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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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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