Here are the results for Joaquin Miller, along with course-setting notes (and splits) for the advanced course and comments on dealing with a less-than-perfect map. The ribbons marking the control locations will be left hanging for training through this summer.
Neeme hit the nail on the head: "When you expect the map to be bad, you just don't use it as much, so that's ok." A spin-off problem from the usual lack of truth-in-advertising is that when the reality of map problems is revealed in advance for a given event such as this one, people naturally think the orienteering must be worthless. A moral to the story is if we absolutely must use substandard maps for A or B meets (there is an oxymoron in there somewhere), at least let's give competitors a fighting chance to deal with it.
If a successful event is one that is better than expected, JMP did very well. Magnus said it was the best training event he has had here. Some said better than Joe Grant. At any rate, no one told me they were unpleasantly surprised by the map or terrain. But there were problems, big ones for some people. I could have prevented some with more time and care.
Neeme Kent Kelly Joe 1 0.36 0.51 0.42 0.36 2 1.02 1.19 1.35 1:51 3 5.30 6.30 10.20 7:11 4 3.12 3.07 6.23 4:03* 5 3.47 5.55 7.46 6:41* 6 4.35 7.04 6.46 7:13* 7 3.20 4.26 5.17 4:39* W 1.15 0:45 8 4.14 4.14 7.42 5:17* 9 7.52 7.51 11.23 7:33* 10 3.34 10.00 9.07 4:06* 11 7.40 7.05 10.54 ? 12 1.45 2.27 2.55 9:45 F 0.21 0.17 0.22 0:27 T 47.36 61.12 82.30 60.231. Purpose of this leg was to get runners to the road without them dealing with a lot of green and map problems. It also presented the requirement of facing an unusually short leg (only 100m) right off the bat. Unfortunately elephant tracks left little for the later starters to do.
2. This control was to set up the next leg.
3. Navigational problems were: how to deal with crossing the two ridges, and finding the correct reentrant to follow down. Unfortunately the map did not help much. Knowing the map was bad, my advice is to use major and more permanent features, then keep your eyes open for the best way through and pray. Of the two re-entrants down to the control, the one on the right was far faster. The map was no help there. Bob Cooley pointed out that there was an unmapped side reentrant along the way that could be taken as one on the other side of the control. Bad map, bad luck, unfair.
4. If you kept your bearing on this one, you should have done OK. I noticed by the tracks that a lot of people found an unmapped route through the fight above the control. Fast times required finding an efficient line around spurs and across reentrants, both poorly mapped, without losing direction or wasting elevation. Typical steep redwoods conditions. Luck came in the form of hitting or missing deer paths.
5. Neeme says the trail "of course." I was hoping to present a good route choice here. Neeme was fast but might have been even faster by keeping to the right, which is straighter and saves four or so contours. I tried to indicate in the notes that straight and non-trail routes were doable despite the map uncertainties.
6. This was the long contouring leg of the course. Maintaining direction and elevation and keeping track of spurs was the trick here. I stopped early and lost some time. The bag was meant to be higher on the rootstock than it was hung, but the ribbon might have served just as well. High bags are a necessity where the map is bad and vegetation thick. I hope everyone remembered the marked exit route.
7. This was a climbing contouring leg with the compass very helpful. Was anyone tempted to go up to the trail?
8. This was one of the two grunt legs of the course. You just had to be sure of getting in the correct reentrant. Neither I nor my vetters realized that I forgot to mark the control, the cliff, on the map. And I think it should have been two or three contours lower than indicated by the circle. This is one of the things that made for problems on the next leg. Another thing that Steve and I missed on this one was that the bag was high and the slope steep, and the wrong code would be visible from below. Normally I cover both sides of the tag with the correct number even though you would have to be lying on the ground to notice. Several people lost time. Gary Carpenter lost 10 minutes because of this goof.
9. Here it was a matter of dealing with the ruggedness and vegetation, though only over a short distance, while hoping to come out at the right place on the trail. Bruce, Steve and I all found a problem with the map, in that the control feature was left (upstream) of the direction indicated by the map. I made a map correction, moving it 25 meters downstream, which was not enough. I hope the fact that the control was on a major catching feature softened the blow a little.
I took my time here with careful compass work. From #8 I sighted a major redwood group on the first spur. I picked deer paths contouring the spur and next reentant, keeping an eye on the redwood group when I could. From the second spur, the one with the trail, I climbed until I was back on my line, based on back-sighting, then picked out a big madrone on the second spur. Since I could see this tree form the reentant below, I could sight on down to the spot at the bottom where the control should be. After reaching that spot and seeing no junction, I paced upstream about 45 meters to the control. I don't think anyone missed this one to the left. The bag, again, was not as high as I wanted.
10. This was a small crag on the next spur over just up from the re-entrant junction, #9. It was not meant to be tricky, just to break up the climb, avoid a dogleg and keep the optimum route for the next leg off the trail. But it turned out to be the bugaboo of the course, and I still am not sure why. It was thick going up the spur and very thick just before the control so visibility must have played a part. I was curious so double-checked closely.
The map says it is 125 meters from #9. My pacing was 110 meters, not necessarily accurate because of the slope. Also, it was probably affected by moving the #9 location. I went up the reentrant on the left side of the spur, and the forest opened up as shown just before the control. I correctly did not expect to see the bag because the crag is just on the other side of the spur. It was not hung low (about four feet off the ground) but, again, I meant for it to be higher as indicated by the ribbon. (Note to course-setters and vetters: the ribbon indicates to the hangers not only the location but also the height.) So the map seemed OK so far.
I then checked the approach from the other side. Coming up that way, there is a deer path below the spine of the spur that is the only likely route. There is not a lot of leeway here, since it is only about 25 meters from the bottom of the reentrant to the top of the spur. When coming up the deer path, the bag was visible to the left for a distance of 20 meters. Still, at least a half dozen people had big problems here, including Kent, Neal and Panu.
11. This seemed almost as tough a climb as #8. Legs pretty rubbery now. The cute thing about this leg was the huge blob of dark green used by the mapper in lieu of field checking. I noted the fraud in the notes and corrected it with the words "run" on the map. Of course that does not make it right. Also, there was a big chunk of fight that I should have noted (just below the one I did note.) After that came the only trails I had the whole run, maybe 150 meters worth. The fight around the control was on my draft map but did not make it to the final.
WHITE 1.77 Km, 45m, 7 controls 1. James Wilson 22:40 2. Erin Krueger 35:36 3. Anastasia Telesetky 47:33 4. Linda Bartel 62:40 5. Younger 101:50 Michelle Impey DNF (missed #7) Groups 1. Deborah and Jordan Ball, Ann Vaughn 55:34 2. John Megovich and Colleen Mahoney 64:45 3. Charles and Margaret Pigg, Tad Tryon 67:40 4. Vickie Woolswoth, Robin, Marisa, Stephanie, Erika, Jessica and Adrianna 89:47 Sue McCarthy, Jessica K., Sarah H., Melissa S., Kelsey K and Elaine K. MSP (wrong #6) Mary Krizer, Tiffany, Tequilla, Tajana Gwen and Amanda MSP (wrong #7) Sonal R., Poonam B., Iswha B. and Upen P OT YELLOW 2.14 Km, 85m, 9 controls Wyatt Riley 18:52 Angelica Riley 28:29 1. Keisake Ide 38:05 2 Marsha Jacobs 51:14 3. Jan Wolfe 91:00 4. Loren Wolfe 98:05 Julie Wells MSP (wrong #8) Groups 1. Lukas Frei and Ed Hermeno 72:04 2. Micah Ball and Kate Riddle 86:20 3. Oleg Kibivev, Wendy Yu and Sundeep Abraham 94:44 4. Susan Tanner, Lynn Elmensdorf, 5. Philipp and Daniel Kopisch 98:05 2nd Course James Wilson 44:35 Erin Krueger 53:57 Kelly Solverson and Michelle Impey 89:29 SHORT ORANGE 2.72 Km, 115m, 8 controls Mike Eglinski, OK 28:25 Dan Meenahan, OK 28:52 Mathias Kohler 31:27 Rex Winterbottom 32:00 Ian Tidswell 32:40 George Minarik 35:14 1. Russell Green 38:59 2. Theo Verhoeven 57:21 3. Tom Carpenter 60:05 4. Rob Gendreau 70:09 5. Leslie Minarik 72:40 6. Leif Kirschenbaum 78:48 7. Pat Roth 86:40 8. Stewart Hivtz 95:55 9. Rosemary Johnson 103:26 10. Nancy Lindeman 116:17 11. Blair Alexander 136:27 12. Joe Rivera 138:52 Patty White MSP (wrong #7) Orlando San Martin DNF (missed #1) Don Gee DNF (missed #1) Mary Jones, OK DNF Groups 1. Schoenfeld and Wojtorte 38:59 2. George Chan and Vivian Lee 62:15 3. Manfred Kopsch and Peter Elemensdorf 69:08 4. Melissa Criqui and Steve Jankowski 75:31 5. Hillary Wolfe and Graeme Joeck 105:34 6. Sandor Straus and Jasper Wu 120:40 Ben and Ira Weiner OT ADVANCED 2.7 Km, 280m, 12 controls 1. Magnus Wallenborg, OK 47:24 2. Neeme Loorits 47:36 3. Kent Ohlund 61:12 4. Gary Carpenter 66:28 5. Ian Tidswell 66:59 6. Manfred Kopsch 77:03 7. Kelley Wells 82:26 8. Bob Cooley 86:20 9. Neal Barlow 88:10 10. Sanna Wallenberg, OK 90:53 11. Shawn Larsen 96:00 12. Dan Greene 93:59 13. Gene Wee, OK 116:20 Raymond Wren, OK DNF (missed #10) Panu Haaramo DNF Bill Papendick DNF