Delaware Valley Orienteering Association

Topic created by Orienteeringmom on Sun Aug 12, 2012 at 5:00 pm

Orienteeringmom
Num Posts: 163
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map: Green Lane NC
First O: 1993

A great big Thank You goes out to Ron Bortz for the best orienteering weekend ever.  It was so much fun and very relaxing as there was no rushing to make a start time, a meal , no anything.  It was a different type of orienteering than we are very used to these days; no e-punch, no pin punch, no start times or time limits on how long you can be out in the woods.  Some of us that camped started as early as 6:30 AM as they wanted to get all 155 controls in one day.  Congrats to Mike Carter for accomplishing this his goal.  Others, took their time and enjoyed the fun of being on a lake in a canoe or kayack looking for the controls and decided where on the map the control was hung.  Then you could decide which foot O controls you were going to do if any. Then there was Bike O which was quite challenging and fun so I heard.  The Night score O  ended up being the only event that was sorta timed as we couldn't start until dark and the park ranger wanted us out of the area by 10:30pm.  Those of us that camped enjoyed a community dinner on Saturday night before the night O and came back together after the night for some campfire fun.  Then on Sunday morning Steve, Sharon and Rick make a yummie breakfast of pancakes, sausage and fruit for some of us before doing a few more foot O controls and heading for home.

Those of us that camped would really like to see this event happen again next year but we can't expect Ron to do it again.  So we will need to come up with a group of us to get it done.  Something to think about until next year.

Thanks again Ron, you are the best! 

PS look for pictures to be posted as I saw at least one person with a camera snapping some great shots.!

Reply by DaveUrban on Sun Aug 12, 2012 at 5:35 pm

DaveUrban
Num Posts: 166
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map:
First O: 0

Kathy & I went up for a day - very nice concept of "no rules". I ran (walked) the night-o map during day-o. Thanks.

Reply by furlong47 on Sun Aug 12, 2012 at 6:03 pm

furlong47
Num Posts: 372
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map: Bucks County Community College
First O: 1994

You should be able to see my photos here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151073220274854.448972.509659853&type=3&l=2d1e9fa387

Reply by WindWalker on Sun Aug 12, 2012 at 6:52 pm

WindWalker
Num Posts: 164
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map:
First O: 2011

What a great time this weekend Orienteering at Frances Slocum Sate Park. The weekends events consisted of 154 controls placed on water and land. Foot, bike and canoe orienteering possibilities. Being the way I am I had set a goal from the start to find them all.

I found them all and pretty much only had two I missed and had to go back out and get after the canoe O. Here's some stats from my day on Saturday.

154 controls tagged
28.5 miles traveled
7:16 time moving
4,267' elevation gain

Started at 6:30 am and finished the night O at 10pm. It was a pretty busy day for me but had plenty of time to stop and refuel and enjoy the sites and sneaky controls. Below is a picture of the coolest one set way deep in a rocky pit, (small cave) you had to be on top of it to see it.

A big thank you to Ron Bortz for setting this up and doing an amazing job with it. Control placement was classic Ron and I loved it.

Pictures - http://www.shutterfly.com/lightbox/view.sfly?fid=103e109ea4b1072c9a16dcf07a6807f9

PS: I was goint to change my profile picture to a really cool orienteering picture, but alas the only photo our awesome camera person got was me stuffing a cupcake in my mouth. Maybe next time...

Reply by BobF on Mon Aug 13, 2012 at 8:12 pm

BobF
Num Posts: 20
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map: French Creek East
First O: 1997

I want to add my thanks to Ron for the fabulous event this weekend at Frances Slocum.  Carol and I really enjoyed the ability to set our own schedule and course selection as well as the ability to try different styles of orienteering all in one weekend.

We arrived late morning on Saturday, rented a 2-person kayak and spent a couple of hours doing the canoe-O together.  We only covered about half the distance around the lake, but we found all of the controls on that section and located most of them correctly on the map.  Enjoyed watching all the turtles sunning themselves on fallen branches in the lake.  The concept of a blank map and drawing in the control locations was very interesting, but I should have been more prepared before starting out.  After dropping my pen in the lake, I realized it might have been a good idea to bring a string and tie it around my neck.  The extra distance to go back to get another pen and the lack of back support in the rented kayak all led to us tiring out before we could circumnavigate the whole lake.  But no worries, it wasn't a competition.

We're not campers, so in the afternoon we checked into a local hotel and rested up for the Night-O.  We also did the night event together as a score-O.  In an effort to avoid following everyone else, we used some unique route choices, but we found most of the controls and enjoyed a beautiful evening outdoors.

Sunday morning we got up early in order to get out in the woods before anyone else.  We arrived at the park before the main gate was opened.  But no worries.  We had drawn our maps the day before and were able to park outside of the gate and start our chosen courses from a different location than originally planned..  This time we split up to do separate courses, but we each decided to do a 3 hour Score-O.  Carol got all of the controls in the middle section of the map including the ones up in the extreme North edge of the map.  She expecially liked the terrain out in that remote area.  I concentrated on bagging all of the controls on the East side of the lake and a few on the pennisula near the headquarters.  We were on our way back home before noon.

All in all it was a very satisfying weekend in the outdoors honing our skills in the "thinking sport"  Carol loved the non-competitive, low-key aspect of the weekend and I loved the training aspect of being able to locate lots of controls over a larger than normal area.  We didn't manage to visit all the controls, but we did bag about 90+ controls between the two of us over the two days.

Ron, I know you put a lot of work into setting this up, but want you to know that work was really appreciated by us.  Thanks a bunch.

Reply by bradleyhall on Mon Aug 13, 2012 at 8:53 pm

bradleyhall
Num Posts: 25
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map:
First O: 2009

Me and my 12 year old son attended as well.  This was an absolutely enjoyable and memorable event for us. Thanks Ron!  It was obviously a big effort on your part, but wanted to let you know how much we enjoyed the weekend.  

Reply by rgbortz on Tue Aug 14, 2012 at 10:30 am

rgbortz
Num Posts: 202
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map: Stuckey Pond
First O: 1986

The biggest thanks of all goes to everyone who came out, and those who tried really hard to get there, for your support. Many familiar faces and some totally new, including a whole family from Italy, my whole family, including best half Ali, three children and spouses and eight grandchildren were all very special to me.
There are more than enough stories to fill a whole Briar Patch, all happy, funny and just plain amusing.
One of the best things was seeing people come together for more than two or three or so hours on one day then be gone.
This is a family club and that is what made it so strong.
There was plenty opportunity at this type of event for relaxed fun AND for highly competetive running, if that was what you wanted.
Huge thanks to all that pitched in a little extra: Steve and Sharon for sharing food, orienteering supplies, campsite and all around help and support at headquarters; Porters for cooking for the gang and, as usual, general support with event activities; Petr, for hanging around headquarters and chatting and sharing his adventures in the woods, then staying late to help with control pickup; to my grandson, Anthony, for staying with me to finish control pickup on Monday.
This whole experience was great fun for me as well as you. We'll do it again !!!!!!!!

Ron

Reply by Petr on Thu Aug 16, 2012 at 7:38 pm

Petr
Num Posts: 37
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map:
First O: 0

Pictures I took are here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/theoldmanofthewoods/FrancisSlocum2012#

Reply by rgbortz on Fri Aug 17, 2012 at 8:36 am

rgbortz
Num Posts: 202
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map: Stuckey Pond
First O: 1986

Thanks Julie and Petr. Your pictures are really cool. They allow others to almost be there and experience the beautiful lake and woods and show the fun we can have with control placement when not being so serious.

Reply by Raustefano on Wed Aug 22, 2012 at 12:24 pm

Raustefano
Num Posts: 2
Primary Club: DVOA
Fav map: Frances Slocum
First O: 2004

Thank you very much Ron!