This event was organized as a test event for potential orienteering use of the Tahoe National Forest north of Interstate 80 near Truckee, California. In addition to providing an opportunity to orienteer in a new place, and have some fun, there were four objectives:
- To test the permitting process.
- To establish contact with the rangers, and start building a relationship with them.
- To evaluate the suitability of the forest and surrounding locations for potential mapping by BAOC.
- To identify possible arena locations for large events such as JWOC.
The weather was cool, perfect for orienteering. We expected 10 folks to show up. We said we would be happy if 20 showed up. In the end, we had 32 participants! So after all was said and done, we did achieve all of the goals.
Scott Aster spearheaded the permitting, and his report indicates that the rangers were friendly and accommodating, if a little slow at first. He obtained the permit more than a week early, and we were good to go.
We asked all runners to provide their opinions about the terrain and its suitability for orienteering. In general, everyone agreed that the areas we used were "very runnable, with good visibility and not steep". On the down side, some folks said it was a bit "bland" with too few point features, and others said it was too "easy". We used a couple of square kilometers close to the parking lot, but the usable forest extends a lot further towards Independence Lake, and is more varied in that direction. In addition, some folks identified possible areas nearby that look quite technical. Bob Cooley is exploring them further. If folks wish to send in their additional comments, we would be happy to receive them and post them for discussion on the BayOnet.
We did identify possible arena locations. Little Truckee Summit is one, Anderson Meadow is another in the area of the meet, and there are some areas south of Stampede Reservoir and at Boca Reservoir, as well as possibly Donner Ski Ranch south of Boreal, which would be great.
The results are posted below.
We would like to thank all those who helped out—as usual, the orienteering folks were great, and everything went smoothly with the help they provided. I suspect I have left someone out—if so, lease let me know!!
Scott Aster – permit
Ev and Jean Beuerman – registration
Gary Kraght – starts
Marsha Jacobs – starts, finishes, results
Dan Stoll-Hadayia – control pickup
Oleg Shaknovsky – setup and tear down
Galena Shakhnovsky – starts, setup and tear down
Rosemary Johnson – starts and results
Jennifer Kerr – starts, finishes, results
Jim Fish – control pickup, starts, finishes, results
Bruce Wolf – map consultation
Bob Cooley – map consultation
But here is the most important part and the most significant recognition:
Jay Hann proposed the idea to have this meet and its goals, and set in motion the whole process. Jay made the map in one week from USGS and Google photos, designed the courses, explored and vetted the terrain, set and picked up control bags, and took care of a ton of little things.
Many, many thanks to Jay for his effort—a very successful test of the the Tahoe National Forest for orienteering!
RouteGadget