Hot sun and mercilessly blue skies over the Boise foothills converted the scenery of the last summer orienteering meet into surrealistic torturing chamber :) Brave ones converged behind the Hillside Junior-High School to take on the hilly courses zigzagging steep up and down hills of the Stewart Gulch. Not everyone was able to finish very difficult courses but I hope that you gained some experience and exercised your navigational skills.

Beginner's course proved to be just right and attracted most of the outdoor lovers. Experienced and newcomers braved the heat and hills. Linda and Lexy finished tanned but unfortunately missed one of the controls. Elijah once again had to push his handicapped dad on the course. Dondi showed beauties of the foothills to Sarah who tried orienteering first time. The doggy got some exercise as well. Masha in style blazed through the course. Time for our star to move onto intermediate courses! Scot, visiting from Tahoe, finished beginners course with best time and tried couple more advanced controls. All liked so much refreshing 8th control :)

For intermediate and advanced course takers I was glad to be able to arrange for cold showers right at the finish. Temperatures reached high 90s in the shade and well above 100 on the sun. One water control was probably not enough for those courses. Leone's group bravely fought the heat but unfortunately had to give up. Next time it should be much cooler in the shaded Julia Davis park! Karin in pursuit of Kristin pushed herself all the course and showed very good time on a very difficult course. Kristin (and baby) made it fast through the course so hungry daddy would not die while waiting for them.
And finally (but not the last) the greatest, the bravest, and most experienced ones who took on very difficult advanced course - all the hats go to you! You fought the heat and scorching hills and you won even if you didn't finish the whole course. Ken, Bill, Bill, and Jeff - you are real athletes!

Click on the image to get the map with intermediate and advanced courses and best routes between controls:
Click on image to get full map.

Best route for the advanced course has only about 320 m climb and most of the time on the trails. Always remember about 10:1 rule while selecting your routes! 
Beginner: 1.92K, 10 controls, 50 m 
Scot Garbet                    23:11 (+3 controls from advanced course)
Masha Velichko                 27:18
Dondi Dawley, Sarah Cimperman  36:08
Elijah & Andy Hill             46:51
Linda & Lexy Leahy             dnf (51:10 missed 1)

Intermediate: 5.2K, 16 controls, 400 m
1. Kristin Ritzenthaler        1:09:49
2. Karin Didisse               1:32:56
Joann Leone                    dnf

Advanced: 7.7K, 21 controls, 680 m
1. Jeff Black                  1:48:46
2. Bill Leahy                  2:31:00
3. Bill Pilcher                2:59:00
Ken Beckner                    dnf
See you all at our National Orienteering Day meet in Ann Morrison park next month.

Sergey Velichko

PS. For those of you who interested I collected all controls along the advanced course in 1:24 (with control untangling and dismantling accounting for about 10 minutes of the time). It was fun to run to the finish with my bag full of controls and hands full with stands :) Really good time should be about 1:10 for the advanced course.