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| Typical Badger Hole Terrain |
A few weeks ago I wrote
that I hadn't selected an name for the February 4 orienteering venue
and solicited suggestions. Well, while driving to the event a sign for a business caught Ben Brock's attention. I don't recall the type
of business, but I do remember the key words: “Badger Hole”. One
thing you notice while orienteering on this site is the number of
badger, fox and prairie dog holes. On the Tuesday before the meet
Sergey Velichko ran the course in its preliminary design phase in
less than an hour. He reported badger holes causing him to fall twice
before he slowed his pace and began spending more time looking at his
foot placement. Henceforth this venue will not be known
as Firebird or Freeze Out. It's Badger Hole.
There's not a tree to be
found. There's not a boulder anywhere. With the exception of the
clusters of animal dens this is highly runnable terrain.
Navigation is all about contours and the network of ORV trails. The
course design minimized the utility of the trails, placing the
navigational burden on reading the contours.
Those of you who are
familiar with cheat grass, medusahead and other noxious grasses know
how annoying squirreltail can be. Usually, the seeds have fallen to
the ground by February. That was not the case this year. Whatever we
might think the benefits of the mild winter, it appears that
squirreltail penetrating shoes and clinging to socks is not one of
them. Adequate gaiters, resistant shoes and/or unconventional
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| Norma and Bonnie in their duct taped shoes |
means
of protection were necessary. The accompanying photo of Bonnie's and
Norma's duct tape clad shoes exhibits one effective strategy.
The weather was good. The temperature was mild. The
terrain was in remarkably good condition for a February meet—dry
without being frozen. It was pretty much an ideal morning to
orienteer on a fun new map in our foothills. Regrettably, only five orienteers came
out. Jeff Black and Ben Brock ran the 7.5 kilometer advanced course.
Ben finished in 1:08 and Jeff ran it in 1:40. Carrie Magnuson
completed the 3.4 kilometer intermediate course in 1:04. The team of
Norma Bailey and Bonnie Coiner was unable to find a couple of
controls. I expect they will do much better next month at Ann Morrison Park.
Thanks to Ben for picking up most of the controls. Ben came pretty close to running the course twice.
Sergey will direct the
next meet on the Ann Morrison map he has expanded once again. We hope
to see you there on Saturday, March 17.
John Murray
Meet Director
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