Author Archives: Bryan Niehaus

Virtual Orienteering Events

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The post explores an option for virtual orienteering events where physical controls are not deployed, but GPS enabled devices (mobile phones and Garmin devices specifically) are able to recognize when you are at the correct location – providing both a “beep” to tell you you’re there and recording the time you arrive.

The technology chosen to test is a product called MapRun. Of the various options, this technology provided options that allowed Garmin users to wear their watch to run a course (while looking at a paper map) while also providing an option for those who don’t own Garmin devices to use a mobile phone.

Basic Instructions

Download and Install “MapRun5” from your app store.

For Garmin setup

Assuming you have Garmin Connect setup and configured. And – you have the Garmin Connect IQ installed and configure.

Go to the Garmin Connect IQ app an search for MapRunG. Installing this app pushes it to your device. You will need to connect your device to the app after the installation. From the Connect IQ app, you can browse your installed apps and select MapRunG. There is a setting tab where you will enter the id that your watch generates to connect the devices.

Download a test course

From the MarRun6 app, click on the hamburger menu and select CheckSites. This will ask for a 6 digit code. Use 695904 – this code is valid until mid-Oct 2021.

Does the course download to your phone? You should see a map of the course.

Now … go to options and settings and go to “GPS Watch Mode” … you’ll need to again link your watch somehow – I don’t remember how. If you enable this, the courses are sent to your watch when you open MapRunG. The course above should open with title of Kirkwood Night-O

The operation is straight forward …

when you get to the start control, your clock starts!!!

each control when you get close will beep and you can move to the next control

your time will stop at the finish control (beep)

There are some adjustments that can be made

Radius of when the beep / punch occurs (to small may not be accurate enough. To large and you might not have to actually see it)

2021-08-04 Summer Sprint Series #4 Forest Park

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Score-O Results

Gannon Niehaus21:15
Tim Welsh41:00
Rader Group42:51
Carrie Sona47:03
Haveman Group 49:49
Christopher Barber56:50
Scott/Myles Kelly48:54
Brody Lehmann, Kelly Allen (20 of 21)1:00:00
Anne Schrupp (18 of 21)46:57
Lora Welsh (15 of 21)48:13
Carol Meagher (14 of 21)1:00:00

Memory-O Results

Jeff Ryan34:18
Jeff Sona34:54
Josh Borgmeyer34:55
Eric Buckley37:58
Nathan Graves39:24
Robert Bart39:39
Kevin Minton44:31
Angie Haddock46:55
Manoj Sood46:55
Gabriel Sison51:40
David Bruns57:48
David Welsh (12 of 14)52:23
Mary Piper / David Frei (12 of 14)58:00

2021-06-23 Summer Sprint Series #2 Laumeier

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Advanced Course

1Nathan Graves31:16:00
2Matt Helbig31:37:00
3Josh Borgmeyer32:31:00
4Robert Bart33:09:00
5Gabe Sison35:23:00
6Bryan Niehaus37:45:00
7Jennifer Dolas39:51:00
8Eric Buckley41:46:00
9Gannon Niehaus46:33:00
10Tim Johanns 47:18:00
11Mary Piper49:14:00
12Carrie Sona52:58:00
13Jeff Sona57:01:00
14Brian Rodenbeck1:00:49
15Dave Beattie1:01:07
16Angie Haddock1:01:19
17Manoj Sood 1:01:21
18David Welsh1:24:36

Beginner Course

1Douglas Sickbert43:41:00
2Christa Ponstingl 45:13:00
3Myles Kelley48:11:00
4David Rader48:35:00
5Richard Davis54:32:00
6Heidi Abbott 55:28:00
7Chad Bryant55:40:00
8Neal Bockwoldt1:13:26
9Lora Welsh 1:25:26
10Melissa Kelley1:25:37
11Jason Bart1:31:08
12Tom NuzumNo Time 

2021-06-23 Summer Sprint Series #2 Laumeier Sculpture Park

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The SLOC Summer Sprint Series continues, making a stop at family friendly Laumeier Sculpture Park. Enjoy navigating the beginner friendly or advanced course as you discover the incredible artwork this urban park has to offer.

The beginner course will be a point to point navigation challenge suitable for families and those new to orienteering. The advanced course features companion points that must be collected in tandem. Both courses have a one hour time limit.

Registration is open online and will guarantee a map will be available for you. Limited in person registration in person be at 6:30PM. Check in and registration will be located near the parking lot of the Silver Maple Drive entrance off of Rott Road. Mass start is at 7:00PM and in person participants will be using the e-punch system for scoring. Come explore the park with us! <update, we have removed the virtual course due to low interest. sorry for any inconvience>

In Person Event registration is OPEN

2021-02-27 Tame the Dragon Results

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Great Event! Thank you for coming out and enjoying another Gary Thompson course. So far his courses have been unclearable! Check out links to photos and results below.

These photos are courtesy of Jim Glickert.  As always, he says these are free to share and post however you wish with no credit.  He’s just a generous guy! 
https://gojim.smugmug.com/Sports/Tame-the-Dragon-2021/

Marcus Janzow is a professional photographer. Check out this link for some great pics that are available for purchase. https://marcusjanzow.zenfolio.com/p899425514

There is also a spreadsheet Gary put together that is an analysis of all of the controls visited. The loneliest control was #14 (4 visits) followed by #35 and #45 (7 visits) while the most popular controls were #30, #41, and #53 (30 visits). 

Overall PlaceSolo PlaceTeam PlaceSolo/Team #Solo/Team NamePointsTime PenaltyFinal PointsElapsed TimeTeam Members
11S2Jason Bettis145001450 7:56:17
21T142 Down137001370 7:55:04Josh Borgmeyer, Jason Noakes, Jeff Ryan
32S8Andrei Karpov131001310 7:31:55
42T3Big Dogs120001200 7:47:09Matt Darr, Stephen Kruse
53S7Nathan Graves117001170 8:00:55
64S3Bob Billings116001160 7:56:17
75S15Bryan Niehaus116001160 8:00:25
86S17Jon VanDis112001120 7:41:12
93T13Rachel & Stewart104001040 7:16:50Rachel Furman, Stewart Gray
107S14Phil Nicolas1070501020 8:05:22
114T16STFD7700770 7:33:28Derek Hebda, Chris Heupel, Manoj Sood
128S6Mark Geldmeier7700770 7:52:48
139S9Melissa Kelley7500750 8:00:25
145T20Tigger and Eeyore6900690 7:43:20Jessica Heupel, Jim Huss
156T9Might Survive6400640 7:44:48Tucker Seise, Chris Boyle, Cody Eubanks
1610S12Bryan Lowry6300630 6:31:55
177T19The Okie Dokies6200620 6:50:22Jason Claunch, Stephanie Page
1811S16Jeff Sona750140610 8:14:58
1912S10Scott Kelley6000600 7:53:48
2013S13Daniel Lyskowski5900590 7:41:41
2114S4Yvonne Deyo5800580 7:10:46
228T18Team Virtus5500550 7:24:27Kate Geisen, Chuck Vohsen
239T4Big Muddy5400540 7:33:32Jerri Campbelli, Doug Deden
2410T26th Day Adventures5400540 7:39:48Ryan Franks, Chris Winkleman, Luke Winkleman,Matt Winkleman
2511T5Blind, Crippled & Crazy5200520 7:10:46Ken DeBeer, Anne Schrupp, Carrie Sona
2612T7CAOC4900490 7:54:39Patrick Coneff, Michael Reese
2713T12Perigee4600460 7:49:37Perry Gabbard, Sterling Hyland
2814T8Dragon Asses560110450 8:11:40Scott Page, Mark Matthews, Gary Braman, Rob Kucsik, Stacy Roberts
2915S5Timothy Garvey630180450 8:18:04
3015T11OzMOsis4100410 7:56:55Joseph Szabo, Tamara Szabo
3116T6Bloody Tears3000300 7:56:30James Avery, Mitch Faddis
3216S18David Welsh2600260 7:12:35
3317S1Frank Baukert30050250 8:05:39
3417T17STLCC in the Woods2400240 7:43:12Robert Bart, Kevin Minton, Larry Lazo
3518T10Off Road Rage1800180 8:00:00Tiara Adams, Ben Woolsoncroft
3619T15Seeking Sunshine50050 2:43:30Pamela Hudson, Chelsea Russell
3720T14Run Like The Winded1900190DNFMike Knapp, David Rader, Trish Rader
TD2021ControlsVisitedDownload

2021-01-23 Babler

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Results for Babler State Park Virtual Orienteering Event, January 2021** Please feel free to send results to yvonnedeyo@yahoo.com for inclusion in this list

Red – Male

  • Mike Garrison – 84:07
  • Nathan Graves – 85:07
  • Eric Buckley – 89:30
  • Josh Borgmeyer – 93:00
  • Vladimir Yurkuns, controls 1-11 – 174:00

Red – Group

  • Emily Korsch, Scott Erlandson and Tess! – 152:06

Orange – Male

  • Brian Hey – 61:06

Orange – Group

  • Steve and Tim Brennan – 114:00

Yellow – Female

  • Mary Piper – 43:15

Yellow – Male

  • Joshua Lester – 21:21

1. Rockwoods Range Courses

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There are permanent courses in St. Louis allowing you to go out and practice with real controls in the woods. The Rockwoods Range course map can be purchased through this webiste here.

FULL PERMANENT COURSE

For those up to the challenge, there are a total of 34 controls located on the Rockwoods Range map. To have a little fun with this, SLOC is maintaining a database for those who have completed the full course.

If you would like to post your time, please send an email to contourline@stlouisorienteering.org and we will post it. Please send us a link to a GPS track, with your time, the date, distance, and the name(s) of those who completed it. You are welcome to run this as many times as you would like.

Rockwoods Range Permanent Course
Full Course 34 Controls
Name(s)DateTimeControlsDistance (miles)
Nathan Graves1/10/213:00:443411.74
Nathan Graves 10/18/203:24:253412.39
Nathan Graves and Brian Rodenbeck2/21/153:46:393412.18
Zdenek Palachek and Todd Dohogne1/17/213:50:273411.97
Note – official time is the total time elapsed while on the course including any stoppages, not moving time as recorded on some devices.

OTHER VARIATONS

Not everyone wants to bite off the whole thing. That is OK too, we have designed a couple of shorter courses for those who want to try their hand at a shorter version. Send your final time to cavemelon@hotmail.com and feel free to run it as many times as you like. The Rockwoods Range course map can be purchased through this webiste here.

Rockwoods Range Challenge Course #1: Start at the gate at the AP Greensfelder Monument/Dogwood trailhead off of Allenton just south of Hencken Rd, proceed to numbers: 6, 27, 31, 9, 28, 13, 29, 16, 15, then back to the gate for the finish.

Rockwoods Range Permanent Course
Challenge Course #1
Name(s)Time
Josh Borgmeyer56:13
Eric Buckley57:00
Nathan Graves1:00:59
Greg Schott1:07:13
Jeff Ryan1:07:43
Nathan Graves1:15:02
Bryan Niehaus1:20:00
Mark Geldmeier1:34:04
Gary Thompson1:43:24
Tim Gutersloh1:48:11
Jeff and Carrie Sona2:02:00
Geisen Family2:22:01
Emily and Erl2:30:00

Rockwoods Range Challenge Course #2: Designed by Dave Frei. Start at 11, then go 10, 8, 26, 25, 24, 4, 5, 7, 34, 33, 32, and end at 13.

We recommend parking at the south Greenrock TH gravel parking lot and walk to the start at checkpoint 11. Then once you’ve completed the course at 13 enjoy your cool down hike back to your vehicle. The Rockwoods Range course map can be purchased through this webiste here.

Rockwoods Range Permanent Course
Challenge Course #2
Name(s)Time
Nathan Graves1:17:00
Josh Borgmeyer1:24:00
Mark Geldmeier2:11:00

ARE YOU A COURSE DESIGNER?

Do you have an idea for a set of controls from the Permanent Course that would make a great segment course for others to run? Great! We welcome that. Send us your course, any instructions, and your completed time and we will add yours to another chart just like the ones on this page. We love to have new ideas and challenges.

2020-08-30 Forest Park Sprint Results

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Thanks to everyone who came out and enjoyed the Forest Park sprint this last weekend. The weather was nice, so I heard the crowds were out (and a minor obstruction at times) but luckily all of the controls remained in place all weekend. I had hoped to have some route decisions, and based on some of the strava routes I saw, lots of participants made different choices.

Here are the results I have as of 9/1/20. I know there are more! Let me know and I’ll get them added.

Time (mm:ss)Notes
Group / Family
Lucy and Tom Ryan50:00
Mary Piper / David Frei54:40
Elizabeth Brennan / Tim Jackson90:00
Angie and Sam Ryan55:006 pts
Individual
Jeff Ryan24:00
Josh Borgmeyer31:42
Jim Avery48:38
Mark Geldmeier36:12missed one
Susan Kubinak65:19one out of order