Rim Country Navigation Games 2025
Blue Ridge Reservoir, Arizona
Saturday, July 26, 2025

Results

We had a great day exploring the area around Blue Ridge Reservoir, a new area for the club. On Saturday, July 26, 23 participants joined us for 6 and 12-hour navigation events. The area around the Blue Ridge Reservoir includes a flat plateau that drops fairly quickly to the north to rolling hills, and drops dramatically to the south into the reservoir's canyon. The water level in the reservoir was 13% of capacity, so those participants who made it to the reservoir had an extra 40 feet of exposed cliffs to negotiate.

We started the day with pre-race briefings at 6:30 AM for our 12-hour participants and at 7:30 AM for our 6-hour participants. Each participant received a packet with 5 tabloid-sized maps. The maps included a 1:35000 scale overview, a 1:25000 bike map, two 1:10000 foot maps, and a 1:10000 watercraft map. Although the maps inferred a mode of travel, there was no prescribed route or travel mode for the course. Participants signed up for the adventure race were allowed to choose to travel by foot, bike, or packraft. Participants in the Rogaine traveled only by foot.

In the 6-hour event, only one team traveled part of the course by bicycle. All others traveled by foot. Cristina Luis led the field by visiting 22 controls in under 6 hours. She was also about 20 meters from one of the water controls but couldn't reach it because of the muddy approach. Team Running 180's came in second after visiting 16 controls. They might have been able to collect a few more, but they decided to return to the transition area to try their luck on bike. First-time participants on team Roving Reservoir Ridge Runners had an excellent day visiting 15 controls. We suspect they already have a good background reading topographic maps. Regular participant Telia Curtis visited 13 controls. And Antonio Tovar had a good day finding several controls on his first time navigating with a compass. Thanks for joining us for our little event.

In the 12-hour event, Andy Wentzel visited 37 of the total 43 points for a total of 45 points. (Water controls were worth 3 points apiece.) Andy wasn't feeling as perky as usual, so he wasn't able to clear the course as we normally would expect. We then had a log jam of 5 teams with 30 points and one team with 29. Three of the teams with 30 points also visited all the water controls. Two of the teams stayed on foot and bike for their 30 points. It was interesting to see the strategy difference between those who decided to haul their packrafts three miles down to the reservoir and those who didn't. Keith Randle visited all 30 controls on foot. It goes to show that staying on foot is sometimes more efficient.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for our Blue Ridge Reservoir event. It was a lot of fun exploring a new part of Arizona. And thanks especially to all our volunteers. Laura Veglak made a special trip specifically to man our aid station at the reservoir. With her help, we ensured some level of safety for our participants, providing food, drinks, and minor first aid several miles away from the start/finish. We really appreciate Laura's help. Special thanks also to everyone who helped pick up controls after the event. On Sunday morning, Gwen Woods, Glenn Haselfeld, Kevin Adams, Robert Finlay, Druce Finlay, Jonathan Winder, and Keith Randle helped collect all the controls. We spend a lot of time preparing for our events. It makes it much easier when we can crowd source the collecting of controls afterwards.

We'll see you out there again soon.