SOUTHERN
		MICHIGAN
			ORIENTEERING
				CLUB

Meet location: Highland Park dog-trial area

Date: November 7, 2009

Director: Rick Waldo

Thirty-six orienteers in twenty-two teams turned out for the first-ever event staged out of the Dodge #10 site in the Highland Recreation Area. This site is on Pettibone Lake in Milford Township at the extreme west side of the park. The dog field-trial area covers a little more than a square mile just across Pettibone Lake Road to the east. Most of the controls were in this dog-trial area. The topography is very subtle requiring careful navigation, especially at night. I placed 31 controls (197 possible points) with an estimated course-clearing straight line distance of 8 kilometers.

The weather was pretty much perfect for November, or any other time of the year for that matter. It was about 60°F at the start with a very light wind. It was low humidity, there were no bugs, and there were no leaves on the trees for good forest visibility. The skies were clear, the stars were out, and Jupiter was a directional beacon high in the sky at due south at the 6pm start.

Carl Arevang absolutely smoked the course, clearing all 31 controls in 96 minutes for the win. Matt Ross was the second solo finisher, just steps ahead of the first team of Paul Piorkowski and Greg Gibbard, both in 2:07. Matt and Paul and Greg also cleared the course. Mark Voit was fourth, missing only one control. He was hampered by a muddied, shredded map, the result of a fall in a marsh, and a headlamp that will soon be found in the trashcan. I was particularly impressed by the performance of the team of Wyatt Hazlett and his young son Drew. Bill Scanlan and Gary Harrington tied for the win in the 90-minute category. Anas Orfali intended to compete in the 90-minute category, but a miscalculation in the final run-in put him just over the limit into the 3-hour category. (If you finished under 90 minutes, you were in the 90-minute category; over 90 minutes, you were in the 3-hour category.)

After the event, a number of orienteers stayed around for a long bull session and camaraderie. It was quite a night for orienteering.

A big thanks goes to my control pickup team of Brian Ross, Matt Ross, Dennis Elston, Nick Irish (and his friend John), and Paul Piorkowski. Brian Ross picked up his 7 control grouping later on that same night.

A big thank you also to Gary Harrington and Greg Gibbard who helped out at the start, and pretty much all of the above who helped me pack up everything into my truck. See you next year!

Results:

SMOC home page

Modified November 10, 2009, by Robert Messer.