"There are strange things done in the midnight sun"

I think it was Avril who asked my partner Malcom, if he did crazy things like Gordon. I guess it is in the eye of the beholder. A lot of people would have thought that tramping around the woods in December looking for controls ( 20 or 30 Kms, 8 hours etc. cold, wet) was crazy but there were 13 teams willing to do it.

I hunt. And I ask myself why sometimes. The answer is always the same. I really enjoy the woods. I have only ever been successful (if you measure success by killing a deer) once and that one was already wounded by another hunter. Sunday was the same. It was a beautiful day. Plus 6 or 8 and sunny and no wind. I did not have to worry about carrying a rifle. I didn't have to worry about any other hunters. You know the fun is over when you hunt as soon as you pull the trigger. I didn't have to worry about that. All the advantages of a good day in the woods and none of the disadvantages.

We arrive at 0700 and there are a few cars and a truck from the Water Commission. At about 0720, Derek Hann arrives. Registration, which section? Gear check yes they did check to see if we really did have the mandatory gear. Final directions and by 0824 we were off. Now this is my 4th orienteering thingie this year and each one is a little bit different. This had 10 mandatory check-points that had to be done in order. Which wasn't hard because they were roughly in the order you would do them anyhow. And for a little spice, there were 10 more check-points that had values of 100 to 500 points that could be done "on your way" so to speak.

I am still learning how to do these. We don't use the compass much. We tend to stay on roads. I find the woods nice but never as easy as the road to travel on. Of course, we took the coordinates and marked the locations on the map. None of this taking them already marked. The first two were easy - right on the road. Now south for a K through the woods to meet a road. We cross the power line and it is brutal all sorts of trimming had been done and it was hard walking. Hit the road and turn left. One K of easy road and we get the first bonus one. Some have come down the stream-maybe faster- but we are at least still dry. Back a couple of K on the road and get #3. Decision. Straight along the power line for 1.5 K or continue down the road, cut through the woods and back to the road. We did the slightly longer road, woods, road, route and it wasn't bad at all. Up the road and knock off #'s 4 and 5. At 5, Malcom is talking to another team. They decide to go through the woods and we decide to go around on the road to try for the second bonus. We follow the road until we get to the first trail on the right. To make an hour story short, we were actually going in the road that we had intended to go out. The lake we thought would be on the right was on the left. I don't think we quite have that one straight in our mind yet. We meet the team that bushwhacked.. Together we finally get the elusive "B".

Easy for # 6- right there. Then #7 just up the road a K. Okay bonus "C".

Decision Go north and pick up D,E,F,G, and H or cut across about 3 trails(?) and get 8. We figure this is the toughest marker as these are small trails not roads so we opt to go straight for 8. We did hit the road and turned left instead of right after 30 or 40 minutes we realized we were going in the wrong direction. Turn and backtrack. Geeze we only go by where we hit the trail about 150 metres and #8 jumps out at us.

By now we pick up Gary and Ron and do the # 9 at the south end of the lake, and # 10 on the point in Pockwock. Yes, the same point that was under 3 or 4 feet of water for the SAR challenge, was actually quite easy this time.

We had a great time. Many thanks to Derek and his team for setting this up.

These are not easy, but certainly doable and we would tell any body to try them, Do not be scared by the distance. We didn't run much, mostly trotted a bit and never uphills. Certainly there wasn't much moving quickly after noon.

Gordon and Malcom

Gonzo Adventure Club

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RESULTS
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There was a great turnout for the inaugural Winter Sprinter long distance orienteering race which took place on Dec 2, 2001 near Hammonds Plains, NS. Race organizers want to thank everyone again for coming out and supporting this event which we hope will become an annual competition. The race was exciting and the finish times were fantastic. All 15 teams finished in the allotted 8 hour time limit. Although only 4 teams completed all 19 checkpoints, all teams attempted some of the bonus points and all teams scored more than 2000 points out of a possible 4000. The results are posted below by Category.

Team # Bib # Team Name Team Captain Team Member Time On Course Points

1 740 Red Rock Raiders Patrick Chan Marian Grant 5:31:25 4000
2 720 Dalplex Pat McGrath Krista Elvidge 5:55:30 4000
3 725 Falconer Brothers Fred Falconer Dave Falconer 5:32:55 2000
5 741 Miles To Go Jim Blanchard Wayne Myles 5:43:41 4000
6 721 The Green Belays Justin Ellis Sean Bickerton 6:03:50 3600
8 722 Perdido Jeremy Bernard Zoe Kroeker 7:34:00 3600
9 723 Dyslectic Adventurers Chris Waldron Rami Bardeesy 7:39:00 3100
10 5747,8,9 HammerHeads Junior Trevor Davies Hilary Davies/Jen Heddon 7:41:50 2600
11 731 Hammerheads AR Roger Heimpel Walter Freisen 7:40:30 3700
12 742 8 hours, No beer Gary Daneff John MacRitchie 7:00:00 2100
13 724 Ironbound Ronnie Tibert Gary Moore 6:35:41 4000
14 727 Gonzo Adventure Club Gordon Warnica Malcolm Pain 6:35:41 2400
15 726 14 Riley Lisa Riley Martin Riley 7:00:00 3100

Orienteering 4 730 The Has Beans Peter Lewis Avril Lewis 6:04:15 3500
7 750 Mud Runners Harold McQuade Danielle Cawley 6:42:10 3600

Ist Overall - Red Rock Raiders
2nd Overall - Miles To Go
3rd Overall - Dalplex

I st AR Div 1 - Dalplex
2nd AR Div 1 - Ironbound
3rd AR Div 1 - The Green Belays

1st AR Div 2 - Red Rock Raiders
2nd AR Div 2 - Miles To Go
3rd AR Div 2 - Hammerheads AR

1st Orienteering - Mud Runners
2nd Orienteering - The Has Beans

Thanks to Everyone for coming out. See you at the next event!

Derek Hann/Tory Meyer
Race Directors
Winter Sprinter 2001
advracer@hfx.eastlink.ca

Thanks to Dave Willman for his great support as an unbelievable volunteer. We couldn't have accomplished so much without you!

Thanks to Michael Haynes of OANS for his help in getting this off the ground and for the ongoing support he gave us during the days before, during and after.