West Slope Photo Orienteering

The first CTOC photo orienteering event comes to a close.  People seemed to enjoy it and I got entries from across the country. There were two sets of controls that were very similar and easy to get mixed up and sure enough several people did get those wrong, but a few managed to figure it out resulting in a three way tie for first with all correct. I'm sure some people didn't send in their guesses but here are the results from those who did.  The solutions are at the bottom of the post. Thanks to all who participated!

Photo-O Results:

Name	Score
Mike Avery (NOOC)	15
Ole Bergset (CTOC)	15
Dustin Thomas	15
John Harbuck (EWOC)	13
Kirsten Severud	11
Richard & Nancy Burgey (ROC)	11
Christy & Scott Morris	11
Ben Hipple	9
Sanae Rogers (NOOC)	9
Donna P.	8

May 27 - June 2
West Slope Bear Basin Photo-O

As a fun diversion I have created a “Photo-Orienteering” event that you can do from the comfort of your own home.  I have created a virtual course starting and finishing at the West Slope snowmobile parking lot on the west side of our Bear Basin map near McCall.  With this event you don’t have to drive all the way there however!  I took a picture at each control location, your challenge is to choose which photo goes with which control number.  The control location is in the center of the frame and each photo is taken in the direction of north. 

Send me your answers: control number with photo letter name, by the end date to be included in the results or just do it for fun.  A link to the solutions will be posted after the end date.  

As an example the Start /Finish area is photo “J”.  

There are a couple of tricky very similar ones, but if you look carefully there are differences, and there is one extra photo.  Click on the thumbnails below for a larger view.  All are welcome to play, share with friends.

-         - Karin

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

P

Q

R

West Slope Course Map

Legend

Solutions:

Control	Photo
Start	J
1	I
2	D
3	H
4	P
5	N
6	L
7	E
8	F
9	M
10	G
11	A
12	C
13	K
14	B
15	Q
Finish	J

Idaho City Motala across the ages

Alecia, Belen, Eloise, coming through the start-finish area.

One of the things I love about orienteering is that it is a sport for the whole family, from the very young to, well, the other end of the scale. I love that children, parents, and grandparents can all participate in a common sporting event. Saturday's Motala at Idaho City was a wonderful example of this. We had 31 competitors on the top of our wild Idaho hill last weekend, from about 15 families, depending on how you count. Families competed together as teams and tested themselves in rivalries against one another. As much as we are all missing soccer, lacrosse, and our usual Memorial Day weekend destinations this spring, I for one, was thrilled to see so many young people out for this event.

Our socially distant mass start.

The results are shown below. Two teams did one loop. Christy and Scott Morris had a tough draw getting one of the toughest (and the longest, except the final) loops first, which kept them busy for a while. John & Eli Arambarri made short work of the beginner loop. Three teams completed two loops. We were happy to see Cat's son Miguel out with his mom for his first (I think) CTOC event. Four teams completed three loops with Sam and Dave Murray finishing on top. John Murray and Innes Wright each missed a control on one of their loops and so their time for their four complete loops was counted. Matt Robinson turned in a very respectable CTOC first-time performance making his way back into orienteering.

Getting through all 5 loops (6.25km, about 300m climb) in the 2-hour (with some leeway) time limit took some advanced navigational skills and a lively pace. Seven competitors (6 solo and 1 team) pulled it off. Sergey showed us what a world class time looks like (coming in 35 minutes ahead of #2 Chris Slavin). Liam Murray and Katrina Wright represented Boise High upcoming Juniors very well, besting their parents and grandparents for the day. Ole proved that hip replacement surgery isn't keeping him out of the top tier of competitors. Finally, the Ford family adapted with a mix of team members on a couple of loops to get the most out of the course and the day.

Liam Murray, demonstrating his lively pace

Sergey, demonstrating his post-race skill set for Chris.

Katrina, showing the results of her cliff-slide method of reaching controls

Thanks to my co-director John Murray for map planning and course flagging, Innes, Katrina, and Penny for help with scouting and just keeping me company on the drive and course setting, and Norma Bailey for photos. Hope to see everyone out at the Queen Mine event on June 7!

Major Revision and Enhancement of the 2020 CTOC Meet Schedule

If you have visited our Meetup.com page recently, you already know that COVID-19 took a toll on our scheduled events. We canceled Rabbit Creek and the Vampire-O because they are social as well as orienteering meets. As such they posed an unacceptable risk of viral transmission.

With adherence to social distancing procedures we believe we can have a full, even enhanced, schedule. You can read our social distancing protocol here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10BFmcsOZdQ7KtXWpF3tIGfLltMMs3q-0/view?usp=sharing Beginning on May 23 with our Gold Rush Motala through October 18 we have eight meets scheduled with a two-day meet in July. The revised and enhanced schedule appears below. 

For details see the CTOC schedule at Meetup.com. https://www.meetup.com/City-of-Trees-Orienteering-Club/events/

Note that two meets in our spring-summer-fall period lack a director. They do have experienced co-directors who will give extensive advice and assistance to novice directors. Assistance includes working with mapping software, course design, and administration. We can hold these meets only if we have directors. Please contact any member of the leadership team if you would like to explore the possibility of directing a meet.

John Murray