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Bon Tempe Reservoir

New Pilot Knob Map

Greg Ehrensing Memorial Volunteer Event 1

Date: (Sat.) Dec. 6, 2025
Location: Fairfax, CA
Event Director: - 415.456.8118
Course Setter: Dennis Wildfogel
Type: C; Volunteer appreciation event; as in the past, PARTICIPATION IS LIMITED to club members who have volunteered this year; PRE-REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED (but has closed); NO BEGINNER OR INTERMEDIATE COURSES

Related Event Information

WinSplits Results (http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/show_event.asp?id=109609) Attackpoint Results (https://www.attackpoint.org/eventdetail.jsp/event_58998) RouteGadget – Introduction RouteGadget – This Event (http://baoc.org/gadget/cgi/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=570) Event Announcement

Skip to the Results


Event Write-Up

By Scott Aster, Event Director, and Dennis Wildfogel, Course Setter

Our Bon Tempe event used to be known for stormy, rainy conditions, but in recent years the weather gods have smiled down upon us, and given us sunshine. This year, cold, dense fog enveloped the courses, resulting in very poor visibility, making the courses much more challenging then planned. The fog also ruined the potential for great views from the top of Pilot Knob, which on a clear day, truly are impressive!

This year marked the advent of the use of completely newly mapped terrain, on Water District land south of our original map of the area. Mapper Bill Cusworth created an outstanding, wonderfully-accurate picture of the land, making navigation by the innumerable landmarks a much easier task than with older, more-out-of-date maps. The terrain is similar to that of the original map, with redwood groves, rolling grassy hillsides, and very little underbrush to deal with.

Course Setter Dennis Wildfogel designed six (or seven) courses, all of advanced technical difficulty, allowing participants to choose the length of challenge best suited to them. While the courses were vetted and reviewed by multiple people, many took routes that were not anticipated, proving how difficult it can be to anticipate the routes people will take on a very technically-difficult map!

As has become traditional, many participants brought treats to share, including some wonderful cupcakes decorated with orienteering map symbols! The "event center" in a parking lot island, served us well for E-punch, treats, and a welcoming gathering place for course discussions.

This is the annual Volunteer event for the club. It's a great venue for a (nearly!) year ending event and recognition of the many people who make the club work so well for all of us. As the Water District has dropped the restriction on number of participants, we're hoping to have an even larger event here in 2026!

Of course, even a volunteer recognition event needs volunteers to run it! We start with course setter Dennis Wildfogel, who spent countless hours, designing and fine tuning the courses. Dennis made fine use of the terrain, and successfully challenged people to utilize their "O" skills, as only one trail bisects the map, making the navigation that much harder.

Bill Cusworth, created this beautiful map for us, and also helped with course vetting and assisted Dennis and myself with hanging controls the day before the event.

Jeff Lanam and Phil Lacroute ran E-punch flawlessly, and both also completed a course. As mentioned earlier, thanks to all who brought food to share, we had a feast and very little was left by the end of the day.

Finally, dear to this Event Director's heart, seven people volunteered at the end of the day to go out and collect the controls. Huge thanks to Ian Smith, Stephanie Maclean, Tapio Karras, Derek Maclean, Eric Rosenzweig, Theo Verhoeven, and Werner Haag for bringing in all the bags, and letting us leave the park by 3 PM!

– Scott


I'd like to add some additional thanks to people who helped me during the process of course setting. It was very interesting trying to set courses in a venue where no one had orienteered before, leaving me uncertain about whether some areas would be too difficult or too steep and so on. Then in late August I hurt my knee and I haven't yet been able to run again, making it difficult to continue exploring the area as much as I would have liked. So I asked a number of people for assistance, and they really came through. We all owe them our thanks.

Scott tried some early versions of legs that went through the area where all the courses started and finished, and gave me valuable feedback on what worked and what didn't. He reviewed several different iterations of the courses and provided some excellent suggestions, and then helped hang controls on the day before the event.

Bill Cusworth was very responsive to my requests for map changes, and also reviewed course designs, assuring me that some of the places that were difficult for me to even walk on would be fine for Red runners. Bill also helped put out controls on the day before the event, willingly handling the most distant ones (ones I would have taken a very long time to get to with my knee the way it is).

Martin Kunz reviewed several versions of the courses, and came out and tested some of the legs that would have been too risky for my knee. While doing that, he placed a number of control stands, making control hanging much easier the day before the event.

Gavin Wyatt-Mair (who'd told me he'd be in South Africa at the time of the event) reviewed the courses at a late stage of development, and wrote a terrific analysis of several of the legs, indicating all the routes he'd consider, and what he saw as the advantages and disadvantages of each. Extremely helpful.

Two long-time orienteering friends who live on the East Coast, Wyatt Riley and Charlie DeWeese, patiently answered repeated questions from me like "What routes would you consider for this leg, and which one would you choose?" Their answers were extremely valuable in helping me get the most out of the possibilities offered by the Pilot Knob area.

I feel very fortunate to be part of a community of such talented and helpful people — and that includes all of you who we honored for being volunteers by offering this chance to run in a terrific new venue.

– Dennis



Results

Bon Tempe Reservoir

Fairfax, CA
Saturday, December 6, 2025

Course:  CNS   Mini   Silver   Brown   Green   Red   Custer's Choice

Also see control-by-control timing in the WinSplits results (http://www.obasen.nu/winsplits/online/en/show_event.asp?id=109609) and on Attackpoint (https://www.attackpoint.org/eventdetail.jsp/event_58998). (The apostrophe was omitted from "Custer's Chose" on both websites because it was not accepted.)

You can see the event map with the actual routes traveled by participants, and draw your own route for comparison, in RouteGadget for this event (http://baoc.org/gadget/cgi/reitti.cgi?act=map&id=570). (Use of RouteGadget is explained here.)

In RouteGadget, you can enter your route manually or upload a GPS recording and adjust to fit our map. The following tips apply to the GPS method.
RouteGadget Tip #1: After selecting your GPX file, make sure to adjust the time offset between starting your watch at the Start line and leaving the Start Triangle. The offset can have a significant impact on your route accuracy. For most local events, you should set the offset to 0 as we start from the triangle (assuming you started your watch exactly when you started).
RouteGadget Tip #2: After uploading your GPS track to RouteGadget, you can create additional blue adjustment points by right-clicking your track. You can use these points to better align your route with the map, for example, along trails. You can delete extra adjustment points by right-clicking them.

Thanks to event director Scott Aster and course setter Dennis Wildfogel for a great event to inaugurate our new map by Bill Cusworth of the Pilot Knob area. The fog lifted a little bit as the day went on, but the views from the hill were still obscured. Thanks to all the volunteers who qualified to participate in this special event.

– Jeff Lanam, E-punch Director

Please tell Jeff Lanam () and the webmasters () if anything needs to be changed.


Preliminary Results 


Custer's Next Stand (CNS) (2.0 km, 130 m climb, 5 controls)  
   Pl  Name                  Club      Time     Behind  
    1  Evan Custer           BAOC    1:26:22           


Mini Course             (0.9 km, 20 m climb, 6 controls)  
   Pl  Name                  Club      Time     Behind  
    1  Dwight Freund         GCO       47:00           
    2  Leslie Minarik        BAOC    1:08:02    21:02


Silver Course           (2.3 km, 80 m climb, 11 controls)  
   Pl  Name                  Club      Time     Behind  
    1  George Minarik        BAOC    1:08:32           
    2  Jeff Lanam            BAOC    1:51:11    42:39
    3  Sarah Williams        BAOC    2:11:41    63:09


Brown Course            (3.2 km, 110 m climb, 14 controls)  
    1  Steve Gregg           BAOC      47:49           
    2  Johanna Merriss       BAOC    1:35:43    47:54
    3  Nick Corsano          BAOC    1:43:00    55:11
    4  Julie van Hoff        BAOC    2:42:20   114:31
       Stephanie Maclean     BAOC      MSP             


Green Course            (4.2 km, 160 m climb, 18 controls)  
   Pl  Name                  Club      Time     Behind  
    1  Tapio Karras          BAOC      58:56           
    2  Eric Rosenzweig       BAOC    1:10:50    11:54
    3  Misha Kreslavsky      BAOC    1:14:11    15:15
    4  Marie-Josée Parayre   BAOC    1:16:49    17:53
    5  Werner Haag           BAOC    1:18:27    19:31
    6  Derek Maclean         BAOC    1:19:01    20:05
    7  Matthias Kohler       BAOC    1:30:57    32:01
    8  Chuck Spalding        BAOC    1:31:04    32:08
    9  Phil Lacroute         BAOC    1:42:31    43:35
   10  Gary Kraght           BAOC    1:43:01    44:05
   11  Steve Haas            BAOC    1:45:01    46:05
   12  Victor Frolov         BAOC    1:46:42    47:46
   13  Deron van Hoff        BAOC    2:09:36    70:40
   14  Olga Kraght           BAOC    2:22:38    83:42
       Nik Weber             GCO       DNS             
       Olga Boiarynova       BAOC      DNS
       Petra Sundstrom       BAOC      DNS


Red Course              (5.8 km, 300 m climb, 22 controls)  
   Pl  Name                  Club      Time     Behind  
    1  François Léonard      BAOC    1:18:40           
    2  Wayne Staats          BAOC    1:24:28     5:48
    3  Greg Khanlarov        BAOC    1:26:15     7:35
    4  Evgeny Kachanovsky    BAOC    1:26:19     7:39
    5  Andrew Peterson       NAVX    1:36:10    17:30
    6  Andrej Masalkov       BAOC    1:36:50    18:10
    7  Rex Winterbottom      BAOC    1:43:10    24:30
    8  Tom De Vre            BAOC    1:43:35    24:55
    9  John Richardson       BAOC    1:46:57    28:17
   10  Taylor Pospisil       BAOC    1:51:45    33:05
   11  Matteo Guareschi      BAOC    1:56:19    37:39
   12  Graham Brew           BAOC    2:02:47    44:07
   13  Theo Verhoeven        BAOC    2:11:15    52:35
   14  James Arthurton       BAOC    2:18:19    59:39
   15  Emily Ellsworth       BAOC    2:30:26    71:46
   16  Joshua Zhanson        BAOC    2:53:44    95:04
       Megan Thomas          BAOC      DNS             


Custer's Choice Course  (2.0 km, 130 m climb, 5 controls)  
   Pl  Name                  Club      Time     Behind  
    1  Wayne Staats          BAOC    26:22           
    2  Ian Smith             CSU     30:56    4:34

_______________

DNF = Did not finish (one or more controls missed)
DNS = Did not start
MSP = Mispunched (one or more incorrect controls)

1 We use this event to remember Greg Ehrensing, a dedicated BAOC member, who died in 2018 (at orienteering age 60). Greg particularly enjoyed this event "in his backyard" (since he lived nearby). He directed and course-set this event several times, as well as always helping out at this event and many others with whatever was needed even when he wasn't on the crew that day.