Umstead, Camp Whispering Pines
 December 5, 1999
Gary Wiggins, Meet Director

About 60 folks turned out for a beautiful day of orienteering. As evidenced by the fact that no one got disoriented too seriously on the White course, Joe Halloran did an excellent job on the beginners' class. The white course proved to be very competitive as all contestants finished within about 17 minutes. Several orienteers on the Brown and Green courses had difficulty with the controls set in the northeastern segment of the map. This area suffered many blown down trees in Hurricane Fran. These, coupled with several trails which have been abandoned and should be changed from distinct to indistinct, threw several orienteers off. Even so, Nils-Olov Hagelin and Rob Stevens turned in good times on the Green course.

Thanks to Joan and Pete Brock for picking up controls.

Hi Joe,
     Our team did the Green, and we played holy hell finding the 1st control - seems it was right in the middle of several unmarked downed trees. We must have passed within 100 feet of either side - many times! Very frustrating.
    Lesson learned was we needed to do a better job pacing off 100 meters increments and to be much more precise about following an exact heading. When we finally started doing that we walked right into the controls. Although we ran out of time (DNF) the lessons learned were worth the beginning frustration - we will return!
     Any thoughts on holding an Intermediate/Advanced Class in the near term?  [This is under discussion, and we are trying to put an advanced class together early next year. ed.]
Cheers - and Happy Holidays

Paul Jarmul

 I had no difficulty finding the first control (FP) on the Brown course, but I noted that its placement seemed a little "challenging." When I arrived at what I thought was the ridge above the second control (NY) and continued over the ridge to find the control in the westernmost ditch, I found myself in the midst of one of Fran's finest "giant pick-up-stix" areas. Remembering the diabolical placement of the previous control, I was beginning to think uncomplimentary thoughts about the course setter.

Realizing that something was wrong, I enlarged my search area trying to find a known point. After several attempts, I popped out onto Old Reedy Creek Road. I plunged back into the forest, found that elusive point, all the rest of the points, and climbed up that killer last hill in the amazing time of 195 minutes (12:31 - 3:46).

After having a DNF score last year, I was determined to finish this course. So after becoming so disoriented (I was on the wrong ridge), recovering, finding all of the points, and dragging my tired, scratched up, bleeding body to the finish before 4 p.m., I was surprised to see a DNF posted. All in all, I had great time and am looking forward to next time. [I changed your time because our local events are informal, but the maximum time on a course is 180 minutes.  The correct code is OT ed.]

Ron Brown

We really enjoyed the December meet! The brown course is definitely more challenging when carrying a 20+ lb one-year-old on one's back - especially climbing over trees.....And the Swedish visitor we brought on the course (who had never heard of orienteering!) is convinced we are completely insane. But I had a great time. Many thanks to the meet directors.

Cheers, Karen