Sunol in May is often dry and can be quite warm. Not so in the year of El Niño. All of the streams were running, the ponds (and even some of the depressions) were full of water, and the wildflowers were in full bloom. Although rain threatened in the afternoon, the showers held off until after the courses closed. All in all, it was a great day for orienteering in the East Bay! Below are the complete results plus some green splits.
Sunol is one of our steeper parks, and trying to set courses without excessive climb is always a challenge. As in past meets, we had a remote start (1.1 km/130m) to help reduce the climb on courses for the advanced runners. This year we had the advantage of having a large number of vetters/pre-runners (thanks Steve, Greg, Trevor, Van, Syd, and Eric). We actually set two Green courses and made the final choice after getting comments and times from the pre-runners. We tried to set the courses to avoid poison oak as much as possible.
The White course winners were Dave and Scott Payne. Yellow winner was Silvia Gerlou, in 46:54 followed by Steph MacLean in 51:48. The Orange course was won by Ramana Yemeni in 65:50 followed by Don Larsen and R.W. Thomas. The Brown course was won by Rod Jaehn in 63:45, followed closely by Lars Borg (64:52). Leslie Minarik was third in 80:26.
Werner Haag topped the 26 Green runners in 51:19, followed by Bob Cooley (56:44) and George Minarik (58:21). The first female finisher was Angelicka Gerlach (63:35, fourth overall). Great run Angelicka! Derek MacLean led the Red runners in 69:10. Dan Green was second (77:58), and Peter Rexer third (79:18). Neal Barlow won the Blue in 80:22 (12.2 min./km). James Scarborough was second in 83:20, followed by Kent Ohlund 92:32. Penny Demoss was only female runner on the Blue course (as usual), doing the job in 99:34.
It should be noted that the heavy growth of native grasses resulted in major elephant tracks on all of the advanced courses. These tracks appear to have been quite advantageous for the later runners.
We want to thank all of those who volunteered to help. Registration: Josh and Debbie Friederichs, Ev & Jean Beuerman. Results: Aileen Abernathy, Robert Lewis, Cheryl Madson. Control pickup: "regulars" Penny and Harold Demoss, Larry and John Pagendarm, Ian Tidswell and Mark Blair. Beginner clinics: Dan Greene and Michael Poulsen. Starts: Cheryl Madson, David Meredith, Julie Wells, Tom Carpenter, David Barr, Don Larsen and Bill & Colin Buckner. Colin completed the requirements for his Orienteering merit badge at this meet, congratulations! Helpers at the finish included Brian Moore, Ev & Jean Beuerman, Charles Brenner and Julie Wells.
WHITE Dave and Scott Payne 35:24 Daniel Ohlund 43:06 Carol Noland 45:15 Troop 3999 - Cort, Alyssa, Nicloe 46:24 Troop 399 - Kearsten, Bev, Chris 48:32 Donna Topp 48:59 Team Lanka 51:08 Rachel Care 54:21 (unofficial) Joe Mauger Group 55:52 Jacobi Family 57:24 Helen, Cindy, Chris, et al 61:26 Larsen Group 78:14 Troop 1381 (Ann) 81:48 David Bedford Group 85:06 Troop 1382 (Kathy) 85:50 Vaslerio and Imus DNF [Lost Card] YELLOW Gerlou, Silva 46:54 S. MacLean 51:48 Galena Shakhnovsky 69:26 Melinda Haslam 74:06 Nancy Livak 78:18 Clare & Elena Livak 92:23 Steve Poe Group 95:16 Valiveti 97:22 Lucia Livak 110:58 Troop 774 133:34 Bob Douglass DNF [Missed #5] Brandon & Elliot Young DNF [Missed #1] Michael Hay & Ann Jordan DNF [Missed #5] Neil Peretz & Diana Tunney MSP ORANGE Ramana Yemeni 65:50 Don Larsen 70:20 R.W. Thomas 71:22 Gavin Hemderson 75:20 Rob Williams 78:48 Shawn Larsen 81:48 Ted & Julia Tussing 102:17 Jim Michaels Group 110:10 Douglas Family 111:06 John Pagendarm 113:04 Scott Henderson 114:43 Chris & Elizabeth Cobey 117:23 Alan Kaplan 120:22 Sharon Evans 124:17 Larry Pagendarm 139:41 Dan Craft & Cameron Austrheim-Smith 145:01 Jack Meyers 153:26 Ken Livak 162:01 Ev & Jean Beuerman 167:48 Roy Want, Ken Fishkin, Diane, Hannah 172:47 Trygue & Thomas 183:05 Michelle Dick & Hee So 206:43 Doxadis & Edwards DNF Don Gee DNF [Missed #6] BROWN Rod Jaehn 63:45 Lars Borg 64:52 Leslie Minarik 80:26 David Meredith 85:40 Michael Young 90:36 Cheryl Madson 91:28 Louise Madrid 94:03 Dave Modinao 110:04 Nancy Lindeman 113:06 Mike Salisbury 133:02 Bill & Colin Buckner 134:00 Thomas & David Group OT GREEN Werner Haag 51:19 Bob Cooley 56:44 George Minarik 58:21 Dennis Wildfogel 60:07 Angelicka Gerlach 63:35 Manfred Kopisch 65:06 Gary Kraght 67:10 Joe Scarborough 67:38 Michael Poulsen 68:54 Carol Chen 71:10 Harold De Moss 73:27 Rex Winterbottom & Roger Huang 88:13 Oleg Shakhnovsky 93:08 Stacy Goss 97:18 Jascha Lee 104:42 Chris Jacobi 105:42 Steve Beuerman 111:31 David Barr 112:40 Tim, Mike Mark & Beau 118:31 Robert Lewis 121:58 Aileen Abernathy 127:09 Charles Brenner 129:54 Joan Roos 131:16 Jeff Lanam 160:54 Mike Condrin 169:54 Gerry Goss DNF [Lost Card] RED Derek MacLean 69:10 Dan Greene 77:58 Peter Rexer 79:18 Dan Clark 82:20 Tapio Karras 86:48 Tony Pinkham 95:04 Mark Blair 96:29 BLUE Neal Barlow 80:22 James Scarborough 83:20 Kent Ohlund 92:32 Thorsten Graeve 94:23 Penny De Moss 99:34 Karl Gerloch 106:05 Brian Moore 115:19 Gavin Wyatt-Mair 120:22 Doug Stein 132:37 Peter Graube 168:25
Gary C: I took out the map copying time and readjusted everyone's finish time, so we could have a true orienteering comparison without including map copying.
Gary K: I use the map copying time to start planning my routes; this is one reason why it takes me longer than most. So there is some reason to include it in the overall time, where with a premarked map I would be standing there longer than others before heading off.
Gary K: Another thing that elephant paths do besides simplifying route-finding is make the going easier because you don't need to "break trail" (using a snowshoer's term). Thus Manfred's effort was more difficult than mine.
Werner: I can't quite figure how my leg #3 could be nearly 2 minutes faster than Gary's, even though we took the same route. It seemed like Dave Barr, who mostly walks the courses, was keeping up with me much of the way. It is possible that I didn't punch right away leaving #2, explaining why my leg #2 was long and #3 short.
Werner Manfred George Dennis Gary 1 356 2.08 2.56 2:29 2:53 2.36 2 381 4.08 3.03 3:29 3:55 3.27 3 252 5.40 7.55 8:30 8:43 7.27 4 217 7.28 8.50 6:48 8:56 8.52 W 1.29 5 246 3.11 3.39 3:28 3:29 3.48 6 249 6.23 6.28 11:37 7:52 8.04 7 257 8.32 11.11 8:19 8:19 14.54 W 1.15 0:10 8 309 2.45 6.19 3:06 3:10 4.04 9 250 1.57 2.11 1:49 2:08 4.14 10 110 4.20 5.43 4:20 5:25 5.41 11 112 0.57 0.45 - 0:50 0.56 F 0.10 0.19 1:12 0:14 0.21 Total 47.39 62.03 55:07 56:04 64.24M-1
WRH: Straight with a bit of contouring
MK: Same
DW: Took several seconds to try to match up the vegetation I saw on the ridge ahead with the map. Went across the reentrant wide to the left to save a little climb. Up through the saddle and headed into the forest patch on the left and right to the control.
GK: Pretty much straight, same as WH. Elephant tracks were confusing and wrong, so I ignored them.
1-2
WRH: Tried to contour N and then E, but terrain forced me down to enlargened pond anyway, then compass directly in.
MK: NE down to the pond. From fence straight to control
DW: Same as Werner. Clearly, we both lost time trying first to contour.
GK: Same as MK. My initial plan was to contour N. Glad I didn't!
2-3
WRH: SE to trail to distinct bend, then contoured in along clearing edge. This seemed to be ~3 minutes faster than the direct route.
MK: NE to small trail around thicket. Followed trail around hill and contoured along the hill side to trail. Went straight to my marked re-entrant and didn't bother to look at the control description (spur). Lost ~90 seconds.
DW: Same route as Manfred and George to trail (and like George, didn't see Werner's route, which was better). Got on a distinct spur that had a boulder way down it, thought I knew which one that was on the map (and I was right), but hesitated to cross the next reentrant because it seemed much larger than I expected. Seeing no other possibility, cross I did, and found the control 25m below. 30 sec hesitation error, plus perhaps 90 sec route choice error.
GK: Followed the WH trail route. On way from 1 to 2, I seriously considered the straight route taken by MK, GM, DW, etc., and decided there were too many negatives in terms of climb, contouring on steep slopes, and risk.
3-4
WRH: Straight uphill to obvious thicket; no-brainer.
MK: Same. But obviously I was walking while Werner was running.
DW: Same. Guess I was walking slowest of all. But I used the time to plan my routes for all the remaining legs, and I was, consequently, pretty efficient the rest of the way.
GK: Wow! I can't believe I lost two minutes to George M. on a no-brainer control. I count over 100 meters of climb on this one leg.
4-5
WRH: Straight staying a bit low, then up re-entrant to bend.
MK: Same. I grabbed the punch and couldn't punch. It was heavily taped and it took me some time to untape it. Lost 30 seconds.
DW: Contoured to road, then up to reentrant, aiming off to low side, then up side of reentrant to control.
GK: Same as everyone else. I'm definitely slowing down now.
5-6
WRH: Contoured due W then dropped NW through clearing line between white and light green area, then straight in to control after spotting small thicket.
MK: Contoured W and than N around the hill to the light green. Than straight down to thicket and control.
DW: Intended to contour to the last saddle on the ridge with the deleted trail. Once out on the hillside, I found it very steep and difficult to contour. Considered going up and over, but decided to stick with my original plan. Once through the saddle, headed down (steep!) to where the fence meets the forest patch, saw the boulder there, and contoured to the control. Thought I had done this leg well, but my time is slow compared to Manfred and Werner. Did contouring take me too far out of the way? Did my difficulty getting down the steep hill cost me that much?
GK: My route was similar to Dennis. I fell down a couple of times on the steep downhill, and also was unsure of myself when close to the control circle, although I contoured straight to the control. Probably lost a minute in stumbles and hesitation.
6-7
WRH: Followed elephant paths WSW and then due S on narrow nose until it bends SE. dropped down to minor N-S running reentrant and then crossed major reenetrant at bag level and contoured in.
MK: Contoured S and wanted to pass the thicket on it's E side. But I dropped a little bit and hit the thicket at an (animal) path that seemed to lead through it. I took it but it was a dead end. I fought my way through the rest of the thicket and lost 2-3 minutes. After crossing the thicket it took me an additional 30 seconds to find again the contact to the map. Crossed the path saw the small thicket and went to the clearing.
DW: Did the first part similar to Werner. But I was afraid it might be difficult to cross the big reentrant, so took the path that crosses the big reentrant 4 contours higher than the control. (To get to that path, I had to leave the elephant trail, which turned E about 5 contours above the path. That took some courage!) Once across, took the path til I could see the thin E-W clearing, and used the boulder on its S side to guide me down to the control.
GK: I basically followed Dennis's route, although I was having trouble staying in contact with the map. After crossing the big reentrant, I thought (actually I guessed) that I was roughly at control level and needed to contour. I saw several other orienteers, including Mark Blair and Stacy Goss, which confirmed my falacious belief. Checked out a couple of random clearings, pretty quickly determined that I was lost, and bailed to ridge beyond control. From there, down a few contours and directly in. Probably lost 6 or 7 minutes in my wanderings.
7-8
WRH: COntoured plus elephant path at end.
MK:Like Werner but without the elephant track at the end. Thus I saw Robert Lewis standing at a small (unmapped) stone and went there.
I was going to quickly there and lost my contact to the map. Instead of climbing up to relocate I went down to the fence that crossed the spur. From there directly to control. Lost almost 3 minutes.
DW: Contoured across fence and into the open area on spur. Followed the spur and the forest edge down. Used the lone tree 70m NE of the control to guide me in.
GK: George Minarik and Bob Cooley had caught me at #7, so I basically followed them in to #8. Although I hit control dead-on, still lost another minute to George.
8-9
WRH: Ditto
MK: Contoured and met Robert and Tony at the control.
DW: Contoured, hit the reentrant, and followed it up. The control was further up the reentrant than I expected.
GK: Dumb-brain mistake supreme - did not even look at map to see where my next control was. I just saw a control in the distance, and went to it, hoping it was my next control, knowing in my heart it couldn't possibly be. And it wasn't. Then I finally looked at the map to see where my control really was (and to see where I really was). Slog up reentrant to control. Lost two minutes.
9-10
WRH: S to trail
MK: SW to small trail along fence. Down the big trail to the intersection with the small trail that I marked as the control site. Tony was 100m behind me when I reached it. When he reached me started together looking for the control. Lost another 90 seconds.
DW: Rough compass towards where the big jeep trail gets near the fence (halfway to the control), knowing that either the trail or the fence would catch me and lead me to their junction. Good strategy: this should have been "green light" running; but I was getting fatigued and foggy brained, so I hesitated several times to check my location, which really was unnecessary. Once on the jeep trail, I saw that my circle was centered on a trail junction, but that the clue said "reentrant". I kept trying to look on the map for a reentrant as I ran, and finally saw some contour squiggles NW of my circle. Thinking (but not being certain) that the control would be in one of them, I veered off into the first one. No control. Went to the second. No control. Ah, there it is - higher than me! I wondered why the control description didn't tell me that it was the S reentrant and that it was in the upper part. Later I saw that it DID tell me that, but with my tired brain and my mis-marked cirlce, I apparently never noticed any of the description beyond "reentrant". Probably lost 30 secs on that, and another 30 on the earlier hesitations.
GK: Staight run and straight to control, as fast as my legs would allow. After fiasco on last leg, paid attention to map and knew where control was well before arriving there.
10-F
WRH:The last few controls seemed like yellow level with all the elephant paths.
MK: I didn't have the elephant tracks and made unecessary errors, but Werner is right that the navigational challenge was not always up to a green course.
DW: I did see a number of elephant paths, but often they were going in many directions, or going in a direction different from where I wanted to go, so I don't think they helped me much. The downhill running is always very rough on my feet, though it didn't slow me down on the course. I thought it was a pretty good day of orienteering.
GK: Going to last control, almost stepped on a rattlesnake and ended up spraining my ankle (its getting better). Oh well, it wasn't my day. But weren't the wildflowers absolutely gorgeous? And it seems like BAOC got a very nice turnout on a beautiful spring day.