| Well-Fencing
Report - Sam Smith
Laurie Searle, Ron Tansill, Bill Farrell,
Robin & Steve Shannonhouse and I gathered at Sweetwater
Creek State Park on Saturday to fence off the last remaining
open well.
The park gave us huge
metal fence posts and chain link fence - not exactly the best
choice of materials. Five foot posts and light fencing would
have been enough to keep people from running into the well.
Anyway, we man-handled the supplies down there and erected a
fence. Our post-pounder was not big enough for the huge posts,
so we had to dig holes. We only went down 30 inches into the
rocky ground, which gave us all new appreciation for the well
diggers - how did they dig that hole?
Three quarters of the way around we ran out of chain link
fencing! We had to improvise with barbed wire and hog-fencing
from the old homestead. So it's not pretty, but it will do the
job. Now the map is out of date!
Green
Mountain A-Meet Trip Report - Robin Shannonhouse
Steve & I just returned from absolutely the best
A-meet we've been to in years. The Green Mountain Orienteering Club of
Vermont held it's first-ever A-meet on the farm of Vivien & Mike
Fritz.
Vivien was meet director, Mike was course setter. And
Mike had as his assistants 2 former U.S. WOC Team members, so you know
the courses were challenging and fun.
Open woods floored with ferns & moss, stone walls,
open fields, and an extremely complex trail system on as perfect a map
as I've ever seen.
Sat night dinner to die for (yummy chicken &
biscuit casserole & sweet potatoes, beans, salad, etc.).
HQ was Vivien & Mike's brand new 3-story barn that
has it's own inside golf driving range and a huge woodwork shop, Steve
was drooling.
Absolutely the smoothest meet crew, local high
schoolers selling bakery goodies, local hams doing split times, relay
announcer keeping you abreast of the competition, even the weather was
excellent.
Instead of meet t-shirts they had Vermont Turtle Fur
"Speedy Beanie" hats that were embroidered "Orienteering
Vermont".
Saturday was regular courses, Sunday was the U.S.
Relay Champs.
The GAOC Relay team consisted of Steve running the
opening leg, then I took off on the shortest leg, then Craig Pepin who
moved from Georgia to Vermont but kept his GAOC membership dazzled us
with a super-fast 3rd leg, then Chuck Ferguson anchored the team's 4th
leg. We never came close to the top finishers, but getting a full GAOC
Relay together in Vermont was a victory in and of itself and we had a
blast. Linda Ferguson couldn't run due to back problems, but cheered us
on. Also saw Daniel & Mark Pittman there, so GAOC was well
represented.
BTW, former Georgians Peggy Lipscomb and Craig Pepin
said to say "Hi" to everyone. They both live in Vermont now
and love it. I can definitely see why -- it's a beautiful state.
USOF also held it's Annual General Meeting at the
event and the USOF Board of Directors met also. The Board passed the
USOF Rules changes Laurie & Sam requested they consider for the
Interscholastics, so we're a "GO" on those. And USOF has
established a new College Development Committee chaired by Liz Kotowski
lizk@aics.net so that former high school orienteers who are interested
in getting clubs/teams started in their colleges could get advice and
help from USOF.
GNC'03
Registration is Officially Open - Laurie Searle & Guido
Nordmann
While the Georgia Navigator Cup is still over
four months away, 89 participants were first in line when
registration opened on September 15th.
With only 600 available slots for the Jan
18-20, 2003 weekend extravaganza, participants are encouraged to
register quickly to reserve a slot in the GA Navigator Cup or
Interscholastic Championship.
The GAOC website will keep a running total of
the available registration slots on the GNC Home page and the GNC Registration page.
Trip Report -
Guido Nordmann
I discovered a great new Orienteering area. Just imagine: The
clue sheet shows "bare rock", "boulder
field", "stony ground", etc. Suggested course
length is 19.6km (12.2mi), the climb is 974m (3,195 ft, first
down and then back up). Any ideas what I'm talking about? Yes,
the Grand Canyon National Park. It is such an awesome place!.
Hiking is a must and a great experience!
After "1,000 days" reports from our travelers, I
can add a "1,000+ miles" report from seeing 6
different National Parks in Utah and Arizona.
Arabia Mountain Photos
- Dainius
I got some pictures from Arabia Mountain!!!!! You can find
them at http://photos.yahoo.com/dainiuslt.
You might not have a chance to see a real picture size at Yahoo,
so if somebody wants to get any pictures of 1800x1200 pixels,
just mail me and I will send it for you. daimaci@merkys.ktu.lt
Arabia Mountain
Meet Report - Robb Stanek
And to think that Rick actually expected me to
do this in just about an hour, hah!
It was great to hit Arabia again, tons of
attack points for the controls, if I could just find the attack
points! Seems like I was always close, yet not quite there.
The rock was pretty slippery, so running was
more like a slow jog. Had a devil of a time with #2, for the
rest it was a matter of getting within shouting distance, then
trying to circle in to find the control. At least I managed to
avoid a plunge into the creek.
Lot's of fun and a great challenge. Can't wait till the
leaves are gone!
Arabia Mountain -Brian Goble
As my first pure orienteering event, I had a great time
also... even despite swimming a couple of times. Rob, you're
going to have to give me some pointers about how to avoid the
bodies of water.
Bryan Goble - Atlanta TrailBlazers Adventure Racing
Arabia
Mountain Meet Report - Kevin Haywood
Rick's meet was a complete success. The preprinted maps with
both courses and clues made this C-meet more like an A-meet.
It's good to be back at Arabia Mountain with it's unique
landscape and scenic beauty.
The Atlanta TrailBlazers showed us how to make your own
adventure race. One adventure is not enough. To turn an
orienteering event into an adventure race, start at a remote
location and ride your bike to the start triangle!
The recent rains added several new creeks to the map, and
added a waterfall to the scenic rocks of Arabia Mountain. The
clear water in the creek produced an optical illusion and we all
got a big surprise when the water came up to our waists!
Good job Rick. Kevin.
Arabia Mountain
Meet Report - Bill Farrell
Thank You Rick and helpers!!
Rick tickled my gray cells and my funny bone today. He gave
us a new look at an old friend -- Arabia Mountain! This is one
of my favorite parks and Rick did his best to confound and
confuse me -- I Loved It!
I started off, unbalanced by an "already printed
map"... just like an A meet. This luxury befuddled me so
much that I ran by the first control... dastardly hidden... in
plain site. Martha caught me from behind, so I ran away much
faster only to arrive at the second control after Martha. Now I
am really laughing at myself... and Martha was having a pretty
good laugh at me too! I was able to settle down to my more usual
-- minor mistake filled, snail's pace.
I was cheered up by our young friend from Lithuania, who had
been doing a little "walk-about" and reminded me how
old my bones are getting as he flashed by me. I had to smile
when, after an extreme effort not to dose off on the long leg, I
came up on Dainius running back and forth in the distance -- at
top speed! Now I was inching along, but got there in time to
encourage him that it was very close.... he gave me that
"but I have looked everywhere stare"! In complete
frustration he turned around again to see the control, right
where Rick had hung it -- in the middle of a small pond! We both
were laughing our heads off. Rick is developing a real Southern
humor! I understand a few others got a cooling off too -- What
Fun!
It was a joy to see our friend Mary Terry, the park ranger
and to see all the improvements since I was there last. She has
a nice "new" building and a new movie about the park,
to educate us about all that there is to see at Arabia.
I had great time seeing all my friends and running around...
plenty! It was another great day with GAOC! Bill.
Arabia Meet Report - Laurie Searle
I had a great time at Rick's Arabia Mt meet yesterday. I
finally got to meet his better half and adorable kids. He put
the whole lot of them to work and they did an excellent job
running registration.
I signed up as a volunteer and Rick put me to work giving
beginner instruction. It really helped having the first control
on the white course nearby. I used it in my instruction to
ensure each group could navigate to number 1, then understand
how to get to number 2. I think that increased everyone's
comfort level.
I provided additional instruction to two groups who had
completed the white course and wanted to learn to use their
compass on a yellow course. One group was practicing for an
adventure race, while the other group had an experienced
orienteer and a new comer.
The adventure racers started out with the misconception that
following a compass bearing "should" get you
"exactly" where they wanted to go. I told them about
Sam's explanation of exponential error in doing this. I
introduced them to pacing, map reading, attack points, and
aiming off, and by the time they were half way through the
course, both groups had improved drastically.
I really enjoyed going out with this group to provide
intermediate instruction. It gave me a chance to observe their
techniques and offer on-the-spot corrections. It also gave me
the chance to enjoy orienteering while working a volunteer job.
Arabia Mountain Meet Report - Bob
Domine
Yes, it was fun. Though we had a wet night, the rain was nice
to us during the entire meet in that it held off. Rick put out
some very interesting courses. I thought that I knew that park,
but found myself bobbling on several controls. On #3, I really
fumbled around and it cost my first place to Bill Farrell of all
people. :-)
Mary Terry graciously welcomed us and I believe we will have
opportunity at Arabia for many years to come. Arabia is a fun
and unique park. I really enjoyed the new video of the park too.
Thanks again Rick for a great meet and thanks from us also
for the great volunteer support. We couldn't do it without
you.
Thanks to all of you for all you do to support our club. -
Bob.
Orienteering
Community Mourns the loss of Al Smith - Laurie Searle
The Orienteering community mourns the loss of
Al Smith, long-time orienteer and partner to Edie Smith in life
and their business, A&E Orienteering.
Edie Smith wrote: Al passed peacefully
yesterday evening, 17 SEP.
Visitation & memorial service location:
Bopp Chapel
10610 Manchester Road
Kirkwood, MO
(314) 965-7680
Visitation from 2-5 pm (open to all), Memorial Service
at 5:15 pm (open to all)
Private burial on Monday (family only)
Remembrance donations may be sent to The Al Smith Memorial
Fund to support Scouting and Youth Orienteering (fund is
currently being formed by Laura & Chuck Kaiser and Mark
& Peggy Earley), c/o A&E Orienteering, 74 Decorah Drive,
Creve Coeur, MO 63146 or to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society,
P.O. Box 9031, Pittsfield MA 01202. Al's obituary will be
printed in tomorrow's St. Louis newspaper.
Martha Carr provided Al's obituary from the Internet:
SMITH, ALAN THEODORE, at peace, on Wed., Sept. 18, 2002; beloved husband of Edie Smith (nee Dorrance); dear father of Karen (Edward) Robinson of Sandpoint, ID, Dale (Deana) Smith of Baldwin, KS and Laura (Charles) Kaiser of Chesterfield, MO; dear grandfather of 7; dear brother of Howard P. (Margaret) Smith of Freemont, CA and Gordon S. (Renee) Smith of Livermore, CA; dear brother-in-law of Richard T. (Terry) Dorrance; dear uncle, cousin and friend to many. Visitation on Sat., Sept. 21 from 2 p.m. until time of service at 5:15 p.m., at BOPP Chapel, 10610 Manchester Rd., Kirkwood. Interment private. In lieu of flowers, memorials preferred to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, P.O. Box 9031, Pittsfield, MA
01202-9031. (Pub. 09/20/2002)
First-timer
has a Good Time - Dr. Dennis Young
A quick note to thank you for your kind
attention to our e-mail concerning orienteering. My family and I
went to our 1st meet in Pine Mountain this Sept. 8th. I was
greatly surprised to see ALL of the people and especially the
young kids.
We had a marvelous time and even though my wife and I aren't
youngsters anymore we still managed to complete both the white
and yellow course.
You will be receiving our family membership before long. My
only regret is not knowing about this sport years ago.
Thx again for a great time.
Dr. Dennis Young and family.
Pre-printed
Maps at Local Meets - Sam Smith
Get me your courses and course descriptions a
week in advance and I will preprint the maps. No need for map
copying. Send me map updates - well in advance - and I will make
the changes. Getting maps for your meet is your responsibility.
I prefer to leave the maps in the GAOC clubhouse - you can get
them when you pick up supplies.
Don'ts
Don't wait till the last minute to contact me.
Don't assume I know what you need.
Don't rely entirely on email - call me.
Don't assume I can bring the maps to the meet - I may have other
plans.
GAOC
Website Gets Updated - Laurie
Searle
A permanent domain name, more
file space, and a fresh new look are just a few of the changes
we've implemented in the GAOC website this month. We're also
moving the monthly newsletter online in order to provide more
timely news.
What else is new? You can now
order GAOC orienteering maps online. Once we get the kinks
worked out, we'll send our link to the DNR and Parks &
Recreation so they can inform the public about our
resource.
We'll also do some experimenting
with online registration, now that our website is on a server
that supports added features. If anyone else has some additional
ideas or comments, contact Laurie
Searle.
Well
Fencing Party at Sweetwater - Sam Smith
We have gotten permission from Vince Taylor to fence the last
well at Sweetwater. This one is probably the most dangerous of
them all, but is in an area we almost never visit - except for
next January's A meet, when several courses will run right by
it.
Vince will supply posts and fence material. We will supply
tools and labor. It is located in an easy spot to drive
"close" to, although we should car pool since it's
behind a locked gate.
We'll meet on September 28 at 9 a.m at the new park office
near the parking loop. Bring work gloves and some tools.
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