Tahoe Weekend
Date: Aug. 23 - 24, 2014
Location: Lake Tahoe Area
Event Director: 
- 415.566.7990
Course Setters: Deron van Hoff, Nik Weber (GCO)
Type: B; Classic events for beginners through advanced—Saturday at Spooner Lake, Sunday at Burton Creek
Related Event Information
Event Announcement WinSplits – Spooner Lake (http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/show_event.asp?id=32522) WinSplits – Burton Creek (http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/show_event.asp?id=32559) RouteGadget – Introduction RouteGadget – Spooner Lake (http://baoc.org/gadget/cgi/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=342) RouteGadget – Burton Creek (http://baoc.org/gadget/cgi/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=343)
Event Write-Up
By
Thank you all for coming to the Tahoe Weekend of orienteering! "Thank you" to Nik Weber for setting great courses at Burton Creek, and I was your course setter for Spooner Lake. Also, "thank you" to the park rangers at Nevada State Parks, California State Parks, and U.S. Forest Service to allow us to use these two fantastic areas for orienteering. Spooner Lake is a beautiful area to have to spend a few weekends during the year in order to plan and set the courses, so I can look back with fond memories of time spent in the mountains. We were blessed with two great days of weather for running and hiking through the woods.
Many, many others helped out leading up to and on the days of the events. The list would be long, and there would be many familiar names. Rather than thanking them again here, I hope I made it clear to each of you already how appreciative I am of everyone’s contributions and hard work to make the event possible. Perhaps I personally could have been better organized on the days of the events, but as both Event Director and Course Setter on Saturday, I had more than I could handle without relying on others to provide necessary assistance.
Fillan Swift and Tapio Karras were double winners of their courses at the two-day event. Fillan won the Orange course at Spooner Lake in a respectable time of 1:34:15 on a physical course, and followed it up with a winning time of 1:00:40 at Burton Creek. Tapio won the Green courses in times of 1:21:10 and 52:54 at Spooner Lake and Burton Creek, respectively. Alison Weber won the White course on Saturday at Spooner in 49:09, and Sarah Williams had the quickest time at Burton Creek on Sunday in 33:17. On Yellow, Beth Dameron was best at Spooner Lake in 55:38, while Johanna Karras blazed through the course in 22:35 at Burton Creek.
Brown course winners were Gary Carpenter at Spooner Lake in 1:04:13 and Sam Coradetti at Burton Creek in 40:32. On the Red course at Spooner Lake, two Truckee Orienteering Club members battled it out, with Carol Walker edging out Paul Carson by less than a minute. Carol's time was 1:59:20. Miguel Clark, now living in the Bay Area after being introduced to the sport in Australia, won the Red course at Burton Creek in 1:09:31.
On the Blue course, there seemed to be good competition among BAOC’s best runners as well as orienteers from GCO and Truckee. The first three spots on Saturday at Spooner Lake were taken by François Léonard, Mikkel Conradi, and Urtzi Iglesias—with François taking the top spot in 1:41:50, and the other two within a couple of minutes. At Burton Creek, the top-three order was Matej Å ebo in 1:11:15, followed by François Léonard and Urtzi Iglesias.
As course setter at Spooner Lake, the feedback was predominantly “that was hard.†Hopefully for most of you that was in a good way. You never want to set courses that have a large percentage of orienteers not finishing their courses (DNFs).
Unfortunately, that happened on the Orange course, so I went back to Spooner over Labor Day weekend to run it myself. When vetting the courses, I was three days removed from a hamstring tear, so I was dragging my right leg behind me up all those hills. As most of you know, this makes the navigation seem easier than when competing at speed. I actually thoroughly enjoyed the course with the route choices and possibility of making errors if not careful; though I might be a bit biased since I also set the course. Leg 2 to 3 seemed to offer some challenges to the Orange course participants. This leg was chosen early in the course planning to provide the temptation to take the easiest navigational route by dropping back down to the lake and then slogging back up the steep hill. The ideal route choice would be to contour. After the physical exertion to get to control 2, I would be hard pressed to lose all that elevation again. I chose to climb early to the knoll on the ridge, climb gradually to above the large boulder on the spur, and then contour as much as possible into the correct hilltop. I often will drop a little bit in elevation while going through a re-entrant, to cut off a little distance, so had to climb an extra 5 to 10 m to get back up to elevation. Another possible error would be to climb too much to the hilltop to the north of the control, since this is very prominent with this route choice. Leg 4 to 5 was, in my opinion, the most difficult control navigationally. The prominent trail to the north and east was meant to be a catching feature if the knoll was not spotted on the first pass. The potential problem, of course, is if one did not recognize the trail and continued past. This typically would not be a problem at a walk, but I could see someone blowing past this trail if running. For 8 to 9, I thought the best route choice was to head out to the parking lot on U.S. 50, roughly along the trail, and then follow the highway shoulder down to the re-entrant. No climb and easy run. So what do you think? Good Orange course, or too challenging either physically or navigationally for a local B-meet? My mindset was that I was setting it for the competitive Orange class—i.e., 15 to 16 year olds.
For the Yellow course, I realized I was pushing the envelope of following a linear feature of three hilltops from 8 to 9 to 10. I consider 9 to be an easy Orange control (it also was on the Orange course), and above an average level of difficulty for a Yellow control. I always appreciate a challenge, though, so I gave it a go. It also was a safe bordered area in case it proved too difficult. Was it appropriate for Yellow, or too difficult?
I reviewed the results and splits for the advanced courses. Brown seemed to be about the right distance, while Green, Red, and Blue were about 10% longer than what I had hoped. The rest of the reason for the longish times seemed to be a result of lost time, and was partly because of the degraded quality of the Spooner Lake map since it was originally produced in the early 1990s. Green, Red, and Blue all had the same first leg from the Start to control 1. It was the source of much discussion after the event. A lot of time was lost by a lot of orienteers. It may not have been a competitively fair leg because of the quality of the map. I thought that this would be alright for a B-meet nonetheless. I tried three different routes prior to the event, and am still unsure of the best route. I think taking the road or similar contouring low on the hill was quickest, but the vegetation was a bear to fight through to the saddle. Brown 3, Green 8, Red 10, and Blue 15 was another control location that I spent a lot of time selecting. I could have chosen yet another nearby boulder, but wanted to provide another type of challenge. For me, the easiest way to find this control location was to attack from a nearby prominent boulder cluster, as there were not too many prominent features around the copse of trees. Most seemed to navigate well to this area, though of those that lost time, it was often significant. The last few legs from the meadow back to the finish line was the most difficult portion of the course to set. I tried many different iterations, but found the map insufficient for most control locations, and the vegetation difficult to get through over significant portions of the hillside. In the end, I definitely settled for the best of rather poor options. In retrospect, since the courses were a bit long, I should have ended the courses in the meadow, and eliminated the final uphill through difficult-to-read terrain.
Feedback is always appreciated, so feel free to provide your comments. Hope to see you in the woods again soon!
Results
Tahoe Weekend
Lake Tahoe Area, CA and NV
Saturday and Sunday, August 23-24, 2014
Saturday Courses
White Course Yellow Course Orange Course Brown Course Green Course Red Course Blue Course
Also see control-by-control timing in the Saturday WinSplits results (http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/show_event.asp?id=32522).
You can see the event map with the actual routes traveled by participants, and draw your own route for comparison, in RouteGadget. (Use of RouteGadget is explained here. RouteGadget for this event is here (http://baoc.org/gadget/cgi/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=342).)
White Course (3.1 km, 40 m climb, 12 controls)
Pl Name Club Time 1 Alison Wemmer GCO 49:09
Yellow Course (3.1 km, 70 m climb, 11 controls)
Pl Name Club Time
1 Beth Dameron 55:38
2 Ed Wirth, Jen Grafe 58:36
3 Marsha Jacobs BAOC 1:01:44
4 Kristen Webber GCO 1:32:07
5 Kate Tennant BAOC 1:48:54
6 Sarah Bobek 2:10:07
7 Spenser family 3:10:00
Jamie Maclean BAOC DNF
Orange Course (4.6 km, 220 m climb, 14 controls)
Pl Name Club Time
1 Fillan Swift BAOC 1:34:15
2 Sherry Timmerman Truckee 2:51:28
3 Dave Best 3:00:26
4 Tennant & Walsh BAOC 3:26:11
Judy Koehler BAOC DNF
Rick Boyer DNF
Team BS Speed Unit GCO DNF
Daniel Å ebo BAOC DNF
William Murphy BAOC DNF
Vic Revenko BAOC DNF
Bryan Gaston BAOC DNF
Ann-Marie & Leslie Moore DNF
Jukka Karras BAOC DNF
Brown Course (3.8 km, 150 m climb, 13 controls)
Pl Name Club Time
1 Gary Carpenter BAOC 1:04:13
2 George Minarik BAOC 1:15:29
3 Dan Greene BAOC 1:20:52
4 Gary Kraght BAOC 1:22:26
5 Janet Petersen BAOC 1:26:15
6 Vicki Woolworth BAOC 1:28:04
7 Stephanie Maclean BAOC 1:29:33
8 Lauren Knight BAOC 1:30:54
9 Chuck Spalding BAOC 1:30:58
10 Leslie Minarik BAOC 2:01:20
11 Jeff Lanam BAOC 2:15:47
12 Joe Walker BAOC 2:37:06
13 Shirley Donald KOC 2:43:51
14 Scott Donald KOC 2:48:03
15 Dick Opsahl BAOC 2:51:58
16 Judy Opsahl BAOC 2:53:08
Jerry Stewart CTOC DNF
Olga Kraght BAOC DNF
Kenneth Karcher CTOC DNF
Masha Konkov BAOC DNF
Green Course (5.8 km, 275 m climb, 18 controls)
Pl Name Club Time
1 Tapio Karras BAOC 1:21:10
2 Miguel Clark BAOC 1:26:25
3 Werner Haag BAOC 1:29:33
4 Marie-Josée Parayre BAOC 1:38:09
5 Matthias Kohler BAOC 1:38:30
6 Steve Smith BAOC 1:44:54
7 Derek Maclean BAOC 1:46:26
8 Mark Peterson BAOC 1:48:21
9 Anna Voegele Truckee 1:48:57
10 Kent Ohlund BAOC 1:49:06
11 Nik Weber GCO 1:50:04
12 Johanna Merriss BAOC 1:58:31
13 Katie Petersen BAOC 2:08:22
14 Nadja Rutz BAOC 2:11:36
15 Ole Bergset CTOC 2:16:53
16 Michael Kleyman Hasharo 2:37:24
17 Russ Pilcher CTOC 2:41:36
18 Steve Duke GCO 2:41:52
Pete Olsten BAOC DNF
Marina Keating BAOC DNF
Julia Doubsen BAOC DNF
Red Course (7.7 km, 320 m climb, 22 controls)
Pl Name Club Time
1 Carol Walker Truckee 1:59:20
2 Paul Carson Truckee 1:59:53
3 Gavin Williams BAOC 2:11:27
4 Stephen Harrison BAOC 2:45:19
5 Damian Swift BAOC 2:50:51
6 Theo Verhoeven BAOC 3:06:19
7 Luc Poppe BAOC 3:07:51
Barbara Bomfim GCO DNF
Sam Coradetti DNF
Lori Huberman BAOC DNF
Holly Gaston BAOC DNF
Lubomir Å ebo BAOC DNF
Fyodor Konkov BAOC DNF
Blue Course (9.6 km, 370 m climb, 27 controls)
Pl Name Club Time
1 François Léonard BAOC 1:41:50
2 Mikkel Conradi BAOC 1:42:27
3 Urtzi Iglesias GCO 1:43:54
4 Greg Walker CSU 1:48:08
5 Matej Å ebo BAOC 1:55:29
6 Joe Maffei BAOC 3:23:01
Ryan Madison DNF
Nikolay Chukanov BAOC DNF
Sunday Courses
White Course Yellow Course Orange Course Brown Course Green Course Red Course Blue Course
Also see control-by-control timing in the Sunday WinSplits results (http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/show_event.asp?id=32559).
You can see the event map with the actual routes traveled by participants, and draw your own route for comparison, in RouteGadget. (Use of RouteGadget is explained here. RouteGadget for this event is here (http://baoc.org/gadget/cgi/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=343).)
White Course (2.2 km, 50 m climb, 10 controls)
Pl Name Club Time 1 Sarah Harrison BAOC 33:17 2 Rodemich family 36:46 3 Kate Tennant BAOC 37:30 4 Amy & Mich Giles 47:16 5 Allison Wemmer GCO 48:35 6 James family 50:31 7 Tim LIbell GCO 59:25
Yellow Course (2.3 km, 60 m climb, 9 controls)
Pl Name Club Time
1 Johanna Karras BAOC 22:35
2 Jamie Maclean BAOC 32:36
3 Kristen Webber GCO 39:59
4 Trisa & BJ Pierce, Bob Ruffner 42:36
5 Pia Sanda 46:05
6 James family 49:01
7 Judy Koehler BAOC 57:52
8 Art & Mae Livingston 58:02
9 Thompson family 1:58:10
10 Paul Barnes, Rosemary Wu 2:02:33
Hazel, Grace, & Kathleen
Freel Walker BAOC DNF
Second Course
Sarah Bobek BAOC 50:35
Orange Course (5.4 km, 120 m climb, 10 controls)
Pl Name Club Time
1 Fillan Swift BAOC 1:00:40
2 Bill Voegele BAOC 1:10:37
3 Bryan Gaston BAOC 1:46:35
4 Daniel Å ebo BAOC 1:47:23
5 Jenner Tresan 1:49:22
6 Shasta, Colombe, & Collette 1:58:19
7 Sherry Timmerman Truckee 2:20:07
8 Trisa & BJ Pierce, Bob Ruffner 2:46:28
Sarah Bobek BAOC DNF
Cedrik Zemitis DNF
Second Course
Amy & Mich Giles DNF
Brown Course (3.8 km, 60 m climb, 8 controls)
Pl Name Club Time 1 Sam Coradetti 40:32 2 Lori Huberman BAOC 49:26 3 George Minarik BAOC 1:04:00 4 Vicki Woolworth BAOC 1:05:11 5 Janet Petersen BAOC 1:05:32 6 Russ Pilcher CTOC 1:05:46 7 Leslie Minarik BAOC 1:15:21 8 Joe Walker BAOC 1:26:41 9 Dave & Elizabeth Best 1:30:05 10 Sarah Petersen BAOC 1:34:30 11 Marsha Jacobs BAOC 1:35:51 12 Sarah Williams BAOC 1:38:15 13 Masha Konkov BAOC 1:40:39 14 Judy Opsahl BAOC 1:42:36 15 Dick Opsahl BAOC 1:44:38 16 Jennifer Kerr GCO 1:53:32 17 Olga Kraght BAOC 2:00:42 18 Rosemary Johnson BAOC 2:13:54 19 Scott Donald KOC 2:27:14 20 Shirley Donald KOC 2:27:16 21 Tennant & Walsh BAOC 2:27:37 22 Vic Revenko BAOC 3:00:30 23 Kenneth Karcher CTOC 3:22:18 24 Jerry Stewart CTOC 3:26:04
Second Course
Fillan Swift BAOC 44:55
Green Course (5.6 km, 115 m climb, 10 controls)
Pl Name Club Time 1 Tapio Karras BAOC 52:54 2 Nadja Rutz BAOC 57:55 3 Holly Gaston BAOC 58:01 4 Derek Maclean BAOC 1:02:21 5 Matthias Kohler BAOC 1:02:24 6 Kent Ohlund BAOC 1:03:31 7 Werner Haag BAOC 1:03:35 8 Marie-Josée Parayre BAOC 1:06:48 9 Chuck Spalding BAOC 1:07:46 10 Steve Smith BAOC 1:11:00 11 Gary Kraght BAOC 1:11:21 12 Katie Petersen BAOC 1:12:27 13 Dan Greene BAOC 1:13:32 14 Mark Petersen BAOC 1:19:52 15 Jiulia Doubson BAOC 1:20:01 16 Gary Carpenter BAOC 1:23:26 17 Johanna Merriss BAOC 1:24:25 18 Steve Duke GCO 1:26:09 19 Stephanie Maclean BAOC 1:26:42 20 Jeff Lanam BAOC 2:04:22 21 Carol Lyda Truckee 2:04:30 22 Marina Keating BAOC 2:20:58
Red Course (7.4 km, 170 m climb, 15 controls)
Pl Name Club Time 1 Miguel Clark BAOC 1:09:31 2 Gavin Williams BAOC 1:22:11 3 Blake Tresan 1:22:47 4 Jonas Libell GCO 1:23:49 5 Paul Carson BAOC 1:25:04 6 Lubomir Å ebo BAOC 1:28:49 7 Carol Walker Truckee 1:30:03 8 Stephen Harrison BAOC 1:31:48 9 Ole Bergset CTOC 1:38:26 10 Nikolay Chukanov BAOC 1:39:43 11 Barbara Bomfim GCO 1:42:22 12 Damian Swift BAOC 1:54:13 13 Fyodor Konkov BAOC 1:54:55 14 Luc Poppe BAOC 2:06:50 15 Theo Verhoeven BAOC 2:11:58
Blue Course (9.1 km, 200 m climb, 20 controls)
Pl Name Club Time 1 Matej Šebo BAOC 1:11:15 2 François Léonard BAOC 1:14:12 3 Urtzi Iglesias GCO 1:19:45 4 Mikkel Conradi BAOC 1:21:22 5 Greg Walker CSU 1:30:52 6 Joe Maffei BAOC 2:40:09
_______________
DNF = Did not finish (missed one or more controls)