October 10, 2020

The Smoke Clears on Grayback Gulch

After a one-week smoke weather delay, we held our inaugural meet on our new map site at Grayback Gulch campground just south of Idaho City on September 26. Somewhat small in footprint, the map suited a Motala style event offering up to 5 loops, with the 5th loop a bit more physically strenuous than the prior four. The terrain was mostly runnable with just enough trails, roads, and other features to keep route choice interesting. The morning started out wet, after rain all Friday night. The sun came out and dried both the terrain and the people out nicely by mid-day. 25 participants included newcomers Michael Murray, Michelle Madler, and Jason & Reese Russell. Ethan O'Conner was a guest on walkabout from Cascade Orienteering Club.  

The results by number of loops completed are shown below.  And our newcomers definitely shined. We were especially impressed with first-timer's Jason (Dad) and 8th grader Reese's top performance over 4 loops. Our Seattle guest Ethan gave Sergey a little needed competition. Although they started a couple of minutes apart on different loops, by the final loop, they were competing neck and neck to take the top spot for the full course. Sergey edged it out, finishing the loop just a minute ahead of Ethan (and having started a couple of minutes later). There was also tight competition for third in the five loop group with Innes, James, and John all coming in within three minutes of one another. John, who had mapped the area and done the initial course design, had an unfair advantage and gave himself the extra challenge of memorizing each loop and running without a map.  



It was fantastic to be enjoying the outdoors and the company on a beautiful early fall day, forgetting our woes for a moment.  Looking forward to the next one at Gopher Hole! Special thanks to John Murray for the map work, course design, and fixing a control I had miss-placed.

Sincerely,
Melanie Wright, Meet Director









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