Hawes Trailhead
2.0-Hour
Sunrise Score-O

Sunday, May 26, 2024

We had a nice day for our first ever "Sunrise Score-O". To avoid the Phoenix heat, we usually pack up and move north starting in May. This year, we decided to extend our Phoenix season by offering an event at sunrise. Temperatures at 5:00 AM were in the low 70's. By the time the course closed, the temperature was in the low 80's. In addition, we created a new map at the Hawes Trailhead for the event. While we didn't get a huge crowd, we're excited to have a new location and a new format for our events.

No one visited all the controls on the course for a good reason. One of the control bags disappeared sometime between Friday morning and Sunday morning. We don't know exactly what happened to the bag, but we suspect someone removed the bag for their own amusement. We're sorry for the time people wasted looking for the bag. In spite of the missing control, Andy Wentzel visited the rest of the 17 locations on the course in just over the 2-hour limit. Jason Cram and Erik Ringnes weren't far behind, each visiting 11 controls, with Reid Axman following next by visiting 9 controls. Two of our ultra-running friends Natasha and Eric also had a respectable outing by visiting 7 locations. Of special note, Keith Randle stayed on his first desert course over the time limit but visited 15 of the 17 controls. It was good practice for future events.

We did have one success story for the day. Kyle Seiffulin, a regular participant, lost his cell phone early on the course. After a 30 minute search, the cell phone reappeared. The relief of finding a lost cell phone outweighs anything we did on the course.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for our event at Hawes Trailhead. Since we spend the time to put bags in the desert, we really enjoy having participants at our events. Special thanks go out to Jason Cram, Erik Ringnes, and Forest Brown for retrieving the bags after the event. Your help makes it easier for us to present events.