Deer
Lakes Park
Comprehensive Orienteering Training
22 April 2018
It
was an
excellent day for orienteering, sunny with a temperature about 60.
We were almost overwhelmed with participants
(141). Surprisingly, no one reported any ticks in
the forest, although many had been seen during
course setting and vetting.
Joe
Logan
designed all of the courses except the intermediate one and
taught both of the beginner sessions. Jim Wolfe also taught
one
beginner session, splitting the participants with Joe. These
sessions began at 11 am and 1
pm with 37 participants and 36 participants, respectively.
Everyone on those courses seemed to have a good time, with a
number of parents saying that their children especially enjoyed it.
Jim
Wolfe designed the intermediate course and taught the intermediate
session which began at noon and had 15 participants. Many of those in
the intermediate session expressed appreciation and felt they learned
something useful for future orienteering.
The three advanced exercises consisted of a trailless course,
a donut-o course and a line-o course. The
trailless one was the
most popular with at least 27 people going out on it. This
was
designed just like a normal short course; however, all trails had been
removed from the map; finishing times generally ranged from about 40
minutes to as much as 2 hours. The donut-o course
was also
designed like a normal course; however, everything within 60 meters of
the control feature
was erased. 24 people tried this course; finishing times
ranged from about 25 minutes to more than 2 hours.
For the line-o course, the map showed only a line to follow
and a list of the control numbers that would be on the line.
Line-O is usually one of the more difficult exercises; 13
people went out on this course; finishing times ranged from about 40
minutes to almost 2 hours, although a fair number of participants came
back having missed one or more of the controls.
The only incident of note occurred during control pickup when some of
the disc golfers or other non-orienteers seemed to be offended by
having orange and white markers near their course. One control
flag was thrown in a stream and another was carried off.
Fortunately, both were retrieved due to the persistent efforts of
Edna Spang.
Thanks
to Sherry Shank, James Fenn, Barbara Johnstone, Mary and Paul Sleppy for handling
registration. Thanks to Mark Puda, Naomi Jarvis, Laurie Opila and Ryan Knecht for
doing
start/finish. Thanks to Andy Karnavas, Tim & Edna Spang and Joe Logan for doing control pickup.
This was a training event; there are no formal results.
To see the photos that Alexis took at the event, go here
Our next event will be on April 29 at Northmoreland Park. This
will be our first event at that park. The courses will be sprints.