Broken Ground O-meet

 I had not done an Orienteering meet since last Spring but signed up for a membership with Up North Orienteering (UNO). I was one of the founding members of UNO over 30 years ago. I’d fallen away from orienteering as my ankles and knee kept reminding me that I really need to stay on flat even surfaces. I still love reading maps and navigating so the pull to go back to a meet has been there. This meet at Broken Ground (Loudon NH) was especially interesting as I’d snowshoe raced here a couple of years ago and had never seen the O-map. New maps are always exciting!

 

I got in my morning run with the Chelmsford group before heading north for a nice run with the Turtle Pond group. Post-run, I spotted a sun halo, I think this is the first time I’d seen this weather phenomenon.  Good sign? It was a perfect afternoon to head into the woods with temps in the upper 50s and bright sun.

I selected the Red course which was 6km (straight line), I always figure that the distance in K’s is about how far I’ll end up running in miles. In retrospect, I probably should have done the Green course (5k) which was also advanced, just shorter. I had a lot of trouble on the first two controls. It isn’t unusual for me to struggle early with figuring out the map and the mapper. A lot of the “yellow” (which is open forest) was open but had a lot of previous logging which made for poor footing and very slow going. The first two controls I had to re-orient myself a couple of times before figuring out exactly where I was. Looking at the splits afterward I could see that of the 9 competitors on the Red course, I was 9^th and 7^th for my first two splits. Then on the third control I ran the 2^nd fastest split! It seems like after that I’d have one really bad split (9^th) and follow that with a 2^nd or 3^rd place split. Was that confidence, a lack of concentration? Not surprisingly, my best split of the day was the 10^th which was also the longest leg of the day. I ran trail almost the whole way and had an easy point to attack the control from. So of course, my worst split of the day was the next one where I ran 8 minutes slower than first place. Yikes!

 

I had a lot of fun out there and ended up finishing in 6^th place. I hope to get back out there later this season (or in the fall) but I really paid the price with incredibly sore ankles the next day. An easy run and a very nice 2 hour bike ride loosened things up and got me ready to head into the next week.

Beaver Brook Orienteering Meet

 Next up was a return to Orienteering.  I did a snowshoe orienteering race back in February which was my first O-meet in over 12 years.  During the 1990s I’d averaged between 10 and 15 o-meets per year and by 2013 when I’d last gone out I had orienteered over 200 times.  Troubles with my ankles and needing reading glasses to see a map had been the reason I’d stepped away.  When I was looking at the info for the snowshoe race I saw that fellow Up North Orienteer Pete Bundschuh had passed away late last year and a memorial would be held on April 19 using the map he originally produced at Beaver Brook in Hollis NH.  I fondly remember using the hand-drawn map Pete had produced back in the 90s.  Orienteering is so much fun, bashing around in the woods and feeling that rush when you spot the flag and hustling over and punching in.  It was so great to see many familiar faces (or at least remember familiar names).  I collected my map and thumb stick (electronic punching) and quickly drew up a course.  The event was a score-o which is different than regular meets where you do a particular course.  In score-o you visit as many controls as you want in any particular order.  I wanted to visit them all and drew up a course that would get me to them all.  After a mile warm-up on the road I headed to the start and punched the start with my thumb stick and was off.  I was very cautious at the beginning getting used to the scale of the map.  I was also going fairly slow as I was sore from racing and being extra-cautious of my knee in the woods.  I cut my finger on something as I was climbing up a big hill in the early going and chuckled thinking of the old orienteering axiom “it isn’t a meet until you see blood”.  I did not have much trouble navigating as I kept close contact with the map and used any handrails I could find (stonewall, trails, streams, lines of cliffs, etc).  I was very slow on the downhills and not so fondly recalled how much mountain laurel you could find at Beaver Brook.   Things went well until I mistakenly continued south from one control to the next instead of going to another control that was only 100 meters to the west.  I did not do a great job of drawing the course as there were a lot of controls in that section that were close together.   I continued south not realizing my error.  When I got to the final two controls I looked on the map at one of the ones I’d missed and wondered if I had gone there but convinced myself I had.  D’oh!  I ended up out on the course for 64 minutes and picked up 20 of the 22 controls.  Had I done it right I would have only added a couple of minutes picking up the other two.  I still had a lot of fun and was so happy to see old friends, even if it was under sad circumstances.  Nearly 100 people took part in the event on a very nice sunny and warm day.  I’ll be looking at the calendar and hope to do some more orienteering this spring.

 

Pete Bundschuh Memorial Score-O – Beaver Brook

10 points/control; no time limit

1        Mori Finlayson-Johnecheck 49:29  220    

2        Kristin Hall                        56:29  220    

3        Jon Campbell                    58:36  220    

4        Jeremy Colgan                            66:26  220    

5        Tori Campbell                              66:27  220    

6        Dan & Max Hopkins           68:18  220    

7        John Henkelman               75:12  220    

8        Dean Sturtevant                103:11          220    

 

9        William Davidson               74:52  210    

10      Ken Walker                       107:11          210    

11      Linda Kohn                        134:58          210    

 

12      Ian Finlayson                     49:57  200    

13      Dave Dunham                             64:22  200    

14      Terry Costello                             77:32  200    

15      Karen Yeowell                             90:32  200    

16      Levi Konrad-Shankland       100:43          200    

 

17      Carl Childs              49:58  180    

18      Peter Gagarin                    50:47  180    

19      Tim Parson              66:30  180    

20      Phil Bricker              75:19  180    

21      Patrick McNeal                   56:39  170    

22      Wendy Johnecheck  55:53  160    

23      Pia Webb                59:13  160    

24      Mark O’Connell        61:07  160    

25      Astrid Olsen            71:20  160    

26      Manoela Ferraz        72:10  160    

27      Mary Jo Childs                   84:20  160    

28      Rick Worner            87:07  160    

29      Heather Steeves      89:39  150    

30      Lexie Arbour            98:37  150    

31      Dorina Nimigean      67:48  140    

32      Trevor Gittes Taplin 101:07          140    

33      Clark Paolini            101:08          140    

34      Isla Finlayson          29:59  130    

35      Darrell Scott            44:56  130    

36      Ed Kotowski            46:14  130    

37      Ellen, Anna, Jackson Morse 55:59  130    

38      Gail Gagarin            61:25  130    

39      Mark Webb             66:13  130    

40      Charlie Deweese     84:58  130    

41      Alexandra Claphe    105:14          130    

42      Aanika Ruutopold    33:58  120    

43      Tracey Olafsen        44:03  120    

44      Peter Goodwin                   48:55  120    

45      Paul Simons            87:10  120    

46      Tim Ward                89:26  120    

47      Joe Simons             89:32  120    

48      Ethan & Heather Bundschuh         123:41          120    

49      Keigo Bundschuh     42:54  110    

50      Cay Kendrick           53:37  110    

51      Steve Olafsen                    54:35  110    

52      Susan Hawkes-Teeter        75:42  110    

53      Ruth Kabel              83:49  110    

54      Denise Mayfall                   81:50  90     

55      Diane & Amanda Wadleigh 82:29  90     

56      Alicia Coffee            92:11  90     

57      Liliana F                  106:48          90     

58      Robert Walsh          01:52  90      didn’t Clear finger-stick?

59      Michelle Scott                    44:50  80     

60      Deb Rucci                60:27  80     

61      Janet MacFarland     60:47  80     

62      Vee Zenaro +2        82:27  80     

63      Shalimar Debusk     88:48  80     

64      Henley Sime            48:29  70     

65      Peter Campbell        50:20  70     

66      Sue Phillips             63:57  70     

67      Todd Roberts          64:17  70     

68      Rhonda Deweese    30:44  60     

69      Gary Gallagher                  31:38  60     

70      Helen Demakes       82:09  60     

71      Kate Hastings                    114:44          60     

72      Dan Holey               120:27          50     

73      Susan Cummings     ???      40      missing Start or Finish punch?

74      Sharon Pendilla       25:22  30     

75      Saari                       31:05  30     

76      Eric Bundschuh        35:00  30     

          Barb & James Bond did not download?

Up North Orienteering - ski O

 The last weekend of February was a busy one for me.  I decided kind of last minute that I’d do the 2025 finale of the Fudge-series.  The next day I headed up to Holderness NH for an Orienteering Meet hosted by Up North Orienteers (UNO).  I was a founding member of UNO back in 1995 but had not been out for an O-meet since 2013!  Part of that was due to my ongoing ankle woes (arthritis) but also eyesight issues.  I had bought a pair of bifocal running shades and used them a few years ago when running and map reading while running the Trustees of Reservation properties.  I hadn’t used them in a couple of years but figured they be fine for reading an O-map.  I got in a 7 mile run with the gang in Chelmsford and then hopped in the car for the 90 minute drive. 

I got there a little before the meet was supposed to start but they had some issues with one of the controls not being hung or hung in the incorrect spot.  I had plenty of time to change into proper gear and stay warm in the car until it was time to go.  I had signed up for a shorter course but somehow got the map for a longer course.  No problem, I was hoping to run 4 or 5 miles.  I think I was the only one on any of the courses using snowshoes, everyone else was out on skis.

The snow was amazing and they do a fantastic job of grooming.  The big question would be how were the snowshoe trails and could I cut through the woods to save time on a couple of legs.  The course I had would be 16 controls that I would visit in order attempting to use the shortest possible route.  In ski (or snowshoe) O there isn’t a lot of technical orienteering it is more a matter of knowing exactly where you are at all times as you will see so many intersections and it is easy to lose track.  I was very careful about thumbing along (keeping my location on the map marked with my thumb) and grooved along in the early going.  I wasn’t going very fast (sore from racing the day before) but was steady.  I got a nice shout out from a skier on his course as he flew by at one point.  It was great seeing people out in the woods having such a good time.  I made a huge mistake on the 8^th control and a leg that should have taken me 2 or 3 minutes took 10!  I momentarily lost track of where I was and then convinced myself I was somewhere that I wasn’t.  I finally got that control and then finished out the course.  I was happy to see I got 2^nd place on the course and first snowshoer (only one).  A big thanks to everyone who volunteered to put this meet on, it is a lot of work but much appreciated.  I enjoyed my 60+ minute romp in the woods.  It closed out another 90+ mile week for me.