Huckleberry Hillside Hunt, our two day O meet this year in McCall's Bear Basin, greeted the orienteers with a heady mix of woody terrain and diverse weather. Saturday was hot and sunny; Sunday overcast and pleasant after a good storm the evening before. Courses were designed by Karin Didisse (mostly Saturday) and Jeff Black (mostly Sunday), creating two days of slightly different course flavors and distances.

On the White courses, Masha Velichko (age 9) and Elijah Hill (age 7) tackled the open terrain and forest roads with the gusto of youth, hardly requiring any encouragement once one was in sight of the other. Given Masha's depth of experience, she took the honors this time, but put Elijah on a mountain bike and the story could be remarkably close next time…

The Yellow course, although the same for both days, served as a introductory bridge for newcomers to the sport with a bit more off trail work and distance than the White. Dondi Dawley remembered old compass skills quickly, while Dee Verti and Kara Jasper took some extra time learning the terrain and still finishing with smiles on their faces.

Orange, although a bit tricky in places and offering plenty of off trail route challenge, interested lots of new and old faces eager to try their hand. Dee Verti and Kara Jasper started the next level up on Sunday independently and then teamed up near the end to join forces on the last couple controls, ending up with a comparable time to their intro on Yellow. Dondi Dawley found the Sunday course straightforward and blitzed through the finish at a quick run to just beat out Bob Didisse, who earned 2nd place for his combined coursework/speedhiking skills from both days of Orange. (To qualify for a place, both days needed to be done at the same level.) Doug Mastaler, persistent McCall local who kept pounding away on Orange, had a rough DNF on the first day but acquired sweet redemption and a solid time on day 2 (as well as a translated Russian t-shirt from the Velichko's and Ritzenthalers.) Speaking of the Ritzenthaler's, Dave tried his hand on Day 1 Orange and clearly enjoyed the uphill finish, while then providing moral and fashion support for Kristin on Sunday. Karin Didisse, co-meet director, craved a bit of exercise. While not officially running given her foreknowledge of the course, she got a mighty fine run in on Sunday. Brad Lowe, a first timer (and fishing buddy of Bill Leahy) but with oodles of woodsman experience and calm, took both Oranges after cautious urging by the meet directors. He completed them easily and is more than ready for Red, but his near flawless execution garnered him third place overall. First place was snatched up by veteran Kristin Ritzenthaler, who played her hand conservatively in prep for child #2, but found the relatively open terrain exhilerating and improved on her time from Saturday even without Dave on her heels.

For all the eager advanced participants from the city, Red proved the perfect antidote to the call of the wild with greater distance, more technical controls, and strongly encouraged off trail routing. Andy Hill, father of the mountain biker Elijah, leveraged his decades of carefully honed experience in both running and mapping to steal first place. Although the heat on Saturday was often brutal, it apparently wasn't quite enough to let relative newcomer Bill Pilcher sneak up on him, even after Bill markedly improved his time on Sunday's longer and more technical course. Companions of Bill (no relation to the former president) lost a bet and hence showed up from the distance calling of Texas orienteering crowds to lend some out of state competition to the mix. Russ and Jason Pilcher, after a solid first day showing, found Sunday's course a bit more interesting and hence took third and fourth respectively. Bill Leahy, who is coming up to speed rapidly after his Crown Point excursion and O training from Sergey, turned in a solid performance. Although looking a bit gloomy after a few "learning opportunities" on Sunday's more distant controls, he came around to realize that he actually had several really good controls…and would be ready to beat Doug and the Aeros any time they came out to the "real woods". Especially after he rests up in his new RV, of which CTOC gratefully acknowledges liberal awning use in Saturday evening's storm. Dan and Matt Herring, the club's long distance father-son team with more than a few adventure races under their belt now, were close on Bill's heels until grappling with a friendly boulder control, in a maze of twisty little clearings, all alike…future courses await their new found expertise…

The Blue course, being the longest and most technically advanced, only garnered two competitors. Sergey Velichko, with a now intimidating and impressive ranking of 13th worldwide after his Italy competition, took a solid winning time on both days although at least looked good and sweaty for it. His experience turned out to provide the quicker route choice on the Blue1 long leg from 4 to 5 relative to his competition - co-meet director Jeff Black (who can truthfully claim he did not place any of the Blue controls from day 1.) But Jeff managed to pull off a much improved time relative to past Red's and is looking forward to trying his hand on future Blue's.

More pictures are available from Karin's camera:

Karin's HHH2004 Album (sorry page currently experiencing problems)

(Jeff will have some on his website shortly.)

Final numbers: (Day 1 time, Day 2 time, Cumulative Time) (Note: DNS=Did not start, DNF=Did not finish, or missed a control)



Extra thanks go to everyone who helped pick up controls and provided donations to help cover our costs for the forest service permit. A meet of this complexity requires considerably more work and all of you helped make it much easier…and worthwhile.

Your meet directors,

Karin Didisse
Jeff Black

We'll see you next month back in Boise!

Next meet: Aug. 28 at Stewart Gulch (west)