But, wow, did Jonathan Linforth locate a beautiful new staging area, or what?
A pine needle carpeted clearing north of aptly named Mud Pond was a perfect spot to idle away the hours wondering whether tropical storm Edouard would or would not drench us all.
In the end, we enjoyed a sunny day free of rain with a bit of breeze now & then to temper the otherwise 90F temperatures and rather high, even for FL, humidity.
No head count yet, but it looked like 150 or so.
For those of you who didn't make it, you missed being challenged in every orienteering way, except climb, of course. Jonathan had promised long, and difficult, courses, to take full advantage of the new staging area, making the whole affair seem like introducing a brand new map.
As I write this only 24 hours after I finished, the course design compliments have already begun. I really enjoyed my red course run and will add my congratulations to Jonathan for terrific and creative designs. I love to see controls placed on little thickets located just up over the rise. I also love writing about there being, traditionally, two extremes as to how to end an advanced course: either present the tired brain-faded competitor with a series of pin-point controls in intricate areas, or test their physical stamina by giving them a long penultimate leg. Jonathan set long penultimate legs in his last event at Shockley Ranch in the Spring but he managed to outdo himself at this event. Think about this: the red course next-to last control was a 1200 meter run from the GO control! And it didn't matter which way you went around Mud Pond to do it - same distance either way. Cruel? Yes!
Then there was that 1600 meter leg to the first Green control! (I'm running out of exclamation points.)
There were some problems people had with the map, I know. Nothing is wrong, I think. It's just that unmapped things are out there that look so much like things that are mapped. And the green areas and light green vegetation sort of comes and goes with the seasons. It can all be very confusing, but isn't that what makes it fun?
The White, Yellow and Orange courses were nicely populated and I heard good comments all around. The Orange was one of the toughest I've seen, but I felt quite fair. I'm waiting to see how many DNF's.
Some folks chose to 'move up' to Green this day, despite our warnings, so it was a great relief to be able to congratulate them later when they finished successfully.
All courses passed by multiple red-cockaded woodpecker trees this day. If you recall seeing mysterious white-banded pine trees, and wondering why they would paint them that way, now you know. If you spotted any woodpeckers, let us know.
Three JROTC units turned out, getting an early start on the fall season: Winter Park, Oviedo and Titusville. They're training for both the Florida JROTC Champs in December and the US Interscholastics Championships January 18-19, 2003 hosted by Georgia Orienteering in Atlanta.
I had written in earlier invitations to this event that the underbrush is not worth mentioning. It apparently heard me. It rose up to gnaw on my legs rather often. I will not be so cavalier in the future. I will, also, not wear track spikes in the future, which show a nasty habit of catching on all the low-growing greenbrier. In another invitation I'd mentioned how little water was on this map, forgetting about Mud Pond. The last 200 meters to the GO control went right through what is mapped as seasonal marsh - guess which season it was. I thought I could follow a vehicle track but gave up at the knee-deep point. Am I complaining? No. Merely observing.
If Jonathan reports later, he will note all the proper Thank You's to helpers, but I saw Janet Putnam, Dave Ousley, Bev Ousley and Russ Steinke helping out as usual and Arild Orsleie, the Orcutts and Joe Maliszewski preparing to retrieve controls.
Great Kick-Off to the Fall Season.
Bob Putnam
| Name | Time |
| Winter Park NJROTC-2 (2) | 14:20 |
| Winter Park NJROTC-3 (2) | 15:00 |
| Geary | 16:25 |
| Nestlebush | 19:57 |
| Winter Park NJROTC-1(2) | 20:20 |
| Hugoboom | 21:57 |
| Schmict | 23:45 |
| Cynthia Stumpf | 29:45 |
| Liz Keglor | 55:27 |
| Name | Time |
| Andria Gallier | 44:30 |
| Titusville NJROTC-1 (3) | 47:32 |
| Titusville NJROTC-3 (3) | 57:20 |
| Oviedo NJROTC-2 (4) | 57:20 |
| Oviedo NJROTC-1 (3) | 59:30 |
| Karen Charay (2) | 63:30 |
| Sunshine 4-H #2 (4) | 71:30 |
| William Guinn (4) | 76:40 |
| Titusville-2 (4) | 98:57 |
| Michele Morse | DNF |
| Name | Time |
| Jonny Gallier | 64:15 |
| Richard Gallier | 69:23 |
| Walenty Prytulo | 70:10 |
| Oviedo NJROTC-3 (2) | 84:45 |
| Cheryl Flynn/Laura Metallo (2) | 86:48 |
| Stumpf | 88:32 |
| Mike & Marilu Dempsey (2) | 90:55 |
| Dion/Kara Santi (2) | 92:03 |
| Rick Holley | 97:38 |
| Will Gallier | 97:55 |
| Jane Gallier | 112:30 |
| Dave Kyle & Kara Deschenes (2) | 122:20 |
| Delinda Karnehm | 155:30 |
| Karan Pardy & Brian Luther (2) | 168:25 |
| The Smith Family (4) | 187:40 |
| Gregg Schwieterman & Liz Ray (2) | 195:20 |
| John & Karen (2) | 223:02 |
| "Lita & Kim Heim, A. Jonson (3) | 250:02 |
| Name | Time |
| Glen & Andrea Holman (2) | 79:30 |
| Melanie Stowell (2) | 119:15 |
| Sunshine 4-H #1 (4) | 138:10 |
| Jeff Simons | 191:33 |
| Tim & Susan Orcutt | 195:15 |
| Elsie Turner & David Mathews (2) | DNF |
| Russ Steinke | DNF |
| Rick Holley | DNF |
| Gordy Hawkins (2) | DNF |
| Derek Bohn & Kimberly Durgan (2) | DNF |
| Name | Time |
| Bob Putnam | 64:19 |
| Archie Katz | 79:50 |
| Arlid Orsleie | 97:30 |
| Ron Eaglin (2) | 107:00 |
| Nigel Gallier | 112:40 |
| Chris Johnson & John Roberson (2) | 135:30 |
| Joe Maliszerski | 136:10 |
| Beverly Ousley | 141:52 |
| Rick Orcutt | 169:59 |
| Lewis Bennett (2) | 181:17 |
| Ken Miller | 191:43 |
| Jon Crowley | DNF |
| David Crane (2) | DNF |
| Virginia Stratton | DNF |
| DNF | Did Not Finish |