Highland State Recreation Area

April 24, 2005

Meet Director - Dennis Elston

Thanks to: Bill & Diane Dutton, Rick Waldo, Patrick Murad, and all others that I didn't see directly, especially the extra efforts of Rick and his wife for bringing out a Screen Tent to cover the Maps and registration to protect them from the heavily falling snow.

The date was set at the February SMOC Annual Membership Meeting; and the many hurdles placed in front of us were not enough to prevent an excellent day of participation.

Several e-mailed me to ask if inclement weather would postpone the Meet; all received the answer of: "Held rain or shine", except we didn't know until the day before that we could expect 8 to 10 inches of snow, and in the open area just outside the registration tent we had 10 inches of it. The near total whiteout created by 3-4 in. of snow on even the smallest of branches, made small twigs look like saplings, and created the appearance of "Fight Vegetation" of what were really open woods. And “Open and Runnable Trails” became almost “Indistinguishable Trails” caused by saplings bowing over by the weight of the snow. -- ALL very beautiful and extremely different, and an unexpected challenge to Orienteering, creating a terrain very unexpected to us.

Still, there were 44 sign-ins on the Registration Log Sheet, ( 50+ Orienteers), which didn't include the Volunteers, Rick, Myself, or the Dutton’s, of whom a majority went out on the Orange and Red Courses, very logical, seeing as it is more likely for seasoned O'ers to show up, and desire the challenge of the more difficult Controls. Although we had been out marking control positions 2 weeks earlier, when I went out Sunday morning to place one on a Red course stream, I had placed it on 3 streams in the general area, but could not be sure as my Tags were buried under 3+ inches of snow, resulting in a misplaced control.

Results:

WHITE
1. Boy Scout Troop 120	2: 08
YELLOW
Boy Scout Troop 120	OE
Howard Robinson	OE
Matt Robinson	OE
ORANGE
1. Patrick Murad	1: 46: 00
2. Brian Halliwill	2: 49: 00
Boy Scout Troop 120	OE
Nick Irish	OE
Johnson Team - 3	OE
Bruce Murphy & Kevin Sweet	OE
Watters Performance Enhancement	OE
Chuck Newman	OE
Sonya & Tal Waldon	OE
GREEN
Mike Keating
RED
Al Newman
Alex Izzo
Scott Eveniagred
Tom Lee
Jeff Okray & Diane Hutchinson
Janos Svmeji	1: 42: 30
Sara William & Chuck Brenner	OE
Tony Moore & Randy Stinson	OE
Cooper Green	OE
John & Joan Walker	OE

OE = Over-enthusiastic Orienteers

(exceeded the 3-hour time limit)

A cross-country skier and his dog

View upon arrival –

Is this April?

Hey John Walker, there’s

briars out there, you know!