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.
What a great day to be on the lake. It started with a pretty wild overnight thunderstorm but that seemed to cool the air and calm the lake. So after my car broke down in the driveway, and I had to have some club members and parents (thanks Mom, Dad, and Bryan) come to the rescue, the course was finally up, the HQ was set and we were ready to roll about 9:30am. Thanks to Bryan, Mark, Scott, Kevin, and David who all came out early to help with set up and logistics. Thanks to Scott, Kevin, Robert, Mark, David, Bryan, and Joe for helping with breakdown and course pick up.
We had several divisions this time around with winners everywhere. The course was designed to be just a little too long to complete, forcing you to decide which controls you would go for and what you had to punt. There were two controls you could get to by foot if you chose (no one did) and five controls of higher point values to tempt you to paddle farther and make tough choices. Each minute over 60, starting with 60:01 was a penalty point so the penalty was steep, and did make a difference in the end.
It was great to be out there with everyone. Thanks for coming and playing in the water.
Thanks to all who braved the heat for a mad dash around Tilles Park! At least it was a dry heat…. On the agenda for this evening was a 33 control, Score-O (find in any order), with a 20 minute time limit. Yep, 33 controls in 20 minutes! Much ado was made over the 5.9 km distance that OCAD included on the clue sheets. Nope, it wasn’t 5.9 k, unless you chose a random path through the park. By my calculations, the optimal route was 2.7 km, red line.
An optimal route:
There were two “mass” starts: An early start at 5:50 pm for a group of 5 or 6 that had other commitments later in the evening, and the primary start at 6:30 pm. Oh, no looking at the map prior to the start. 🙂
I think a few runners went north, but I think the majority went south to start. Only two sweeps. There was lots of conversation after the finish.
And before moving on to the results, a huge, special thanks to the many who helped clean up after the event! Paul, Bryan, Gannon, Angie & Jeff & Tom, Eric, Manoj, Josh, Nathan, Laura. I hope I didn’t miss anyone.
And last but not least, my apologies to Angie for giving her the wrong map at the start.
Thanks to all the participants! We had a great turnout for a Tuesday evening event. Laumeier Sculpture Park is definitely a treasure. Thank you for allowing me to indulge in a bit of whimsy…I doubt you’ve seen “crack in the Earth”, or “watch for deer poop” as control point clues before. Also thanks to the Brennan family for reminding me that this location was their first orienteering experience… A class given in partnership with the Saint Louis County Parks (where I was the instructor)…oh and that was in 2007…yikes! Finally, a big thanks to Jeff and Tom Ryan for the control pickup.
