a map she was undecided whether to do the Beginner Course or to tackle the Intermediate Course. Carrie's first O experience was Rabbit Creek when she accompanied her Rugby comrade, Kerry Davis. After some consultation Carrie chose to venture onto the Intermediate Course. Well, Carrie demonstrated that she is not a beginner with her third place finish within two minutes of Melanie Wright. Congratulations, Carrie, on a very good first solo run on an off-trail course.

The Wears and Johnson families came to Bogus in much the same situation as Carrie. They had previous experience at the beginner level and decided to take that next very big step up to off-trail navigation. Although they did not finish, they reported that they had fun. We have more of that kind of fun ahead in August and September. We hope to see more of you and share your fun.

Katrina & Kelly at Control 6
Katrina Wright and Kelly Golden are our youngest competitors. They took on the Beginner Course without adult assistance and finished all smiles. This was not your grandmother's Beginner Course. It required some off-trail travel guided only by the map. And it had a control not visible from the trail. So, for those of you who are familiar with OUSA's color scheme, this course in places exceeded the difficulty of white and yellow. Good job girls. There's a lot to learn, and you're doing it. Also, thanks for going back out and picking up the entire Beginner's course.

Sergey, as usual set the pace on the Advanced Course. He kindly provided us with his route. There are red circles identifying the two locations where Sergey lost time. The first loss could be attributed to a boulder that was not mapped. The mapper offers his apology. However, the second location was Sergey's failure to follow one of those indistinct snowshoe trails. Sergey does occasionally have a navigation error. Given the vagueness of the trail and the unreliability of the contours, it's hard to see how at some point he would not.

A respiratory infection held Ben Brock back and rewarded his efforts with a persistent post-race cough. We hope you are feeling better, Ben.

 
Thanks to Michael Bading for picking up most of the Advanced Course controls. And special thanks to my co-director, Melanie Wright, for all of the help from yummy treats to control pickup. It made a big difference.

Next month we have the opportunity to indulge in a weekend of orienteering on two new world-class maps. These maps began with LiDAR contours obtained two years ago. Last summer CTOC hired Alexey Zuev to come from Russia to map Dutch Lake and Trap Creek. CTOC regulars know the high quality of Alexey's work from the many meets, including last month's A-meet, that we've held on the Gold Rush map. If you value the navigation element of orienteering, you won't want to miss these two new maps on August 8 and 9. For those of you who demand a test of endurance, I suspect that the directors, Sergey and Ben, will find some distance and elevation too.

Meet directors,

Melanie Wright
John Murray

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