National Orienteering Day (NOD) Results
Powers Island CRNRA - May 4, 2002
By Bob Domine
Participants are listed at the bottom of this report.
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National Orienteering Day is over and though we had significant rain the day before during setup and much more on the day of the event, several dedicated souls took the challenge and enjoyed the day with us. We focused to help make it a useful training event for newcomers and "regulars" alike by presenting short activities to introduce and improve orienteering skills. In addition to beginner orienteering training, we set up 4 100 meter pacing courses. Many have their pace down on an open road or field, but don't know the change affect that going thru thick woods or significant elevation has. This worked well except the one thru the woods normally dry had 4 foot of water in it. I guess I could have encouraged stroke count instead of pace count. A "score" sheet was provided to not only record pace, but also time for each one. To test orienteering levels we put out three 1K courses. The idea in this small bordered area was that participants could safety try more challenging course than they were used to running a see how they did. Further to see if they were really competent at that level, they were to run the course a second time and compare. Little to no difference means competent at that level. I very much appreciated the assistance of Prakash Bhave who helped with setup, registration, and control pickup, and Pam Shroyer who helped with registration and braved some very bad weather to get to us. (She saw 4 weather related accidents on the way, I saw only 1.) Much thanks also to Bill Farrell for his help in bringing material to the meet saving me a trip the day before, his help with several beginner trainings and as always, great moral support. Sam Smith brought the very much needed tent and due to my rain delay had it entirely assembled when I arrived - so appreciated. Thanks to for Steve Shannonhouse for bringing the permit. Who would think the park would check on a day like Saturday - they did. They even searched the contract to see if we had permission to put up a tent shelter. Your tax dollars at work. Yes, the trails turned into streams and the streams into water falls. I did not know this second item. One new participant asked what the blue line symbol was. I said it was a stream. She said that where she was, it was a waterfall. Sure enough, during control pickup, it was a waterfall! Many did slip in the mud and had a great time doing it. I was mused too that Rick Shane and his family did get to come out because all of their other activities had gotten rained out. Thanks so much again to those who joined us. Robb Stanek
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