What a great time at the Kress Farm Nature Preserve! Thanks to the board members for inviting us out to enjoy their scenic property, thanks to Dennis Brinkley and Troop 778 for making the maps, scout Mason Thayer for building the permanent course, and thanks to long-time SLOC member, Rick Armstrong for designing the courses. Abby Wilde was your race day registration volunteer. Rick, Nathan Graves, myself and others answered questions and gave beginner briefings.

Except for a quick downpour and a bit of wind, the weather was great for late April. Muted sunshine highlighted the variety of trees and fields of wildflowers. Some people spent extra time exploring those fields of wildflowers…unexpectedly (by going off the eastern side of the map). Oops!

Note: If you didn’t get enough or were not able to make it, the hiking trails and the permanent orienteering course at Kress Farm are always available to the public during the hours the preserve is open (a map can be borrowed). Native trees and plants, homegrown vegetables, as well as seasonal annuals are available for sale regularly and especially during their plant sale events. Check their website and FB page.

Thank you to everyone who made it out to the beautiful Beaumont Scout Reservation for the annual Orienteering Festival. It was a beautiful day with Scouts and non-scouts alike enjoying some treasure hunting in the woods. A special thanks to David Fisher for designing the course and to all the volunteers who helped make this big event possible. Here are the results, with the club results listed first and the scout results listed at the bottom of the page. Whether you placed well or not, our only concern is that you had fun.

CLUB RESULTS:

SCOUT RESULTS:

Thanks to all who came out for another day in the woods. The morning started with a cool start and clear skies. 8 hours later, temps were in the 50’s and everyone’s legs were toast.
A huge thanks to Gary and Ellen Thompson for an amazing event.

A huge shoutout to the Lafayette ROTC for bringing a large crew and crushing all those hills!

Detailed, control by control results can be found in below.

Thanks to everyone who helped put on this meet. It was a huge team effort once again to get so many racers through the event successfully. 46 people toed the line as individuals or groups to take on one of the four courses offered. Of course, there was also the GROM award which was given to the racer who bested both the blue course and then went out for a 90 minute score o with 33 CP options. Congrats to The Ukranian for taking this year’s rock.

The inaugural West Tyson Poker-O was a hit!  Hit me again everyone said…..so we might do just that…….next year, that is.   We didn’t know we had a club full of gamblers!  They braved freezing temps, ice, and sliding rocks just to get in a card game.  We thankful that all made it back safely except for this poor fella:  

Here are the results of the O -Game.  Bryan Niehaus nearly swept the whole event but card shark, Jeff Adams, swooped in and slammed down a Full House!  Congrats to everyone who had the free time to enjoy in the experience.  We hope to do more of these spontaneous, fun O-adventures for our valued members.  If you have any ideas or would like to direct an event, just let us know!

Name Time

Bryan Niehaus 44:35

Nathan Graves 47:10

Ukranian   51:47

Jeff Ryan 57:23

Michael Haveman  1:01:30

Manoj Sood 1:18:15

Jeff Adams. 1:28:57

Ted Weiss.  1:57:13

Mike Knapp  2:15:00

Jane Small 4:27:00

Name Poker Hand

Jeff Adams   Full House!

Bryan Niehaus Ace High Flush

Manoj Sood   Straight Queen high (with wild card!)

Jane Small.  Triple Kings, 9 high

Mike  Knapp. Pair of Queens, Ace high

Nathan Graves Pair of Jacks, King high

Michael Haveman  Pair of 10s, ace high

Ukranian   Pair of 8’s, Queen high 

Ted Weiss  Pair of 6’s, Queen high

Jeff Ryan Ace, queen high

The 2024 Babler O’ Meet hosted by Yvonne was another exceptional event to kick off the new orienteering season. With temperatures in the single digits and a light layer of snow highlighting the terrain, 20+ brave soles took to the hills to test their navigation and route planning skills.

Our many thanks to all the volunteers and participants for making this a fine event on a crisp and cold January day. There were great discussions of route choices, terrain challenges, frozen compass’ (actually frozen, not the awesome and aptly named team below), and eyewear selection along with anti-fogging methods. What a great group of fun loving people!

After a morning of moderate to heavy rainfall, the rain stopped just before the start of registration and held off until after the conclusion of the event. This we were thankful for! The results of the rain were predictable; nice and muddy conditions. We had a great group of patrons at this event, all willing and cheerful to explore a Jerry Young-curated course; a course designed to test your route planning with the unrelenting contours joyfully ready to levy judgement on your selection. With only one hour to obtain 26 available points, this was a challenging course indeed!

Our many thanks to those who came out to play in the woods with us!

A beautiful early winter day in the woods for the 2023 Turkey-O at Cuivre River State Park.  Lots of participants and lots of punching (electronically that is).  On average there were 14 CP’s visited per participant!  Nice to see plenty of beginners and first-timers.  And always fun to catch up with everyone that has been doing this for a long time.  For the advanced, the course was “almost cleared” (getting all but one CP).  Thanks to Anne Schrupp for handling the registration table, Jeff Sona for doing beginners briefings and control pickup, and also Matt Scherrer for control pickup.

A special thanks to Mark Geldmeier and all helpers for directing an awesome event. Congrats to Brian Rodenbeck for being the fastest Turkey with the best plan out in the woods!

3-Hour Course

Individual Points Time Found Penalty
1 Brian Rodenbeck 280 p. 2:35:01 280
2 The Ukranian 270 p. 2:55:27 270
3 Josh Borgmeyer (self-timed) 260 p. 2:50:08 260
4 Jeff Sona 220 p. 2:38:33 220
5 Joseph Marincel 200 p. 2:48:32 200
6 Ken DeBeer 200 p. 2:54:32 200
7 Shane Sparkman 200 p. 2:55:23 200
8 Colin Campbell 200 p. 2:55:25 200
9 David McWilliams 200 p. 2:55:26 200
10 Nathan Graves 200 p. 3:03:30 230 -30
11 Alan Kuehnle 180 p. 2:03:22 180
12 Chris Heupel 180 p. 2:54:01 180
13 Jessica Heupel 160 p. 2:21:26 160
14 Michael Rhodes 160 p. 2:47:42 160
15 Michael Knapp 150 p. 2:25:25 150
16 Zach Althaus 150 p. 2:58:56 150
17 Clifton Wise 140 p. 2:10:26 140
18 Steve Kuster 140 p. 2:45:21 140
19 Rachel Furman 140 p. 2:48:50 140
20 Ilker Tunay 140 p. 2:58:15 140
21 Brian Hey 120 p. 3:02:18 140 -20
22 Anne Schrupp 110 p. 1:36:27 110
23 Diana Gores 110 p. 2:11:57 110
24 Chuck Bailey 110 p. 3:00:30 110
25 David Bruns 40 p. 3:05:40 90 -50
26 Josiah Bailey 0 p. 3:15:20 150 -150
27 Tim Johanns 0 p. 3:37:00 140 -370
28 Kate Ryder & Josh Hafner 0 p. Lost eStick

Group – Adults Points Time Found Penalty
1 Jeff & Angie Ryan 200 p. 1:44:39 200
2 David & Stacey Hagen 200 p. 2:48:16 200
3 Cynthia & Steven Truemper 180 p. 2:43:02 180
4 David Karsten Abby Karsten 170 p. 2:38:54 170
5 Jeff & Becky Adams 150 p. 2:03:49 150
6 Jari Finneman & Lola Walman 150 p. 2:12:29 150
7 Mitchell Haskin & Justin Freihaut 150 p. 2:46:58 150
8 Clarkston Family 150 p. 2:52:35 150
9 Laura Houseman & Tonya McMillen 150 p. 2:59:00 150
10 Nathan & Mandy Goff 140 p. 2:26:29 140
11 Carrie & Emma & Ellie Sona 120 p. 2:14:19 120
12 Jim & Claire Huss 120 p. 3:03:36 150 -30

13 Tommy & Madison Ryan 70 p. 1:35:34 70
14 Steve & Mike Brennan 70 p. 1:38:44 70
Group with Children Points Time Found Penalty
1 Paul Paxton & Brittany Paxton & Layla Paxton 150 p. 2:46:49 150
2
Heidi Abbott & Joy Garcia & Murllin
& Jared Bender & Braulio Villarreal 120 p. 2:13:22 120
3 Steven Smith & Graham Smith & Ivy Smith 70 p. 1:49:13 70
4 Chase & Jennifer Sickbert 60 p. 1:40:05 60
5 Kelly Bailey Group 0 p. 3:15:05 130 -150
1-Hour Course

Individual Points Time Found Penalty
1 Perry Gabbard 80 p. 0:59:57 80
2 Douglas Sickbert 0 p. 1:10:27 70 -100
Group – Adults Points Time Found Penalty
1 Alan & Kalley Richardson 70 p. 0:56:17 70
Group with Children Points Time Found Penalty
1 Ben Jung & Hunter Anth 20 p. 1:00:18 20
2 Tyler Tennille & Owen Tennille 0 p. 1:04:58 50 -40

Thanks to the Sona’s for a super fun Score O course. Congrats to Bryan for a first overall finish, Cynthia and Steven Truemper for first in the group catagory and Melissa and Myles Kelley for first in the group w/kids catagory. A huge thanks to Scott Kelley for getting the new techincal rig going for the club. It worked like a chime, an e-punch downloading chime that it.