City of Trees Orienteering Club - Boise, Idaho Orienteering

Veteran’s Park Meet: Saturday, January 14

2012-01-09T19:36:00.000-08:00

Want a break from pining over the lack of snow on Bogus? Then take advantage of all the snowless bluebird days, and join us for our January orienteering meet at the Veteran’s Park location (start location will be near the main parking lot at Veteran’s Park, Boise).

There will be three courses (beginner, intermediate, and advanced) suitable for all ages and abilities.
Who: Orienteers of all ages and abilities (beginners to advanced)
When: Saturday, January 14. Registration begins at 10:30 am and continues to 1 pm. Courses will be open for starts from 11 am – 1 pm. Courses close at 2 pm. You may arrive within this window to try a course, as participants start separately a few minutes apart.
Format: Motala (multi-loop Classic)
Entry fees: $5.00 per map for non-members (individual or group). Free to members of the City of Trees Orienteering Club.
You may want to bring: a watch, a compass, a snack and a cell phone. (Some compasses will be available to borrow)
Meet Director: Andy Hill

Hidden Springs Results

2011-12-15T09:22:00.000-08:00

Let it Snow! Now!

After planning and directing the December meet at Hidden Springs we more deeply appreciate Saint Augustine's conflicted prayer. “Lord, make me chaste, but not yet.” It's not our inclination to pursue chastity. However, as skiers we did pray for snow, but not quite yet. Our prayers of "not quite yet” brought sunny skies and dry terrain--orienteering conditions far exceeding reasonable hopes for December 11. Our prayers are simpler now. Let it snow! It's been cold with hoar frost in sheltered nooks delighting those slower orienteers who took the time to soak in the seasonal beauty. Blue skies and sunshine graced a scene that brought out 41 orienteers for December.

As advertised we ran on an entirely new map with new challenges. The advanced course was 7K with a daunting 450 meters of elevation gain and loss. The intermediate course ran a respectable 5K and a formidable 240 meters. Anticipating several experienced trail runners, outdoorsmen and young bucks as first-timers from the Hidden Springs neighborhood we set up a short, mostly off-trail novice course. It received favorable reviews from new orienteers who would have found little of interest in our beginner's course. And, as always, there was a beginner's course for those wanting to practice their map reading and compass technique.

In the Advanced competition the usual suspects led the field. Sergey Velichko scorched the course in 1:18 and Jeff Black ran a fast 1:38. Ole Bergset put his stomach above honor, opting for the Intermediate Course to allow enough time for a Scandinavian Club banquet. Who can fault his judgment? Bill Leahy and Russ Pilcher followed up with 2:06 and 2:30 respectively.

Bill Pilcher walked away with the largest moral victory of the day. Although he didn't win the Intermediate Class, he did turn in a faster time than his brother Russ. We were all quite impressed until we realized that Bill had mistakenly run the Intermediate Course while Russ was on the Advanced. Yeh, Bill, any way you look at it, you still had a faster time.

Honors for the top performance in the Intermediate Division went to Ben Brock. We hope to see a lot more of Ben and some of his students from Riverstone International School. The aforementioned Bill Pilcher took second place followed by regulars Ole Bergset, Karen Didisse (seen below approaching a man-made feature), Jeff Decker and Jay Morgan. Melanie Wright, who orienteered in Virginia before moving to Boise, placed seventh. Janita and Joe Gumenski finished the course in 2:37. The Stocks boys found many controls in their first experience on a challenging intermediate course. Good job guys! Next season you can apply what you learned to some of our other challenging terrain.

We set up the Novice Course as a developmental exercise over 1.6K and about 100 meters of elevation gain and loss. Times were self-reported. Unlike the beginners, the novices travelled off-trail and made some route choices, getting a taste of competitive orienteering without the physical demands of a longer and steeper course.

Please join us for our next meet on January 14 at Veteran's Park/Willow Lane. Stay tuned for details and more news.

Thank you to Ellen Crosby for the photographs and Andy Hill for assistance with printing.

Meet directors David Murray and John Murray

The Hidden Springs Hidden-O Sunday, December 11

2011-11-22T08:49:00.000-08:00

Join us for our December orienteering meet in Hidden Springs. This location provides a mix of suburban, rural, and foothills terrain. We will be using a new map that allows for flexibility in course setting come rain or shine. There will be three courses (beginner, intermediate, and advanced) suitable for all ages and abilities.

Who: Orienteers of all ages and abilities (beginners to advanced)

When: Sunday, December 11. Registration begins at 10:30 am and continues to 1 pm. Courses will be open for starts from 11 am – 1 pm. Courses close at 2 pm. You may arrive within this window to try a course, as participants start separately a few minutes apart.

Start/Finish Location:
Hidden Springs Sports Field (N. Humphreys Way and W. Dry Creek Rd.): http://g.co/maps/26chd
Hidden Springs, Idaho 83714

Format: Classic

Entry fees: $5.00 per map for non-members (individual or group). Free to members of the City of Trees Orienteering Club.

You may want to bring: a watch, a compass, a snack and a cell phone. (Some compasses will be available to borrow)

Directors: David Murray/John Murray

Caldwell City Challenge Calm Conclusions

2011-11-14T15:08:00.001-08:00

The Caldwell City Challenge has Concluded.

Sunday, November 13, 2011 saw eleven competitors converge on the City of Caldwell to compete in this inaugural event. There were eight CTOC party faithful and four newcomers: (1) my good friend and realtor, Randy Jensen, came with his best friend Henry, (2) Melanie Wright, a recent transplant from North Carolina, who found CTOC on the internet and decided to give us a try and (3) David Murray brought his friend Nick Yates and introduced him to the sport of Orienteering. Melanie and Nick each won Goody Bags (furnished by CTOC's friend, Mike Shuman, of Shu's Idaho Running Company in Boise).

The weather cooperated creating a perfect day for orienteering and there were no complaints about the map nor the course, at least none formally submitted to the complaint resolution committee (i.e., Russ Pilcher). By all accounts, a good time was had by all those who attended and all finished within the three hour time limit (eliminating the unpleasant task of assessing penalty points). Donuts and Hot Coffee (Thanks Bill) were available before the meet while competitors plotted their strategy and Hot Chili, Cake, and Apple Cider (Thanks Caroll) greeted their return.

Here are the "Official Results":

"On Foot" Division

1 Sergey Velichko 2:32 980 points (the fastest time and a perfect SCORE!)

2 Jeff Black 2:47 940 points

3 Ole Bergset 2:58 900 points

4 David Murray

and Nick Yates 2:56 890 points

5 Bill Pilcher 2:56 870 points

6 Karin Didisse 2:44 710 points

7 Randy Jensen

and Henry DeDog 2:56 310 points

"On Bike" Division

1 Andy Hill

and Elijah DeSon 2:56 960 points

2 Melanie Wright 2:32 420 points

Each of the 36 points was visited by at least 4 competitors. Two points were visited by ALL competitors: the Canyon County Courthouse and the Victorian Style Historic Isaacs House. Detailed, point by point, results are attached (Excel converted to .gif for blog purposes).

Many thanks go to Caldwell's Parks and Recreation Department for furnishing the venue; to Mike Shuman for Shu's Idaho Running Company's continuing support of our club and the "Goody Bags"; to my good friends and neighbors, Mel & Bev, for helping with the preparations, results and cleanup, to my best friend and wife Caroll for the preparations, cleanup and the great Chili w/Condiments; and to my brother & co-director Bill for his OCAD mapping skills and course vetting (hence, the confusion on how he got the wrong answer on point 28?).

Russ Pilcher

Cool and Crisp City-Coordinator DeCTOC-Club

PS: I'm still accepting complaints/protests (just ensure they're postmarked by November 13, 2011)

News flash: Orienteering in Sun Valley

2011-11-07T08:46:00.000-08:00

For those of you who attended the Vampire O, you may remember some of the participants were from the Community School in Sun Valley. As part of their classwork on orienteering, they are putting on their own meet. Details follow:

Who: Orienteering beginners to experts
When: November 12, 2011 (yes the day before the Caldwell City Challenge)
Where: Adams Gulch trailhead
Cost: $5 per person, or $10 per group
Format: Score O Rules
Registration: http://tinyurl.com/cutthroatorienteering
Contact Info: (208) 720-7576 or mstopol(at)communityschool.org
The Community School Wilderness Navigation class is hosting an orienteering event at Adams Gulch. Orienteering is a sport where participants attempt to find points on a map in a set amount of time. The format is score-O with a beginner and an advanced course. The event is suitable for total beginners to experienced orienteers Registration forms can be found at the Community School, Elephant Perch, Backwoods, below or find us on Facebook). Also, pre-event registration is from 9:15am to 9:45 am. There will be a beginner and intermediate course. Orienteering is a great way to get outside with friends or family for a fun activity.
Registration Form (mail by Nov 10 or sign up day of race)

Start Location: Adams Gulch on Trails.com

Caldwell City Challenge!

2011-11-01T20:37:00.000-07:00

SundayNovember 13, 2011

You’re Invited to join us for the

City of Trees Orienteering Club's (CTOC)

very first Caldwell City Challenge.

Caldwell City's Train Depot

Start and Finish will be at the
Memorial Park Bandshell
Memorial Park
Kimball and Grant Streets
Caldwell, ID 83605

Registration Open: 9:30 am
Maps handed out at: 10:00 am
Start time: 10:30 am
End time: 1:30 pm

You will be provided a detailed Caldwell City Map with 36 locations circled. Your goal will be to find/visit as many of the 36 locations as possible within a 3 hour time period. At the various locations, participants will read a question on the back of their map that can easily be answered if at that location. Participants will circle one of 3 multiple choice answers as proof of visiting the correct location. The specific location visited will be worth different point values based upon the distance from the start/finish area. For those competing, the highest total point scores win. There will be “On Foot” and “On Bike” categories.

You can be a competitor or a non-competitor. Baby Strollers and pets on leashes are welcome. In other words just come, enjoy the City of Caldwell, and have a good time.

Entry fees are: free to members of the City of Trees Orienteering Club, $5.00 per map for non-members (individual or group).

You may want to bring: a watch, a compass, a snack and a cell phone. (Some compasses will be available to borrow)

Hope to see you there! — Russ & Bill Pilcher, Co-directors.
Please let us know if you have ????’s. Email: rp1020@sbcglobal.net; (208) 965.9343

Vampire-O Results

2011-10-26T20:09:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it was the mild temperatures or it was a Saturday night before Halloween and folks were looking for something fun, but this year was a decent number of participants for the vampire-o. In all there were 30 participants. Some were first timers to a CTOC event and some first timers to orienteering. And of course we had experienced CTOC members there too.

It all began with a mass start and participants scattering in all directions. David and Liam Murray volunteered to be the first vampire and waited 2 minutes after the mass start before beginning their hunter for the first victim. And didn’t take long. A mere 6 minutes into the event, we heard the first shout of “vampire attack”. And we continue to hear that thorough out the 40 minute event. In total the vampire card traded hands 6 times.

Jeff Black was first to finish with a blazing time of 29min 46s followed by Rob Landis with a time of 35min 48s and each correctly punched all 16 controls. As the time ran down to the final minutes, it seemed as if everyone came in the same time. It was mayhem for the director trying to keep it all straight. That's the disadvantage of mass start & finish. Please let me know if you see an error in the results below.

After the event, there were several comments about the course. The area between controls #2 thru #7 was dubbed “vampire alley” where the vampire found it easy to claim a victim. Also, the high visibility along the outsides of the course kept the experience orienteer on their toes watching for vampire. All first timers went out of their way to let me know how much fun they had. One added benefit for the newbie’s was the course was stacked in favor of the vampire and made it possible for the inexperienced orienteer to ended up with higher scores than the experienced ones.

Thanks to everyone who help with event. Even the first timer Jim Kramer & family and students from Sun Valley Community School helped pickup the course.

Be sure to join us at the next event Caldwell Street Challenge November 13, 2011

CTOC 3rd Annual Vampire-O

2011-10-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

It is time again for our 3rd annual Vampire-O

Oct 22, 2011 @ 7pm-9pm, mass start be around 7:20pm but be early

East parking lot of Simplots Sports Complex

Map location: Simplot Sports Complex East

Besure to look over the FAQ's beforehand.
FAQ's Vampire-O

We really had a blast last year and I hope to see you again this year!

National Orienteering Day Results

2011-09-21T15:21:00.000-07:00

City of Trees Orienteering Club stalwarts celebrated National Orienteering Day September 17. It was just one of our local club meets, but it attracted a surprise competitor. Lauri Leinonen drove from Logan, Utah, hoping for a good challenge. He ran the advanced course, finishing in just a little more than a minute behind our advanced course winner, Sergey Velichko. Lauri is eager to return and asked Sergey to send him our Gold Rush Hills Map, so he can run the 2009 Northwestern Championship course on his own.

Competitors said both the Advanced and Intermediate courses were long and posed interesting route choices. Advanced Control 13 was situated on the east side of the ridge so that after a relatively short climb to a trail it offered a choice between 30 meters of climb and 52 meters of descent over a kilometer versus a mostly downhill (approximately 49 meters) run over 1.1 kilometers. There was also the direct route and variations on a shortcut.

We hoped to attract some newcomers for National Orienteering Day. To that end we offered a 3K instructional course with instructions. We were pleased to have Ben Maillet give it a try. Sadly, we had no other takers. Ben said he enjoyed the course and expects to attend more CTOC meets.

The Morgan boys, Nick and Alex took away honors on the beginner course with a time of 24:53. Liam Murray trailed not far behind at 28:11

Jay Morgan (1:33:20) and the team of Lexy and Bill Leahy (2:11:50) worked their way through the unusually tough intermediate course. It was good to have Bill back with us after an absence due to the demands of his new job.

A close race between Sergey and Lauri punctuated the advanced course competition. It's hard to know how an inaccurately placed Control 12 affected the outcome. No doubt Jeff Black would have turned in a much better time, possibly challenging the leaders, if the meet director had correctly placed the control. Ole Bergset got lost on Control 4, overshooting by a wide margin; he faulted the meet director for failure to place directional signs. Perhaps it's time for the Board of Directors to consider special signs for the benefit of orienteers of advanced age and esteemed status. And then there was David Murray, newly obsessive orienteer, who demonstrated that an orienteer can have more than one obsession. He cut his run short to watch the Cornhuskers beat the Huskies. There must be some cliche--maybe "Boys will be boys" or "Priorities!"

Special thanks to Sergey Velichko for advice and assistance in course preparation and meet administration. After a long evening and an early morning of deploying controls, I am grateful to David Bergset and Jeff Black for their assistance collecting controls.

See you on Saturday, October 22 at Simplot Sports Complex for Vampire-O.

John Murray, Meet Director

National Orienteering Day

2011-09-06T09:29:00.000-07:00

Welcome to National Orienteering Day!
On Saturday, September 17th, our club is pleased to present the Boise events for National Orienteering Day. This is a great meet to get acquainted with the sport for the first time, or a refresher after a long absence from your compass. Experienced club members will be on hand to help explain the basics. Stewart Gulch, Hillside Park and the area surrounding Hillside Junior High offer a pleasant introduction to orienteering maps without actually being lost!

Meet location: Hillside Junior High, in the parking lot near the northeast corner of the building.
Start times: 11am-1pm - you may arrive within this window to try a course, as participants start separately a few minutes apart.
Things to bring:
1. your trusty compass, or you may rent one from the club for a nominal fee.
2. a signed waiver to save you some time signing up when you get there - but we will have blanks handy.
Cost: Cheap, our usual monthly meet fee for nonmembers: $5 per individual, or $7 for a group sharing a map. Or if you're a club member, it's included!

You can choose a course that's right for you. We have a course for beginners who have never held a compass or thought about maps. This course is suitable for small children and strollers. We have an instructional course for newcomers who want to learn the essential skills to finding their way around new terrain. This course comes with a guide to its use to supplement any instruction you might receive from one of our experienced members. It requires some walking up and down hills, mostly on trails, with some off-trail travel. And, as always, we will have some more challenging courses for our experienced orienteers. Whether new to orienteering or an accomplished competitive navigator, there's a course for you.
See you on September 17!

John Murray

Bear Basin Results 2011

2011-08-23T11:18:00.000-07:00

It was a hot (90 degrees), sunny day in the mountains for our score meet. The area is undergoing extensive thinning (logging) activity and our course design had to be adjusted accordingly. Should be better for us in the long run after the logging debris is cleaned up and the dust settles. Also new single track mtn. bike trails seem to appear daily and old roads either get gated or "decommissioned". Huckleberries were sparse due to unusual weather conditions, and the bears hungry!
Runners were allowed 90 mins. to get as many controls as they could, starting individually. The six easy controls in the meadow near the start were worth one point each (and also made up the beginner course), the rest were worth 2 points, with a one point per minute overtime penalty. The score format allowed participants to select which controls to try for and their route to them, it also would allow one to give up on a control if they couldn't find it and move on to other controls. Some of the controls gave people some trouble with ZZ on the west side of the map being a real mystery with Andy and Elijah never finding it and Sergey making a rare 7 min. error there. Most other participants found it easily. Sergey also had a problem with his next control XF because he hit the trail west of where he thought he was and went west by mistake instead of east. He then tried to climb straight up to the upper trail which was probably a bad choice because that steep hillside is very dense with logging debris and thick bushes. On the right is Andy's route as recorded by his GPS (firmly placed in his back pocket during the course), they went in a clockwise direction.

We can see by Andy's GPS that we need to adjust some of the trail locations a bit, but the control locations are pretty good. Bill and his two dogs decided to get a good workout and go for all the controls and came in just a bit late. David brought his friend Steve to try orienteering for the first time and he went for the gusto. His inexperience caused him to be unable to find several controls, but his athleticism got him to all corners of the map, still a very impressive showing for a first timer. Bob helped me out by checking four of the farthest out controls on bike to make sure they hadn't disappeared since being placed several days earlier.
It was good to hear that several of our CTOC members are planning on going to the Sierra 3-day A meet coming up soon, it will be a great orienteering experience! Thanks to Andy, Ole, Jeff D., Bill, and Jeff B. for control pick up help.
- Karin Didisse

Score Course - 32 pts. possible 7.3km 210m. climb (all)

Name - Time (rel. to limit) - Points - Final Points
Sergey Velichko, -19, 32, 32
Ole Bergset, 0, 29, 29
David Murray, -2, 28, 28
Jeff Black, +2, 29, 27
Andy & Elijah Hill, 0, 17, 17
Jeff Decker, +2, 18, 16
Steve Raeder, -1, 15, 15
John Murray, +3, 15, 12
Bob Didisse (bike), 0, 8, 8
Bill Pilcher, +38, 32, -6

Beginner Course 1.8km
Dondi Black & Toby dog 26:43

Upcoming Bear Basin meet info

2011-08-13T12:28:00.000-07:00

Sunday Aug. 21 Orienteering meet, Bear Basin, McCall
Our Aug. meet will be held in the forested Bear Basin area NE of McCall. Because of logging work going on near the yurt and improved trailhead that we've been using for our meets the last couple of years, this meet will be moved back to our old meet site off Bear Basin road.

The turn off for Bear Basin Road is a short ways west of McCall on Hwy. 55. (1.4 miles west of the Warren Wagon road turn off). Turn north and drive approximately 1.4 miles along the Bear Basin Road (dirt road) leading to the meadow. Meet center will be at the road junction at the southeast end of the main Bear Basin meadow (no restrooms). Click on "Bear Basin -East, McCall" in "Maps and Directions"column to the lower right for a Google map to start.

This meet will be the Score-O format so you can choose how many controls you try for within a 1.5 hour time limit. There will also be a regular beginner course available. Start any time between 11- 1pm. Donations accepted for meet entry, but not required.
Meet Director, Karin Didisse
315-4826

Hunting for Nuggets in the Gold Rush Hills

2011-07-28T19:23:00.000-07:00

The woods beckon!
It was a beautiful morning out in the Idaho City area on Saturday July 23, 2011. Starting off cool it soon turned to a scorching day. This didn’t do anything to the general excitement in the air as people arrived ready to conquer the multiple challenges presented to them. With four courses to choose from it caused some debate as folk decided whether to choose from the Orange course to the longer Green-going-on-Red course, or if the Red (or Blue as many called it) course was worth tackling. The sun did defeat some people throughout the course of the day and they came back without finishing. However, the runners of CTOC, Utah, Oregon, and Washington wouldn’t be overcome and afterward there was much laughing and discussing the courses over a table ladened with food under the canopy of the pine trees. So ended a hard but satisfying day for all the orienteers who decided to brave the challenging terrain.

By start and finish master,
Masha Velichko

Many thanks to John Murray for designing wonderful and proper white and orange courses and being my co-director. Green and red courses were on the hard side but of true championship quality. We spent together many hours in the woods making sure that all controls were correctly placed and maps were ready for your enjoyment. We all think that John is ready to fly on his own next time. Special thanks to Dasha Velichko for helping with start organization and for taking Lora and Candice on beginner course; and to Masha for helping enormously with all registration, start, and finish allowing meet directors to enjoy some free time. And to all who helped with collecting controls and taking care about club supplies after the meet. Finally, we just all wish to have the energy of Toby and Jade. ☺

Your Saturday meet director,
Sergey Velichko

BTW, did anyone find a gold nugget?

Saturday July 23 2011 Results

Beginner (White) course: 1.7K, 7 controls, 90m climb

Dasha, Lora, and Candice 53:05

Benji, Kirsten, Boston, and London Warren 54:50

Gavin, Ainsley, Becca, Rachel, and Grandma Rossiten DNF

Orange course: 3.6K, 12 controls, 160m climb
Jeff Decker 1:12:00
Dondi Black 1:44:05
Eli, Tamra, Grandpa, and Erik Rossiten 2:10:20
Joann Leone and Joe Novak 2:35:30

Green course: 5.2K, 17 controls, 300m climb
John Harbuck 1:25:40
Ole Bergset 1:33:10
Bill Pilcher 2:05:00
Russ Pilcher 2:17:30
Andy and Elijah Hill 2:39:30
Scott Coble 3:00:40
John Beck DNF
Don Crownover DNF
Joe Walker DNF

Red course: 8.1K, 24 controls, 500m climb
Patrick Nuss 1:53:45
David Murray 2:28:25
Jeff Black DNF
Melanie Schuster and Greg Davidson DNF

Saturday Red and Green course best routes per Sergey (dashed lines show alternative routes):

Bill and Marley P.Sunday dawned sunny and clear. Participants had their start on the northwest side of the map, and the modestly shorter courses were much appreciated after the highly technical first day - although some of those who did Green on Saturday opted for Red instead! In addition to the traveled orienteers who stuck it out for a second day and couldn't get enough of the spectacularly detailed map, some fresh CTOC faces also arrived, either the night before to camp or scattered through the start time frame. Almost everyone survived their course of choice in full (excepting Jay who ran 20 miles before he came up, and David who found himself pondering bodily sacrifices after falling into a reentrant - he was perhaps just balancing out my own difficulties on Saturday) and was eager to compare the subtleties of route choices under the canopy. Given my relative inexperience setting advanced color courses, I think I pulled off some decent options since there were plenty of differences in route choice. In many cases there was an easier road route, often safer, but at some climb, time, or distance penalty. Sergey blitzed the competition as expected and set the bar high; some observers suspected steam was rising off him as he passed, but I think this was from the effort of all the climb after control 8. Next time I may try to balance out the climb amidst more controls, and try to winnow out a nice long leg.

John Harbuck.
Many thanks go to my co-director Andy Hill, who vetted my control placement in advance (and saved me much embarrassment for two I misplaced myself after being in the field too long), and had suggestions for course modifications. Those who appreciated the shorter courses can thank him. Special thanks also go to everyone who helped with control pickup in the blazing afternoon sun - Ole Bergset on his trusty iron horse, the Pilcher Brothers who got those farthest to the south and east, John Murray who was assigned the closest but most numerous for White and Orange courses, and Joe Walker for grabbing those in the ominous hawk territory just south of the start (we didn't lose anyone to the hawk I'm happy to report). After setting controls both Friday and Saturday, I really appreciated the leg recovery...although I got my hill workout in by picking up #46 that was missed in the assignments.

This is our second woods event for the summer triple play this year, and we hope to see you all back out there up in McCall at Bear Basin, where Karin will keep us honest once more in August.

Your Sunday meet director, Jeff Black

Sunday July 24 2011 Results

Beginner (White) course: 2.02K, 8 controls, 80m climb

No takers.

Orange course: 3.68K, 7 controls, 245m climb
No takers.

Green course: 4.14K, 9 controls, 265m climb
Scott Coble (EWOC) 1:18:15
Karin Didisse (CTOC) 1:18:55
Joe Walker (SDO) 1:43:25
John Beck (EWOC) 2:07:32
Andy and Elijah Hill (CTOC) 2:28
Brad Lowe and Dawn Caldwell 2:32:05
Jay Morgan (CTOC) DNF

Red course: 6.06K, 13 controls, 440m climb
Sergey Velichko (CTOC) 55:40
Patrick Nuss (OK) 1:08:50

Ole Bergset 1:26:57
John Harbuck (EWOC) 1:31:03
Bill Pilcher (CTOC) 1:51:04

Russ Pilcher (CTOC) 1:58:13

Mike Bading and Merrill Hayden 2:04:55

John Murray (CTOC) 2:14:32

Greg Davidson and Melanie Schuster 2:24:45

David Murray (CTOC) DNF

Jay Morgan (CTOC) DNF

Sunday Red Course best routes per Sergey (dashed lines show alternative routes):

Two Days of Orienteering on a World Class Map July 23 and July 24

2011-07-01T08:59:00.000-07:00

Please join us for our July orienteering meet at the Gold Rush Hills just a couple of miles east of Idaho City. Each day will feature four courses with levels of difficulty ranging from beginner to advanced (white 2K, orange 4K off-trail, green 5K cross country, red 7K cross country). The beginners courses will be about 2K and entirely on trails. The advanced courses run cross-country through the mountains and are as long as 8K.

Gold Rush Hills was the site of the 2009 Pacific Northwest Orienteering Championships. All of the courses are laid out on the map that was professionally prepared for that event. It is our club's best map in excellent orienteering terrain.

Saturday:
Give yourself a good hour or so to get to the meet start from downtown Boise. From downtown Idaho City proceed on Highway 21 another 2 ¼ miles. Look for our orange and white orienteering road sign at the intersection of Highway 21 and National Forest Road 327, aka Rabbit Creek Road. The start and finish are in the parking area on the north side of the road.

Sunday:
Give yourself a good hour or so to get to the meet start from downtown Boise. Head up 21 towards Idaho City, and when you get there:
1. Turn left on Main street, just before the visitor center.
2. Go 1/3 of a mile and turn right on Bear Run Road. (A building with a very large collection of signs is at this junction on the left.) This road is quite passable but has many potholes currently, some probably with water. Take your time, especially as some ATVs and motorcycles use this road.
3. Continue north, more or less, on Bear Run road. About a mile down the main road will veer left, but continue straight (or right) on Bear Run, following the signs indicating Pilot Peak and Lowman.
4. Another mile later continue straight at another junction, still heading towards Lowman.
5. Continue for one more mile, passing a large parking area on your right (this is called Lycow Flat) and continuing a little bit further to where a slightly rougher road goes right and the main road goes left. Turn right which should put you right in the start area. Signs, controls, and our club shelter should be easy to spot. If parking is cramped you can also park just up on the left fork.

Look for our orange and white orienteering road signs at intersections close to the start/finish.

If by some unfortunate circumstance another party has occupied the Sunday start area, we'll make the new start area as obvious as possible along the same road at or before that point. Hopefully, the planned start area will available for our use.

Both Days:
The courses will be open at 10:30am, and you can start until about 12. The course will close around 2pm. If you plan on tackling the advanced course an early start would be much easier for control pickup and such.

If time and logistics permit we can meet up at Trudy's afterward in Idaho City to discuss route choices and exchange stories of the day.

This is a beautiful area, on our best club map, in great orienteering terrain. Come on out and brush up your skills - it's worth the trip!

Your meet directors,
Sergey Velichko and John Murray co-director for Saturday
Jeff Black for Sunday

Ponderosa Park, McCall, ID June 26 Meet Results

2011-06-30T15:11:00.000-07:00

Boulders, boulders, boulders, and… deer – lots of them. We hope you had blast this past weekend in the Ponderosa State park in McCall, enjoying excellent weather, wild life, and challenges of tough woods. In places you had to push through the green and deadfall, in places you had to navigate steep hills but sometimes you would run across grassy meadows catching glimpses of a beautiful lake – this is bliss of Northwest terrain in its best incarnation. And we just scratched the surface with boulders :)

Easy beginner course around campgrounds attracted young, experienced and wise ones. Murray family (Liam, Sam, and Katja) finished in good 56:41. First time on the course Nancy and Howard Rittenger tried orienteering sport and found all controls in 56:41. Nikki Roth and Ray Honovich paired with Donna and Jeff to see the intricacies of map reading to blaze through the course in 24:57.

Intermediate course set in best traditions of orange course going to green level saw a heated competition among our seasoned pros, as well as a challenge for newcomers. Nikki and Ray right from beginner course tried more advanced one but had to cut it short due to some commitments. Ken with some experienced under his belt from past found 10 controls but had to finish as course was already partially removed. David, fresh and sparkling, claimed first place on the course. Elajah and Andy teamed for the 2nd and Russ strategically paced for 3rd position. Bob edged Donna and Jeff to take 4th place. Toby for sure found lots of extra controls (not to mention lots of deer) while Dondy persistently counted them one by one.

And, of course, advanced course was the toughest of them all with long legs and grueling up hills (at least one 75m!). Jeff again claimed first place, Andrea and Lee team was second, and Karin beat all those guys to claim third place on the podium. The rest of the results are below.

Beginner course: 1.6K, 6 controls, 10 m climb
Liam, Sam, and Katja Murray 56:41
Nancy and Howard Rittenger 46:19
Nikki Roth, Ray Honovich 24:57
Donna Goodwin, Jeff Decker 24:57

Intermediate course: 5K, 13 controls, 100m climb
David Bergset 1:29:23
Elajah and Andy Hill 1:38:24
Russ Pilcher 1:52:18
Bob Didisse 2:08:52
Donna Goodwin, Jeff Decker 2:09:36
Dondy and Toby Black 2:17:08
Ken Karcher 4:23:00 (10 controls)
Nikki Roth, Ray Honovich (8 controls)

Advanced course: 7.7K, 20 controls, 240m climb
Jeff Black 1:41:32
Andrea Bretz, Lee Scott 1:55:53
Karin Didisse 2:04:10
Erik Bergset 2:15:34
John Murray 2:29:51
David Murray 2:35:05
Bill Pilcher 2:51:54

We hope to see you all at our next July 23-24 meet near Idaho City on our Gold Rush Hills map!

Yours, meet directors
Dasha and Sergey Velichko

P.S. For those who are interested I timed myself while taking off all advanced course controls (that includes untangling and bagging controls). 1 hour was quite possible with a clean run :) Sergey

2:36 1:59 2:41 2:35 3:40 3:04 5:04 3:04 6:03 2:41 3:47 4:35 1:37 4:52 4:00 1:57 3:09 3:01 0:46 1:03 0:33 = 1:02:56

O Meet at Ponderosa State Park Sunday June 26

2011-06-19T16:15:00.000-07:00

This is a reminder that our next regular meet is Sunday June 26 at Ponderosa State park in McCall, Idaho. Starts will be from 11 am to 1 pm near park Activities center. Please notice that there is entry fee to the park $5 per car. Follow our directional signs to the Activities center. You may extend the stay at the park arriving Saturday. Park has nice campgrounds and facilities with free hot showers close to our meet center. Reservation is highly recommended as the park is very popular during summer season. After the meet you may take a dip in the lake and catch some sun on the beach. It is really enjoyable area! Here is location of the park on Google Map. We hope to see you all at the meet enjoying outdoors and challenges of orienteering sport.

Your meet directors,
Masha and Sergey Velichko

Rabbit Creek-O Results

2011-06-08T14:02:00.000-07:00

This year the Norwegian flag flew high over Rabbit Creek, in honor of Ole, his sister Elsa visiting from Norway and the Scandanavian origins of the sport of orienteering!

We had a great turnout for the Rabbit Creek Meet his year with around 30 participants!

The meet was follwed by a great spaghetti feast prepared by our club chef, Russ Pilcher with the assistance of Bill Leahy and Brad Lowe

Thanks to Russ for the cool Rabbit-O travel mugs too!

Advanced Results:

This was the third time a 4 hour time limit mini-rogaine was held at the Rabbit-O meet.

There were 24 controls spread widely over the 1:25,000 and 1:10,000 scale maps approx. 25km to get them all.

All controls were visited by at least one participant. But no one particpant visited all controls.

Jeff Black managed to visit 21 out of 24 controls (missing only DD, GG and NA) in 3:59 for a score of 37/42pts.

Ole followed close behind getting 19 of 24 controls (missing only BA, EA, LM, SA and ZZ) for a score of 32/42pts.

Jay Morgan was only 1 point behind Ole and did an awesome job of concentrating on the distant points with higher point values. John Murray did a great job on his first anniversary of orienteering only 1 point behind Jay!

Jeff and Ole used completely different strategies. Jeff got all the controls that Ole missed, and Ole got all the controls that Jeff missed so that between these two participants all controls were visited!

Jeff Black       37/42pts   21/24controls    3:59

Ole Bergset    32pts      19/24controls       4:00

Jay Morgan     31pts      16/24controls      3:56

John Murray    30pts        17/24controls    3:53

Bill Leahy        24pts       17/24controls     3:26

Jeff Harvey        16pts      9/24controls       3:52

Stocks Family  14pts      13/24contorls     3:36  (Visited all the controls  on the 1:10,000 map)

Jason Pilcher     1pt         12/24controls     4:30  (16pts minus 15penalty overtime pts)

Joe Walker        -7pts       13/24contorls    4:58  ( 22pts minus 29penalty overtime pts)    

Intermediate Results

Intermediate Course was a classic 6km course entirely on the 1:10,000 scale map.

David  Murray         1:42

Jereme Robinson   1:47

Brad McIntosh        1:47

Karen  Diddis          1:52

Micahel  Murray       2.55 (with Ellen Crosby, Liam  and Jacob).

Jessie  Chan             2:48  (with Chrissy Irish)

Brad  Lowe               3:01   (with Dawn Caldwell)

Eric  Bergset             3:33

Dondi  Black              DNF  (with Toby and Crackers, came back early to give the dogs a  rest)

Beginner Results

Two families tackled the beginner course on the 1:5,000 scale map

Jess Chan and Chrissy Irish zipped around the course in 45mins.

The Lokanathan Family explored for 1:42 around the ranch and found all the beginner controls.

Control Pickup

A new category with no time limit.

1st place: Russ Pilcher 31/32 controls in only 2.5days.

2nd place: Bill Pilcher 1/32 2mins.

Thanks to all for coming... See you next year

Bill Pilcher

Ponderosa State Park meet in McCall June 26

2011-05-30T15:01:00.000-07:00

Dear Orienteering Sport Fans,

Our next regular meet is Sunday June 26 at Ponderosa State park in McCall, Idaho. Our usual choice of classic orienteering courses will be offered for beginners, intermediate, and advanced participans. Beginner course will be designed on easy side to foster enjoyment of outdoors while advanced course may offer very long and challenging routes to farthest corners of the park.

Starts will be from 11 am to 1 pm near park office. Please notice that there is entry fee to the park. You may extend the stay at the park arriving Saturday. Park has nice campgrounds and facilities with hot showers. Reservation is highly recommended as the park is very popular during summer season. After the meet you may take a dip in the lake and catch some sun on the beach. It is really enjoyable area!

Here is location of the park on Google Map (click on me).

For those interested in 2003 USA Relay Orienteering Championships held in the park and their results click on link (hint - there is also a link to a copy of the map used for the championship).

We hope to see you all at the meet enjoying outdoors and challenges of orienteering sport.

Your meet directors,
Masha and Sergey Velichko

2011 Rabbit O: a mini ROGAINE*

2011-05-11T08:10:00.000-07:00

* Rugged Outdoor Group Activity Involving Navigation and Endurance

Mark the date: Sunday, May 22nd
Schedule of events:
9:15am - map distribution (to plan rogaine courses - be there or think fast!)
9:50am - group photo spread (document survivors)
10am - ROGAINE mass start
10am - 1pm classic O starts (beginner and intermediate courses available)
2pm - ROGAINE closes; start the Wapiti-Spaghetti fest

Bill has scattered control points in the Owyhees surrounding Rabbit Creek Ranch. Participants will have four hours to find as many as possible.

More leisurely, beginner and intermediate classic orienteering courses will be available for those electing not to do the mini-ROGAINE.

Email Russ with questions: rp1020 AT sbcglobal.net

The event will be followed up by the first annual Wapiti-Spaghetti fest, courtesy of Bill Leahy and Brad Lowe. Salad, garlic bread, iced tea and dessert will be provided. BYOB. Be sure to bring your appetite, lawn chair, and a designated driver. See you there!

Meet Directors Russ and Bill Pilcher

Directions to Murphy:
From Boise take 184 west to Nampa, exit #35. Turn left and proceed to 3rd Street S. (Caldwell Blvd.). Turn left on 3rd Street S. (Caldwell Blvd.) and proceed to 12th Ave. Follow 12th Ave. south and it becomes Hwy 45 as it leaves Nampa city limits. Follow Hwy 45 across the Snake River. Soon after crossing the river, bear to the left and it becomes Hwy 78. Follow Hwy 78 to milepost 29.

From Murphy to Rabbit O:
While traveling south on Hwy 78, immediately after passing the Murphy city limits sign, turn to the right on old Hwy 45, continue straight and it becomes Rabbit Creek Road. Follow Rabbit Creek Road a little over 4 miles to J&S Road where there is a lone mailbox on the left. Turn left on J&S Road (notice the road sign) and follow this road for approximately 1 1/2 miles to the house and sign in area.

Ups and Downs at Stewart

2011-04-25T20:24:00.000-07:00

It was a brilliantly sunny spring day in Boise. The breeze was just enough to remind us it wasn't summer quite yet, providing the perfect temperature combination for clambering up and down the mountains and valleys of Stewart Gulch.

The beginner course was designed to be just a notch harder than our usual given the nature of starting on the east side, and that many confident fresh graduates from the winter park meets might be too tempted into trying intermediate here. It worked out well. The Stocks family (from Australia for those who haven't met all our members yet) arrived and split into two teams. As anticipated, Ryan and Matt stormed the lead among them, but in reality David and Chris weren't far behind. They mentioned their enjoyment of trying to discern the best way from 5 to 6, whether to take the trail above or below, or contour the hillside. Dondi and Toby Black took their own turn out there but Toby was a little concerned control 4 was too far off trail and 3 too hidden (behind the car door propped against a rare distinct tree). Fortunately we didn't lose anybody on those! And Jeff Decker happened to close out with the fastest time, but in reality he showed up to help with the extensive control pickup and I thought he would find a warmup on the beginner to be an enjoyable diversion. It was.

By contrast the intermediate was set up to be less of an intimidating distance than usual. In reality it still had plenty of healthy climbing involved up and over the center ridge of the map. The Lokanathan family arrived after a long pause (perhaps a year ago, or maybe two) ready to roll. Since they had done the beginner level the last couple times on this same map, and fully fueled from a high calorie brunch, the four of them launched themselves into the course. They learned the true meaning of contours from 4 to 5, a deceptively short linear distance but involving a hefty drop into a reentrant after crossing the center ridge. They were also wondering how that car was ever put at control 6, but of course none of us really knows that...but it makes for a fine control hanger. They returned victorious but clearly having burned off all the brunch calories. We welcome them back as official club members too!

Advanced, of course, was fully intended to be a stiff physical test with whatever technicals the map could muster. Of course this endears it a certain amount of popularity from a few in the club. Judging from the faces of the participants as they
finished, it was a resounding success. Sergey took first place as we might all expect, but it took him well over an hour and he did look tired, muttering about the climb a bit. John Murray (my co-director) played hop-em with Bill Leahy over much of the course and ultimately held his own to finish second. Bill, looking a little worse for the wear, declared him a near clone of Ole out there which led to a comparison of John's and Ole's time over various distances from the 1500m on up while they slurped on post run goodies. The course was stiff enough for Bill to pay me a special phone call after he left, congratulating me on completely wiping him out. Jeff and Kelly Harvey made their own crack at this course. The contouring proved to be very tough on the ankles, though, and they had to play it safe for much of the distance. Nonetheless they finished and seemed to be ready for the next month! Russ, fresh from his Robie Creek TV interviews as a pirate with a hook only a week old, came fresh to warm
up for Rabbit Creek. By the time he was done I think he was ready to taper for next month. Jay Morgan tackled an even more ambitious task of first arriving at 8 to do his first 20-some miles (preparing for an ultra) and then the advanced course, but realized he was quite done by the time he reached #7 on the west side of the map and having serious fun locating the many depressions on the course. He called it good for this month, but I think he will be ready for the Rabbit...

Results:

Beginner - 2.13km, 78m climb, 7 controls
Jeff Decker 27:44
Ryan and Matt Stocks 39:50
Chris and David Stocks 41:14
Dondi and Toby Black 44:20

Intermediate - 4.03km, 250m climb, 11 controls
Lokanathan family 2:41:00

Advanced - 7.93km, 650m climb, 19 controls
Sergey Velichko 1:19:08
John Murray 1:46:20
Bill Leahy 1:49:30
Jeff and Kelly Harvey 2:47:00
Russ Pilcher 2:53:00
Jay Morgan DNF

Many, many thanks go to Sergey, Jeff D., John, Ole, and Russ for helping with control pickup and the takedown. You saved me from some really tired legs that day after all the prep!

Next month: Rabbit Creek! Stay tuned for further details on this blog from Bill and Russ Pilcher. Not only do we return to a rogaine format with a mass start, but Bill Leahy and Brad Lowe are prepping for a post meet spaghetti feast! (And there will be a more "normal" course for those who prefer.)

Jeff Black

Up, up, and up to Stewart

2011-04-20T07:46:00.000-07:00

I'd like to cordially invite experienced and budding orienteers alike to our first meet of the year with some hefty topography to work your legs and mind. In reviewing the courses last weekend, our map is basically free of mud and eminently runnable without being hot yet. Several new trails have appeared since our last visit here, and some old ones closed, and the map includes a few updates.

For those of you eagerly anticipating the Rabbit Creek mini-Rogaine next month, rest assured this is a perfect warm-up for the hills and dales of that fabled map!

Day: Saturday, April 23rd
Time: Starts from 11am-12:30pm, course closes at 2pm.
Map: Stewart Gulch, EAST side
Courses: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced (8k!) Classic courses
Cost: $5, or free to club members
Bring: compass, water, sun protection, good trail shoes for running or hiking, and a signed waiver.

Shorts or pants are your preference. The cheatgrass hasn't gone to seed yet, but there is plenty of the sagebrush to run around. Keep your eyes out for barbed wire as there is no lack of it in this area; I was entangled myself in preparing this meet.

You can join the club at any time, of course, and your dues are prorated for the remainder of the year. Dues support our club and especially the maintenance and creation of new maps. See the Membership section to the right.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Jeff Black (and John Murray as co-director)

Results: Ann Morrison Classic Meet

2011-03-21T19:14:00.000-07:00

A prudent person would have heeded the forecast calling for rain, rain and more rain by orienteering at the mall. The daunting weather forecast did not deter 20 stalwart orienteers who were rewarded by a occasional patches of blue sky in a surprisingly mild and dry day as they attacked controls at Ann Morrison Park.

Jake Tadje negotiated the Beginners’ Course to take first place and meet one of the requirements for his Boy Scout merit badge. Aleksi Morgan grabbed second place while Dondi introduced her friend Tammy to orienteering. Carolyn Flynn, her daughter Susie Wolfskiel and grandson Tyson walked away with first place in the Stroller Division. Actually, Tyson rode to victory.

Beginners Course - 7 Controls - 1.61 K
Jake Tadje 0:23:00
Aleksi Morgan 0:24:15
Dondi Black & Tammy 0:39:01
Carolyn Flynn, Susie & Tyson Wolfskiel 0:56:09

The team of Melanie and Jamie Schuster topped the Intermediate Division with a 39 minute performance. Renee Kline got back in the groove with a respectable second place. While shadowed by his father, Liam Murray, our youngest competitor at 6, navigated the intermediate course to earn a third place. Close behind were our new members David (7) and Ryan (10) Stocks. We are delighted to welcome the Stocks family to CTOC. They recently moved to Boise from Adelaide, Australia.

Liam on a run

Ryan spikes #2 while David consults the map.

Intermediate Course - 13 Controls - 3.53 K
Melanie & Jamie Schuster 0:39:00
Renee Kline 0:43:53
Liam Murray 0:52:45
David Stocks 0:53:12
Ryan Stocks 0:57:15

In the Advanced Division Jeff Black set the standard covering the 6 kilometers in 32 minutes. Erik Bergset bested his father’s worthy performance. And worthy it was as Ole outran men half his age. Jeff Harvey came to his first orienteering meet on Saturday to develop his navigation skills for adventure racing. We are looking forward to giving Jeff some fun challenges in the coming months.

Garth Summey leaves 5 Jay Morgan goes to 6.

Advanced Course - 18 Controls - 5.76 K
Jeff Black 0:32:00
Erik Bergset 0:35:02
Jay Morgan 0:37:16
Ole Bergset 0:39:10
Greg Davidson 0:39:20
Jeff Harvey 1:05:55
Garth Summey 1:35:00

Ole on a long run. How did Ole run that fast? He’s even older than I am!

This was my first experience as a meet director. I suppose it was possible to do it alone, but it would have been a much different meet without all of the advice and assistance from seasoned orienteers. Sergey generously took the time to spell out the criteria for a suitable course and introduced me to CTOC procedures. When Sergey was called out of town on business Jeff Black seamlessly guided me through preparation of the maps. Andy Hill’s critique dramatically improved the clarity of the Advanced Course maps. Thanks to Ellen for the cookies with custom orienteering messages and to Ole for help picking up the controls.

On Saturday, April 23 at Stewart Gulch East we begin our season of orienteering in the hills. Looking forward to seeing all of you there.

John Murray

Upcoming: Ann Morrison Classic Meet 3/19/2011

2011-03-11T10:48:00.000-08:00

Get a jump on spring. Tune up your navigation skills in our last winter-in-the-city meet. Or, if you are new to orienteering, let the City of Trees Orienteering Club introduce you to this exciting sport in the familiar surroundings of Ann Morrison Park. Stroll the beginners’ course, challenge the intermediate course or test your endurance on the advanced course.

You can easily access the start and finish just south of the green pedestrian bridge by entering the park from Royal Blvd.

Date: Saturday, March 19
Start time: 11:00am - 1:00pm (course will be closed by 2pm)
Location: Ann Morrison Park
And remember, you can register on-site, or print out the Registration Form at home, fill it in and bring it with you to the meet.

Results: Willow Lane / Veterans Park Score Meet

2011-03-05T09:06:00.000-08:00

A big "Thanks" to all of you who came out for the Willow Lane Score Meet. It was a beautiful day and perfect weather for a walk or run in the park. There were 140 total possible points spread out over 21 controls. And the time breakdowns for each course were 25 minutes for Beginner, 35 minutes for Intermediate, and 45 minutes for the Advanced course with a 5 point penalty for each full minute over.

Jeff Decker got things started early on the Intermediate course and finished in the top spot. David Bergset finished well under the allotted 35 minutes but felt like he'd had a good run. And Joanne and Joe had no intention of racing the clock. They were determined to find every control.

David Stocks and his brother Ryan decided to have a little friendly family competition, each going out with a parent on different courses. David made a mad sprint for the finish to beat his brother by only one second (we won't split hairs that they were on different courses). We're looking forward to seeing the Stocks family at future events.

The Advanced course tested everyone, with only three competitors reaching all 21 controls. Jeff Black took a narrow victory of only 25 seconds over Sergey. Jay Morgan thought the course was so enjoyable that he decided to run it twice, working on improving his efficiency he was able to shave 10 minutes off his previous time. Other great finishes to note came in from Melanie edging out her partner Greg, and Ole beating out Bill Leahy by one minute but both had the same points.

Please join us for our next meet at Ann Morrison on Saturday, March 19th.

Upcoming: Willow Lane Score Meet 2/27/11

2011-02-21T20:53:00.000-08:00

It's time for our first Score Meet of the year. Come out and test your navigation skills against the clock. You're free to attack the controls in any order you like, you just need to make it back to the finish before your time runs out.

The meet center will be in the Southwest parking lot at Willow Lane Park. And the map will cover both Willow Lane and Veteran's Park.

Date: Sunday, February 27th
Start time: 11:00am - 1:00pm (course will be closed by 2pm)
Location: Willow Lane Park

And remember, you can register on-site, or print out the Registration Form at home, fill it in and bring it with you to the meet.

A Memorable Call

2011-02-13T14:55:00.000-08:00

For our special Call of the Wild meet, we had great weather and a nice sized crowd at the start. A total of 24 adults and 15 kids took part in the mini-Street Challenge format, including a great many newcomers who never heard of or tried orienteering before. For the 10 questions, scores ranged between 7 and 10 points...probably with just a little confusion over the zoo question. There was also a noisy crane within that view, which some opted to mark as the heron, but in reality it was the bald eagle, also known as "yodee" by the native peoples of the Yukon. Times ranged from a low of 23:05 and went well over an hour, as everyone took the course at their desired pace. Some stopped to learn a few extra things along the way, like at the Anne Frank Memorial.

And, in the spirit of the Call of the Wild, we did have a few dogs there to take home the themed bandannas. The dogs pictured are Toby and Malchik.

Thanks to all who participated! We welcome you to our future traditional orienteering meets, including our next on Sunday, February 27 at Willow Lane.

Some new dates to remember

2011-02-06T15:42:00.000-08:00

We've made a few changes to our calendar for the year, specifically in July and August. You can see the calendar via the link on the upper right of the blog (year 2011), but to be more specific:

July 23-34 - our planned two day "B" meet in Idaho City (hopefully)

August 21 - a regular club meet on Sunday, at Bear Basin in McCall

Lastly, for those who might have missed the Call of the Wild announcement, here's a quick link to it:

Call of the Wild! coming up on February 12th.

Jeff Black

Foggy plains of Julia Davis park

2011-01-25T10:21:00.000-08:00

Surrealistic planes of the Julia Davis park under blanket of early morning fog. Good start for a thriller but instead it is about our January meet :) New map additions and advanced courses attracted our usual crowd of hard core navigators. Jonah shadowed by Mike covered beginner course around the Zoo in 32:51. Peter Beckner blasted through the intermediate course in 53:14 while Masha fresh after her advanced cross-country team training did it in 41:28. Advanced course saw a heated battle of our seasoned veterans. Jeff took (again) first place with nice margin followed by Doug and Jay. All results are below.

Project on map expansion and merging our green belt parks continues and promises to allow for really interesting courses in future.

Call of the Wild! adventure meet together with the Boise Library and other patrons of the community reading project is February 12. For more details see our web site http://ctoc-boise.blogspot.com/

Yours,
Masha and Sergey Velichko

Beginner: 2.1K, 8 controls
Jonah and Mike Bading 32:51

Intermediate: 4.3K, 15 controls
Peter Beckner 53:14
Masha Velichko 41:28

Advanced: 7.6K, 26 controls
Jeff Black 48:18
Doug LaMott 54:43
Jay Morgan 55:09
Lee Scott 57:02
Mike Bading 57:59
John Murray 1:04:38
Melanie Schuster 1:16:01
Renee Kline 1:17:13
Garth Summey 2:22:51

Call of the Wild!

2011-01-11T07:28:00.000-08:00

We answered the call! Take note of a special event bonus to our normal meet calendar!

For those of you not familiar with "The Big Read", it's a program where everyone reads the same book, and there are a whole bunch of events affiliated with it to maximize participation and interest. This year it is Jack London's The Call of the Wild. Our club has agreed to hold a special meet this year to tie in. For those of you who participated in our annual Street Challenge, the format will be similar but on a (much) smaller scale. A map of the area around the library and parks nearby will be provided, along with several questions and answers from control sites on the map that are hosted by sponsoring institutions within the Cultural Network that may be more than a little familiar to those of us who live in Boise. There will be some prizes for those who collect them all and make a speedy return! Like the Street Challenge, we will let you walk, run, or bike!

Since the downtown Library opens at 10, it may be a little hectic as we get set up among the opening crowd. Please be patient if we're not quite ready!

Date: Saturday, February 12th
Time: 10am to 1pm
Map area: Parks and downtown area surrounding the library

Start: Outside front door of the Boise Public Library, main branch
Cost: Free!
Bring: walking shoes, favorite compass, best clothes for the weather.

Jeff Black

*The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest, offered by Ada Community Library, Boise Public Library, The Cabin and the Idaho Statesman.

The Cultural Network is a consortium of museums, libraries and educational and cultural organizations, including the public libraries of Boise, Garden City and Meridian, Ada Community Library, Boise Art Museum, Boise Parks & Recreation, Discovery Center of Idaho, Idaho Human Rights Education Center, Idaho State Historical Society, Opera Idaho and Zoo Boise.

Orienteering for beginners

2010-12-08T07:17:00.000-08:00

This is good introduction to orienteering for beginners. Alexander Lines who is age 11 has made a short introduction to orienteering. It features his brother Edward. From Sussex UK.

Another quick introduction to orienteering from a British Orienteering club.

This is a good example of an orienteering "A" meet which was held at Mose Lake, Wa June 2010. Several CTOC members competed at this event at different competive levels.

Crossing Lines in the Snow

2010-12-05T19:51:00.000-08:00

The weather "held", so to speak, and snowed steadily during the last meet of 2010. Footing was tricky across the crunchy snow base that told us all winter was definitely here.

For those of you who didn't make it, I'll shatter the suspense: the upper level course was what we call "Line O". Controls are punched in order in the classic sense, but the control could be anywhere along the straight line to the control, or even at the end. Much practice could be had taking a bearing from each control to the next and holding it, as well as reading the map at the same time with care to ensure the path was along the way. All while looking for the control flag, too. And since there was also a classic beginner course out there (no takers, however), the codes were important to verify (although I made my best effort to not have any beginner control too close to any of the actual bearings).

This proved to be a memorable event for all the hardy souls who participated. I knew I had done it right as meet director when Bill Leahy passed the midway point and cursed me as he passed. He found that holding a bearing was hard to do reliably at many points in the course, and expects he could use some more practice on this - especially in the woods. Sergey bypassed two controls himself during the run and had to go back to find them, commenting it took about 10 minutes longer than a classic version of the course might. Ole had to admit he literally forgot he already punched #5 when finally reaching the end of the line for a new bearing, and perhaps for the first time in his O career he found he had *already* punched it when he went back! This meant his time was just a little longer than that of Jay Morgan. Lee Scott, however, blazed the course like superman with x-ray vision (I suspect he did not take many bearings but followed the map like a hawk), and nicely upset our often typical finish order among the experienced.

As it turned out, control 10 proved to be the most elusive for many participants. Both John Murray and Renee Kline reported back that it was missing (although others had found it), and they went out again with Ole (who did find it after some trail hunting) and Dave Bergset to investigate. They found Russ and Bill Pilcher there at the same time. #10 was indeed there but the bearing from 9 to 10 led them all notably to the left, and since the control was very nearly at the end it was easily missed. As meet director I placed it in line with the distinct tree and path, so it's possible the map is a little off - or possibly the meet director was too. Fresh off a long workout, Doug LaMott had his own fun with the course, pegging a couple of beginner controls nearby, but he had a blast cruising the course anyway and I don't think I quite discouraged him from future meets yet. Karin was short on time, and so just completed the first 8 before heading out.

It is increasingly hard to imagine a complete meet now without the Pilcher brothers. They came straight from their own 5k race, winning their age groups (they are so young after all), and were eager to get some land navigation in their day. They tackled it independently but Bill's red hat kept him visible from across the park and provided a mighty fine lure for Russ to chase - and win.

Results:

Line O (intermediate/advanced)

Lee Scott - 28:06

Sergey Velichko - 35:45

Jay Morgan - 44:56

Ole Bergset - 45:30

Bill Leahy - 1:01:16

Russ Pilcher - 1:03:00

Bill Pilcher - 1:07:15

Karin Didesse - 14:47 (first 8 controls only)

Doug LaMott - 38:38 (MP on two controls)

John Murray - 1:01:00 (missed #10)

Renne Kline - 1:13:08 (missed #10)

Beginner - no takers.

Many thanks to Jeff Decker, who served as co-director on this snowy day while a BSU game began in the background. He assisted with setup, brought some cookies to refuel the orienteers, picked up the beginner course, and helped fill in the gaps while I took a few pictures. My wife Dondi was instrumental in helping load and unload gear. Thanks go also to those who helped pick up: Russ and Bill Pilcher, and Ole Bergset. All of you made this go a lot faster and smoother than any one person can do alone.

This may have been the last meet of 2010, but that doesn't mean there isn't more to come! We have a preliminary calendar up now on the website, and the first 5 events scheduled. Mark your calendars - next year we have some park map extensions forthcoming, more woods meets in the summer (if we get our directors lined up!), and quite probably a return of the Rabbit O mini-rogaine for those who just can't be out there long enough. Along with our usual favorites in the Vampire O and the Street Challenge. See you all in the new year!

Jeff Black

Grin and Bear It

2010-11-28T20:19:00.000-08:00

Our final meet of the year is almost here: Saturday, December 4th.

While this might appear to be just another easy park meet, don't be too confident. I have a little variation in store this time, one that requires you to keep your eyes wide open and possibly even take a bearing (hence the title of this entry) to find the control. Even in good ol' Ann Morrison. I'll spare the suspenseful details until the day of. But for those who have done this orienteering thing before it will be good practice I think.

For traditionalists, or if you're just getting warmed up to the idea of orienteering, I'll have a beginner course handy too.

The park had a couple inches of snow this weekend that looks like it may just hold. Don't count on tracks of your fellow orienteers given all the wildlife out there!

Start: Ann Morrison, by the bridge (our usual)

Date: Saturday, December 4th

Time: start times between 11-12:30pm, course closed by 2pm.

Courses: special combined interm/adv, and classic beginner

If you aren't a member, don't forget a waiver in advance to save some time.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Jeff Black

2010-11-08T16:47:00.001-08:00

It was a dark and stormy day...
24 intrepid souls braved the relentless downpour and possible hypothermia to compete in this year’s Boise Street Challenge. We had a good turn out despite the adverse conditions, I’m sure everyone was hoping the rain would at least be off and on, not just on. Lee Scott finished in an astonishing 2hrs. 9 mins. after getting all the checkpoints. He was able to go home and "take a shower to dry off" before the rest came in. His bike odometer recorded about 20 miles for his route. Several new faces showed up for this fun and unusual event and they all did very well, hopefully they will also make it to some of our more traditional events with hopefully better weather. Russ provided cake and refreshments in honor of the Marine Corp’s birthday, and thanks to a camper van we were able to provide hot drinks.

Our answer cards were not up to the challenge of the continuous rain and made scoring very difficult, I’m sure the conditions caused some wrong answer results. I apologize, but I had to go with what we had. Most people had to reconstruct their answers on a new card after finishing, from the indecipherable pulp that their original cards had become while trying to think straight with hypothermic brains. Andy had the idea of recording his answers on a Blackberry type device, unfortunately not everyone had that option. I had to dry out Sergey’s answer card to read it, it must have been hard for him writing with one hand while holding an umbrella in the other. Sergey's route is posted to left. Bill Leahy succesfully disputed his wrong answer on #41, which come to think of it would change the results for Bill P. also.

After the weather conditions for this meet and my last meet at McCall’s Bear Basin this summer (which came close to being a Ski-O) we’ve decided that I should only put on a meet in areas or times of extreme drought.

The results are below, consult the master score sheet scan to find out who got what checkpoints (in case the scan appears too small here, I'll also post it to the Yahoo group photos section). We scored groups and individuals in the same categories for simplicity. In case of tied point scores the earlier finisher was placed ahead, times listed on results sheet are time of day. All the penalties listed on the master score sheet were for wrong answers, no one wanted to stay out any longer than they had to so there were no late time penalties. Medals were awarded to top finishers, Jill/ Matt, Roy and Sergey will have to pick their’s up some other time. Also there was an umbrella left at meet site.

A great big thanks to Russ and Andy who checked the controls before hand and averted what would have certainly been some problems. And everyone appreciated the generosity of Mike Shuman and Shu’s Running Co.for the gift cards we gave away in the drawing.
See you next time for traditional orienteering, Sat. Dec. 4 at Ann Morrison park.
A big thanks to all the hardy souls who showed up a competed!
- Karin Didisse, meet director

Results
Name, Time In, Total Points
Bike Division:
1. Lee Scott - 12:39 - 780pts.
2. Melanie Schuster & Greg Davidson - 1:05 - 760pts.
3. Michael Bading & Merril Hayden - 1:22 - 760pts.
4. Jay Morgan - 1:04 - 710pts.

5. Andy & Elijah Hill - 1:29 - 640pts.
6. Doug LaMott - 1:26 - 620pts.
7. Bob Didisse - 12:11 - 380pts.

Elite Foot Division:
1. Jeff Black - 1:29 - 770pts.
2. Sergey Velichko - 1:26 - 730pts.
3. Bill Leahy - 1:26 - 700pts.
4. Renee Kline & George Yates - 1:28 - 500pts.
5. John Murray - 1:21 - 460pts.

Intermediate Foot Division:
1. Jill & Matt Score - 1:28 - 370pts.
2. Bill Pilcher - 1:28 - 310pts.
3. Roy Meade - 12:28 - 260pts.
4. Masha Velichko - 12:33 - 210pts.

Boise Street Challenge 2010

2010-10-26T16:17:00.000-07:00

It's time for the annual urban Street Challenge! Meet Sunday Nov. 7 at 10:00am., mass start at 10:30 - 3 hour time limit. The start this year will be in Julia Davis park near the footbridge to BSU, utilizing a slightly different and perhaps better area than our previous meets. Participants can do it on foot or bike, single or in groups, and will try to get to as many checkpoints as they can within the time limit or shorter time if prefered. Entry fees are $10 for non-members ($2 discount for pre-registration), free to members. Please pre-register by sending an e-mail to me with your name so we have an idea how many people to plan for, payment due at the meet. kbdid@ctcweb.net

Participants will be given a map of downtown Boise and surrounding area with 33 checkpoints marked on it, they will have to navigate to the checkpoints and figure out their route to visit as many as possible during the time limit. At the checkpoints the participant will read a question on the back of their map that can only be answered at that location, then circle one of 3 multiple choice answers as proof of visiting the correct location. The checkpoints are worth different point values based on distance from the start/ finish area. Highest total point scores win, awards to top finishers.

Participants are responsible for their own safety, this takes place on public streets.

Suggested Things to Bring:
watch, pens, compass, cel phone, refreshments for during course (or money to purchase enroute), reading glasses?, helmet if biking, bright colored weather appropriate clothing.

Hope to see you there!- Karin Didisse, meet director

Vampire-O Results

2010-10-25T18:06:00.000-07:00

City of Trees Orienteering Club held its Vampire-O at Simplots Sports Complex. The event format was a night score-o with the twist of having a vampire chasing participants and taking their score card. Once “vampired” the victim would surrender their score card along with all their points and in return receive the vampire card worth zero points. Much like a game of tag while orienteering.

The weather was scattered lite rain with breezy 50's temps. But that did not prevent a decent turn-out. 10 individuals and 4 groups participated and all decided to run the vampire-o which was consider an advance course. Sergey and the Erb group chose to carry a one gallon jug of holy water to avoid being “vampired”.

The vampire-o course had 18 control points and a 40 minute time limit. Hill group (Andy & Elijah) volunteered to be the first vampire. Peter Beckner (the youngest individual and his injured Dad tagging along) also volunteered as the first vampire but spoke a moment too late. The mass start began at 7:25PM with the vampire starting 3 minutes afterwards. The start was pretty interesting to watch. Participants scatter in all directions into the darkness (pitch black) and most of them having their headlamps off!

As participants began to cross the finish it became apparent that control #32 was missing. Not surprising given the large crowds of soccer players that were still leaving as our event was starting. The missing control was located the next morning up in a nearby pine tree. Still attached to the pole & flag.

Sergey Velichko finished first with a blistering time of just over 28 minutes. Unfortunately, Sergey missed control #45 which dropped his score to 160. Lee Scott, Jeff Black and Jay Morgan found all the points (except #32) for a score of 170 each. Lee Scott took top honor for finishing ahead of the others with a time of 32:40. Masha Velichko took first in the female division. Hill group finished first for the group division. In the end it was Peter Beckner as the vampire who was first to be vampired and wasn’t able to attack another before the time expired.

Kudos to newbies Matt & Jill Score, Erb group and Lexy’s friends Emily & Zach who took on the vampire-o for their first experience at an CTOC orienteering event. Also, Betty Boop (alias) who missed the mass start but still managed to bag 9 controls and avoid the vampire with just 15 minutes.

THANKS
A big thanks to those who helped with the event: Donna Goodwin (co-director), Bill Leahy, Lexy’s group, Hill group & Segery for helping pickup the course.

NEXT MEET
Our next meet is Sunday, November 7th. For more info see our blog site at:
http://ctoc-boise.blogspot.com/

RESULTS:
Mens:
Total / Penalty / Time
Lee Scott 170 / 0 / 32:40
Jeff Black 170 / 0 / 35:09
Jay Morgan 170 / 0 / 40:37
Sergey Velichko 160 / 0 / 28:00
Bill Leahy 140 / 0 / 40:10

Womens:
Masha Velichko 150 / 0 / 40:40
Karin Didisse 120 / 0 / 37:43
Betty Boop 90 / 0 / 15:00
Donna Goodwin 80 / 0 / 40:30

Groups:
Andy & Elijah Hill 120 / 0 / 40:22
Matt & Jill Score 110 / -10 / 42:53
Pat Parker, Adam Forbes, Will, Katie, James Erb 105 / -5 / 41:47
Lexy Leahy, Emily, Zach 90 / 0 / 36:35

Vampire: Peter Beckner

Click here for more photos

CTOC 2nd Annual Vampire-O

2010-10-01T13:14:00.000-07:00

What’s a Vampire-O, you ask? Well, it's a lot of fun, it's has a Halloween theme and it's orienteering at night. And yes, it’s will be at night because everyone knows vampires only come out at night!

Date: Saturday Oct 23, 2010 (Sat Oct 22, 2011) (Sat Oct 21, 2012)
Time: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Location: Simplot Sport Complex East (parking lot off S. Quamash Way) Simplot Sports Complex East

Vampire-O (score-o format, mass started with one more vampires starting 3 minutes later)
Beginner & intermediate courses

Bring your headlamp and warm clothes and enjoy a fun night of orienteering.

FAQ:

1) So, what is Vampire-O?
It's like playing a game of tag while orienteering! One or more participants are selected as "vampires" at the start of the event. The "vampires" leave 3 minutes after everyone else had a mass start. Vampires carry a "vampire" card, worth zero points. When they come within five meters of another orienteer and yell "vampire attack!", the "victim" must surrender his or her punch card (along with all of its points) to the vampire, who then receives the Vampire card. The victim then becomes the vampire (but cannot immediately re-tag the original vampire, of course). It's all done at night with flashlights.

2) After a vampire attack can the victim attack his/her original vampire? If so, what are the rules for doing so?
"No immediate tag backs", just like in third grade. ;-> Cards tend to get traded back and forth pretty quickly, so this usually isn't a problem. You can attack someone that attacked you as long as you unloaded the card you got from them and are now carrying a card you got from another vampire later on. Vampires can't attack vampires of course - they'd just end up swapping cards...

3) I understand the course is score-o format. Is each control worth the same number of points?
Each control is worth the same amount. Identical control point values also makes scoring at the end that much easier - and it will be a bit hectic with a score-O mass finish.

4) Are teams allowed? If so, how does it work if the team is the vampire and team members have both slow and fast runners can the faster runner go after a victim alone or do they need to stay together as a team?
Teams are allowed. The team should stay together, within reason. The rule is "do the right thing" during the event. Teams should stay within vocal range if they get a bit separated, but should travel together whenever possible.

5) What if I want to run the vampire-o course but don’t want to be bother by the vampire. I just want to run the score-o course.
You can run the course but you will need special holy water to protect you from vampires. If you choose this option then you will be given a 1 gallon jug of holy water and you must carry it at all times during the event.

6) Will there be a beginner and intermediate course?
Yes, there will be a beginner and intermediate course. Participants that wish do the beginner or intermediate courses will be give a special garlic bracelet (glow in dark bracelet. The kind you see at the county fair). This will protect you from the vampire. Beginner and intermediate participants should come early to avoid the mass start of the vampire-o.

7) Because its at night do I need to bring a flashlight?
Yes, you should bring a flashlight or a headlamp.

8) Do I need to dress up in a Halloween costume?
No, you do not need to come in costume. However, you can if you wish.

National Orienteering Day Meet

2010-09-25T10:26:00.000-07:00

September 12, 2010
Veterans Park, Boise, ID

Sunny Saturday at the Veterans Park started for us with a big surprise of hundreds people going via courses for Run and Walk for Autism http://www.asatvc.org/. First thoughts were about how we would manage to have our meet in parallel and where to park our car to unload meet equipment. Thanks to generous help from many people we were ready for the first start right in time. We even received a helping hand from Mrs. Boise who is, undoubtedly, an expert in unfolding canopies for big events. By 11 am crowds started to dissipate and by 11:30 we were left in the park all alone to see people enjoying nice fall weather and challenging courses. The motto of the day was “Speed and execution”. And, of course, refreshment galore.

Beginner course had 8 controls around the park which attracted a number of first comers, as well as some experienced ones. Carolyn and Suzanne finished course with smiles and big plans for orienteering. Suzanne is exploring a possibility of embedding orienteering into her class curriculum. We will definitely help her in this initiative. Toby was happy to stroll along the course with map in his teeth pulling Dondi behind. Angela with precious Julia and Emery came to practice orienteering skills and found all controls with those wonderful punches. We hope to see you again enjoying courses at our future meets.

Grueling Intermediate course with more than 4 km length and 18 controls saw Donna and Jeff taking honors to finish it completely under 1 ½ hour mark. David started but had to finish it prematurely to catch on other day activities.

Our Advanced course which was one men relay with two loops, as always, created quite a competition among our hardcore participants. First loop circled Veterans Lake and second ventured to Willow Lane Park. Some even managed to cross lake using strategically placed rocks and logs! Undoubtedly, it helped Jay to take second place winning merely 45 seconds over Lee. First place went to Jeff with excellent execution of the first loop and solid finish on the second. Ole showed forth time of the day, Merrill and Michael pair was next. John is progressing from meet to meet and will start challenging our top brass pretty soon. Bill Pilcher with two acquaintances explored all corners of both parks. They all received quite an exercise for 10 legs combined. Bill Leahy finished first loop but had to leave early.

Special thanks to Ole for helping to collect controls and club belongings after the meet.

Next meet is our famous Vampire O! Shone your favorite flashlight for some night action! Hope to see you all there.

Your meet directors,
Masha and Sergey Velichko


Results
Beginner Course: 1.35K, 8 controls (in no particular order)
Carolyn Flynn                   25:45
Suzanne Wolfkiel                25:45
Dondi and Toby Black            21:30
Julia, Emery, Angela Withers    43:00

Intermediate Course: 4.17K, 18 controls
Donna Goodwin, Jeff Decker      1:28:00
David Murray                    DNF

Advanced Course (Motala – one man relay)
Loop 1: 2.57K, 10 controls
Loop 2: 3.82K, 12 controls
                                Loop 1          Loop2           Total
Jeff Black                      15:10           24:55           40:05
Jay Morgan                      20:30           27:40           48:10
Lee Scott                       17:55           31:00           48:55
Ole Bergset                     20:25           33:54           54:19
Merrill Hayden and
Michael Bading                  24:09           40:15           1:04:24
John Murray                     28:01           55:43           1:23:44
Bill, Molly, Dazzle Pilcher     35:48           1:10:08         1:45:56
Bill Leahy                      27:10           DNF             DNF

Bear Basin Results

2010-08-30T11:12:00.000-07:00

Our good luck with meet day weather ended this weekend with cold drizzlie conditions for the Bear Basin orienteering meet. We had a good turn out nevertheless and no actual reports of frostbite, but maybe a bit of hypothermia. It was discovered that the mountain bike trail making faeries had been busy with two new trails suddenly appearing a couple of days before the event right in an area that I had a couple of controls. Too late to map the trails, I had to simply warn people that there were unmapped trails on the map. This caused people to not trust any of the trails and caused some problems for a couple of the competitors, this and time constraints led Jeff B. to a rare dnf (did not finish). The trail faeries also have been busy turning old forest service roads into single track bike trails (quite a trick!) so there will be lots of changes on the Bear basin map in the future.

McCall local Ben Hipple tried the intermediate course with very good results beating out an entusiastic Andy and Elijah who might have been somewhat slowed down by good huckleberry picking found at one of their controls. The advanced course had some close competition between Ole, Lee, and Bill. Dondi took her mother Frankie and dog Toby for a tour of Litttle Bear Basin, unfortunately unable to find some of the controls on what turned out to be a difficult beginner course, which I have dubbed "Short Intermediate" because of it's difficulty. Luckily no new people showed up to try it.

Thanks for the good turnout and to helpers on control pickup: Andy, Elijah, Bill P., Ole.
- Karin Didisse

Advanced 6.3km
Sergey Velichko 51:48
Ole Bergset 1:21:25
Lee Scott 1:38:42
Bill Pilcher 1:40:39
Russ Pilcher 2:04:17
Jeff Black dnf

Intermediate 5.8km
Ben Hipple 1:07:40
Andy & Elijah Hill 1:50:15
David B. & Neva dnf

"Short Intermediate" 2.2km
Jeff D. & Donna G. 1:08:10
Dondi B. & Frankie & Toby dnf

Upcoming Bear Basin meet info

2010-08-25T14:31:00.000-07:00

Here is some info about the upcoming orienteering meet at Bear Basin near McCall SUNDAY 8/29. Starts are from 11am- 1 pm and we'll be meeting at the new Bear Basin Trailhead off of Club Hill Road:To get there go up to the highest point on highway 55 (a couple miles headed west out of McCall) and turn north (right) on Club Hill Rd. for 1/2 mile, the parking lot is just off to the right where the road makes a sharp turn left.Come on up and enjoy the nice weather, beautiful forest and huckleberries! We'll have three courses with the longest being around 6.4 km.
- Karin Didisse, meet director

New Blood Draws Some Blood

2010-08-25T09:56:00.001-07:00

BSU / Julia Davis / Ann Morrison Score course

Saturday, July 17

Attendance for the July meet was pretty thin, even for a mid-summer meet. However, those who did attend had the pleasure (and some pain) of seeing what a brand-new course designer (Elijah Hill) had to offer.

The Beginner course was a standard 1.6km loop in Julia Davis Park. Newcomer Liam Murray blazed through the course in just over 30 minutes (give him a couple of years to get some leg length, and Sergey better look out!), but was narrowly edged out by Ellen Crosby.

The meat of the meet :-) was a 16-control score course spread over both the BSU / Julia Davis and Ann Morrison maps, with a calculated optimum route of 8.45km, maximum number of points of 200, a time limit of 45 minutes, and a 5-point-per-full-overtime-minute penalty. Unlike the usual score course, where the most “valuable” controls were the most distant, the point value of the controls was intentionally biased with a number of close, high-value controls to make it easier for a slower but more strategic thinker to outscore someone trying to bag all 16 controls. Not sure how this worked out in practice – it may have been too complex of an idea, but it was an interesting twist. In an upset victory, Jeff Black took a calculated risk to go overtime in order to bag an additional 20 pointer, and the resulting net 5 points (20 points minus the 15 point overtime penalty) was enough to edge out Sergey, who was unable to find one of the Ann Morrison controls in a very, very vague area of the map (he did, however, find pretty much every bramble in the area). Bill Leahy did an excellent job of time management to come in just under the penalty time. Unfortunately, Masha came in early, not knowing how to get from Julia Davis to Ann Morrison…bit of an oops! from a course design standpoint.

Thanks to co-meet director Lee Scott for lending a huge hand with both control setting and control pickup on meet day – this would’ve really painful without his help.

Thanks to everyone who came out – see ya in McCall – Sunday, August 29th!

Andy & Elijah

Hey! Can’t forget the meet results --

Beginner
Name	Time
Ellen Crosby	31:20
Liam Murray	32:17

Score
Name	Time	Raw Points	Adjusted Points
Jeff Black	48:12	200	185
Sergey Velichko	44:25	180	180
Bill Leahy	45:30	135	135
Masha Velichko	35:04	100	100

And no meet report is complete without some cool pics!

Liam Murray punches in a the final control on the Beginner course…

Sergey tries to remove all billion cheatgrass seeds from his shoes while Masha plots a course to the nearest Starbucks….

Coursesetter Elijah Hill finishes strong after picking up the Beginner course…

Score Orienteering Meet -- Saturday, July 17, 11AM -- Julia Davis Park

2010-07-16T08:53:00.001-07:00

Please join us this Saturday, July 17, for our monthly orienteering meet. The start for Saturday's meet will be at the usual spot in Julia Davis Park (just north -- zoo side -- of the "Friendship Bridge" -- the bridge in the middle of the park connecting Julia Davis and BSU).

There will be two courses: a standard loop course for beginners, and a score course (covering Julia Davis, BSU, and Ann Morrison) for everyone else. Advanced runners will be given a 45 minute time limit, while Intermediate runners will be given 90 minutes.

Elijah Hill has come up with a very interesting score course, so come on out and see what the latest course designer has to offer!

Hope we see you there!

See the club website for more information on this meet and for general information on orienteering and the City of Trees Orienteering Club.

The Gold in Idaho City: O Meet Report

2010-06-18T21:06:00.000-07:00

It was a gorgeous day for orienteering - or for simply being outside. No more need be said!

The beginner course attracted a remarkably diverse cross section of participants. A few who never orienteered before included Jesse Chan, Ryan Hendrick & Mike Shosted, and Bill Parks - and after watching them get acclimated to the details of the map - the first control was in sight of the start - soon came back with big grins on their faces. Jesse, Ryan, and
Mike had time to stay longer and tackle intermediate too, which they completed like pros and still grinning. I expect they may get a chance to ply their new skills in some adventure racing. Dondi and Toby, my codirectors, burned off a little steam early in the meet by giving the course a round themselves (and confirming the controls were still there despite all the ATV traffic!) Masha Velichko, a top orienteering champ in her class, took on beginner herself given recent injury recovery and enjoyed the time in the woods.
Two of the Meade family came up into the woods for the first time, and made the rounds enjoyably and easily - enough that they tackled the first two controls on intermediate after a lunch eyed by Toby (those sardines looked pretty good I think). Ethan was the one who suggested their route choice and compass bearing on intermediate - and they hit it the first time out! And much thanks goes to Jeff Decker, who ran the course as a cooldown and picked up half the controls after everyone was done. (Sergey also ran to cooldown but this proved a bit more tricky with missing controls.) I think I can safely say nobody got lost or disappointed on the beginning loop.

Plenty of healthy interest was available on intermediate too, including the beginner participants mentioned above - Jesse, Ryan, and Mike, who I think even snagged a few mushrooms for eating later. Jeff Decker found opportunities to exercise some lightly used compass skills on the direct line rather than giving in to the trail of temptation routes - and certainly fared well by it, judging by his winning time. Perhaps we'll see his route overlaid on Google earth via the Garmin watch upload. Karin took intermediate so she wouldn't have to savor the generous climb on advanced, and came back looking warmed up, ready for the regional meet in a couple weeks. Bob went out too, on his own, and had no problem finding things out there. John Murray hedged for some time, trying to decide which course his knee could tolerate, and ultimately put his money on intermediate. He was seen as a real jackrabbit out there by Jesse and others, which he noted was an effort to make up for some lost time on the first control or two! (I think we have all been there.) Joe and Jenita cheerfully tackled the course with gusto and strode in together like they'd been doing it forever. And we can't forget Rosie Hill, who brought Andy and Elijah along so they could merge brainpower and fly over the still swampy finish line, complete with pictures of the action.

For the advanced we had a full range of familiar faces ready to take on the distance and climb. Sergey took first handily, but not without sweat, and really savored the long legs in the middle of the controls, inspired to put comparable versions in any future long O champs held in Idaho City (so I didn't do too bad in my course layout, at least!) On the other end of the field, Brad Lowe left plenty early to hike the course in full, and found several other wooly "orienteers" out there by control 10 - the sheep had moved in and surrounded the boulder it sat by! Nonetheless he managed to punch it. Russ Pilcher had a similar report on the sheep - even noting they all looked like boulders out there, so he yelled and shook them apart, and headed for the boulder than didn't move. It was the right one!
That day he easily hammered his brother Bill's time (despite Dazzle's nose), and I fear to hear of what bet may have been at stake for the win. Nonetheless I think they both enjoyed the Idaho woods as a change from Murphy that day. Jay Morgan actually was the very first to arrive that day (not by bike this time), and turned in a very respectable time for his first time on this map.

Special thanks for control pickup go to a LOT of people that day: Jeff Decker, Andy Hill, Joe and Jenita Gumansky, Karin and Bob Didisse, Brad Lowe, the Pilchers, and my wife Dondi. That day we proved that divide and conquer on control pickup means we are finished in no time flat!

Results

Beginner (2.1k, 65m climb):

Ryan Hendrick & Mike Shosted 17:38

Jeff Decker 18:10

Masha Velichko 25:20

Bill Parks 26:37

Jesse Chan 27:48

Dondi & Toby Black 28:00

Roy & Ethan Meade 42:00

Intermediate (4k, 250m climb):

Jeff Decker 58:03

Ryan Hendrick & Mike Shosted 1:01:55

Karin Didisse 1:05

Jesse Chan 1:10

John Murray 1:32

Bob Didisse 1:34

Andy, Elijah & Rosie Hill 1:55:16

Joe & Jenita Gumansky 2:13

Advanced (8k, 500m climb):

Sergey Velichko 1:05:30

Russ Pilcher 2:01:03

Jay Morgan 2:18

Bill Pilcher & Dazzle 2:33:15

Brad Lowe 3:17

Elijah has actually volunteered to design a fun course for July, and rumor has it Andy will keep him in line. Lee Scott will co. Come join us in the July heat for a cool park meet. In August we'll revisit the woods in McCall. If you can't wait until then, take note there are plenty of big meets around the area this summer hosted by other clubs that will be sure to challenge you in full!

Gold Rush conditions update

2010-06-12T15:38:00.001-07:00

An update on conditions and preparation:

1. The roads and terrain have dried out nicely in the past week, making everything quite drivable and the area quite beautiful. The weather was ideal today for orienteering.

2. ATV and motorcycle traffic has picked up with the weather, so be careful driving in. I still expect our start area to be as stated; there are a couple of RV's camped out nearby but it's relatively quiet. When running on the courses be aware of similar traffic on the roads and motorcycle trails that cross the woods.

3. Given the wet spring, it is probably best to be prepared for mosquitos and such. Although I haven't noticed any myself, I have been constantly moving for setup, so they aren't obvious. Dondi noted that when seated in one area for a period of time they are there.

4. We will have a few snacks at the start/finish table too, along with water. I have not planned any water on the course right now, but if it looks like it will be hot I may drop a jug off in the middle of intermediate and advanced. Bringing your own hydration will let you be best prepared for what you need.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Jeff

Take to the Woods!

2010-06-07T21:43:00.000-07:00

Greetings fellow Orienteers,

This Sunday, June 13th, we will have our first orienteering meet in the woods this year. Come on back to our Gold Rush map in Idaho City (our big A meet was here last June), or work on your skills in the green for the first time. This, as they say, is what it's all about! Courses will be available in beginner, intermediate, and advanced.

Give yourself a good hour or so to get to the meet start from downtown Boise. Head up 21 towards Idaho City, and when you get there:

1. Turn left on Main street, just before the visitor center.

2. Go 1/3 of a mile and turn right on Bear Run Road. (A building with a very large collection of signs is at this junction on the left.) This road is quite passable but has many potholes currently, some probably with water. Take your time, especially as some ATV's and motorcycles use this road.

3. Continue north, more or less, on Bear Run road. About a mile down the main road will veer left, but continue straight (or right) on Bear Run, following the signs indicating Pilot Peak and Lowman.

4. Another mile later continue straight at another junction, still heading towards Lowman.

5. Continue for one more mile, passing a large parking area on your right (this is called Lycow Flat) and continuing a little bit further to where a slightly rougher road goes right and the main road goes left. Turn right which should put you right in the start area. Signs, controls, and our club shelter should be easy to spot. If parking is cramped you can also park just up on the left fork.

If by some unfortunate circumstance another party has occupied this area, I'll make the new start area as obvious as I can along the same road at or before that point. I'm expecting that Sunday should be pretty clear, especially given how wet it has been up there this year.

The course will be open at 10:30am, and you can start until about 12. The course will close around 2pm. If you plan on tackling the advanced course an early start would be much easier for control pickup and such.

If time and logistics permit we can meet up at Trudy's afterward in Idaho City to discuss route choices and exchange stories of the day.

This is a beautiful area, on our best club map, in great orienteering terrain. Come on out and brush up your skills - it's worth the trip!

Jeff Black

Rabbit Creek Orienteering & Crawdad Feast Results

2010-05-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

The 7th annual Rabbit Creek Orienteering Meet was well attended by not only orienteers but, also for the first time, by crawdad aficionados.

Thanks to Russ the crawdad feast was great and a few lucky crawdads even found their way into the Rabbit Creek pond. Maybe next year we will be self sustaining!

Unfortunately for those of you competing in the crawdad feast, it appears that Russ neglected to weigh the crawdads as they were dispensed to each participant. Because of this oversight it appears we will have to consider this portion of the competition as simply a fun match this year.

Fortunately Bill did remember his responsiblitly to record the times for the orienteers on the classic O-courses. Therefore at least that portion of the meet was a success!

Sergey smoked the advanced course, with no close competetion (1:06) and achieved his goal of exactly cutting in half the time of the chief crawdad cook, Russ Pilcher, (2:12), who ran the course the evening before. It would have been awesome if Sergey would have run the course forwards and then backwards in the time that Russ ran it once, but then he probably wouldn't have gotten any crawdads from the cook.

However, second place on the advance course was hotly contended with Jeff Black taking the honors at 1:31. Jay Morgan 1:34 and Bill Leahy 1:36 were hot on Jeff's tail. Jason Pilcher and John Murray completed the course in respectable times. Joe Walker ( I originally thought that "Walker" was his last name not his prefered method of locomotion) brought up the rear but that was only because he was distracted by a herd of beautiful wild horses.

The intermediate course was won handily by Eric Bergset 0:54 again with no close competion. As in the advanced course, second place was very close, with Karin Didisse 1:39 taking the honors for 2nd place followed closely by Jeff Decker at 1:41, Brad Lowe and Dawn Caldwell at 1:42 and Joey Davis with Erin Lane at 1:43. David Bergset with Neva Suarez and Charlie Solomon also did a great job on the Intermediate course and both possibly would have been in the running for crawdad champion had Russ been keeping tally.

Jeff Black went back out on the beginner course and pulled it down in 0:13 but was disquaified because HE IS NOT A BEGINNER!! Dondi Black, Linda & Lexi Leahy and Robbie Solomon were great sports and took in the beginner course around the ranch too!

Advanced:

Sergey  Velichko        1:06

Jeff  Black              1:31

Jay  Morgan              1:34

Bill  Leahy              1:36

Russ  Pilcher            2:12

Jason  Pilcher                2:21

John  Murray                   3:07

Joe  Walker                    3:48  

Intermediate:

Eric  Bergset                 0:54

Karin  Didisse               1:39

Jeff  Decker                    1:41

Brad Lowe

& Dawn  Caldwell          1:42

Joey Davis

& Erin  Lane                    1:43

David Bergset

& Neva  Suarez               2:06

Charlie  Solomon            2:46

Beginner

Jeff Black                          0:13

Dondi  Black                    0:26

Linda &

Lexi  Leahy                        0:58

Robbie  Solomon              0:58

Bill P. (converted to blog post hastily by Jeff)

Rabbit Creek O meet & Crawdad Feast

2010-05-12T19:51:00.000-07:00

Sunday May 16th

Murphy, Idaho

Classic Course: Advanced, Intermediate and Beginner

Starts 10AM - 1PM

All you can eat Crawdads, Potatoes & Corn

Feast starts at Noonish

Until the food runs out

also

Lots of Lousiana Beer

Not necessary to run to participate in the Crawdad Feast!

We have some excellent prizes donated by

Shu's Idaho Running Company

www.idahorunningcompany.com

The prizes will be won by drawing

watches, jackets, gift certificates, etc

Each person or group actually running the race will receive one entry for the drawings

must be present to win

Russ, will also be providing unique gifts for all participants in the course

One gift for each person or group entered

The gifts are top secret, only Russ knows what they are!

Come take your chances!!

Bill is in charge of course design

Russ is in charge of food and beer (his specialties)

Directions to the event from I-84:

Directions:
From Boise take I-84 west to Nampa (exit #35). Turn Left and proceed to 3rd Street S (Caldwell Blvd). Turn Left on 3rd Street S (Caldwell Blvd) and proceed to 12th Ave. Turn Right on 12th Ave. Follow 12th Ave. south and it becomes Hwy 45 as it leaves Nampa city limits. Follow Hwy 45 across the Snake River. Soon after crossing the river, bear to the left and it becomes Hwy 78. Follow Hwy 78 to milepost 29. Immediately after passing the "Murphy" city limits sign turn to the Right on "Old Hwy 45" follow this for one block then continue straight and it becomes " Rabbit Creek Road". Follow Rabbit Creek Road for about 5 1/2 miles to J & S Road there is a lone mailbox and a BLM sign there that says "Road Ends on Private Land in 1 mile". Turn Left on J&S Road and follow this road approximately 1 1/2 miles to the house and sign in area.

Stuart Gulch Meet Results

2010-05-03T19:59:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who showed up to run the Stewart Gulch East map. It was a beautiful day, which seemed to bring a little comfort to the fact that the day started out rough even for the meet director, and that each course was pretty demanding to say the least.

As I started out to set the course early on Saturday morning I was filled with energy and excitement since this was my first time designing courses on this map. I knew I had everything ready, maps, control flags, tables, sign-up sheets, water, snacks, etc. And since this map has pretty tough terrain I made sure to give myself extra time to set the courses. With the back of my car filled with all of the necessary 'O' equipment I made my way to Hillside Jr. High School to start setting the West half of the map. The air was crisp, the sun was rising, and I could tell it was going to be perfect weather for orienteering. With the first two hanging controls in place I headed off to pound in the first of the post controls with my trusted 5 pound sledge hammer in tow. It was at this point when I felt a shift in the air.

As I pounded in the first post and reached over to grab a control flag to hang I realized that I had forgotten all of the unmarked control flags for the post controls (did I mention earlier that I "knew" I had everything?). After a brief moment of some very "creative" words for my forgetfulness, I decided that all I could was continue setting the course. But I new my time was now severely limited. I made it back to the car and grabbed a handful of unused hanging controls (which would add an extra level of confusion later) and started back out to run the Western half of the map for a second time.

I finally made my way to the start where I met our trusted Jeff Black who was there to co-direct. I couldn't unload the meet center materials from car fast enough. Needless to say, I got the rest of the courses set and we only had a 30 minute delay.

Now onto all of those who actually paid money to run these courses. You all deserve a cold drink, a medal, maybe some new shoes, and maybe your sanity back. All three course were very challenging for their respective levels. Out for his first orienteering meet, Scott Hall started things off on the Beginner course followed up by Dondi Black and Toby, and then Angela Withers and her husband and two young girls.

Hats off to Roy, Ethan, and Kirsten Meade who were eager (and the only ones) to tackle the Intermediate course. Unfortunately, this course proved to be quite a challenge and a the Meade Family headed in early to mend some wounds.

The Advanced course, now known as the "Man-Maker", was not to be taken lightly. With several long stretches between controls, route selection was crucial. Although, I'm not sure any single route selection was better than another. Jay Morgan was the first competitor to head out on the Advanced course but soon ran into trouble at #4 where he was joined by Ole. The two of them worked together to finally get onto #5. Bill Leahy and Dennis Keogh tackled the course as a team while Bill gave some instruction along the way (which included some creative route selection which I'll get to later). Jeff Decker was up next with Sergey quick on his heels, just edging out Jeff Black by three minutes to take first. While Sergey didn't have a whole lot of comments on the course, Jeff seemed all to eager to let me know what he thought of the "Man-Maker". And finally, not to be outdone by anyone, the Brothers Pilcher raised their flag and prepared to out "O" each other. Bill took to the start first but as soon as he hit Hillside Jr. High School he decided that he'd had enough. Russ completed the entire course and is awarded with the "Man-Maker Man of the Day" award for not only finishing the entire course, but for also being the only competitor on the Advanced course to stay officially "in bounds". Choosing to take the much harder route in order to avoid the "out of bounds" section along Hill Road and next to the golf course. Not only that, but Russ (and the other competitors) also dealt with the confusing control markers since the post controls also had labeled hanging flags.

Despite the rough start to the day and the very challenging course I think everybody that showed up had a good time. There were very lively debates about the course and how us locals choose to respectfully disregard out of bounds sections on our maps. I'm sure tales of the "Man-Maker" will continue to grow increasingly hard to believe over the years and we can look back on this time say that we were there on that faithful day.

Again, a big thank you to all of you that showed up to compete and a special thank you to Jeff Black, Jeff Decker, and Russ Pilcher for keeping us all honest.

We look forward to seeing at the Rabbit-O/Crawfish Feed on May 16th.

RESULTS

Beginner Course
Scott Hall	37:42
Dondi Black	54:20
Angela Withers & Family	1:20:00

Intermediate Course
Meade Family	DNF

Advanced Course
Sergey Velichko	1:10:55
Jeff Black	1:13:30
Jeff Decker	1:50:55
Bill Leahy & Dennis Keogh	2:03:00
Ole Bergset	2:08:00
Jay Morgan	2:09:00
Russ Pilcher	3:05:00
Bill Pilcher	DNF

Upcoming: Stuart Gulch East 04/24/10

2010-04-19T09:47:00.000-07:00

City of Trees Orienteering Club will be hosting the next meet this Saturday, April 24th, at Stuart Gulch East. The meet center will be located at the end of Harrison Hollow Blvd. and there is plenty of parking in Healthwise parking lot. There will be a course for every ability level and volunteers available to provide some tips, pointers, instruction, etc. So come out and stretch your post Robbie legs. The weather should clear up just in time.

Date: Saturday, April 24th
Start time: 11:00am - 1:00pm (course will be closed by 2pm)
Location: Stuart Gulch East

And remember, you can register on-site, or print out the Registration Form at home, fill it in and bring it with you to the meet.

2010 Schedule

2010-04-16T21:54:00.000-07:00

March 20 Veterans and Willow Lane Park Meet

2010-03-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

It was a chilly but bright morning on the 20th of March. Meet director, Sergey, was up early to put up all the controls in Veteran’s Park and Willow Lane Park. Local orienteerers came on out to participate in the fun.

We had some newcomers on the beginner’s course: Scott Hensley and Erin Bulcher. They had lots of fun with a friend, Dasha Velichko, with a time of 29:15. Nicholas Byrne showed off his fast legs with an amazing time of 17:15. We can all expect much more from this competitive young man. Lee Scott and his daughter, Teagan, went out on a father-daughter run with the time of 16:15. Meade family Roy and his 2 kids tried the beginner’s course as well with time 29:31. Jay Morgan, Nikolai, and Aleksi had the time of 30:30.

We had two groups that participated in the beginners course come out and try the intermediate one as well. Nicholas and his dad had the great time of 43:50. Scott, Erin, and Dasha made a leisurely walk around the course to get used to the map and came back with the time of 1:05:22.

There were many takers on the advance course. Jeff Black had the best time of 40:42 with Lee Scott a close second with 46:46. Jay Morgan had the time of 51 minutes and Bill Leahy came back with a 53:59. Ole took the 5th spot with the time of 57:10 minutes. Brothers, Bill and Russ Pilcher, came on out and took the times of 1:24:37 and 1:46:45 respectively.

Overall it was a great run and a nice day for it. For sure people and dogs had wonderful time in the park enjoying spring weather. We thank everyone for waking up early to head on out and run with the wind. We hope that you enjoyed the courses because we sure enjoyed putting them up for you. The next meet will be April 25 at Stewart Gulch (East), directed by Lee Scot with the help from Jeff Black. Many thanks to Jeff and Bill for helping with collecting controls.

Meet Directors,
Sergey and Masha Velichko

Beginner: 1.5K, 9 controls
Nicholas Byrne 17:15
Teagan and Lee Scott 16:15
Scott Hensley, Erin Bulcher, Dasha Velichko 29:15
Roy Meade and 2 kids 29:31
Nikolai, Aleksi, and Jay Morgan 30:30

Intermediate: 3.5K, 13 controls
Nicholas and Jim Byrne 43:50
Eric, Scott, and Dasha 1:05:22

Advanced: 7K, 22 controls
Jeff Black 40:42
Lee Scott 46:46
Jay Morgan 51:00
Bill Leahy 53:59
Ole Bergset 57:10
Bill Pilcher 1:24:37
Russ Pilcher 1:46:45

2010-02-24T06:21:00.000-08:00

BSU/Julia Davis Meet Summary
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Meet Directors: Bill and Lexy Leahy

The weather wasn’t quite as warm as the meet directors were expecting but it must have been just pleasant enough to draw a large number of racers, hikers and families.

The meet was set up as a traditional course with an advanced course, intermediate course, and a beginner course. We had no takers for the beginning course since everyone who attended had prior orienteering experience.

The advanced and intermediate courses were designed for maximum route choice decisions, especially the advanced course. Hopefully you were thusly challenged.

There was a slight twist to the meet with two bonus questions, with each correctly answered question resulting in a 10 second deduction to your final time if you were in one of the competitive categories. The two questions were: “Which control has the most Joy” and “Which control Welcomes Orienteerers”.

The “Joy” question was for control #2 on the intermediate course and #13 on the advanced course. There is a plaque at the bench with a dedication to Joy Adams the wife of a good friend of mine.

The “Welcome Orienteerers” question was a sign that my daughter, Lexy, put in her dorm room window at control # 12 on the intermediate course and #5 on the advanced course.

No one correctly answered both questions. Of the 11 people that did answer one of the questions it was about equally divided between both questions.

These question could have changed the results in the Advanced Competitive category if Doug or Ole had come up with different answer combinations (see results below). This advanced course was won by Sergey with Jeff Black close behind. The remainder of the field was pretty competitive with each other.

The bonus question did change the result in the Intermediate Competitive category where a correctly answered question gave 8 year old Peter Beckner the same finishing time as Donna Goodwin. This course was won by Jay Morgan after the benefit of running the advanced course, but he still had to make different route choices from the advanced course and he didn’t take any bonus question time deductions. Next to finish was David Bergset and Nera Suarez.

Lee Scott and Jeff Decker wore Garmin watches during their running of the advance course and were willing to share their results. Check them out to see how their route choices varied.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/25317980
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/25241742

Thanks to my co-director, Lexy, for her help with course design, control setup, start area setup, and for her complete management of the Welcome Orienteerers sign, registration, and timing.

Thanks to Jeff Black, Jeff Decker, Ole Bergset and Erik Bergset for control pickup and helping take down the start/finish area. Thanks to Lee for help setting up the start/finish area.

Also thanks to Mike Shuman owner of Shu’s Idaho Running Company for the prizes.

Don’t miss the CTOC’s next club meet on March 20 at Veteran’s and Willow Lane Parks.

Here are the results from this meet. The times listed have any time deductions already calculated into them. Thanks to everyone for their participation and it was great to see all the families that attended.

Advanced Competitive
Sergey Velichko 40:32 (-10, for one correct bonus question)
Jeff Black 40:53 (-10)
Jay Morgan 47:15 (-10)
Lee Scott 48:25 (-10)
Doug LaMott 50:12 (-10)
Ole Bergset 50:22 (-10)
Erik Bergset 51:54 (-10)
Jeff Decker 54:58 (-10)
Greg Davidson & 57:10 (-10)
Melanie Schuster

Intermediate Competitive
Jay Morgan 23:44 (after advanced course running)
David Bergset & 34:48
Nera Suarez
Karin Didisse 39:10
Ray Honovich & 40:45
son
Peter Beckner 46:14 (-10)
Donna Goodwin 46:14
Aaron Tabor & 53:10 (-10)
Family (3)

Advanced Recreational
Brad Lowe Completed course, got one bonus question
Bill Pilcher Completed course

Intermediate Recreational
Dondi & Toby Completed course
Folske family (5) Partial completion of course
Dee Unofficial – took map and walked the park

* the number in parenthesis after a family name designates how many family members participated.

February Orienteering Meet

2010-02-18T09:33:00.000-08:00

Orienteering Meet
Sunday, February 21
Start Times 11:00-1:00

Please join us this Sunday, February 21st, for our monthly orienteering meet. The meet venue will be at Julia Davis Park and Boise State University. There will be three courses – advanced, intermediate, and beginning. There will also be two categories for each course – competitive and recreational.

There will be 21 controls on the advanced course and 16 on the intermediate. Advanced course participants will have to cross the river four times. Route choices are guaranteed to be challenging. The intermediate course will have similar challenges just on a slightly shorter scale.

There will also be two 10 second bonus time questions on the advanced and intermediate courses. This will be further explained at the meet.

The start area will be on the north side (zoo side) of the footbridge between Julia Davis Park and BSU.

Cost of this event is $5 for individuals, $7 for teams/families, and free to club members.

We’re anticipating pleasant weather on Sunday so come out and have a great run or walk through the park and campus.

Hope we see you there!

See http://ctoc-boise.blogspot.com/ for more information on this meet and for general information on orienteering and the City of Trees Orienteering Club.

Tight timing on the Score

2010-01-17T19:35:00.000-08:00

Turnout was enthusiastic for our first meet of 2010, with a "score" of returning and new participants to the sport of orienteering. The park was quiet and the weather held off until late in the meet, when we got some rain to wash us down a little.

Jeff B. (the author of this report) had enough time to prerun the course, and found it was extremely challenging to get all the controls in 25 minutes. In other words, I couldn't do it myself. Doug and I agreed to stick with this, figuring in the true spirit of a score course nobody should be able to get them all. As it turned out, the full 360 points was well beyond reach - I think even Sergey would have found it quite difficult (I dare not say impossible), but he was not there to prove the case! Jay Morgan grimly focused on getting as many as he could muster, and pulled off first place job admirably with only a small penalty. Later he went out again in the opposite direction and found it was still not quite possible. Close behind was Ole, who we encouraged to use his internal clock to keep time (as he so famously did at Rabbit Creek a few years back), but he went out with his cell phone to monitor the situation and came back with a score right behind Jay. Later he too went out to resolve the rest of the controls to his satisfaction. Jeff Decker and Jim Byrne also gave them a run for the money, arriving with bated breath and nearly the same amount of points, but a tidge more overtime. Jason Wiedemann and Matt Score (the latter with a name nicely tuned to the orienteering this day), informed of the club by Mike Bading and budding adventure racers themselves, gave it a mighty fine sprint and came in strong. I think they'll be back for more. Peter Beckner, possible future competition for Masha Velichko indeed, took the course reins on his own (with the family lab tracking behind) and gave the adults (and the lab) a run for their money. And Donna Goodwin had one of the most enjoyable meets of her orienteering career, feeling satisfaction in finding plenty of controls under the duress of time limits.

We had several takers for recreational, where no limit was imposed except those the participants had themselves. Bill Leahy, still recovering from an MCL tear, worked the course with Nicholas Byrne, and thoroughly enjoyed watching him slide the shortcut down the hill from control QQ (about as much elevation can be had in Ann Morrison) into XF. Joanne Leone and Joe Novak returned and found every control except JD, which they felt was enough after the soaking rain began - their map squeaked into the finish in one piece. The Tabor family, on their first outing, had a grand time and I think...got them all (but my meet notes are incomplete on this point). The Meade family, Roy and Ethan, also came out for their first time and savored most of the controls, leaving those in the NW map corner to make a 1pm time constraint. Despite the rain, I think they may be back for more too.

As a meet director, in retrospect I think I pushed the time constraints a little harder than necessary for this meet - most participants barely noticed the point differentials in their haste to simply start collecting controls. Most were 10 points, but there was 4 20 pointers and a single 30 pointer, QQ. A 30 minute limit would have still been challenging, and if I allowed a minute to study the map, there might have been a little more planning instead. Despite this small tradeoff, I think everyone enjoyed the challenge and sheer number of controls out there, especially those tucked into places that required reading the map and description carefully - GA buried in a thicket, QQ high up on the hill but below eye level, and VA buried in the entrance grass thicket as examples. And in the post finish discussion, there was lots of talk about what route choice was optimal, or which controls would have been most worth it. I do think that Jay found a better route than I thought for the SE corner. Many small choices were buried in the controls, and I believe we can keep the challenge up in our future meets.

Results (360 points available, 25 minutes, 10 points per minute overtime):

Jay Morgan 26:15 240 -10 230

Ole Bergset 26:35 230 -10 220

Jeff Decker 28:30 230 -30 200

Jim Byrne 27:40 220 -20 200

Jason Wiedemann 26:13 210 -10 200

Peter Beckner 26:50 150 -10 140

Donna Goodwin 28:30 160 -30 130

Matt Score 25:31 130 0 130

Recreational (in order by signup):

Bill Leahy & Nicholas Byrne 30 controls

Joann Leone & Joe Novak 29 controls

Aaron, Morgan, & Logan Tabor 30 controls?

Roy & Ethan Meade 23 controls

I'd like to say thank you to my codirector Doug LaMott for showing up early to help place controls and do setup. Thank you's also go to Jeff Decker, Donna Goodwin, and Doug for helping with pickup and Ole for hanging out to guard the table and help pack up. The team effort is really appreciated and we were cleaned up in record time. I was able to dry the wet supplies off in a few hours after I got home before sending them back to the storage unit, too, so they are ready for another day.

Check our meet calendar on the right for our future events, especially for next month's meet
on the still fresh off the press Julia Davis/BSU A meet map Sergey redid last spring. Bill Leahy
will direct. See you then!

Jeff Black and Doug LaMott

The sweet score of January

2010-01-13T22:10:00.000-08:00

January 16th! The first club meet for 2010!

I cordially invite you to partake in a Score course in our slightly soggy but very runnable city park of Ann Morrison. Although it sounds innocuous, you may find it pleasantly challenging, as we will have no fewer than 30 controls out there, in a medley of different point values. To find the best route choice will be something for your brain to determine, while your hands and feet punch and run.

If you would like to race, there will be a competitive time limit meant to challenge you but let you savor every moment.

If you would like to come out and enjoy the pleasures of a walk in our city park in January, see a few corners you never knew existed, or convince us all you can find the very best route choice, take what time you like up to course close at 1pm.

A quick reminder: our annual dues cycle begins with each year. See the link on the right for dues - they will cover all local club meets for the year, and support the club in development of new maps and meet supplies.

If you aren't a member, don't forget a waiver in advance to save some time.

Date: Saturday, January 16th

Time: Departures between 11 and 12:30; course closes at 1pm.

Start location: Ann Morrison Park, by the center bridge.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Race Directors Jeff Black and Doug LaMott

2010-01-09T14:53:00.000-08:00

Willow Lane Freezeout

Saturday, December 19

So, who would rather fight the crowds on opening weekend at Bogus rather than go orienteering on a cold, blustery December day? Most folks, as it turned out. Attendance at this meet was quite a bit below normal numbers for a December meet – next year we move it back to the traditional first weekend in December.

Those who did show had a nice day for running (or even walking). First guinea pigs out the door were walkers Brad Lowe and Dawn Caldwell, followed a few minutes later by Lee Scott on the Advanced course. A bit later, Jay Morgan arrived via bike to try his hand, but he wasn’t quite able to topple Lee from his top spot. Bill Pilcher, fresh from a concrete face-plant while stringing Christmas lights then took on the Advanced course while attempting to leash-train a new dog. Youngster Peter Beckner (who seems poised to give Masha some competition in the younger ranks) took a quick run around the Intermediate course. And, lastly, Jeff Black, via Intergalactic cruiser bike, arrived barely in advance of course teardown, and made short work of the Advanced course.

Thanks to everyone who came out – see ya at the upcoming January freezeout!

Andy

Advanced(4.92km)	Time
Jeff Black	32:52
Lee Scott	41:55
Jay Morgan	46:28
Bill Pilcher	71:00

Intermediate(2.34km)	Time
Peter Beckner	33:05
Brad Lowe and Dawn Caldwell	50:00

The Street Challenge Report

2009-11-16T20:04:00.000-08:00

The fall November day of the challenge greeted all comers cold and clear, bright and sunny. Eager street chasers came from all directions to claim a map and study up the best route choice that lent itself to scenic value or a maximum score, beneath gold falling leaves in Ann Morrison park.

After what seemed like an all too brief period of studying the map, the bikers, runners, and walkers scattered in all directions. Andy and Elijah, running a little late after removing the extra ski clothing they piled on, hastily scribbled out a tentative route under duress and blasted off towards the clock tower (quite probably the best warm up control for a confidence booster).

Sergey arrived shortly after the masses had left and went out "just for an hour". Apparently he was having enough fun it took him a little longer than that, but he resisted the allure of getting them all. He seemed confident, however, that it was possible! For a runner I think it would be tough - we had more controls than ever this year.

Karin and Bob also enjoyed the northern half of the map, and even returned with a few action shots. As it turns out, Bob won the walking class, a fact I only realized after returning home and doing confirmation tallies here without all the chaos of a mass finish. But I think I saw him sneak the last chocolate bar, so Bill and Dee don't need to feel guilty.

It was around the time Karin returned I first heard of the difficulty at control 38, at Longfellow Elementary - the sidewalk plaque was solidly covered by leaves! Reputedly some orienteers (who shall remain unnamed) covered the plaque back up after their hard won find for the next round to discover. For those who gave up and picked an answer based on other quotes, I gave them the benefit of the doubt and did not penalize with negative points for guessing (as ominously suggested at the start).

The first bikers to return were Greg Davidson and Melanie Schuster, followed shortly by Jay Morgan who solidly won the bike class with all controls and his early arrival. Then orienteers started pouring in, faster than I could keep up with the news. Three of us worked on scoring at once. I could hear in the background a discussion about Mercury vs. Venus at the Discovery Center Bridge...but had to let it go temporarily in the busyness. Suspecting the worst, I returned to the scene Monday evening and found that Mercury was on the north side of the bridge! As I set up this control in the near dark, I missed this entirely and didn't believe Mercury could be so close. So as it turns out, there were two right answers to question #18, and both Brad Lowe and Doug LaMott get full credit for Mercury.

At least as meet director I didn't flub leaving out a question entirely, like I did last year. I did rather enjoy hearing the tales of counting steps (#41 - no way to eyeball it) or trees (#12), which undoubtedly were a little more challenging under pressure. For the record, the most visited controls were #10, 13, 15, 24, 25, and 26, a mix of locations in the vicinity of Ann Morrison and the heart of downtown. The least visited were #19 (a relatively close one), #37 (tough to route well I am sure), and the far SW #42, 43, 44, 45, and 46. You can be sure, however, that Mike Bading and Merrill Hayden were among the few getting those high 40 pointers, even after getting multiple flats along the way!

Bill Leahy handily won the running class this year, although he looked pretty tired for his win. Nevertheless I think he will be back for more, and he can claim a win over Sergey for this month (we aren't ranking in points per minute for this meet).

Results:

Bike Class

Jay Morgan 890 2:37

Doug LaMott 880 2:58

Lee Scott 860 2:48

Greg Davidson & Melanie Schuster 820 2:36

Kevin Heglund 800 2:54

Scott and Mary DeWalt 800 3:00

Mike Bading and Merrill Hayden 720 3:02 (-20 for overtime)

Andy and Elijah Hill 600 3:03 (-30 for overtime)

Brad Lowe 460 2:54

Run Class

Bill Leahy 630 2:54

Matthew Score & Ian McQueary 510 2:47

Sergey Velichko 320 1:15

Karin Didesse 300 2:28

Walk Class

Bob Didesse 220 2:21

Bill and Dee Pilcher 200 3:09 (-90 for overtime)

My apologies for the ongoing difficulty with our slightly less than timely and accurate scoring. Although we have improved notably over the past couple of years, the system has yet to be perfected (and devising clear questions can be harder than it looks). If you have any feedback, please let me know. I hope everyone enjoyed it, even if you did have to count steps under oxygen debt while carrying your bike!

It was fantastic to see so many faces, old and new, out there for this meet. Perhaps we may see you at future meets, stretching both legs and minds. We have a December meet scheduled on the 19th, but the meet director and place are yet to be confirmed. Given the context it will be a park meet, probably Veteran's and/or Willow Lane. Stay tuned to this blog for more info, as well as for the 2010 calendar of events.

Your meet directors - Jeff Black and Karin Didesse

Boise Street Challenge starts on Sunday, November 15th!

2009-11-03T04:34:00.000-08:00

Yes, you heard correctly...we are trying out a new name this year. The event formerly known as the Metrogaine shall be henceforth the Boise Street Challenge for 2009.

On top of that, the date has been slightly reset to Sunday, November 15th, instead of Saturday. This minimizes the traffic hazards out there on our city streets.

Our meet format remains unchanged, however: Given a USGS map of downtown Boise and the surrounding terrain, the challenge is to get as many "points" as possible in the 3 hour time limit. Points are obtained by answering questions at a circle on the map, a question that can (usually) only be answered by being there. Like a traditional orienteering score course, some answers are worth more than others, but can be filled out in any order, so there is some strategy involved.

Although the long distance runners remain big fans of this meet, given the scale of the map, it remains wildly popular with the bikers of the group too. We'll keep them in a separate class. But if you just want to wander the city on a beautiful November fall day and see it through new eyes, here's your chance! Walkers will have their own class too.

Key details:

Date: Sunday, November 15th

Time: Start area set up at 10am. Maps distributed at 10:15am. Mass start at 10:30am!

Start Location: Ann Morrison park, by the center pedestrian bridge.

Time Limit: 3 hours (10 point penalty per minute overtime)

Cost: $5 per map (for club members, it is free)

Coming Up: CTOC's first ever Vampire-O - Saturday, Oc. 17th

2009-09-30T08:27:00.000-07:00

Welcome to CTOC first ever Vampire-O. What’s a Vampire-O, you ask? Read on and get ready for some Halloween fun while orienteering at night. And yes, it’s will be at night because everyone knows that vampires only come out at night!

Date: Saturday Oct 17, 2009
Time: 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm (Sunset is at 6:55pm, however, full darkness will be closer to the 7:15PM)
Location: Simplot Sport Complex East (parking lot off S. Quamash Way)
Format: Vampire-O (score-o format, mass start with one more vampires starting 3 minutes later)
Courses: Beginner & intermediate courses
Notes: Bring your headlamp, warm clothes and Registration Form (or register on site) and enjoy a fun night of orienteering.

FAQ:

So, what is Vampire-O? It's like playing a game of tag while orienteering! One or more participants are selected as "vampires" at the start of the event. The "vampires" leave 3 minutes after everyone else had a mass start. Vampires carry a "vampire" card, worth zero points. When they come within five meters of another orienteer and yell "vampire attack!", the "victim" must surrender his or her punch card (along with all of its points) to the vampire, who then receives the Vampire card. The victim then becomes the vampire (but cannot immediately re-tag the original vampire, of course). This will be done at night with flashlights.
After a vampire attack can the victim attack his/her original vampire? If so, what are the rules for doing so? "No immediate tag backs", just like in third grade. ;-> Cards tend to get traded back and forth pretty quickly, so this usually isn't a problem. You can attack someone that attacked you as long as you unloaded the card you got from them and are now carrying a card you got from another vampire later on. Vampires can't attack vampires of course - they'd just end up swapping cards...
I understand the course is score-o format. Is each control worth the same number of points? Each control is worth the same amount. Identical control point values also makes scoring at the end that much easier - and it will be a bit hectic with a score-O mass finish.
Are teams allowed? If so, how does it work if the team is the vampire and team members have both slow and fast runners can the faster runner go after a victim alone or do they need to stay together as a team? Teams are allowed. The team should stay together, within reason. The rule is "do the right thing" during the event. Teams should stay within vocal range if they get a bit separated, but should travel together whenever possible.
What if I want to run the vampire-o course but don’t want to be bothered by the vampire? Can I just want to run the score-o course? You can run the course but you will need special holy water to protect you from vampires. If you choose this option then you will be given a 1 gallon jug of holy water and you must carry it at all times during the event.
Will there be a beginner and intermediate course? Yes, there will be a beginner and intermediate course. Participants that wish do the beginner or intermediate courses will be give a special garlic bracelet (glow in dark bracelet. The kind you see at the county fair). This will protect you from the vampire. Beginner and intermediate participants should come early to avoid the mass start of the vampire-o.
Because its at night do I need to bring a flashlight? Yes, you should bring a flashlight or a headlamp.
Do I need to dress up in a Halloween costume? No, you do not need to come in costume. However, you can if you wish.
Will it be dark enough for a night-o? Yes, sunset on Oct 17th will be 6:55pm and it will near total darkness by the time of the vampire-o mass start.

National Orienteering Day: Sun and Shade

2009-09-20T15:22:00.000-07:00

It was a gorgeous day for a park meet, especially National Orienteering Day. The sun was out, breeze was light, and the controls were hung on the distinct trees with care. We thought a more curious member of the Society (SCA for those in the know) next to us might be inclined to find out what all these flags were about, but quite probably their clothing would be problematic. We greeted a fine mix of guests new to orienteering, various inquires from passers-by, and gave our experienced attendees a heady challenge that kept them running hard.

There were three groups who found some excitement on the "easy" (aka beginner) course, a nice loop around the zoo. Kelly Carlen came with his son last year; this year he brought several scouts with him as our event jived nicely with their orienteering work in the troop. They were out early and back first; I thought they might try intermediate but lunch must have been too interesting this time! Then Barry and Greta came on Dondi's invite (they happen to be our next door neighbors), as they were in the park riding the swans. Greta did well spotting controls along the way, and Barry could fall back on his piloting experience if necessary. Hope they try a course again! David Bergset also arrived with Neva and her son Sebastian, and set out together on beginner with Sebastian leading the way, and handily won the category.

On Harder (intermediate), which provided some very interesting route choices and stretched into BSU, the first eager takers were the Hall family, who have seen our stuff a couple times before. They came in breathless in a string of finishers, no worse for the wear. Peter Beckner and son took on the course not far behind them and shaved off a few minutes; they snagged a new watch from Shu's to watch the time even more closely in future meets. Then David Bryd solo'd a run through the course and settled into first, maybe being set for an advanced course next time?

Yet another three took on the Score challenge on the Hardest (advanced) course - a variant we haven't had in a long time on this map, it seemed - and all found the 30 minute time limit to collect as many controls as possible quite challenging. (There was 5 minutes to plan before starting.) All of them, however, picked up the 20 pointers! Jay Morgan matched wits closely with Michael Tobin (his first meet on this map), and edged out ahead, helped a bit more by Michael realizing he mispunched a box after he finished. (And Michael thought he was out for a nice easy Saturday jog!) Jeff Decker went out a little later and turned in a very respectable score given more judicious selection of controls.

Easy: 1.46km, 8 controls

1. Sebastian, Neva, and David: 21:47

2. Barry and Greta: 28:36

3. Carlen scout group: 34:00

Harder: 3.03km, 10 controls

1. David Byrd: 33:45

2. Beckner family: 42:42

3. Hall family: 57:32

Hardest: Score, 25 controls (5, 10, or 20 points each), 30 minutes

1. Jay Morgan: 235 (29:55)

2. Michael Tobin: 220 (29:16) (MP #18)

3. Jeff Decker: 180 (28:00)

Special thanks goes to Andy Hill, the indirect director who assembled the courses, maps, and gear in advance by my house on Friday. (Hope those tomatoes made it worthwhile!) Lee Scott and Jeff Decker were also vital co-directors in helping setup the start area, handle the many guests we had, and helped pick up controls (as well as pack my car while I got a few more).

Next month Jeff D. is planning something even beyond our fairly regular fall Night-O - stay tuned, and gather some garlic and headlamps! That will be Saturday, October 17th, at 6pm. See you then.

Jeff Black

Welcome to National Orienteering Day

2009-09-15T19:04:00.000-07:00

This weekend, September 19th, our club is pleased to present the Boise events for National Orienteering Day. This is a great meet to get acquainted with the sport for the first time, or a refresher after a long absence with your compass. Experienced club members will be on hand to help explain the basics, and the park meet is a pleasant introduction to the maps without actually being lost!

Meet location: Julia Davis Park, near the Friendship Bridge south of the zoo.
Start times: 11am-1pm - you may arrive within this window to try a course, as participants start separately a few minutes apart.
To bring:
1. your trusty compass, or you may rent one from the club for a nominal fee.
2. a signed waiver, to save you some time signing up when you get there - but we will have blanks handy.
Cost: Cheap, our usual monthly meet fee for nonmembers: $5 per individual, or $7 for a group sharing a map. Or if you're a club member, it's included!

This map was revised just this year for our big A meet sprint in June, and is a larger scale with new details, and fully revised for all the BSU construction. Even if you've done this park with us in past meets, I think you'll find the map even better than before. Andy Hill has planned out three course levels - our usual beginner, intermediate, and advanced, so it's likely he might have some surprises in for us.

See you on Saturday!

Jeff Black

2009-08-26T19:07:00.000-07:00

Bear Basin Results
We had a great event out at Bear Basin this Sunday with nice cool weather and ripe huckleberries to distract and replenish the runners. There was couple of problems with the course setting and map that gave several people trouble. Joe and Ole had a lot of trouble with one control which had the wrong code number on it (number 8 on intermediate), and Masha had trouble because of an unmapped vehicle track near number 6. Naya was there for the superb single track mountain biking now available from that trailhead, and got talked into trying the o-ring with baby and dogs (reminiscent of Kristin Ritz) and did great. The intermediate course was rather challenging and saw a lot of use including somewhat newbies Joe and Deforest who gave it a game try and got most of it before calling it a day.

Our next event is National Orienteering day at Julia Davis park Sept. 19, this is a great time to introduce a new person to the sport! Also, please let us know if you can help out.

Also coming up is a two day "B"- meet near Bend Oregon Sept.12&13 put on by our neighbors the Columbia River Orienteering Club (CROC). This will be held at Dutchman Flat in the shadow of Mt. Bachelor on a terrific map created for the US Champs in 2005. Go to www.croc.org for more info. I hope some of you can make it and support regional events and try new terrain.

- Karin Didisse, Meet director

Advanced 6.2km.
Sergey Velichko 48:45
Ole Bergset 1:22:57
Michael Tobin 1:26:08
Bill Leahy 1:49:36
Bill Pilcher 2:01:10
Jeff Decker 2:42:25
Tony Pori (missed #10) 2:11

Intermediate 4.1km.
Andy & Elijah Hill 1:31:09
Bob Didisse 1:36:42
Masha Velichko 1:38:35
David Bergset & Neva Suarez 2:19:05
Sergey (2nd Course) 44:00?

Intermediate Recreational:
Joe Gumiensky got 8
DeForest Eveland got 7

Beginner 2.3km
Naya Antink (w/ passenger) 34:30

August Meet Info

2009-08-21T12:56:00.000-07:00

Hey there, hope to see you all at Bear Basin near McCall this SUNDAY 8/23 for a local orienteering meet. Starts are from 11am- 1 pm and we'll be meeting at the new Bear Basin Trailhead off of Club Hill Road:
To get there go up to the highest point on highway 55 (a couple miles headed west out of McCall) and turn north (right) on Club Hill Rd. for 1/2 mile, the parking lot is just off to the right where the road makes a sharp turn left.

Come on up and enjoy the nice weather, beautiful forest and huckleberries! We'll have three courses with the longest being around 6.4 km.

Plus a big CONGRATS to our very own Lee Scott! A picture of his from Saturday at the Idaho City Goldrush meet made the cover of Orienteering North America magazine! Plus several of his other pictures were featured inside along with a story about the juniors group from Texas that came to the Pacific Northwest Orienteering Fest, of which our meet was part.

- Karin Didisse

2009-07-22T08:46:00.000-07:00

July's O Meet Summary

While the temps reached 106 on Saturday it wasn't too bad under the shade tents where we had plenty of seats and plenty of liquids.

Beginner course and Intermediate course participants were allowed to review their maps before embarking on their journey, but not so for advanced runners. This probably worked out to the meet directors advantage since it didn't allow for much discussion when they saw where the first control was located (see advance course and intermediate course maps attached below). I'm especially not sure Jeff B. was appreciative of the placement since he'd run a 13 mile warm up prior to the meet.

The advanced course was contested by 6 people (5 individual groups). It was a tight competition between Michael, Ole, and Jeff B. with Michael nipping Ole by 26 seconds. Good thing he waded all those streams to save time! As per Michael this is his first win at a CTOC meet. Congratulations Michael! Erik finished in 4th place with a time of 1:11. He's showing that he's quickly picking up this sport. Watch out Ole he's coming for you! Rounding out the advance course were Greg and Melanie - their second course of the day.

The intermediate course appeared to be the popular course based on the heat and the shorter distance as compared to the advance course. Being a bit fresher on this course, Greg and Melanie finished first in 44:18 followed closely by Karin in 45:58. Then came Jim and Nicholas Byrne in 1:11:20 (Nicholas is only 8 yrs old). A couple of folks had difficulty finding control #7 (same as #14 on the advanced course). It was difficult to find as the clue was elusively described as a clearing which was subjective as compared to surrounding vegetation. It wasn't a "bingo"* control but it was a tough control to locate.

On the beginners course, Nicholas Byrne didn't get enough of a workout on the intermediate course with his dad so he undertook the beginners course by himself. He finished in 11:06. We also had the Gasaway family, whom we've seen at prior meets, complete the beginners course. They then went out on the intermediate course until the Gasaway boys were lured by the cool waters of Veterans pond (who can blame them). We also had Heather Steele and her family (I believe there were 5 of them) come out and do the beginners course and learn how to use a map and compass. Thanks for joining us!

Many thanks to my co-director, Lexy Leahy, for helping set up and break down the registration area, and also for handling the registration, fee collection, start times, finish times and elapsed times.

Thanks to JJ Byrne, age 5, who was nominated as our co-co-director in charge of compasses. He provided great entertainment.

Control pickup on such a hot day by Donna Goodwin, Jeff Decker, and Ole Bergset was very much appreciated. These folks, plus Karin (and Lexy), also helped break down the registration area. Thanks again!

Thanks to eveyone for coming out on such a hot day and making the meet a success!

The next meet is Sunday, August 23rd up in McCall at Bear Basin. Hope to see you there!

(* - a bingo control is a control that you have to stumble over to find. It's just luck that you found it.)

RESULTS

Advanced:
Michael Bading 1:04:27
Ole Bergset 1:04:53
Jeff Black 1:06:14
Erik Bergset 1:11:20
Greg Davidson, Melanie Schuster 1:32:50 (2nd course)

Intermediate:
Greg Davidson, Melanie Schuster 44:18 (1st course)
Karin Didisse 45:58
Jim & Nicholas Byrne 1:11:20 (Nicholas' 1st course)
Jeff Decker 46:59 (missed #7)
David Byrd 57:56 (missed #7)

Intermediate (Recreational Division):
Joe Gumiensky 1:37:50 (missed #7)
Donna Goodwin 1:47:50 (misse#5, #7)

Beginners:
Nicholas Byrne 11:06 (2nd course)
Gasaway Family 15:27
Heather Steele & Family 1:07:45

2009-07-16T08:27:00.000-07:00

This Saturday the local orienteering club, CTOC, will host a meet in Veterans and Willow Lane Parks. The start is in Veteran's Park near the amphitheater. Start times are between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.

There will be three courses - beginner, intermediate, advanced. The beginning course is all contained in the north portion of Veteran's Park. The intermediate course encompasses all of Veteran's Park and a small part of Willow Lane. The advanced course uses all of both parks. The advanced course is approximately 9k in length. I've put extra thought into making route selection a priority.

So please join us this weekend for some entertaining orienteering. Bring your family, bring your friends. See you then!

Meet director: Bill Leahy
co-director: Lexy Leahy

Rabbit Creek Meet Results

2009-05-26T15:27:00.000-07:00

The 6th Annual Rabbit Creek Orienteering Meet On May 17th was a very challenging course, in terms of terrain, distance, weather and technical placement of controls. It was well over 90 degrees on the steep open hillsides. The course exceeded 10K in very difficult terrain.

Sergey was the only competitor to finish the advanced course in under 2 hrs. Jeff Black, Bill Leahy and Ole Bergset fought it out for second place with all three hovering aorund 2 1/2 hours. Jay Morgan squeaked in with a 2:56 making it just under the 3 hr traditional qualifying time. Eric Bergset posted a respectable time of 3:26 but neglected to actually punch the control at point 12*, he claimed he was distracted by the water stop and a gnome. A gnome? We need to check and see if anyone else saw a gnome while they were on the course. Russ Pilcher actually punched all the controls but was a tad over 4 hours, but he gets credit for gutting out the difficult course.
David Bergset and Neva Suarez teamed up to get a bunch of the controls and baked in the sun for 2:35, but cut out a significant loop to get back for the beer and tacos while there was still some left. Brad Lowe came in early and didn't have enough time to finish the rigorus course.

Ted Vavricka and Joe Gumiensky were the only competitors to actually complete the Intermediate course with Ted having the best time in just under 2 hrs. Karin Didisse accustomed to mountain weather set out on the intermediate course but packed it in after almost an hour and a half because of the heat. Masha Velichko started out on the intermediate course but wasn't feeling well and had to return after just a few controls.

We had just 2 groups take in the beninner course just for the fun of it! Bill and Lisa Morrow with Paul Mann were getting some ideas for their boy scout troup. Robbie and Charlie Solomon also took a loop around the begginer course to stretch their legs.

Special thanks to Russ Pilcher for the awesome hats with the Rabbit Creek Logo and for the 3' X 5' flag of the Rabbit Creek Logo that we can use for many years to come. Thanks also to Dee Verti for cooking all the lasagna for campers on Saturday night and all the tacos for the meet on Sunday!

Advanced:

Sergey Velichko 1:45
Jeff Black 2:29
Bill Leahy 2:32
Ole Bergset 2:37
Jay Morgan 2:56
Eric Bergset 3:23*
Russ Pilcher 4:22
David Bergset and
Neva Suarez DNF
Brad Lowe DNF

Intermediate:

Ted Vavricka 1:50
Joe Gumiensky 2:53
Karin Diddise DNF
Masha Velichko DNF

Beginner: (non competitive)

Bill and Lisa Morrow
with Paul Mann

Robbie and Charlie Solomon

See you all at the Western States Championships in Idaho City in June!

Bill Pilcher, Meet Director

Stewart Gulch Meet Results

2009-04-27T16:20:00.000-07:00

It was just perfect weather for orienteering this past Saturday April 25- sunny, breathy, and cool. No cheat grass and foothills covered in green offered excellent running conditions. Courses set in a true Sweden fashion were challenging and at the same time fast and furious at the end. Spectators marveled speed and approach of the runners going through the last controls.

On the beginner course Sara Gordon and extended family explored controls set around flats surrounding the Hillside junior-high school and successfully found all ten controls. They even crossed a creek twice in the search of the best way to shorten distance! Returning Ian and Colby Smith skillfully went through the course in a very respectful time. And our seasoned veterans Masha and Ole blazed through the sprint like course with Masha being first and Ole claiming second spot.

We had more takers on the hilly Intermediate course comparing to the long and strenuous advance course. Experienced Joann Leone and Joe Novak took on the challenge of the course and successfully completed it finding all controls. Melanie Roper and Erik Bergset met their target of completing the course in less than two hours. Jeff Decker, Ted Vavricka, and David Bergset showed very good times. Unfortunately, Ted in the heat of the race missed easy control #10. David won the course under one hour.

Our advanced course, as always, saw most fearsome competition from both solo runners and athletes accompanied by four-legged partners. First time advanced course runners Matt Score and Moose looked really strong coming to the finish with time below two hours. Jay Morgan and Lee Scott battled it to the very end. Jay missed control #8 and Lee had more than four minute gain over Jay at the end. And finally only 9 seconds separated first and second place finishers. No doubt that Oakly’s thirst and wild animal site seeing prevented Mike Bading from claiming victory over Jeff Black. But we should give credit to Jeff as well for being on the course after 20K right before going with a map to the hills.

Beginner Course: 1.65K, 10m climb, 10 controls
Masha Velichko 13:29
Ole Bergset 14:15
Ian & Colby Smith 35:07
Sara Gordon + 4 more 46:31

Intermediate Course: 4.23K, 200m climb, 16 controls
David Bergset 55:30
Jeff Decker 1:02:30
Melanie Roper & Erik Bergset 1:59:26
Joann Leone & Joe Novak 2:17:14
Ted Vavricka 1:00:26 (missed #10)

Advanced Course: 7K, 350m climb, 23 controls
Jeff Black 1:20:52
Mike Bading & Oakly 1:21:01
Lee Scott 1:29:06
Matt Score & Moose 1:57:35
Jay Morgan 1:33:32 (missed #8)

We hope to see you all enjoying courses and outdoors at our next meet May at Rabbit Creek near Murphy. Bill always puts fun courses with at least couple surprises.

Your meet directors,
Sergey and Masha Velichko

Coming Up: Stuart Gulch West

2009-04-24T08:56:00.000-07:00

This is a cordial reminder that CTOC is having regular Orienteering meet this coming Saturday April 25th.

Stewart Gulch is our venue. Meet center is right behind Hillside Junior High School at the corner of Hill Road and 36th Street.

Date: Saturday, April 25th
Start time: 11:00am - 1:00pm (course will be closed by 2pm)
Location: Stuart Gulch West

Usual compliment of Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced courses will be offered. As it may be hot come early. We will provide water at one of the controls on the course but you may think to bring more if it is really hot.

We hope to see you all enjoying outdoors and courses this Saturday!

Meet Results: Ann Morrison - 03/21/09

2009-03-23T09:49:00.000-07:00

Things got started early on Saturday with half of the competitors starting between 10:30 and 11am. Which is exciting since the course didn't "officially" open until 11am, and because we had a great turnout. So much so that we actually ran out of Intermediate maps.

The weather held out and despite a little breeze and some minor rain drops the spirits were high and all the competitors were happy to be out enjoying the park. Joe and Jenita Gumiensky started things off early on the Intermediate course with Ted and Max Vavricka and the Hall family quickly on their heels.

Newcomers Matt and Jacob Gordon and Ryan and Connor Durrant took on both the Beginner and Intermediate courses along with Jenny Barnett and Kathryn and Evenson Turisten. Jeff Black was the only competitor to take on all three maps.

Ole came out to show his support for the Club but wasn't planning on racing due to a sore foot. But after listing to finishers talk about how much they enjoyed the Advanced course Ole couldn't hold himself back anymore and decided to give it a run. It turns out that Ole can run just fine on a sore foot finishing a very respectable 2nd, then he stayed after to pick up controls. I don't think Ole will be getting much sympathy after that.

THANKS
A special thanks to Jeff Black for co-directing and to Jeff Decker, Donna Goodwin, Ole Bergset, and Samantha Scott for picking up controls.

NEXT MEET
We hope to see you all at our next meet which will be at Stuart Gultch West. The meet center is usually at the North-East corner of Hillside Junior High (behind the school). The school entrance is at the corner of Hill Road and 36st Street.

RESULTS

Beginner Course: Hikers
Matt & Jacob Gordon, Ryan & Conner Durrant	24:15
Jenny Barnett, Kathryn and Evenson Turisten	32:50

Beginner Course: Competitive
Jeff Black*	06:35*

Intermediate Course: Hikers
Joann Leone and Joe Novak	35:10
Dondi and Frankie Black	45:20
Kevin, Justin, Jonah and Joeseph Hall	46:05
Matt & Jacob Gordon, Ryan & Conner Durrant	51:00*
Jenny Barnett, Kathryn and Evenson Turisten	01:03:00*
Melanie Roper and Erik Bergset	01:06:25

Intermediate Course: Competitive
Jeff Black	14:30*
Ted and Max Vavricka	29:00
Joe and Jenita Gumiensky	33:45
Donna Goodwin	39:50

Advanced Course: Competitive
Jeff Black	24:15
Ole Bergset	30:30
Bill Leahy	32:55
Jeff Decker	34:05
Bill Pilcher	44:15
David Bergset & Neva	50:25
* Run previous map with crossover controls

Coming Up: Ann Morrison

2009-03-16T09:52:00.000-07:00

City of Trees Orienteering Club will be hosting the next meet this Saturday, March 21st, at Ann Morrison Park. The meet center will be located by the foot bridge just east of the playground. We'll be exploring all corners of Ann Morrison Park and there will be a course for every ability level. Show up early for some tips, pointers, instruction, etc.

The weather forecast is calling for milder temps and hopefully sunny skies. So put an end to the cabin fever, get the kids out of the house, and join us for an early Spring adventure in the park.

Date: Saturday, March 21st
Start time: 11:00am - 1:00pm (course will be closed by 2pm)
Location: Ann Morrison Park

And remember, you can register on-site, or print out the Registration Form at home, fill it in and bring it with you to the meet.

Meet Results: Little Bear Basin

2009-02-28T08:47:00.000-08:00

Here are the results from this weekend's ski-orienteering event at Bear Basin. The conditions were perfect for skiing and driving, dry roads and freshly groomed, accurately mapped trails. I tried a new thing with the maps and printed them on glossy paper and we found they held up well to the rigors of ski-O even unprotected by plastic.

Attila was there bright and early and came in first with an impressive time, I think he's done this before- probably in Europe. Doug came in quicker than Jeff but unfortunately it hadn't been made clear to him and the Sue/Dave/Patrice group that the controls needed to be visited in numerical order and my course design made other routes more tempting. Bob crawled out of his sick bed and put in a respectable time on the novice course and even helped pick up the controls afterwards. The snow was really enjoyable and quick skiing I noticed when I went out for control pick up.
- Karin Didisse, meet director

Advanced Course 5.4km (8.8 actual):
Attila Nagy 42:00
Jeff Black 53:45
Doug Mastaler 46:40
Sue Edwards, Dave Tuttle, Patrice Davies 2:49:00

Novice Course 2.3km (3.3 actual)
Bob Didisse 36:32
Egnew family dnf

Coming Up: Little Bear Basin, McCall - Sunday, Feb. 22nd

2009-02-15T10:05:00.000-08:00

Hope to see you at the ski orienteering meet this SUNDAY 2/22 in McCall. The meet will be at the Little Bear Basin Nordic ski area; the trailhead is improved with a changing yurt and restroom. This area has an extensive and beautiful trail system. Skate or classic skis are allowed and preferred, I will get more info on snowshoes but in the past there has been trouble with using them on the groomed trails. All controls will be located close to trails for skate skiers, but I would recommend also bringing along your classic skis in case of new snow conditions. Course details will follow. The nordic trail fee is $10 per person in addition to our normal meet fees. Dogs are allowed on the Novice course only and there is an extra fee of $2.00 per dog.

Click here to view a map of the trails at Bear Basin.

To get to the Bear Basin trailhead you go up to the highest point on highway 55 (a couple miles headed west out of McCall, before the Little Ski Hill lodge) and turn north (right) on Club Hill Rd. for 1/2 mile, the parking lot is just off to the right where the road makes a sharp turn left. There is a restroom and changing yurt. Starts 11 - 1pm.

Also, don't forget you can register on-site, or print out the Registration Form at home, fill it in and bring it with you to the meet. That way you won't have to worry about frozen pens or cold fingers. Just show up, grab a map, and you're on your way.

- Karin Didisse, meet director
(208)830-1293 cel

Reaching for the Score

2009-01-22T20:58:00.000-08:00

It was a brisk but dry day for the first meet of 2009. The bar was set high for this Score course (or perhaps I should say the maximum time was set low), so that everyone would have to make choices as to which controls were most important. Indeed, nobody could quite get them all - quite possibly a first in my memory of the club meets.

The setup was a little simpler than normal, with just one map for everyone, two possible time windows, and 27 controls. 0-9 were worth 5 points, 10-19 worth 10, and 20-27 were worth 20, with the furthest controls being worth the most. 5 points were deducted for each full minute overtime.

Before I delve into the details, I'll add the caveat that after I got home and tallied everyone's results again, I found several inconsistencies in my results as compared to my scribbled math in the heat of the moment (apparently my old algebraic calculator wasn't helping me - I knew I should have used the RPN version). For now, I've trusted the control lists I wrote down from everyone's map, and nobody's placement was really moved, but if you believe I made a mistake please let me know and I'll correct the report.

For the fast competitor types, they had only half an hour. The fastest orienteers at our meet took on this gauntlet with raised eyebrows but a fast pace. Nobody in this group garnered the distant western 10 pointers (11, 12), or the 5 pointer tucked into the fence corner furthest north (7). Nobody - not even Sergey! At last! He commented in his post run state if he just had a couple more minutes...he could have made it. As it was he was a minute over but took a solid first place. A few other controls were not popular either, with only one or two visits - mostly 5 pointers in the Willow Lane side of the map, but Sergey made his best effort and was the only advanced runner to get 4-6, 8, and 15. Jay was the only runner to get 3, which he nabbed after running in with a couple minutes to spare. Lee and Michael were two others who picked up 9 in the middle of the softball fences. The popular controls, which every single advanced runner went to early on, were all the 20 pointers in Veteran's. Bill and Doug had a real horse race going on, with exactly the same controls, but due to a very modest difference in the final route leg Bill took the honors with no time penalty. Jeff had to miss a few 20 pointers as the time slipped away from him. Lee perhaps succinctly summed up the feeling of all on the course, to paraphrase - "The first 15 minutes felt like plenty of time, but the last 15 disappeared!"

Such time constraints came particularly true for Lee, since when he arrived at #23 he found it missing and a park maintenance truck nearby...he almost went on but decided to check the dumpster before leaving, and lo, there was the control. He rehung it, saving all who came after him the frustration of a missing punch. For his effort I granted him an extra minute of grace period on his overtime.

For hiker or recreational or the younger crowd, they had an hour. This proved to be a mixed crowd. Masha, with her long range of experience and good legs, might well have been better suited for the half hour class, since she easily wrangled first. Others went out as teams, often as families, with very different strategies. Donna Goodwin went out with her new recruit, Carol, and they worked the Willow Lane side of the map. The Hill family went out in two competing teams (Andy and Rosie vs. Elijah) and Rosie worked those 10 pointers in close range to her advantage. Ted and Max made it their goal to get every control west of Veteran's Parkway, and they succeeded admirably. Joann and Joe, by contrast, adopted the high pointer strategy and worked the 20's they could reach and the majority of the 10's. Ken and Peter gave Masha a run for her money, just missing out on the 20 pointers she got but tallying up everything else. Joe Gumiensky came early for the training as a newcomer, and chose to stay out for as much experience as he could get regardless of time. Unfortunately...as meet director I failed to make sure he did set his declination for magnetic north, and his compass practice was more frustrating that it should have been. Hopefully this won't deter him for future meets! I'll admit this group was not as comparable in terms of ability by any means, but it did keep everyone engaged, finding more controls, and keeping the time my codirector Bill and I huddled near the table to a predictable level, avoiding frostbite (ok, Bill did bring his heater, fortunately for my feet). I hope everyone enjoyed it regardless and had some fun with the challenge.

Hiking Class (1 hour):

Name	Time	Overtime	Base Score	Final Score
Masha Velichko	56:00	0:00	215	215
Ken & Peter Beckner	56:00	0:00	155	155
Joann Leone & Joe Nouch	1:00:00	0:00	145	145
Ted & Max Varicks	54:11	0:00	115	115
Andy & Rosie Hill	1:00:40	0:40	105	105
Elijah Hill	58:21	0:00	50	50
Carol Joblin & Donna Goodwin	1:03:10	3:10	60	45
Joe Gumiensky	2:21:00	1:21:00	100	0

Racing Class (1/2 hour):

Name	Time	Overtime	Base Score	Final Score
Sergey Velichko	31:30	1:30	270	265
Bill Leahy	29:38	0:00	240	240
Lee Scott	32:33	2:33	245	240
Doug LaMott	31:10	1:10	240	235
Michael Bading	32:45	2:45	235	225
Jay Morgan	30:17	0:17	215	215
Jeff Decker	33:12	3:12	155	140

Many thanks to my codirector Bill Leahy, who brought some very helpful supplies (like a heater), and helped setup and packup, including some control pickup. Special thanks also to those who stayed to gather controls, including Doug, Jeff D, and Donna, and of course Lee who salvaged a control from the jaws of a dumpster.

Our next meet is our traditional winter variation up in McCall, cross country skiing and snowshoeing, Karin directing. Hope to see you on Sunday, February 22nd!

Jeff Black, Meet Director

Start the Year with a Score

2009-01-04T11:42:00.000-08:00

Greetings in the new 2009: come on out and warm up your legs with a Score course park meet on our Willow Lane and Veteran's Park combo map. Time is Saturday, January 17th. Starts are in the Willow Lane parking lot near the river, from 11-1. You'll have the opportunity to grab as many controls as you like in a given time limit. Things will be simple in this meet - all will have the same map, and we'll simply have a recreational class (for those out for a nice walk and a little map reading) and a racing class (for those looking for a workout, or enjoy the competition). Control points vary by difficulty and distance.

A few notes worth remembering this month: per park rules, no dogs at Willow Lane; the course will close at 2pm; bathrooms in Willow are closed for the season (but should be open in Veteran's); and of course, dress warmly...especially if you'd like a little training in advance (come between 10:30 and 11), or plan to talk through the route choices after you finish.

Over the hill and through the woods, to control points we go! Hope to see you soon!

Meet Director, Jeff Black

Meet Results: Julia Davis/BSU - 12/06/08

2008-12-06T18:11:00.000-08:00

With clear skies and temperatures near 50 at the end of the meet it turned out to be a perfect day for orienteering. There were several new faces and everybody was eager for an adventure. Maybe it was the weather, but because everybody was so eager we threw them all into the competitive classes.

Everyone was very promt and got out on the courses before noon. One highlight of the day was having a handful racers show up with their pre-printed and completed registration forms. It almost made things more hectic in a way. With all racers arriving to the meet fairly close in time and with their registration forms and money ready to go it created a small backlog of racers wanting to start. With a little bit of juggling they were on their way.

A big congratulations to John Murray who showed up at 10:30am to take advantage of the free training for beginners. John had never been orienteering before and with a few quick lessons in reading the maps and taking a bearing with a compass he was soon chasing down other competitors on the course. Infact, John took to it so quickly that he burned through all three courses giving Jeff Black a run for his money.

The Gasaway Family was also new to orienteering and decided the Beginner course just wasn't enough. They came back for seconds and headed out on the Intermediate course. And of course Sergey Velichko and Jeff Black took on the challenge of multiple course. Sergey ran the Intermediate course from memory and Jeff ran the trifecta again.

We did have one casualty on the Advanced course, the #10 control on the Northwest side of Bronco Stadium was picked up by BSU maintenance most likely, which caused several racers to lose time (no time adjustments were made).

Overall it was a great day and everybody seemed to be having a lot of fun, I know I did. We even got some glances from the new giraffes at the zoo.

NEXT MEET
Our next meet is on Saturday, January 17 at Willow Lane/Veterans Park (start Willow) with starts from 11AM - 1PM.

RESULTS

Advanced Course: Competitive
Jeff Black	26:45
Sergey Velichko	28:26
Melanie & Greg Schuster	37:00
Jeff Decker	39:25
Bill Leahy	39:50
Ken Beckner	42:40
Tony Pori	45:00
Karin Didisse	48:50
John Murray	50:05*

Intermediate Course: Competitive
Jeff Black	12:30*
Sergey Velichko	15:35* (from memory)
John Murray	23:00*
Vavricka family	23:10
Donna Goodwin	24:40
Gasaway family	41:00*

Beginner Course: Competitive
Jeff Black	05:12*
John Murray	12:55
Gasaway family	18:40
* Run previous map with crossover controls

Coming Up: Julia Davis / BSU meet

2008-11-26T14:25:00.000-08:00

Come out and join us for the last meet of 2008. This will be a great opportunity to burn off all those Turkey Day leftovers! There will be plenty of twists and turns and new control placements to keep you on your toes. You won't even have to get your feet wet this time, unless it snows.

So gather up your friends and family that are in town for the holidays and bring them down to Julia Davis for an hour or so to hunt down those little hidden presents under a few of the trees in the park.

Date: December 6th
Start time: 11:00am - 1:00pm
Location: Julia Davis / Boise State

You can register on-site, or print out the Registration Form at home, fill it in and bring it with you to the meet. That way you won't have to worry about frozen pens or cold fingers. Just show up, grab a map, and you're on your way.

UPDATE: Continuing on from the last meet, there will be an overall "trifecta" winner for those willing to accept the challenge of running all three maps.

Meet Results: Night-O - 11/15/08

2008-11-17T11:19:00.000-08:00

City of Trees Orienteering Club held their monthly meet at Simplots Sports Complex. The meet was held in the form of a night time orienteering commonly called Night-O. The event had 3 courses: advance (18 controls), intermediate (8 controls), and beginning (4 controls).

In spite of all the rain earlier in the week the course was reasonably dry with only a few locations still muddy along the hillside in the southwest section of the course. The evening and night temperatures were brisk but otherwise a beautiful clear night. The night had a near-full moon but moonrise was well after the event was over.

The start was at 5:30PM however most participants waited another 20-30 minutes until darkness before starting the course. Donna Goodwin took advantage of the few remaining minutes of light and started on the intermediate course followed by Sergey and then Masha both on the advance course.

The largest number of participants was the advance course. All 7 individuals and one group completed the competitive course and punched all 18 control points. Lee Scott clocked the fastest time with an impressive 26min 58sec time followed by Jeff Black 56 sec behind. Sergey landed in third place while sporting a new pair of trail running shoe (available only at selected retailers) which he quickly christen with a nice layer of mud while running the course. Michael Bading finished in fourth place but won the unofficial category of the brightest headlamp. Given the close proximity of the airport, I wondered if a few confused pilots may have mistaken it for runway lighting.

The intermediate & beginner courses had unusually high number of participants thanks in part to the impromptu actions of four participants who created an unofficial tri-category by running all 3 courses. Once again Lee Scott lead the way with fastest times and Jay Morgan following close behind by just seconds.

We had two parties who completed course in the hikers category. Gregory Corlett & family (Samantha & Tyler) who successfully punched all 4 control points of the beginner course. Andy Hill & family (Elijah, Rosie, ?) who successfully punched all 8 control points of the intermediate course.

THANKS
A big thanks to our co director Doug LaMott for help in course setting, registration and take down. Donna Goodwin who help during the event and afterwards with control pickup.

Thanks to Jeff Black who worked endlessly to help make my first o-meet as director a success. Andy Hill for printing & delivering all the maps.

NEXT MEET
Our next meet is on Saturday, December 6th at 11AM. This will be a classic-O in Julia Davis Park/BSU.

RESULTS

Advanced Course: Competitive
Lee Scott	26:58
Jeff Black	27:54
Sergey Velichko	29:43
Michael Bading	31:01
Bill Leahy	37:22
Jay Morgan	37:50
Masha Velichko	43:45
David Bergest/Neva Suarez	51:38

Intermediate Course: Competitive
Lee Scott	15:03
Jay Morgan	15:13
Jeff Black	15:39
Michael Bading	16:37
Donna Goodwin	36:24

Beginner Course: Competitive
Lee Scott	05:57
Jay Morgan	06:13
Jeff Black	06:17
Michael Bading	06:44

Intermediate Course: Hikers
Andy Hill & Family	all 8 controls

Beginner Course: Hikers
Gregory Corlett & Family	all 4 controls

November's Meet has moved

2008-10-17T13:18:00.000-07:00

The November's O meet has been changed

from
~~Stewart Gulch Classic O~~
to
Simplot Sport Complex (East Entrance) Night O

Given the possibility of poor winter weather during the November orienteering meet in the foothill, it has been decided to change the venue to the very popular night O at Simplot Sport Complex. The night O with be have beginners, intermediate and advance course. Be sure to mark your calendar for this fun-filled event.

Date: Saturday, November 15, 2008
Start Times: 5:30pm -7:30pm

Courses: Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced
Meet Director: Jeff Decker
Meet Co-director: Doug LaMott

Start: Simplot Sport Complex (East), in the parking lot off S. Quamash Way

The Score at the Metrogaine

2008-10-12T17:38:00.000-07:00

Meet Happenings
Despite the ominous bit of snow and wet we received late on Friday, leading to a rather cold and overcast Saturday, meet day on Sunday really turned out a bit of fall perfection. Temperatures were ideal for biking and running all over town. Many large branches were down in Ann Morrison park around the meet start, perhaps even providing a few more obstacles to navigate out of the gate as the meet began.

Given various recent running scenarios this fall, most participants ended up in the bike class in one form or another - but that didn't stop the runners from doing their best to compete with them! There were also some participants that simply went out to enjoy the day in a shorter time to get a flavor of the event and weather without committing themselves to a grueling endurance challenge. It's worth noting that the controls were in four groups - the closest being worth 10 points, then moving up to 20, 30, and 40 points for the most distant or difficult controls. To keep things interesting, there were many 30 pointers directly on the hills south of Ann Morrison, for those who might strategically snag more points with relatively modest distances.

Several anecdotes are worth relating. I was quite impressed that more than one person actually wrangled a direct route in some form between the distant 45 and 46 in the northeast corner of the map, successfully connecting the control on Ft. Boise road to that on a hill in the north end on the other side of a fence. Doug LaMott snuck through a few fences on foot, while Jeff Decker and Donna Goodwin remembered a mountain bike trail that led them close to both controls. Very clever route choice on their part. The excellence bell (control 19) on BSU (north of the union) was one of the more subtle controls. Jay Morgan had a bit of extra luck finding it - as he was approaching, someone actually rang the bell!

As we learn more directing this kind of meet each year, I'm afraid it wouldn't be complete without a few "learning experiences" to show for it. The big error by myself was marking control 29 on the map (Rhodes park under the connector), but in the fog of a cold last weekend I actually forgot to include the question! This was responded to in multiple ways - some were planning ahead a control, and noted the question was missing, and skipped it, saving some time. Others got there only to realize there was nothing to answer. Michael Bading gets a notable highlight: when I told him the question (how many basketball hoops were there), he actually remembered there were four. Given various arguments, I decided to not assign points to this one way or another and chalked it up as a situation to avoid next year.

Aside from that, several participants did have wrong answers, even when they were there, for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the question wording could be read multiple ways, or in the oxygen deprived speed of the moment a single bit of information was missed. I suspected I might be risking some confusion on control 25, asking how many stems make up a door handle on the Banner Bank building...and at the Ft. Boise control (45), some read it as "how many stripes?", rather than "how many stripe signs?" Control 40, the southwest locale of the beer distributor, apparently had an extra awning I didn't notice when setting up the question! (Luckily the other answers were less than the real number.) And the closest control, #11, had an extra door on a different side not everyone noticed - and the question did not specify a side (intentionally). Mistakes cost a negative 10 points, which was really intended to discourage guessing without being there. I hope nobody took too much offense in any such confusions - I think we will improve in time with these questions, especially if we vet them in advance with another observer besides the director.

In a side note about this guessing penalty, which Karin suggested...my wife Dondi came briefly in the long interim while everyone was out, so I could get some more reading material and a bathroom break...and she took the opportunity just to try literally guessing every answer in about 5 minutes, since the 10 point penalty didn't sting so much on those controls worth more than 10! She actually ended up with a score of 560, with 10 right answers and 24 incorrect. Some actually predicted this was viable before starting, and she proved it is a fairly workable strategy. Next year I think we will manage this differently - especially since it made the scoring more complex at the end. I think Karin's original intention was no points at all - and the negative 10 points too.

Two bikers did visit all the controls - Jay Morgan and Michael Bading - and came up with similar distances in the ballpark of 26 miles. All others made choices to drop some in the available 3 hour time limit.

It was great to see returning visitors Joann Leone and Joe Novak after their first club visit at NOD last month. They hiked to many of the controls in the immediate vicinity in a couple of hours, although they missed #17 at the red control in the library - its circle was not as clear as the others on the map.

There were no takers for the longish but straightforward beginners course.

Overall, everyone had a great time in the crisp weather, exploring the city in a new scale.

Results
We used the new registration forms for this meet; a box is provided for competitive or recreational. Given that we didn't exactly have a large turnout, I tended to lean into the "competitive" category for the bikes, if nothing else because there is a bit more information. Feel free to email me with tweaks to this if you like.

Legend:
PV = Points Visited (800 points possible)
X = Incorrect Answer Penalty (10 points each)
T = Time Penalty (5 points per full minute)

Foot Class, competitive:

Name	PV	X	T	Final	Time
Doug LaMott	650	0	10	640	3:02:17
Bill Leahy	630	20	5	605	3:01:48

Foot Class, recreational (in order of finishing):

Name	PV
Ken Beckner	180 (only had 1 hour, visited #29)
Joann Leone & Joe Novak	240

Bike Class, competitive

Name	PV	X	T	Final	Time
Jay Morgan	800	0	0	800	2:41:00
Michael Bading	800	30	0	770	2:46:26
Jeff Decker & Donna Goodwin	610	10	0	600	2:53:00
Karin Didesse	440	0	0	440	2:00:00
Andy & Elijah Hill	420	0	0	420	2:56:16

Next Meet
Stay tuned for a few changes in next month's meet, although the date is solid. Our scheduled meet director had to cancel, so Jeff Decker and Doug LaMott are taking up the reins. We may change the venue depending on initiative or the weather, given that the foothills in November are very much hit or miss.

Thanks much go to my codirector Karin, who helped with setup and brought more than enough food. She also arranged a special sponsorship from The Cookie Queen, who supplied our meet with a large stash of Backcountry Bars for fuel. They were very well received by all participants! Thanks also to our regular sponsor, Shu's Running Company, who provided the goody bags for the winners. My apologies for forgetting to bring the club hats that Doug LaMott provided courtesy of TML - they are $5 for club members, $10 for nonmembers, all money going to support the club. They are nice hats with some visible reflectors, and will be there at the next meet.

I appreciate everyone who stayed to help take down - especially Jay Morgan, who picked up the beginner course controls.

See you next month!

Jeff Black

Coming up: Boise Metrogaine

2008-09-30T20:13:00.000-07:00

For the glorious fall month of October, we are holding what has become a traditional event for our club: the Boise Metrogaine. What makes this event different from our normal club meet? It now covers all of downtown Boise and some of the surrounding neighborhoods and parks, using questions as "controls" that can only be answered by actually being there. You may be surprised at what small details you never noticed before in our fair city! For those of you who remember the Score-O style of orienteering, this is similar in that you can choose your own route and find controls in any order. You are only limited by time, in this case 3 hours maximum. Some controls - typically the most distant - are usually worth more points, and there is a stiff penalty for overtime.

If you try to get them all, keep in mind this is BIG: last year it was estimated the total distance for the quickest course was around 20 miles, completing all controls. Besides the usual running and hiking options, a bike class is available too.

Given the sheer scale of this map and the time involved, a beginner orienteering course in the park will also be offered for those looking for a more relaxed event. You can show up anytime after the mass start of the metrogaine (where everyone leaves at the same time), although the beginner course will be closed by 1pm.

Date: Sunday, October 12th
Start time: Mass start at 10:30! Plan to be at the start no later than 10:15 for instructions.
Time limit: 3 hours. (Meet directors will pack up not long after 1:30pm.)
Location: Starts at Ann Morrison park, by the bridge over the river.
Course design: Jeff Black
Map: USGS 1:20000 with minor additions

Hope to see you on the 12th!

Jeff Black

Membership and Fees

2008-09-25T21:55:00.000-07:00

Membership and fees for meets allow the club to pay expenses for conducting meets (maps, equipment, etc.), keeping you updated on the club activities (web, mail, fliers, etc.), and pay USOF and insurance dues. We try to make this sport affordable to all people. Joining the CTOC and USOF gives you ability to be part of the orienteering community.

Fees for the meets:
Local meet fees (excluding A, B, and (met)rogaine meets):

Single person: $5 per map non-members, free for members
Single Junior (under 18): $3 per map non-members, free for members
Group: $7/group (or family) running together, free for member family

A, B, metrogain, and rogain meets:

$5/day per person, club member discount

CTOC membership:

Regular $45 (pays for all local meets).
Family $65 (pays for all local meets).
Associated $15 (no discounts at local meets) - voting power only.

Membership renewal on January 31 of each year. Monthly Pro-Rata for membership fees:

Month	Regular	Family
JAN	$45	$65
FEB	$42	$60
MAR	$38	$54
APR	$34	$49
MAY	$30	$44
JUN	$26	$38
JUL	$23	$32
AUG	$19	$27
SEPT	$15	$22
OCT	$11	$16
NOV	$8	$11
DEC	Full	Full

CTOC membership gives you the opprtunity to support your club in addition to discounts at any local meet in Boise and nearby clubs in Washington (and some other clubs around the USA). Taking under consideration that CTOC conducts more than 10 meets per year that can save you money.

CTOC membership online form or download the PDF here, print it, then submit it to us together with membership fee at the next meet.

USOF membership:
Being a member of CTOC gives you discount on the USOF membership. Being a member of USOF gives you opprtunity to support orienteering in the USA, you also get $3 discount at all A meets and some other benefits. For more information on USOF membership please visit USOF and/or contact us. We encourage you to become USOF member.

NOD photos

2008-09-22T09:41:00.000-07:00

Photos from the National Orienteering Day meet Sept 13, 08.

Meet Results: NOD Results - 09/13/08

2008-09-16T14:27:00.000-07:00

NOD
Saturday, September 13th was National Orienteering Day. The City of Trees Orienteering Club held their monthly meet at Veterans and Willow Lane Parks. Three courses were set up: advance (39 controls), intermediate (20 controls), and beginning (9 controls).

It was a beautiful Idaho day that enabled us to enjoy the company of many familiar faces and to also meet new people. Overall we had 36 individuals participate on the courses. It was a nice turnout that made for a successful NOD. Thanks everyone!

On the beginning course we had three parties that wanted to race the course and five teams that wanted to learn to navigate and enjoy the park (recreation division). I believe everyone in this recreation division was new to orienteering and each of them found all 9 controls. On the racing side for the beginner’s course, Linda and Lexy tore thru the course in 10:48. Coming in second was the Tobin clan with Jenny pushing her two young ones in a jogger in 13:40. And amazingly, not very far behind, 7 year old Nicholas Byrne ran the course by himself and completed it in 13:59. Way to go Nicholas! (With a performance like this we may need to bump Nicholas up to the advance course.)

On the intermediate course we had three parties that contested the racing division and three groups that participated in the recreational division. On the recreation side, Kelly and Austin wetted their appetite on the beginning course and decided to tackle part of the intermediate course. The Leibowitz’ (dad, son, daughter) went out and nabbed 9 controls. Joann and Joe got all 20 controls (this team seems ready for some foothills and forest meets). In the racing division, ever dominant Masha finished first in 55:15. She was followed by Jim and Nicholas (he ran this course first and wasn’t tired so that’s why he did the beginning course too). Next in were Donna and Jeff.

The advance course seemed to be the popular course of the day – though maybe that wasn’t what the participants were thinking when they were out on the course. There was lots of mud, scratches, blood, and wet running shoes for folks on this course. A couple of the seasoned orienteering vets thought that control #5 (control #10 on the int course), on the east end of Veterans park, may have been slightly misplaced. Perhaps this is the way to slip up Sergey – he thought the river cleanup crew took the control and thus missed the control. Even though he missed the control (remember he was actually at the location), Sergey ran a blistering 48 minutes flat.

Jeff Black finished first in a strong 58:55. Michael Bading came home with a 1:02:22 and Lee Scott took third. Exciting orienteering also occurred from 4th place thru the end of the field - finishing times were a little closer together and participants were passing each other back and forth at times while on the course.

Congrats to Brad Lowe, the only entrant in the recreation division on the advance course. He found all 39 controls.

It was great to have two new experienced orienteerers on this course, Attila and Carl. Both finished with great times in parks they’d never been in before.

THANKS
Many thanks to our sponsors: Mike Shuman of Shu’s Idaho Running Co. for the goodie bags and the hydration packs we raffled off; and Doug LaMott and TML Heating and Cooling for the flashlights we raffled off and the refreshments he provided. Both Mike and Doug also helped get out the publicity on NOD.

Thanks to Doug LaMott and TML Heating and Cooling for sponsoring CTOC baseball-style caps which were available for sale at the NOD. The caps are $5 for members, $10 for non-members. These will be available at our next meet, or contact me if you’d like one before then.

Thanks to Brad and Doug for help in setting up the registration area. Thanks to everyone who helped give instruction to beginning orienteerers. I’m also grateful for the control pickup by Ole, David Bergset, Jeff Black, Jeff Decker, and Donna. This task was even more difficult since wire cutters were needed to snip off the zip ties I used to keep our controls from disappearing during the river cleanup. Then there was the help with registration area tear down that many people helped out with – thanks.

Thanks to Andy Hill for aligning control numbers on the map and printing all the maps.

So again, the CTOC and myself thank all of you for making NOD a success.

NEXT MEET
Our next meet is on Sunday, October 12th. This will be a Metrogaine – an urban orienteering meet. For a meet like this controls are placed throughout downtown and the surrounding area. There is a circle on your map where the control is located but there isn’t actually a control at that location. Instead there is a question on your map for that control and the answer can only be found when you get to the control’s location (for example: what is above the garage at the NW corner of 8th and Fort St. When you get there you find out the answer is a set of elk antlers.) Your answer is how we know you went to that control. Each control is worth a certain point value. There is a three hour time limit. You get as many controls as you can in that time frame. You can enter either a run/walk division or a bike division. There will also be a beginning course set up near the race start. (While this is a general description of a Metrogaine, the meet director may have a subtle variation of it. But it will be close to this format.) Come out and enjoy – this will be fun.

For additional information see our web site at:
http://www.ctoc-boise.org/ctoc/index.htm

MISCELLANEOUS
For all the new faces we saw at the NOD, and even for folks we always see, please provide me with any feedback you might have on our meet. Did you learn how to navigate? Did we give you enough instruction? Was the meet what you expected? Was the cost appropriate? What could we improve on? Negative or positive, I’d like to hear any feedback you might have for us.

*Note - A couple of participants asked me about the orienteering clue symbols that were on the back of your map. I find that this web site gives a very good explanation of them.

RESULTS

Beginning Course, Race Division (9 controls)	time
Lexy & Linda Leahy	10:38
Jenny, Mikella & Jack Tobin	13:40
Nicholas Byrne	13:59

Beginning Course, Recreation Division (in random order)
John Conners and Jan Salisburg	9 controls
Kelly & Austin Carlen	9 controls
James Rosenberg (& his dog)	9 controls
Megan Doherty & Ted Benner	9 controls
Tom Walton & Bill Bell	9 controls

Intermediate Course, Race Division (20 controls)	time
Masha Velichko	0:55:15
Jim & Nicholas Byrne	1:03:42
Donn Goodwin & Jeff Decker	1:27:00

Intermediate Course, Recreation Division
Joann Leon & Joe Novak	20 controls
Bob, Monica & Mitchell Liebowitz	9 controls
Kelly & Austin Carlen	4 controls

Advance Course, Race Division (39 controls)	time
Jeff Black	0:58:55
Michael Badding	1:02:22
Lee Scott	1:08:00
Ole Bergset	1:11:34
Michael Tobin	1:13:07
Doug LaMott	1:13:57
David Bergset	1:16:32
Attila Nagy	1:23:15
Carl Laniak	1:32:00
Jay Morgan	1:35:25

Advance Course, Recreation Division
Brad Lowe	39 controls
Sergey Velichko	0:48:00 (missed #5)

Meet Results: Bear Basin - 08/17/08

2008-08-19T17:47:00.000-07:00

Hi folks- here is the exciting wrap up to our version of Olympic competition up here in beautiful McCall Idaho- Bird's Nest Stadium (we mean a real bird's nest here!).

We had unusually hot weather but I imagine it was much nicer than down in the valley, especially with a nice dip in the lake afterward. The meet was a score-O course with 17 total controls available and a 1.5 hour time limit. The controls were worth 1 point each and the overtime penalty was 1 point per 5 minutes over, which apparently the competitors realized made the time limit effectively 95 minutes and they made use of every minute. The best time management award goes to McCall local Doug Mastaler who competed without a watch and came in with 25 seconds to spare. A couple of controls gave some trouble; MM gave Doug L. so much trouble he gave up on it after a long search and LL gave a few trouble also. I will post a scan of the map on the Yahoo website soon, so the home audience can relive the excitement. Dondi and Sheri took time out from the fabulous huckleberry picking to teach orienteering and find a few controls.

Thanks to Ole, Erik, Luke, Dave, and Bill P. for helping with control pickup! Hope to see you all at the next meet Sept. 13.

Karin

Name	Time	Points	Penalty	Score
Lee Scott	61:38	17	0	17
Jeff Black	75:10	17	0	17
Bill Leahy	93:11	17	0	17
Ole Bergset	94:43	16	0	16
David Bergset	81:18	14	0	14
Brad Acker, Beth Schadd (int)	82:27	14	0	14
Doug Mastaler	94:35	14	0	14
Bob Didisse (int)	88:59	12	0	12
Doug LaMott	99:23	12	-1	11
Luke Grange, Erik Bergset (int)	104:08	14	-3	11
Bill Pilcher	116:07	17	-6	11
Dondi Black, Sheri LaMott (int)	88:25	4	0	4

Meet Results: Julia Davis/Ann Morrison - 07/27/08

2008-08-19T09:55:00.000-07:00

Racers were greeted with course designs from two different meet directors. This was the first course design for both Jeff Decker and Lee Scott with Jeff taking on the Beginner and Intermediate, and Lee taking on the Advanced course. Both directors were excited and nervous to find out how racers would handle each map. And as our sacrificial racers navigated the "novice" maps they also had to navigate their way through clouds of patchouli and incense, drum circles, and mass baptisms which were part of the Goddess Fest taking place in Julia Davis.

The Beginner map saw first time racers Maggie Kidd (11) and Carly Turpen (4). Both navigating their way around the park in respectable times. But Donna Goodwin and Maggie Gregory edged out the Maggie and Carly in the end.

The Intermediate map only had two takers and only one finisher. Dondi Black and Karin Didisse headed out on the Intermediate map and were both greeted with a missing control flag and "squatters" around another. About halfway through Karin decided to save her energy in preparation for next months meet at Bear Basin.

The Advanced map had five racers heading out on a "pilgrimage" on Lee's first attempt at a park meet. Each racer came back from their journey a changed person. Okay, that's a stretch, but they did see just about every nook and cranny of both parks. Each racer also got to "baptise" their shoes in order to get control #6 which was placed on one of the islands in the river. Jeff Black lead all racers, beating out Andy and son Elijah who were on their bikes. When he finished, Andy wanted to have a discussion about Lee's "bingo" controls (where one uses random luck) which made for an interesting park map. Bill Pilcher lost his Julia Davis map running between parks which he would need in order to find the last control. He hustled in to pick up a spare and headed back out to finish up the course. The final racer of the day was John Davies of New Zealand who was passing through Boise, looked up CTOC, and decided to try our local meet. John has been orienteering for over 30 years. He thought the course was great and was very impressed by all the people using each park for different activities.

Finally, there was lots of walk-up interest from individuals wanting to know more about orienteering, unfortunately no takers. Hopefully this will increase the participation for future meets.

Beginner:	time
Donna Goodwin & Maggie Gregory	0:19:45
Maggie Kidd	0:26:27
Carly Turpen (and Family)	0:40:00

Intermediate:	time
Dondi Black	1:41:32
Karin Didisse	DNF

Advanced:	time
Jeff Black	0:53:16
Doug LaMott	1:09:45
Andy & Elijah Hill (bike)	1:10:56
Bill Pilcher	1:48:50
John Davies	2:13:40

Hope to see you all at Bear Basin

CTOC members go 1, 2, 3

2008-08-19T09:48:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to club members Masha Velichko, Sergey Velichko, and Ole Bergset who were respectively first, second, and third in their groups at the 2008 USA Classic Championships that took place in Wyoming past weekend.

Meet Results: Idaho City - 06/28/08

2008-08-19T08:12:00.000-07:00

June in Idaho City. The blooming flowers, the singing birds, and, AH! the bleating sheep.

June 28th saw the inaugural use of the new Gold Rush Hills map. While this map more-or-less covered the same area as the previous Bear Run map, the use of a real basemap and the services of world-class mapper made for a night and day difference in quality.

After the heat nearly killed off a large proportion of the club members in July 2007, the annual Idaho City meet was moved up a month to June. The strategy worked -- although Saturday was quite toasty for June, it stayed quite pleasant for most of the day. And, luckily, the sheep herd that had been passing through earlier in the week had made it north of the competition area by Saturday.

The course itself turned out to be a 16-control score course, with all controls worth 10 points, and a 10 point per minute overtime penalty in the competitive class. Surprisingly, nobody actually went over the 2-hour time limit.

As the all-powerful meet director, I divided up the results into two sections: individuals who seemed to be going for speed (the "Running Raving Nutters") and those individuals and families (those "Enjoying the Woods") who were traveling at a more leisurely pace.

In the Nutters division, Lee Scott had a runaway victory, finishing a full 20 minutes ahead of Jeff Black, who in turn finished over 20 minutes ahead of Ole Bergset. Rounding out the finishers who managed to bag all 16 controls was Bill Leahy, who still finished with well over five minutes to spare. Bill Pilcher bagged nearly every control, and finished in a very respectable time. Karin Didisse (she of the ice-covered wastes of McCall) decided a round dozen was more than sufficient when running in the heat. And, rounding out the Nutters, Dave "Seconds Count" Bergset won the coveted Use-as-much-clock-as-you-can prize by finishing with five seconds to spare.

Running Raving Nutters Division	time	controls
Lee Scott	62:49:00	16
Jeff Black	82:26:00	16
Ole Bergset	105:25:00	16
Bill Leahy	113:22:00	16
Bill Pilcher	109:05:00	15
Karin Didisse	101:20:00	12
David Bergset	119:55:00	11

The Enjoying the Woods division isn't about competition, so take the following table as a list of results, not placement. Dondi Black made sure she didn't get any advice from the meet director this year (see last year's meet report for why), and did a nice job bagging 8 controls in a bit over an hour and a half. The Ritzenthaler's started and finished multiple times, so I never really figured out their time or their number of controls. Mea Culpa. The fact that they actually came up and orienteered while playing host to various viruses was still an impressive accomplishment. Brad Lowe and his anonymous friend (c'mon Brad, she's got to have a name) also bagged 8 controls in a most challenging area. The Hall Family made their first foray out of the foothill and park maps and into the woods (and for those of you who have yet to orienteer in the woods, it's quite a jump from open land) managing to bag seven controls, and finish without screaming "never again!" (at least, not within my hearing).

Enjoying the Woods Division	time	controls
Dondi Black	91:26	8
Brad Lowe + 1	150:10	8
Hall Family	145:00	7
Ritzenthaler Family	~51:00	?

The after-meet festivities were marred by Trudy's still not having re-opened after their fire this winter. The owner's promised me that they would be open by the time of the next meet (one would hope, as this is pretty much the only place worth eating at in Idaho City).

All-in-all, a most enjoyable day of orienteering. Thanks to everyone who showed up, and a special thanks to those who hung around until the end and helped pick up controls!

Andy

Karin Didisse and Dave Ritzenthaler ask Kayla for directions to the next control

Karin wonders how far she'd roll down the hill if she tripped...