After showers and thunderstorms the day before, we awoke to bright blue skies and cool temperatures. Arriving at the park, we were concerned about the “hunt in progress” signs, but orienteering participants are an intrepid lot, and everyone went out anyway! (the hunt didn’t start until the next day).

It was so much fun to see all the excited faces! Thanks to everyone that came out. Hope you had fun playing in the park full of varied terrain and so much history. A special thanks to Anne Schrupp for running the registration. Thanks to Jeff Sona, Carrie Sona, and the Washington High School cadets that helped put up banners and organize the registration table. Thanks to Brian Rodenbeck and Josh Borgmeyer for control pickup.

It was a warm and wonderful evening of orienteering in Kirkwood Park. Our hard working volunteers welcomed a mix of returning regulars plus many new bright-eyed faces to the sport of orienteering. We had a tremendous turnout of over 160 participants this year, almost doubling our normal volume. Thank you to all who joined us and navigated with curiosity and excitement. Your energy lit up the night! A big thanks to our SLOC and family volunteers who took the increased volume in stride. My apology on any map delays and on control #23 being on the SE corner of the lake instead of the SW corner of the lake. We hope to see everyone again next year for this annual St. Louis Orienteering Club classic! ~Mary Piper(Frei)

Preliminary Results:

Thanks to all of you, 80 racers over 38 teams who toed the line at the inaugural CC4 Adventure Race. On behalf of SLOC and the race directing team that put this event on, we are very grateful for your participation. Prelim results are posted. If you see any discrepancies, please report them to us at contourline@stlouisorienteering.org ASAP.

A few housekeeping notes. I’ve created a shared Google drive with pictures. If you have photos, please send them to me by email and I’ll get them posted. We also have several items in the lost and found that are pretty nice. Two Kanpas compasses, two more compasses, a pair of Prana pants, sunglasses and a waterbottle. This stuff is all in the gear box we bring to the meets so if you are the owner of these items please reach out or show up at the Kirkwood Night O scheduled for September 13th. There are several nice items in there from the Babler O meet earlier this year and other stuff along the way.

If you have any feedback for us, please share that too. While the race directing team has participated in countless ARs and put on many O meets, this was our first go at this type of race and as we contemplate both our near-term fall schedule and the 2026 landscape, we’d like to know what you are interested in seeing. And, we are always looking for volunteers to help with our regular meets so if you want to give back to the community and take the a lead, or even supporting role, in directing a race, we’d love to have you.

Many thanks and congratulations to each one of you!

Attached is a more detailed set of results with timing from each leg for those who want to go into a little more detail.

Livelox: https://www.livelox.com/Events/Show/164603/Marquette-HS-2025

It was one of the most humid evenings of the summer, but that didn’t stop the 20 intrepid participants from roaming around the pond and lake covered landscape of August A. Busch Memorial Conservation Area. A big thank you to first time meet director Jessica Heupel! She had the idea of putting on an event here a year ago, and we helped to make it a reality.

The event was a one-hour score-O event with 25 CP’s of varying point value. It wasn’t possible to get all of them within an hour, so you had to plan what you thought would be an optimal route and then adjusting while biking down gravel roads. Thanks everyone for coming out and having fun!

Thanks to all who came out and braved the heat, and the jungle gym, for what turned out to be a good evening in the park. Also….. sorry for pushing the bounds of the clue/circle on #4. I am not sorry for making you all climb the jungle gym though. See the results below:

Livelox tracks: https://www.livelox.com/Events/Show/162018/Lafayette-Park-Sprint-2025

Group Score-O:

Individual Point to Point:

Group Point to Point:

The tornado of May 2025 passed through the western and northern portions of Forest Park, toppling or damaging nearly a thousand trees. Meet Director Bryan Niehaus designed an orienteering event that respectfully recognized this tragedy by using only the rootstocks of fallen trees for the check points.

Course options were a shorter point-to-point course with 15 CPs, or a longer “farsta” format course. A farsta is when participants start together and cover the same distance, but there are multiple loops, and each person does the loops in different sequences. Thanks Bryan for the summer fun!

Thanks to all those who came out for a beautiful evening of Orienteering.

The Sprint courses were designed side by side with emphasis on the correct control cluster. After misplaced checkpoint 1’s, the course presented itself with some wide open orienteering with limited route choices.

Livelox: https://www.livelox.com/Events/Show/159862/Queeny-Sprint-2025

Livelox for Middle Course: https://www.livelox.com/Events/Show/176121/Meramec-Middle-2025

It was rainy and chilly all day in the St. Louis area which made it hard to jump in the car and head down for a night of orienteering and probably wet camping. But for those that did, the drizzly, wet, and foggy woods were mystical. Night orienteering is hard. Night orienteering in wet and slippery conditions is harder. If you completed a course (or even found just a few CP’s), congratulate yourself.

A small group spent the night and dried out by the campfire. A few drove down for the Sunday morning courses. The middle distance was a welcomed relief.

Great to see the Washington High School ROTC cadets putting on another great performance. Thanks to the meet director (especially for keeping track of 55 total CPs!) Thanks to Yvonne and Mark for registration and all the others that pitched in. And a special thanks to Nathan Graves and Rick Armstrong for returning to the park on a different day to pickup the remaining controls.

It was great to see everyone that came out to West Tyson! A good mix of long-time orienteers along with some new faces. The weather was sunny and warm (maybe a bit too warm). But after too much rain the previous weekend and some cool days during the week, no one was complaining about the weather.

The courses were designed by Rick Armstrong and the vetting of the control locations had been completed. But then the Meramec river rose 30 feet. Last minute tweaks were needed for the advanced course to keep people safe while still providing a little adventure. Meanwhile the Chubb trail dried up perfectly, just in time for the Yellow course participants to enjoy. And the Orange course provided a great opportunity to see Dogwoods in bloom along with several varieties of spring-blooming Missouri natives.

The course distances might have looked a little shorter, but the climb made up for it. Several people were enticed into selecting a harder course, stretching their skills and physical conditioning. Even if you didn’t finish the course you selected, great job at pushing your limits!

Thanks to Rick Armstrong for course design. Thanks to Kelly Skaggs, Will, Skaggs, Stu Hamilton, and Lulu for working the registration and starts. Thank you to Jeff Sona for providing beginner briefings. Thanks to the Washington HS ROTC cadets for assisting with setup and Douglas & Chase for taking down banners. And thanks to Eric Buckley and Josh Borgmeyer for control pickup.