Petrified Forest Rogaines

Petrified Forest National Park
Arizona

Saturday, October 12, 2019: 4-Hour Rogaine
Sunday, October 13, 2019: 4-Hour Rogaine

Event Headquarters: Petrified Forest National Park South Entrance
Directions to Event Headquarters at the South Entrance
(Event Registration) (See who is registered)


(Pictures)

October 7, 2019 Updates:

  • Packet Pickup:
    Friday, 6:00 to 9:00 PM at the Lexington Inn (See the List of Preferred Accommodations for directions to the Lexington Inn.)
    Saturday, 7:30 - 8:30 AM at Event Headquarters
    Sunday, 7:30 - 8:30 AM at Event Headquarters

  • Event Headquarters - Crystal Forest Museum and Gift Shop, Outside the South Entrance, Petrified Forest National Park
    (Directions to the South Entrance Event Headquarters)
    • 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.
    • On Saturday, the remote start/finish is located at the bus drop-off point.
    • On Sunday, participants will walk from the bus drop-off ~600 meters to the remote start location.
    • Note: Camping and portable toilets are available at the Event Headquarters. See the List of Accommodations for information about camping and other lodging possibilities in the Holbrook area.
    • We will have a portable camp toilet available at the start/finish locations. We will not provide a full port-a-jon at the start/finish locations. We highly recommend you take care of business at the portable toilets at the Event Headquarters.

  • Transportation to Event Start Locations
    • The start/finish locations for this year's events have no parking for participants. On both days, we will use two 14-passenger school buses to transport participants from the event headquarters to the start/finish locations.
    • The pre-race briefing, including handing out maps, starts promptly at 8:30 AM at Event Headquarters.
    • 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.
    • Note: If necessary, we will make multiple trips to transport all participants to the start locations. If we're not able to fit all participants into one trip, we'll take a second trip to the start/finish location. If a second trip is necessary, we may have to arrange for a second mass start.

  • Saturday Night Meal

    We have arranged for a meal at the La Mesa Italiana restaurant in Holbrook. We'll meet at the restaurant at 6:00 PM. We have arranged for people to order off the menu and to pay with separate checks. Please let us know if you plan to join us for the meal.

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 12 and Sunday, October 13, 2019, 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: (Pre-Register ), (Reg List )
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 (Pre-Register) (Reg List)
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 must complete the form before the event and either scan it and send it to us by e-mail or regular mail.

Packet Pickup
We will give you several opportunities to pick up your packet. We will provide full details including packet pickup and the event headquarters location at least one week prior to the events.

Event Headquarters
For the Saturday and Sunday events, we will have an "Event Headquarters" located either inside the park itself or just outside the park. The Event Headquarters IS NOT at the Visitor Center. We will provide full details including packet pickup locations and the event headquarters location at least one week prior to the events.

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 post details of the maps used for the events at least one week before the event dates.

Map and Terrain
We will post details of the maps used for the events at least one week before the event dates.

Course Notes We will have additional course notes at least one week prior to the event dates.

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:

Additional schedule details will appear here at least one week prior to the event dates.

FOOD:

We will have drinks and snacks at each day's finish location. You just wandered around through the desert for 4 hours; you deserve something for your efforts!

WHAT TO BRING:

The list below is recommended gear for the rogaines.
  • 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:

Please direct any questions to the Meet Director at birks(at)yahoo.com (The (at) refers to the "@" symbol.)

Directions to the Event Headquarters

We'll post the location of the event headquarters at least one week before the event dates.