Tour de Bear Basin Saturday, August 13, 2005 Yea, they came for all corners of the globe, those intrepid navigators of the forest. Near the sleepy former mining town of Idaho City hundreds -- no -- thousands converged upon the woodland area known as Bear Run. OK, actually, meet attendance was very light, especially considering the wonderful venue, and the fact that it was only an hour from Boise. However, those who did make the trip were treated to a both a gorgeous day and a fun area. The map is a work-in-progress, with all trails and roads mapped, but all other features mapped well in the vicinity of the trails / roads, but incomplete otherwise. The dense road / trail network made this quite usable, however. There were two possible courses: a standard 6-control beginner's course, and a score course with no time limit, 18 possible controls, and all controls worth the same amount of points. As one of the goals of the meet was to see if the area was worth fully developing, controls were chosen to give everyone an overview of all the area had to offer. Elijah Hill took both first and last place on the Beginner's course, strolling in in a bit over 45 minutes. On the score course, Jeff Black made short work of the controls, taking a bit over 90 minutes to catch all 18, on a route that turned out to be about 8.4km as the crow flies. Bill Pilcher took the slow- and-steady approach to also bag all 18 controls in just a smidge under 3 hours. The Bergsets took different routes (at least part of the time), but both bagged 15 controls in almost the same amount of time. Dan Herring, taking his first run in the woods since his ankle break, managed a respectable dozen controls. At the bottom of the list, there were two distinct strategies used. Dondi Dawley took the "find the close and easy ones, then stroll back in" approach, while Matt Herring took the "Cover most of the map and head in when you run out of water" approach. Both strategies resulted in 8 controls, but Matt saw a lot more scenery. Since only Jeff and Dondi remembered to bring anything for the potluck, we adjourned to Trudy's Kitchen in nearby Idaho City for the after-meet chow. Good eats, and it actually had air conditioning (a rarity in Idaho City). Most folks agreed that the map deserved to be fully-developed (although Ole thought it should be flushed down the nearest commode). Be prepared for a full-scale map in this area in 2007. Karin Didisse came down from McCall on Sunday, and helped pick up controls while touring the map. Much obliged, Karin! The next meet will be the National Orienteering Day meet at Stewart Gulch West, September 17th. See you there! Andy Hill Final results: Beginner: 1.6km, 75m climb, 6 controls ----------------------------------------------- Elijah Hill 45:48 Score: 18 possible controls ------------------------------------------------------ Jeff Black 18 91:25 Bill Pilcher 18 179:00 Dave Bergset 15 147:05 Ole Bergset 15 149:10 Dan Herring 12 154:50 Dondi Dawley 8 61:00 Matt Herring 8 105:20