Hi all- well it was a challenging event up here in the hills next to Lake Cascade this weekend, and a few brave souls gave it a try. The "course" was modeled on adventure races with controls few and far between, and only an old USGS map to go by. There is an extensive network of dirt roads and ATV tracks that would have been very useful to navigate the steep terrain, unfortunately they were not mapped. My main trouble when putting out the controls was the scale, which at 1:24000 is 2.4 times the scale we're used to on orienteering maps. I kept wanting to put the control on a nearer similar feature, luckily the GPS would tell me when I was in the wrong place. The map only showed the large features, and some of that was even wrong; precise compass work was essential due to the short visibility and lack of contour detail. Despite these handicaps Sergey managed to find all 9 controls on a 12 km. course in 1:51. Ben Hipple was shooting for the southern two thirds of the controls in 2 hrs. and was doing well with all but one found, when he suffered an eye injury and bailed out with a ride back to the start in style thanks to a passing ATV'er. Bill Pilcher showed his fortitude and experience with USGS maps by getting all of them in (a slightly overtime) 3:22. Ken B., Doug L., and Bill L. did well on the first few- then met each other on the course while having trouble with the difficult fourth leg,and returned to the start within the 3 hr. time limit. Thanks to Bill Leahy who helped Sergey and I with control pickup and succeeded in getting a control he hadn't visited before. We all gained a new appreciation for good orienteering maps, with some liking and others disliking the terrain for future events. Hopefully I haven't spooked these guys from proper orienteering meets.

The next regular meet will be Sat. June 26 at Julia Davis Park, with Andy Hill as meet director.

Stay tuned for more info on the July (local style) 2- Day meet near McCall.

- Karin Didisse