Little Pan
(New River, AZ)
Score-O

It wasn't a great day for orienteering, but at least the sun was shining all morning. Winds gusting above 30 MPH made things a bit uncomfortable, both at the start and on the course itself. At least the placement of many of the controls in dry washes and re-entrants gave participants a break at times on the course. Eleven participants braved the windy weather to join us at our Little Pan event site. The area has some fairly steep terrain but fortunately is lacking much of the dreaded cholla cactus. The north end of the course was a treat with a forest of saguaro cactus just east of the spot where Moore Gulch dumps into the Agua Fria River. We had another nice day exploring the desert terrain in the Phoenix area.

Even though the distance/climb should have seen more participants visiting all the controls on the course, the rugged terrain slowed things down for evderyone. Our friend Jeremy Colgan from Hudson Valley was the only participant to visit all 20 destinations. We're sure the navigation challenges in the desert terrain were an interesting change from orienteering courses in the East of the U.S. Erik Ringnes was a close second visiting 19 or the 20 markers. A slight change in route choice might have allowed him too to visit all the controls. Jared Thomas and our Shahbazian friends (Badger Orienteering) were close behind visiting 16 of the locations, with Russ Pilcher and Glenn Haselfeld (Prescott), Rick Schnell, and the Wallabies (Valeria Fedyk, Nick Dali) all making decent showings in the rugged terrain. New orienteer Shane Peters had a fun day practicing skills with the bonus of getting to relocate back to the parking area after accidentally leaving the mapped area. We've all been there, and part of learning is recovering after getting a bit turned around.

Thanks to everyone who joined us for our windy event at the Little Pan Staging Area. And special thanks to Erik Ringnes, who returned to the course to retrieve some of the control markers, and Gary Hickey, who made a special trip to help too. We have to remove our destination markers after the course is complete. We appreciate the extra help.

We look forward to seeing everyone again at an upcoming event.