Saturday dawned on Thacher Park in the mid-60's and POURING RAIN. As I mounted the 18 controls I had saved for that morning, having mounted 11 controls the day before, I wondered if I was on a fool's errand, thinking, "Who the heck would come out in this weather to orienteer?" I was soaked to the skin in the first ten minutes.
Well, as it turned out, there were plenty of stalwart souls who either didn't care about the rain, or were counting on the skies to clear up, and didn't want to miss our last event of the spring season. We hosted 27 courses, mostly reds and greens, run by 25 die-hards in various styles of rain gear. We actually ran out of red maps at one point, but due to some advance planning by Phil and me, we were able to print a few extras right there and then.
Gratefully, I had no complaints about my control site choices or flag placements, although I heard one amiable gripe concerning my "misunderestimating" (thank you, George W. Bush!) of the amount of climb on the red/green course clue sheets. Sorry!
I was surprised by the distances some people drove to participate. We had runners come from as far away as Lake Placid, Rochester, and Poughkeepsie. One of our members rode a bicycle from Troy, and another brought a guest, his father-in-law, who was visiting from Hungary.
Thanks to the Thacher Park staff, we had a warm, dry shelter in the Hop Field warming room, which was much appreciated.
Thanks also goes to the triumvirate of Phil, Sue and Marty Hawkes-Teeter who helped with S.I., registration, instruction and control pickup. Extra gratitude to Marty, for volunteering(?) to return on Sunday to pick up many controls left in the woods. The meet was followed by a membership meeting featuring beer and pizza at Smith's Tavern in Voorheesville. Good times!
I regret there are no photos to accompany this article, as I had left the scuba housing for my camera at home. See you in the fall!
- Bob Lange
