Thanks to everyone that came out to Tower Grove Park for orienteering with the trees! Did you know that several of those tree species are rare or endangered and that Tower Grove is an arboretum with a mission of saving the trees?!
What a busy day in the park. With the farmers market and many outdoor enthusiasts, the park was packed. We even shared our HQ location picnic spot with a running/walking group. They were lively with music that kept the vibe going.
The response to this event was tremendous. A much larger turnout than was anticipated and we ran out of maps. Apologies to those that had to wait for a used map, and thank you to those that donated their map so it could be used again. Your club is frugal – we don’t like to waste things, but this time we guessed too little. Thanks everyone for rolling with it! If you want a map as a souvenir, shoot me an email and I’ll send an electronic version or mail a hard-copy. mgeldmeier@earthlink.net
Here’s a picture of the results. I’ll post a cleaner version in a few days.
Mid-summer in Saint Louis often means high humidity and/or thunderstorms…and we’ve seen plenty of that this season. But it was a somewhat comfortable summer evening at Marquette High School, home of the Mustangs. And with the nice weather, we had lots of people come out and join the fun.
The campus is fairly open, but there are some surprises…dark green (dense vegetation) and large fences, walls, and multi-level buildings…which might be on the map but not super easy to read when you’re in the field. There were also sports practices to dodge and the new turf football field construction that was on-going.
The results are divided into 1) the “Sprint” course for those that went in order and found them all, 2) the “Score-O” for those that got them in any order or missed some (not sure if everyone got the message about the 45 minute time limit, so results are sorted by name), and 3) “Sprint Round 2” for a few that went out a second time to see who was faster than a Mustang.
If something is incorrect (for example, you punched but it didn’t register), let me know. – Mark Geldmeier mgeldmeier@earthlink.net.
It was the most humid day of the summer so far. But that didn’t keep two dozen intrepid explorers from roaming the fields, trails, ponds, and parking lots of Queeny County Park. Z setup a score-O type course and gave us 45 minutes to find as many as we could. An additional challenge was no clue sheet…and the CP markers ranged from traditional flags to bare stakes, and even a couple of punches hanging only from a string! Orienteering is always an adventure. Thanks for coming out and having some hot & crazy fun.
Posted below are the results from Tuesday’s meet that just happened to occur during World Orienteering Week (https://worldorienteeringweek.com/). Thanks to everyone that came out to my goofy format.
The times below are the validated (and adjusted best I could) adjusted times based on the rules.
As for the 2nd sprint (the experiment) where participants were trying for the shortest distance and not the fastest time: there were some challenges with GPS batteries, forgetting to start the GPS, and of course the various types of devices. In the end, everyone’s distances were very very close.
Add together the most beautiful weekend of the Spring, the most beautiful park in Missouri, superbly designed technical courses, night navigation, day navigation, a blazing campfire, and even whip-poor-wills…and you get orienteering bliss.
Thanks to Eric for designing and setting the courses. Thanks to all that attended (it was great to see the Kansas City area contingent!) We’re still polishing the results, so come back for those. And we’ll put the Livelox up too, so save your routes so you can add them later.
Thanks to “Z” (Zdenek Palechek) for putting on this Summer (okay Spring) Sprint in Queeny Park. Participants searched for 12 CP’s placed in Z’s favorite locations. The weather was great, and good exploration was had by all.
On behalf of the St. Louis Orienteering Club and the Greater St. Louis Area Council I would like to thank you for attending the 22th John Smerek Scout Orienteering Festival. The weather was clear and sunny. All in all, the scouts and scouters had a great time. The festival attendance was up slightly from 2025. This year we had 18 units with 136 participants.
Attached are the results from the 2026 Scout Orienteering Festival Score-O competition based on the punch cards received at the finish. The festival is designed to test a scout’s (buddy pair or three not groups of four or five) map reading and strategic planning skills. The awards for the top finishers are embroidered neckerchief slides. The scores were very good again this year.
I had trouble reading the names on a few cards, so I apologize for any names that are miss spelled.
The GSLAC Map and Compass Committee is hard at work designing next year’s course. If you have any ideas on how to improve the festival or you would like to join the committee, please let us know. Please talk up the festival at your district’s roundtable and encourage all your neighboring units to attend next year.
Next year’s 23th John Smerek Memorial Scout Orienteer Festival is scheduled for March 6, 2027. I hope everyone will be back again next year. The GSLAC Map and Compass Committee is putting on a “First Class Orienteering” course on May 16 and again in October. Go to the council website to register for these events.
If your scouts would like to do some additional orienteering the St. Louis Orienteering club puts on a local event each month, with courses for beginner to advanced orienteers. For more information visit the club’s website at http://www.stlouisorienteering.org.
The GSLAC Map and Compass Committee conducts adult leader training sessions for adults each year. Please check the Council Calendar for the date for the next session.
Yours in Scouting,
David Fisher
22th John Smerek Memorial Scout Orienteering Festival
A big thanks to everyone who was able to come out to beautiful Beaumont today to slip and slide in the woods looking for treasures with fellow nature loving friends. Special thanks to David Fisher for designing, setting and helping to pick up the courses. Fantastic job, as always, David. Also, a big thanks to Matt Scherrer and Nathan Graves who helped pick up the course. Kudos to George Schweitzer who took advantage of the Membership perk of doing the course early and was able to complete the Red Course in the dark without reflectors on the bags. Well done, George! I hope everyone learned something and had fun today. See you at the next one.
