... the third member of the team...
Organized by Central Ohio Adventure Racing (COAR), 3-hr and 6-hr foot orienteering in rogaine format in Salt Fork State Park, near Cambridge, OH. 20 controls were positioned in an extensive area of the park, each with points ranging from 30 (easy) to 70 (difficult), for a total of 1000 points. Also, an unspecified number of control points would have information on a "mystery" control where participants would find Leprecaun Gold, and participants would have to decide whether to improvvise a "detour" and try finding the gold coin before other participants, or stick to their route plan. A gold coin find was rewarded with a cash prize and 50 bonus points. At the end of race, it was disclosed that there were four "mystery" control points with gold coin, of which three were searched for and found. The fourth one was not attempted by anyone, probably with the assumption that it already had been found. About 97 participants showed up. Weather was great, no muddy trails. Great control locations. Map was a National Geographic copy, similar to USGS 1:24000. Solo participants were allowed to participate (most rogaines prohibit that for safety reasons). Winning team found 19 out of 20 controls for a total of 970 points, leaving the easiest one for last, and running out of time, left that out. Participants came from Columbus, Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown, Marietta, Cincinnati, Weirton, Pittsburgh. Great event production, organization, control locations, good map in plastic protective sheet. Everyone had great fun. The only con is that pre-registered teams only got one map per team: apparently the organizer felt that to allow last-minute sign-ups should be able to get a map, but at the expense of those team members that pre-registered weeks in advance. This actually became a problem where a team member could not correct the navigational decisions of the team member holding the ONE map (so what was the advantage of being in a team, then ? might as well split the team into a bunch of individual solo competitors, and each would have gotten a map...)
Winning team route (bit of a guess on parts of it...) 37.5 km, with no mistakes, 970 points
Route of Rubber & Steeler, aka Robbers & Stealers 37.2 km with mistakes and gold coin detour, 860 points
photo album
rules
control descriptions
north west quadrant of the map
north east quadrant of the map
south west quadrant of the map
south east quadrant of the map
by comparing the 2008 and 2009 events, the 2008 was more navigational. In the 2009 event, only CP 19 seemed to present a navigational challenge, and the Gold Coin CP from CP 18, and the Gold Coin CP from CP 15.
In the 2008 map, CP 14 is difficult to find since there are several spurs that one could follow thinking it being the right spur, yet it may be on any of the parallel ones, and coming from the top flats on the west, it is difficult to judge which spur to follow. CP 3 seems difficult for the same reason. One could follow the reentrant on the east of where the control is.
2008 map
2008 map - north west corner
2008 map - north east corner
2008 map - south west corner
2008 map - south east corner
2008 map - southern side
A first-rate resort conference center, with dining facitilies, swimming pool, retail shopping, fireplace. In this rogaine there were no water drops, with the lodge being the only place in the park with drinking water available. We walked in to the second floor entrance, six waitresses saw us muddy and in a sorry state and listened as we said "we are doing an adventure race. Can we fill our water bottles", at which, instantly, they all pointed us to the water fountain. We sure made a scene.
Our first serious mistake. Instead of taking the second creek upstream, we took the first. Both of them had a pond (aerial view shows it, circled in yellow) but on the topo map only the second shows a pond. Should have believed the map was accurate in showing the road as paved.
Costly mistake in reaching the dirt road from the creek below, and going to the left, uphill, instead of to the right, downhill. Only when we intersected with the paved road we realized the mistake. Should have seen that the control was a creek bed and thus chosen to go downhill once on the dirt road.
Small mistake, but winning team that was following us was able to come ahead. We chose to attack from above, but had to loop around a reentrant. Faster would have been to go directly either from below near the marsh clearing or from the woodsy side.
Small mistake, but winning team that was following us was able to come ahead. We were following another competitor, and mentally lost focus and did not check the map. For some reason, believed the control was on the spur facing the lake, and not the reentrant. Should have cut off from the road well before the lake, and bushwacked through the small saddle area and into the reentrant from above.
Serious mistake but fortunately did not cost us much: mistaken the hill with the control and instead targeted the hill above the Stone House Museum. After reaching the hilltop and not finding the control, we realized from seeing the protuding peninsula on the north shore of the lake (yellow lines) that we were on the wrong hill. We eventually reached the correct hill from running on a nearby paved road.
Mystery checkpoint as indicated in the mini-map found at CP 18. Location was a spur. Best approach was to follow the flat road going north, then across the paved road, use the large flat ridge as attackpoint and reach the mini spur from above.
The gold coin in the mistery checkpoint as indicated from the mini-map found at CP 15 was never attempted to be found.
CP 3, hilltop
CP 6, Waterfall/Cave
CP 5, Reentrant near water
on the north shore of the park there is a known large cavern
No comments:
Post a Comment