Did Anyone Actually See Rabbits? Rabbit Creek Annual Meet

    Our annual Rabbit Creek meet is my favorite meet of the year, and while I missed most of the meets this year, a consequence of going to a school thousands of miles away, helping to direct and set one of my favorite maps was a wonderful way to begin the summer. As CTOC has grown over the last couple years, thank you Meetup, meets that used to bring out 5-10 competitors now bring out 20-40. These new numbers make the endless hours of mapping, checking, and setting the course worth it for the wonderful volunteer meet directors. (Although, we didn’t exactly check the course this last weekend, which is why there were so many meet notes… our bad.)

    Often, meets are rather isolated experiences for competitors: racers come, run, and leave. But the annual pot-luck brings a chance to connect with fellow orienteers, and we all learn just how crazy we really are. A special thanks to Bill Pilcher for hosting this annual meet and letting us run all over his beautiful property, while simultaneously warning us about the bull snakes that often slither underfoot (the reason gators are highly suggested). For years Bill has been hosting this meet every May and even before Bill owned the property, his friends, retired professors, hosted May Day parties. For as long as the house can remember there have been excited visitors trampling through the property every May. It’s exciting to continue a tradition in such a beautiful place.

    Extra kudos to the real star of the show, my mother, Melanie Wright. Who did a majority of the course setting on Saturday (and around five a.m. Sunday morning). She consistently shows me up with her endurance and bravery around dead rattlesnakes. While she was insistent that people arrive on time for mass starts throughout the day, she is much more empathetic in person than on meetup and we only had one real mass start at 9:32 for racers deciding to do the self-punishing 3 hour category. People will be people so most racers (including my father, with some excuse about cows) trickled in late. But Melanie dutifully repeated the course notes with the patience of a kindergarten teacher. 

[I am grateful for Katrina's and Innes' help with control pickup as well as a bunch of other help Katrina provided, including this writeup and her cheerful company, and the company of Bill L, Terry, and Bill Saturday evening.]

    Overall, I would call the meet a success, and would hope all competitors feel the same. There were strong performances from everyone, whether it was one of the first CTOC meets they have attended or Sergey who ran the full course in under two hours (a course purposefully made so he shouldn’t have been able to do that [route shown below]). Thanks to everyone who came out, and I (hopefully we [yes, we]) hope to all see you out at our next meet in June… especially the group who brought us donuts (you’re my favorites [mine too!]).

        Name(s)                                                                # of Controls                     Final Time

3 Hour Category

1	Ted Smith	28	2:37
2	Jason and Reese Russell	28	2:43*
3	Bill and Terry Leahy	28	2:50
4	Sean Howerty	21	2:11
5	Kevin McDowell and Jon Davey	16	2:59
6	The Wanderers	12	2:13
7	Cynthia and Jimmy B.	11	2:10
8	Micah and Friends	11	2:56

2 Hour Category

1	Sergey Valichko	32	1:56
2	Innes Wright	18	2:02**
3	Dustin Thomas	15	1:46
4	Bruce and Jerry	9	2:02**
5	Scott and Christy	7	1:50
6	Cat Stauffer	6	1:52

1 Hour Category

1

John Murray

6

1:04**

*Winner in our hearts for finding Melanie’s glasses (Thank you!)

**5 minute grace period

– Katrina Wright, Co(ish)-Meet Director

[and Melanie]

Sergey's Route: Approximately 12KM distance and 500M of climb

Fairmont Motala Results

Small area of the Fairmont park experienced interesting mix this past Saturday. When I just arrived in the early morning to place controls, about 30 knights in shiny armor were practicing their fencing skills under the tree canopy, a little later tennis players started to flock into the courts for their morning session. Little they knew that about 50 more would start coming at 10:00 am to enjoy motala loops with colored pieces of paper and compasses. Small urban area that surrounds the Fairmont park offered excellent opportunity for fun and refreshing motala courses where all courses used first loop, intermediate and advanced continues on second loop, and finally advanced runners completed with the third loop. School and church grounds, few office buildings and plenty of places to hangs controls provided a nice backdrop during sunny but chilly day.

Few newcomer groups tried beginner course while majority selected 2-loop intermediate. Kirstin (again!) edged John for the crown but John should be watchful for Eli who placed 3rd. New generation is coming to dominate the field! Bill and Jeff dueled on the advanced 3-loop course. Here are results:

Beginner Loop 2 km, 10 controls 

John Rail, Kolbe McGimis, Kyle McGimis, Bentley Dawley 0:48:10 

Elizabeth & Rebekah & Brad & Susan Rhoads 1:01:27 

Dennis Zattiero, Lance Zattiero, Jake Steel, Riley De Pew 1:11:05 

Intermediate 2 Loops 4 km, 20 controls 

Kirsten Severud 0:44:58 

John Murray 0:46:25 

Eli Arambarri 0:52:45 

Leslie Perez 1:05:00 

John Siebold 1:05:00 

Johny Spud, Chris Erwin, Marcus 1:10:18 

Cathryn Stauffer 1:10:21 

Austin Agosta 1:13:55 

Carrie Magnuson & Vicky Dodd 1:14:39 

Donna Pitzer 1:22:38 

Scott & Christy Morris 1:24:46 

Pete Paradis 1:35:48 

Micah and Friends 1:47:39 

Kim & Ray Tsuba 1:28 (DNF) 

Randy Rhude 1:28 (DNF) 

Advanced 3 Loops, 6.4 km, 34 controls 

Bill Leahy 1:04:23 

Jeff Harvey 1:20:31 

Let me know if I may misspell your name. Hope to see you all at our next annual Rabbit-O and social potluck on May 21st. Challenging courses, good food and friends around – this is the recipe for fun! 

Cheers, 

Sergey

Hot and Cold

The day was punctuated by extremes of temperature. As I remarked to several people, I knew it was going to be cold when I saw a flock of penguins flying south in search of warmer climes. The ink in pens didn't flow and my already indecipherable handwriting deteriorated into a scrawl. I'd like to blame my poor record keeping on the shivers, but it is often equally flawed in warm weather. A little later the heat came. Ennis Wright cruised into the finish dripping sweat after his winning performance on the Intermediate Course. By the time I picked up controls my sweat rival Ennis's, albeit without the triumphant aura. 

This event was a joint effort by Christy Morris and me. I updated the map, designed the courses, and set the controls. For me, that's the enjoyable part. Christy managed all of the administration, the part I only tolerate. That is she managed the administration until she turned it over to me as she and Scott tackled the Intermediate Course. 

At that point the quality of administration took a quantum leap off a cliff. As much as Sean Howerton's assistance took pressure off at the start table, it was not enough to rescue me from my long moments of inattention. So, when you review the results below, you might find an error or three. Christy's review did find an inaccurate elapsed time that resulted from a typing error. Any errors and inadequacies you find derive directly from my record keeping. 

In the course of reviewing the liability waivers I found seven people who apparently participated with one of those other people who are listed on the start sheet. I made some informed guesses that attached some people with others on the start sheet, but after my guesses those seven remained without a slot. 

CTOC has a history of holding a meet every month except December. That's what we offer for your dues. No one stepped forward to direct this meet until very late in the schedule. We need more meet directors to fill in the gaps. If you have any inclination to help, please contact us. We will give you total support. 

And, speaking of support, I am grateful to David Bergset, who stayed after the meet to pick up almost all of the controls on the Sport Course and to search for an orienteer who did not check out. You will note from the results listing below that David ran off with top honors on the Advanced Course. On the subject of excellent results, most of which will remain unsung, Christy offered this. "Only thing I'd mention is that this was Cat Stauffer's first INT moving up from the Sport and she crushed it." Great job Cat. Also note that Britini and Baileigh Gates took the lead in the Sport category by a whopping 14:20, the largest first place lead in any category.

Judging by several comments the meet was a success introducing some folks to our sport. The fact that eight people who began on the Beginner Course went on to the Sport Course. They are identified with a “B” behind their name. I hope the remaining 43 of the 50 participants were at least as equally inspired.

On behalf of Christy Morris and Sean Howerton I hope you all enjoyed the meet and will join us on April 15 when Sergey Velichko directs the Fairmont Park Motala. A motala is a meet with three loops, each loop starting and finishing at the same location. 

John Murray Co-Meet Director

 

The Control is at the Bottom of the Cliff - Black Rock Canyon

Last Sunday was a beautiful, nearly spring-like day to be out rambling around the desert of south central Idaho. Thank you to everyone who came out! We had 24 participants on 1 map, with options for three official courses. 

I really wanted to hang a control in the small archway on the left, but it was a little too high to reach without a step ladder.

This was the first meet on this new map! Great to have a place outside the city parks for a winter meet, don't you agree?  The map was mostly computer generated, but AI doesn't get you all the way there. After a day spent in the field John and I agreed that the cliffs on the map we were using did not accurately represent what we saw in the field. Below are the two versions that demonstrate why having LiDAR data is so beneficial, but field work is invaluable.

     <<< Map 1

 <<< Map 2

To keep it simple, we used one map with all three routes, which left folks lots of options and choices when out and about. At least 8 of the participants/teams changed maps, going both shorter and longer. 

The changes back and forth in courses represent the many challenges and pleasures found out on the course. It seems that while the contours could have been a bit darker to make more obvious, some of the more obvious clues for controls were missed, such as the trail leading from near control 2 and 3 and the control description for 6 indicating the location at the bottom of the cliff. The undulating terrain made for good compass practice, also while allowing reliance on the map features for some controls. Check out Sergey's winning route below the results table. Did you have any additional comments on the map or this location? Please let us know, as I hope we will use this area again!

This wasn't a bad place to hang out while waiting for over 2 hours for the first finishers. I had lovely sunshine, beautiful views, and Norma's pleasant company. I could occasionally make out a number of folks wandering around looking for a control with my binoculars. Thank you, Marcella, for the group picture below of Ted, myself, Innes, and Dipesh after they had all completed their courses and we were waiting for other finishers. Whether you were out for a stroll or have a more competitive day, I'm glad you made it out.

Results are shown below. They are sorted by overall times since the times were "all over the map." There were enough course changes that I feel like I may have missed something like a DNF, so please let me know if I did. As mentioned previously many folks started on one maps and then changed courses. 

For those of you that are curious, Sergey has provided his route. He made a mistake between control 10 and 11, misreading the contours, before getting back on track. Notice his use of the trail between control 2 and 3 that should have made it straightforward.

Need a refresher on the control description symbols? Check one of these links (or search for others(=):

The Mario version of Control description Quizzes

A slightly more academic version of a Control description Quiz

Most of the credit for the map and courses goes to John, whether he wants it or not. John, thank you for your company, patience, and good humor.

Thank you to Ted for helping pick up over half the controls and doing a bit more exploring off the map on the way back to the start.

Best wishes

Anyone noticed the sand graffiti in the canyon. ;-)

2023 Ribbon of Jewels O-Meet Report

For our January O-Meet write up I am going to keep it short and sweet. This was a great showing for the City of Trees Orienteering Club's first meet of 2023. Below are some data points, acknowledgements, and the Ribbon of Jewels Score-O results: 

50+ - Total meet participants 

25 - CTOC members signed up for our 2023 season

10 - Approx. # of 1st time orienteers 

4 - Age of youngest participant 

1 - Avocado found on the course

Thank you to the following individuals who supported me as Meet Director: 

Sergey - OCAD 8 consultant and map printer, plus 75% control collection post-event 

Melanie - Registration table pinch hitter as I was running behind schedule setting up the final controls

Vicki - Wonderful companion to traipse along the Greenbelt with at the crack of dawn and provided the refreshments at the registration table

Aubrey and Terra - 25% control collection and great friends to crack a cold one with post-event 

Thank you to everyone for showing up, celebrating the great outdoors, and sharing in this unique sport!  Our next meet is slated for February 12th south of Bruneau at Black Rock Canyon.  You can find all meet info for the year via the Meetup app under City of Trees Orienteering Club.  
 

Not so Frozen Fort Boise

Early morning while setting controls, a strong gust of wind sailed me across the patch of ice covering some of trails on the ridge. Uh-huh! - I thought - that would be tough and challenging for advanced participants. Not only find those orange flags but also firmly stay on feet while crossing these icy patches and also going down one very steep particular slope. Behold, time came and couple first people appeared at the meet center set in the Memorial park. Thank you Kevin and Jon for helping to set the place and much needed canopies! And than the crowd was non stop untill all scattered across urban and bottom foothill area of the Fort Boise. Our old SI punching stations failed the night before thus we resolved to use old and trusted pin punching that worked, as always, marvelously. Few newcomers went to try Sport course after finishing successfully their first orienteering course. I think some even may be ready to try next time our intermediate version in an urban park.

Intermadiate course saw most of the competition with Eric posting the best time while Kirstin did it fully on memory. On advanced course it was very nice to see Jeff coming back for some grass and dirt running and competing with Doug for the first spot. As we didn't keep seconds and rounded to minutes, both posted same time a littly bit over one hour. Isaac and Jamison warmed up on the beginner course and successfully finished the advanced course with very respectful time.

Some happy finishers!

Results:

Beginner 2 km, 10 controls
Dipesh Patel 0:28
Isaac & Jamison 0:33
Dave & Sean 0:46
Kevin Mcdowell 1:09
Jon Favey 1:09

Sport 3.6 km, 14 controls, 30 m climb
Dipesh Patel 0:47
John & Eli Arambarri 0:47
Cat Stauffer 0:56
Dave Byrd 0:58
Dave & Sean dnf

Intermediate 4.2 km, 17 controls, 60 m climb
Eric Thomson 0:31
Kirstin Severud 0:36
Innes Wright 0:47
John Murray 0:51
Torin & Jackson 0:51
Karin Didisse 0:58
Andrey & Jonah 1:19
Jerry Stewart 1:33
Heather, Matt, Namey 1:37
Scott & Christy 1:39
Roy Tsuda dnf

Advanced 5.7 km, 22 controls, 110 m climb
Jeff Black 1:04
Doug Lamott 1:04
Dustin & Heidi 1:24
Melanie Wright 1:34
Isaac & Jamison 1:55
Ashley Boyd dnf

See you out there in the wilderness and urban parks enjoying outdoors! Next year schedule of events is being finilized. Some already published at our ctoc-boise site. Expect at least one meet per month.

Cheers,
Sergey

November Course - New Map!

 

I must admit, when I woke up event morning and looked at the weather and it said “17 but feels like 11” I wanted to crawl back under the covers. But instead, I headed out to lay controls for event.  Arriving on site it was very quiet, even the geese were still asleep huddled together to keep warm. We took this time to move around campus and enjoy the morning as the sun welcomed us with a sea of frosted sparkly grass. 

Despite the chilly morning several brave souls (most waited for more sun) came out and participated.

I was a little overzealous this month and created 3 standard courses (Beg, Int & Adv) and one Urban course.

The advanced course consisted of 20 controls and when placing them this morning I had to call a last minute audible and move one due to an unforeseen water feature.  I didn’t figure anyone was up for some wading on a 17-degree morning.  We had 4 runners who were up for the challenge, and all gave impressive times, all finishing with 10 min of each other.

Name	Course	Out Time	In Time	Duration
Jason Russel	ADV	11:17:00 AM	12:07:00 PM	0:50
David Bergset	ADV	10:38:00 AM	11:31:00 AM	0:53
Melanie Wright	ADV	11:06:00 AM	12:03:00 PM	0:57
Dustin Thomas	ADV	11:23:00 AM	12:23:00 PM	1:00
Bill L	ADV	DNS		DNS

 

The Intermediate course consisted of 14 controls.  While many of them overlapped the Advanced course I tossed in a few different ones and had runners going in different directions. However, that didn’t stop participants from making quick work of this course.

Name	Course	Out Time	In Time	Duration
Innes	INT	11:05:00 AM	11:37:00 AM	0:32
Marcella	INT	11:00:00 AM	11:54:00 AM	0:54
Michail	INT	11:13:00 AM	12:16:00 PM	1:03
David B	INT	DNS		DNS
Johnny S	INT	DNS		DNS
Janice McEnroe	INT	DNS		DNS

 

We had 11 teams participate in the urban course with 5 getting all the answers.  While this year was a little tamer than last year there were still some “tricky” questions.  These questions just show how different people think (I focused on the words while others on the images/pictures)

Name	Course	Out Time	In Time	Duration	Points
Fords	Urban	10:13:00 AM	11:06:00 AM	0:53	34
Ashley	Urban	10:11:00 AM	11:18:00 AM	1:07	34
Chaitanya	Urban	10:33:00 AM	11:59:00 AM	1:26	34
Cat S	Urban	10:42:00 AM	12:13:00 PM	1:31	34
Pete P	Urban	10:20:00 AM	12:12:00 PM	1:52	34
Karin D	Urban	10:47:00 AM	11:46:00 AM	0:59	33
John S	Urban	10:55:00 AM	12:19:00 PM	1:24	32
Leslie	Urban	10:55:00 AM	12:19:00 PM	1:24	32
Donna P	Urban	10:10:00 AM	11:57:00 AM	1:47	32
Kim/Roy	Urban	10:10:00 AM	12:15:00 PM	2:05	30
Darla	Urban	10:10:00 AM	12:15:00 PM	2:05	29
Lynette	Urban	DNS		DNS	DNS

 

Last but not least the Thank You list:

·        A big thank you to April Rice and the Department of Admin leadership team for allowing us to host this event on their campus.  We are hoping to use it again in future years.

·        John Murray:  This was a new area for us which meant a lot of map work needed to be done but as always John stepped up to the plate and got us a workable map in a very short amount of time.  He also took many phone calls from me and had a side by side tutorial on using the mapping software.  His knowledge was extremely valuable in understanding what may make some good control locations to force some route choices.  We will see how much I retain come Nov next year!

·        David Bergset: After finishing the ADV course in a great time he hung around the start/finish and kept me company while waiting for everyone else to finish.  It was good to catch up with him since we no longer work together.  Then he offered to help pick up controls while he drank his still warm coffee, which was appreciated!

·        Karin Dedisse:  She arrived at the parking area before I had and graciously helped set the CTOC sandwich boards and carried some of the equipment to the starting area while I frantically finished putting out the last controls.  Also, a thank you for taking the lead on ordering new CTOC jerseys (the first in 10 years I’m told).

·        Scott Cockerham: As his daughter I have gotten him into some weird adventures and Orienteering is no exception.  He helped scout campus with me several times over the last few weeks with no complaints – even when we went out the afternoon it was snowing like mad!  I appreciate all the hours he spent walking and suggestions while putting this course together – now you don’t need to worry about it for another year!