Catalina State Park

by Pat Penn

The weather was perfect for our meet at scenic Catalina State Park, sunny, no wind, and cool temps. Since this was National Orienteering day, we promoted the event more than usual and had the biggest turnout since the A meet at Kentucky camp over a year ago. There were 43 individual and 11 team registrants, with 83 entries in the timing log. Many people were having so much fun they went out on 2 or three courses. Two scout teams were there earning badges and two large family groups, the Rickels from the Tucson club, and the Shahbazians from Chicago. We also had a few other competitors from out of town.

John Pascal, again this year set nice courses (we hope it is a tradition now!), vetted by Cristina Luis, on a map updated by Ludwig Hill – a big thanks to them and the following volunteers. The group that called and emailed members we had not seen in a while to remind them of this event was Peg Davis (who also ran the beginners clinic), GeeGee Larrington, Ludwig Hill, Cristina Luis, John Maier, Yvonne Poe and Max Suter. Some of these folks plus others, such as Jim Stamm, also posted fliers announcing the meet and National Orienteering Day. Control retrievers included John Maier, Ludwig Hill, Jaxon Rickel, Margrit McIntosh, Judy and Troop 5565, and Rich Parker. We appreciate everyone being patient and organized with registration and start timing as we dealt with the large crowd. We had fun too!

Congratulations to our winners:

White: Jonathan Rickel (1M), Megan Reiter (1F), Team Tool (1T)

Yellow: Jodi Rickel (1F), Robert Shahbazian (1M), Boyd & Roth (1T)

Orange: Art Cantrell (1M), Kay Mathiesen (1F)*, Team Phillips (1T)

Green: Jaxon Rickel (1M), Claudia Rickel (1F)

Red: Mark Everett (1M), Peg Davis (1F)

Motala: Charlie Shahbazian (1M)

*corrected GeeGee Larrington's time 11/20/09; Kay Mathieson 1F on Orange

Note:  All courses have now been posted to RouteGadget. 

White (1.77 km, 5m climb, 8 controls)

Yellow (2.85 km, 70m climb, 9 controls)

Orange (3.56 km, 135m climb, 7 controls)

Green (4.75 km, 110m climb, 10 controls)

Red (5.74 km, 160m climb, 10 controls)

Motala: Yellow + Orange + Red

(12.15 km, 365m climb, 26 controls)