Petrified Forest Rogaines

October 7, 2018 Updates:

• Packet Pickup:
  Friday, 6:00 to 9:00 PM outside 66 Motel office (NOT Motel 6) (See the List of Preferred Accommodations for directions to the 66 Motel.)
  Saturday, 7:30 - 8:30 AM at Event Headquarters
  Sunday, 7:30 - 8:30 AM at Event Headquarters
  
  
• Event Headquarters - Chinde Point, Inside the North Entrance, Petrified Forest National Park
  (Directions to the North Entrance Visitor Center)
  (Directions to Chinde Point)
  Participants must check-in at Event Headquarters each morning between 7:30 and 8:30 AM.
  The pre-race briefing, including map distribution, starts promptly at 8:30 AM.
  We will transport participants to the start location immediately after the pre-race briefing.
  Finally, participants will walk from the bus drop-off ~600 meters to the remote start location.
  
  
• Transportation to Event Start Locations
  The start/finish locations of this year's events have limited parking. On both days, we will use two 14-passenger school buses to transport participants from the event headquarters at Chinde Point to the start location.
  Saturday: On Saturday, we will transport participants to/from the start and finish locations.
  Sunday: On Sunday, we'll transport participants to the start location. Participants are able walk to their vehicles from the finish location.
  We will make multiple trips to transport all participants to the start locations. The pre-race briefing, including handing out maps, starts promptly at 8:30 AM. The first trip to the start location will leave immediately after the pre-race briefing. We're sorry for any hassle. It's the only way we're able to get everyone to the start locations.
  

DESCRIPTION:

Please join the Greater Phoenix Orienteering Club and the Tucson Orienteering Club as we present two days of orienteering events at the Petrified Forest National Park in eastern Arizona. On both Saturday, October 13 and Sunday, October 14, 2018, we will offer a 4-hour event called a "Rogaine" in which participants navigate on foot using only a map and compass to different locations within a designated area. Participants are allowed to visit as few or as many locations as they can within the 4-hour time limit. Our orienteering events at the Petrified Forest National Park offer an excellent opportunity to practice your navigation skills while at the same time exploring an incredibly beautiful and unique National Park. The Petrified Forest National Park has offered us an excellent and rare chance to practice our sport inside a National Park. We hope you'll take the opportunity to join us and discover this amazing national treasure.

NOTES:

Pre-Registration
(Event Registration) (See who is registered)

Pre-Registration is Required! The Petrified Forest National Park does not allow any money exchange within the park. In addition, there is a strict limit to the number of competitors the Park is allowing for our events. Because of this, pre-registration is required for the events using our on-line registration site.

Registration/Fees (Event Registration) (See who is registered)

Because of the pre-registration requirement, we use an on-line registration site to help with the registration for the Petrified Forest Rogaines. Fees for the events are set on a staggered scale to encourage you to register early. (Early registration helps when it comes to printing the maps!) The entry fees are the same for each event and are per participant. Individuals who wish to compete as part of a team still must register and pay individually. We are allowing individual participants as well as teams of 2-4 individuals. If you would like to compete as a team, we ask that you include the name of your team in the "Notes" box of the registration screen.

• Regular Registration: Register by 11:59 PM Arizona time on Sunday, September 30. The regular registration fee is $30 per person per day. A $5 discount each day is applied if you register for both days ($50 for both days.)
• Late Registration: Register by 11:59 PM Arizona time on Sunday, October 7. The late registration fee is $40 per person per day.
• Onsite Registration: We are unable to offer onsite registration.
  We're sorry, but in order to meet national park rules, we must close registration the weekend before the events. There is also a strict limit to the number of participants we can invite. Please help us by registering early.
• Refunds: We regret that we are unable to refund registration fees after registration is complete.
• Electronic timing: We are not using e-punch. The two events will use a manual punch system. The registration form requests that you enter an e-punch number or check a box to rent an e-punch card. Please ignore the e-punch requests on the registration form.

Parental Consent Required (Click here for more information)
All participants under age 18 are required to have a signed parental consent form on file with the club. You can complete the form before the event and either scan it and send it to us by e-mail or bring it with you to the event.

Packet Pickup

• Friday, 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM outside the 66 Motel (List of Preferred Accommodations)
  
• Saturday, 7:30 AM to 8:30 AM at Event Headquarters
  
• Sunday, 7:30 AM to 8:30 AM at Event Headquarters
  

Event Headquarters
Event Headquarters is at Chinde Point. Chinde Point is inside the north entrance of the park, approximately 2.1 miles from the Visitor Center. For both Saturday and Sunday's events, you need to allow an extra 10 minutes to get from the Visitor Center to the Event Headquarters. We will conduct a pre-event briefing each day at 8:30 sharp, followed immediately by bus transport to the start location. Please plan your travel time accordingly.

Carpool to the Events
We suggest that participants arrange to meet at the parking lot of the Petrified Forest National Park Visitor Center then carpool to the Event Headquarters. The Visitor Center, located just outside the park's fee area at the north entrance, has plenty of parking to accommodate extra vehicles. There is a $20 fee per vehicle to enter the park. If you carpool, you can save on the entrance fee.

Accommodations
There are a number of options for accommodations in the Holbrook area. The lodging options includes deluxe and standard motels, RV sites, cabins, paid camping, and free camping. You can click on the List of Accommodations to see the places we have used for lodging in the past. We appreciate everything the local Holbrook businesses have done to help with our weekend of orienteering fun.

Restrooms
We will provide two portable restrooms at Event Headquarters. On Saturday, there are no restroom facilities at either the start or the finish location. On Sunday, there is no restroom facility at the start location. Please note that the terrain throughout the national park is barren. There aren't many places to find privacy. We suggest you minimize your hydrating until you get close to the start time.

Map and Terrain
The map scale for both day's events is 1:15,000. The maps do not use the standard brown color for "open terrain" but instead use white (to avoid wasting ink when printing the maps). While the maps do not meet the standard for high-quality orienteering maps, we promise we'll only place controls on easy-to-see mapped features. For those of you who love running in the forest, you've come to the wrong place! The unique landscape in the Petrified Forest National Park is very rugged and very barren. You'll get to explore a badlands of rocks, gullies, cliffs, and most of all, petrified wood! We have specifically chosen sites for the controls which will take you through geologic layers with some of the heaviest concentrations of petrified wood in the park. You will NOT be disappointed!

Course Notes

• Water: We'll have two water stations on the course. At least one of the stations will be manned by a volunteer with radio communications back to Event Headquarters. We want these events to be as safe as possible. We hope you'll all plan to visit our manned water station to help keep our volunteer entertained.
• Punch System: We will use standard manual controls. This means you will record your visit to a control by punching a control card using the punch attached to the control bag. We will NOT use electronic punching. For some of you, this is a throwback into prehistoric times, which is somehow appropriate with all the petrified wood laying around you. We hope you're not too disappointed that you won't be able to use the fancy SportIdent card you just purchased.
• Map Distribution: We'll hand out maps at the mandatory pre-race briefing at 8:30 each day. We'll then transport participants to the start location. By handing out maps before the bus trip, we're helping to ensure you don't bother us during the drive to the start location. We have a remote start each day which means you'll walk around 600 meters to get to the start line. While you have some time to look at the map and plan your route, you need to plan enough time to get to the start line by 9:30.

Awards/Categories
We will present awards to the top 3 finishers overall as well as the top 3 finishers in each class. Each event has a minimum of three classes of teams: Male Open, Female Open, and Mixed Open. Depending on attendance at the events, we may expand the categories to include age-groupings. For purposes of the Petrified Forest events, a "team" consists of one to four members.

SCHEDULE:

FOOD:

WHAT TO BRING:

• Whistle (Mandatory for all. Available for purchase for $1)
• Compass (Mandatory for all. Available for rent for $1)
• Water. There will be water at the start/finish. We will also have one or two water stations on the course. However, you are strongly encouraged to bring your own water bottles or a camelback.
• Sun screen. There is little or no shade on the course.
• Sturdy hiking shoes and long pants are recommended. You won't encounter a lot of vegetation but there is a fair amount of loose terrain.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Follow this hyperlink for directions to Chinde Point (Event Headquarters).
Follow this hyperlink for directions to the Visitor Center.