Charlie Siler wrote - My thanks go out to Donna, Sam, Kevin, Bill, Martha, Bob and Shawn for their assistance at FDR Saturday. Sorry that I did not get to thank you personally as I left early due to illness. Special thanks to George Wood. His experience and "get it done" attitude made the task of meet director a pleasure. By the way, George has had a computer for years. He told me he may get it out of the box and hook it up some day!

*****

Bill Farrell wrote -Charlie was not there to take a bow, but he offered some fun courses for another perfect orienteering day for GAOC. George and Donna were there to get us going and encourage us back at the finish.

I had a great day... and offered some entertainment to those on the course. I was trying to run and was not discouraged by the fact that Lee Bradshaw was walking, not just keeping up, but finally past me. He got a laugh out of it, but seeing me run off... in the wrong direction was really funny. He was kind enough not to laugh out loud.

This was my first run in a while, so my skills were dull, but I was able to recover from Charlie's traps. I even punched -- without looking -- only to catch my parallel mistake and run three hundred meters to my control. I also had a problem seeing the controls hanging in the woods -- not a good thing. It created the most difficult error... I was in the correct spot, but thought I was wrong. Very hard to find yourself under these conditions.

It was a wonderful day, full of friends, nature and exercise -- Perfect!

Thanks to all who helped, Bill.

*****

Bob Domine wrote - If you missed Saturday at FDR, you missed a great one!

I had already figured out that running thru the leaves was more fun than raking them, but with the perfect and I mean perfect Fall weather this was super orienteering day!

Charlie Siler our meet director and course setter with the assistance of George Wood set out some fun and challenging courses. Charlie, I think you may have learned too fast - quite challenging!

All of the operations went smooth from everything I could see. I headed out on the Green course and Linda on the Orange. I really enjoyed the course as it kept me tweaking my best route choice while on several legs. Nice variations - slightly off the straight on approach. Having a new course setter is always fun. You really get to feel you are in a new area.

Charlie, I hope you are feeling much better. I was sorry you did not get to see the final fruits of your great labor, but you did the right thing to go home and recover. We hope you did not over do. You did do an outstanding job!

Thanks for the great mentoring George. We have another good meet director. Thanks too George for all of your support along with Donna at the meet. We also appreciate all contributed as volunteers. We could not do it without you!

Of course to all of our "guests" we are glad you joined us. Thanks to all of you for all you do to support our club,

Bob Domine
GAOC President

The Middle Georgia Mountain Bike Festival - Kevin Haywood

The Middle Georgia Mountain Bike Festival included an event that is very popular in Europe and Australia, mountain bike orienteering. Participants chose either an advanced course with 14 control points, or an intermediate course with 7 control points. A detailed map showed the location of each control point, at which the racers would find a flag and a coded punch.

The first rider to locate all the flags shown on his map won a Thomson seat post or stem to upgrade his bike ($80 value).

The short course had seven flags located along the trails. Competitors consulted the map to decide the fastest route to each control point. The advanced course required riders to find a place along the trail then leave their bike to run through the woods to each point.

The coded punches verified that each rider visited the required locations. Several short course participants punched controls on the long course! When they saw a flag through the woods, they went after it. Several riders were disqualified because of their error.

The first finisher was Debbie Blankenship who completed the "intermediate" course in 54 minutes. She won a Thomson seat post. On the advanced course, Alan Dolbeer came in with a time of 2 hours 25 minutes, but he missed control number six. Cal Till (OMBA president) completed the entire course in 2 hours 46 minutes. Team Slowspokes came in as a group, but without finding two flags. At this point we had no winner for the advanced course, so Team Slowspokes headed out again. They located the last two flags and finished with a total time of 3 hours 27 minutes. The team claimed the prize and drew straws among themselves to award the "winner".

At the end, everyone was comparing routes and techniques, showing off their bloody legs, and complaining about flat tires. But we all agreed that next year, we'd do it all again!

Kevin Haywood
Ocmulgee Mountain Bike Association
Georgia Orienteering Club

Cochran Mill Night-O, Nov 1, 2003

Joey Ciza wrote - Thanks for the great night-o. Great food, weather, and orienteering. Not too much damage this time - one sprained thumb, a few bruises and lots of briar scratches and one lost pair of reading glasses. Hope to see everyone again soon.

Joey, Vulcan Orienteering Club

*****
Bill Farrell wrote:

Martha directed another "perfect" event! The weather was too good... warm, sunny (until dark) and clear until the mist started to roll in... set aglow by the half-moon. Martha and I met the Nehers before noon and they started cooking. Martha and I hung the controls while they cooked and cooked and cooked. This year, Martha elected to offer only a night run... so no peaking was allowed.

Folks began to arrive about 4... brought their food and we were ready for phase 1 -- GOOD EATS!

Excited runners were after me to start before dark -- No chance of that... so, about Dark-30, the first brave souls headed out. I set a Fun loop and a Short and Long loop. We had three spectator controls, so we got to see all those smiling faces. There were "Vampires" out there and if you "got bit", you had to return to your last control and punch it again! Some "clever" folks double punched them all to cover themselves -- lucky we are an easy going group!

The Advanced courses began easy and got progressively harder. At least this year I had a few finishers... but it was fun!

I wish to give a big THANKS to the helpers:
Sam Smith : Registration
Frank Campbell: Results
Charlie Siller: Control pick-up
The Nehers: Great Cooking
Martha Carr: The Boss of us

Thanks, Bill.

*****

Sam Smith wrote: Daniel asked for my splits for the first 10 - here they are:

5:37 - map copy and #1
1:49 - #2
1:50 - #3
3:18 - #4
6:02 - #5 - wasted quite a bit of time here too far up the reentrant. I had to wait for Daniel to catch up and show me where it was.
2:20 - #6
3:08 - #7
4:01 - #8
3:39 - #9
4:28 - #10
36:12 at control #10

The rest of it was the fun part... I did cross the creek after 15 so I could "run" on the horse trail over there, then crossed back later to get 16. A lot of people seemed to have trouble with 16, but it was off the only horse trail that went uphill out of the flat. Find that trail and you could find the control.

Of course I have an advantage since I made the map. Bob - next year night-o on the new Sweetwater Flats map? A whole new swamp to get lost in...

*****

Bob Domine wrote:

Martha and Bill did an outstanding job hosting our annual Night-O event Saturday night! I arrived a little late from trying to get one more thing in before I left and missed greeting all in the daylight.

Fortunately there was food left and I thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful Dutch Oven cooking so generously hosted by the Neher family. Everything was delicious and I ate enough beans to give me gas enough to complete the course. Well, almost . . .

The weather was most perfect for a night O. Dry, relatively warm and just a nice night to be in the woods. I really liked that the courses kept us close in for the first 10 controls crisscrossing back across the start field. Though relatively easy, I was successful at missing the controls enough to stretch out my time and distance. It is not the same in the dark.

Then to #11. I chose to go straight across the swamp. It was dry for the most part and quite crossable most of the way, but finding the edge of the swamp on the far side -- where the control was -- was tricky. After a search in the area that turned out to be nearly right, I headed north toward the creek. 

In a few moments I ran into Rob Stanek, who was headed away from where I had just been. A few moments later we found the control.

Rob darted off in a different direction and I headed for #12. Thinking I might beat him, I was surprised that I did not see him at all when I arrived in the #12 area. After I found it, I checked my time and realized just how long I had been out!

I was pretty wiped out by the time I made it back to camp. Thanks to those who waited :-)

Again it was a classic. Thanks to Martha, Bill, Gary, Cathy and all who supported.