Bear Wallow
September 14, 2025
Course Setter:
Annie Martin and Alan Craig
Meet Director:
Cristina Luis
Photo Credit:
Ludwig Hill
Clouds blanketed the Santa Catalina Mountains this morning as Tucson orienteers arrived for their annual pilgrimage to Bear Wallow. First time course setter Annie Martin (mentored by Alan Craig) designed three courses: Beginner, Short Advanced, and Long Advanced. The Beginner course was well received by, among others, a small horde of youngsters, seemingly oblivious to the fact that it is supposed to be hard to go uphill at 8000'. The advanced course runners also returned with a smile, especially as the courses offered lots of opportunities to take a more runnable "around" route choice to avoid (some of) the brutal steep hills. And there were some amazing views below the towers on Mt Bigelow!
Fastest on the Beginner and Short Advanced courses was newcomer Bill Shuster, who joined us all the way from Silver City, NM. Fastest on the Long Advanced course was Cristina Luis, followed closely by Isaac Pimienta and Hana Myers.
Thanks to Annie and Alan for not only setting courses and putting out all the controls, but also covering much of registration, start, and finish. Heather McLean and Betsy Lubis also took shifts on registration and start. Cristina taught the beginner clinic. Melissa Trout was the registrar and Lukas Luis sold homemade Lime-aid. Joe Plassmann, too injured to go out on a course, nonetheless retrieved several controls. Also helping out with control retrieval were Matthias Mahoney, Nicole Traicoff, Sasha Savine, Isaac Pimienta, Cristina, and Alan.
Photos by Yvonne Poe and Annie Martin:
Results
Short Advanced 2.9 km, 165 m, 7 Controls
1 .. William Shuster ....... TSN .. 77:23
2 .. KrisAnn Traicoff ...... TSN .. 96:34 . +19:11
3 .. Nicole Traicoff ....... TSN .. 97:51 . +20:28
4 .. Matthias Mahoney ..... None .. 98:12 . +20:49
5 .. Gwen Woods ............ TSN .. 98:21 . +20:58
6 .. Stephan Bans .......... TSN .. 99:01 . +21:38
7 .. Donald Traicoff ....... TSN .. 99:24 . +22:01
8 .. Susan Wenberg ......... TSN . 109:10 . +31:47
9 .. Jeff Rockow ........... TSN . 113:28 . +36:05
10 . Telia Curtis .......... TSN . 134:51 . +57:28
11 . David Edmeades ........ TSN . 149:32 . +72:09
12 . Michelle Edwards ...... TSN . 150:13 . +72:50
13 . Tim Davis ............. TSN .... 6/7 . 117:23
14 . Gregg Townsend ........ TSN .... 6/7 . 119:18
15 . Carlos Fernandez Rod . None .... 5/7 . 201:37
.... John Campbell ......... TSN .... REC
.... GeeGee Larrington ..... TSN .... REC
Beginner 1.5 km, 90 m, 7 Controls
1 . William Shuster . TSN . 26:33
2 . Robert Demers .. None . 44:01 . +17:28
3 . Heather McLean .. TSN . 45:25 . +18:52
4 . Betsy Lubis ..... TSN . 66:15 . +39:42
5 . Kseniia and Leo . TSN . 66:59 . +40:26
6 . Kaia Scott ..... None . 71:57 . +45:24
7 . Remy Scott ..... None . 72:37 . +46:04
8 . Brent Nebeker .. None . 75:53 . +49:20
9 . Kelly O'Brien .. None . 80:33 . +54:00
Long Advanced 4.8 km, 410 m, 12 Controls
1 . Cristina Luis .... TSN .. 87:49
2 . Isaac Pimienta ... TSN .. 92:21 . +4:32
3 . Hana Myers ....... TSN .. 94:39 . +6:50
4 . Billie Braimah ... TSN . 117:45 . +29:56
5 . Alan Cole ....... None . 134:05 . +46:16
6 . Team Tubac ....... TSN . 150:30 . +62:41
7 . Alexandre Savine . TSN . 159:21 . +71:32
8 . Jeff Brodsky ..... TSN . 169:38 . +81:49
9 . Nikolay Golubev . None .. 10/12 . 212:55