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.

There were horses and there were Redbuds blooming. Initial results below. We’ll clean up and re-post soon. Thanks for attending!

Dear Fellow Scouters:

On behalf of the St. Louis Orienteering Club and the Greater St. Louis Area Council I would like to thank you for attending the 22^th 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 23^th 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                          

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.

You never know what kind of conditions you’ll get when entering the dragon’s lair. When we last attempted this starting HQ location, the roads were icy and the temps frigid. But this year was one of the best weather days you can get in the month of February. There were 68 intrepid racers joining the quest to placate the mysterious beast. But, alas, the dragon would not be tamed. No one was able to clear the entire course. Though everyone had great adventures and quest-filled stories to share.

Thanks to Gary and Ellen Thompson for all the effort and care they pour into making this event spectacular. The post-race banquet was plentiful, the fleece jackets smartly adorned, and the event details precise. Thank you to all that attended and made this so much fun!

Pictures courtesy of Kate Geisen and others. Lots more pictures on the SLOC FB page…

https://www.facebook.com/stlouisorienteering

Here’s the details of CP’s visited by every participant.

Congratulations to Brian Rodenbeck our overall winner. Thanks to everyone who assisted in making this a success including Brian Hey, Zdneck, Bryan Niehaus, and Hannah and Amber at Wyman for the use of the Enterprise Building and access to the property. It was a miserable day of setting the course on Saturday but was just about perfect weather for Sunday’s meet (and Monday’s course clean up). See below for full results as well as the podium for each division. Please let me know if you see anything you have a question about.

Babler Cold Nose O’ – 2026 Edition

A foreboding forecast led to this event being postponed for a week. Those of you familiar with SLOC events know postponement is very rare! We appreciate everyone remaining flexible with the event date and apologize to those who were unable to attend due to the change. The following week brought slippery, fluffy, snow-covered surfaces and single digit temperatures at the start, but also a stable forecast and beautiful sunshine. We’ll take it! Thanks to all of you for braving the slick slopes of Babler State Park.

Many thanks also to Rick Armstrong for invaluable course consultation, John Vogel for extensive control setting and pick-up support, and Eric Buckley for the awesome new map.

White Course

Individual

Catherine Kuehnle                        43:29

Tim Gutmann                                1:17:06

Kevin Paubel                                2 controls

Group

The Gordon Family                      53:57

Mitchell Gordon group                  55:41

Silver – Marquette HS ROTC       1:06:59

Clarice Pavlak group                    1:23:48

Orange Course

Individual

Steven Gleason                           1:12:24

Mary Piper                                   1:16:11

Mike Kraujalis                              1:36:52

Group

Sean Hoffman group                    1:20:00 estimated

Jacob Peterson group                  1:55:45

Hull group                                    2:22:28

Green Course

Individual

Eric Buckley                                 1:13:03

Ken DeBeer                                 2:10:38

Group

Haveman group                           1:46:53

Kelly Bailey group                        3 controls

Red Course

Individual

Brian Rodenbeck                         1:15:36

Zdenek Palacek                           1:20:07

Nathan Graves                             1:23:41

Matt Scherrer                               1:46:17

Nathan Goff                                 1:51:39

Jeff Sona                                     2:01:09

Robert Bart                                  2:44:46

Lara Houseman                           7 controls

Zach Althaus                                7 controls

Group

Justin Freihaut group                    2:13:27                   

Thank you to all who braved the favorable weather today at the 2025 edition of the St. Louis Orienteering Club’s Holiday O’ Meet!

Livelox: https://www.livelox.com/Events/Show/176818/Broemmelsiek-Holiday-2025

After a blast of early-season snowfall swept through the area region early Saturday morning, our Thanksgiving O-meet was forced to take an unplanned pause. With the snowfall leading to Cuirve River State Park’s temporary closure, this meant a last-minute rescheduling or the meet was required. Thanks to all the flexibility of our participants and volunteers, we were able to regroup Sunday morning and enjoy a crisp, bright day of orienteering through a winter wonderland. 

Results

Thank you to everyone who came out and competed on the rescheduled date. Congratulations to all finishers—conditions were still soft underfoot, but that didn’t slow down some impressive performances.

Acknowledgments

A meet like this is only possible because of amount of behind-the-scenes effort. A big Thank You goes out to Mark Geldmeier for his numerous quick communication updates and overall guidance, Derek Hebda for spending many hours in the woods meticulously verifying the course to ensure everything on the map matched the ground and Ken Debeer and Jim Huss for clearing the course. 

We look forward to seeing everyone at the next event—hopefully under calmer skies.

Thanks to Jeff and Carrie Sona for putting on a great event at Cliff Cave. And a shout out to Brian Rodenbeck for helping with everything from setup to control pickup. It was a pretty simple event, two hours to find as many of the CP’s as you could. Sounds easy. But the numerous depressions, sinkholes, and meandering trails can easily get you turned around. I’m sure everyone had the experience of dropping into one of the depressions confident the orange/white flag would quickly be spotted…only to find…nothing, Boo! But at least there were snacks, candy, and friendly conversation at the finish. Hope everyone had a great time!