Picketpost Trailhead
1.5-/3-Hour Score-O

Saturday, December 10, 2022

We had a nice turnout for our newest event site at Picketpost Trailhead. Forty participants joined us for a 1.5-hour or 3-hour Score-O. The weather started out a little chilly in the low 40's but warmed up into the 60's by midday with sunny skies throughout. The area around the trailhead has rolling hills and is rocky in places. The vegetation is not as thick as we see in other event sites, so the course was quite runnable. Views of Picketpost Mountain just to the east of the trailhead are spectacular.

In the 3-hour category, Andy Wentzel, Marci Beard, Brian Durrell, and Erik Ringnes visited all 25 controls. John Beard likely would also have visited all the controls but somehow missed one in his hasty circuit around the course. We could have made the course a little longer so Andy could get a full 3-hours of navigating, but if Andy doesn't show, then we've hung a bunch of controls that no one visits. We hope Andy found somewhere else to run later. We had another 6 participants and teams that visited more than 10 controls. We also had quite a number of kids who joined their parents on the course, including two that rode on the backs of their fathers. We hope memories of their day at Picketpost Trailhead will turn them into future orienteers.

In the 1.5-hour category, all participants visited 7 or more controls. Kimball Forrest, running with a bad knee, visted 11 of the controls. Close behind were Rana Basiburyuk and our friends on the Save Pluto team. We also had a group of JROTC cadets come all the way from Sahuarita High School south of Tucson to participate.

Thanks to everyone who joined us at our Picketpost Trailhead events. We're really excited to have a new event site we can use for future events. The area around Picketpost Mountain and the views of the mountain itself are some of the most picturesque of any of our event sites. We look forward to seeing you all again.

And a special thanks to everyone who helped with the organization and setup for the event. Craig Weber, Derek Drudge, and Brian Durrell helped field check the map the week before the event. The map isn't perfect, but it's certainly good enough for some nice desert navigating. Derek was also a huge help for running the registration and timer's table. He also pulled me out of a jam when I had a flat tire on the way to the event. Derek stepped up and transported the gear to and from the event. Thanks Derek for all your help.