Blue Hills, Milton, MA
November 18, 2018
Meet Director, Traverse: Jeff Saeger
Meet Director, Recreational courses: Jim Paschetto

Found: Black glove. To claim, contact the Webmaster

Beginning a few weeks ago, I was being asked, “How long is the traverse this year?”, How many controls?” My answer, up until about two weeks before the event was, “I don’t know, I haven’t designed the course yet.” Despite my cavalier response, I had gone over mentally where I would like the start to be, we had chosen a finish area many months ago when the permit was applied for, and I had some ideas on where the course would have to go between the two points to cover the 13 or so kilometers.

Last year I had scoped out an area on the southeast part of the Ponkapoag Pond map. I knew there was good parking at the local elementary school. A previous traverse had used the upper part of the map, which had an old military installation, storage for the Nike air defense missiles for the launch site atop Chickataubut Hill, but there was still some unexplored area which was covered with dark green. Last year I went through that part of the maps, and found not dark green, but very open woods, and some gently flowing hills devoid of rock, or any other features. The trail was certainly mapped incorrectly; I did some remapping, but I realized at that time that I would not get it to satisfactory detail in time, so I turned my attention to an unmapped area in Milton and ran last year’s traverse start from there.

This year I was determined to use the area, and I was able to remap the trail, and I found a few others which I would guess were created by mountain bikers, who like to make curvy narrow trails, which go nowhere in particular. Fortunately there were a few rock features, and I worked a bit on getting the vegetation accurate enough so no one was tempted a route through dark green.

The course through there would not be particuliarly difficult, there was no intricate detail, but the woods were nice and open and very runnable, so with two somewhat long legs to start, the field could spread out before crossing to the more technical area west of Route 24.

control 10This area had been used before, and I again, as I had last year, swiped control locations and legs designed by Ian Smith for this area. As I ran around I noticed some large boulders in the area just before the course would cross the bridge over interstate 93. As I approached them I was amazed just how “large” these boulders were. In jumbles and “small” boulders not shown on the map were over a meter high and 2 to 3 meters in diameter! I had to have a control in this area, and found the “boulder group” for control 10 such an interesting spot, I had to use it.

After that, I found good terrain for the competitors spectator loop and then fit in a course which provided some route choices up to about 13 kilometers. I was able to use a rec course control which Jim P. had placed and we added the last control to force everyone into the finish from one direction.

At 11am Sunday morning, forty competitors assembled on a trail next to the Donavon School. Most were veterans of the traverse, but there were 2 who had never orienteered before! How would they make out? Some quick instructions had been given, and some advice that following might be a good idea, but I just hoped everyone would be to the finish by 3:44.

After the start, I joined Tony Valentine in setting up the Shaklee drink and food station on a nice open hilltop south of Houghton’s Pond. Carl Underwood came through with almost a 1 minute lead over AJ Riley, running well for his junior status. Carl lengthened his lead through the rest of the course and earned his giant cookie man for his efforts.

On the women’s side, Alex Jospe and Rachael Rothman, came through the food station together with a group of men, which included veteran Ernst Linder. In the latter half of the course Alex put in some hard uphill efforts to pull out a 90 second lead over Rachael, but Ernst ran even harder, and navigated better, to pull away from Alex by 8 minutes and grab sixth overall, and just behind Master’s winner Wyatt Riley.

Overall the comments were positive, ranging from “beautiful woods” to “Meh, but there were lots of trails”. I am glad to have now mapped almost all of the Blue Hills Reservation and added some interesting terrain.

Thank you to all involved in making this happen. Special thanks to Andy Hall putting out the first water stop, Jim Paschetto for taking on the rec courses, Tony Valentine for standing around in the cold at the food station, and Judy Karpinski for being the food hostess with the hot soup.

See you all next year.
- Jeff Saeger


Thanks to all the "Recreational" (i.e. non-Traverse) participants who faced the cold temps and wet trails today. It turned out to be a nice day to be in the woods, but did anyone return with dry feet?

We had a respectable 63 starts, including the thirty-plus cadets from Madison Park Technical Vocational H.S. (Marine Corps) and John D. O'Bryant H.S. (JROTC). The course offerings were limited, in yet another attempt to design an event with minimal demands on the meet director. There were just three courses (the "Short Intermediate" was a truncated version of the "Intermediate," run in the opposite direction), and a lot of the controls were shared among courses. In retrospect, it would have been less confusing to name the courses what they were: Yellow, Short Orange, Orange, & Green.

The day held its share of surprises. Two dibbers were lost, on different courses. A couple of orienteering stalwarts stepped forward to search for them ...and both sticks were found! Thanks to Andy Hall and David Landrigan for relieving two entrants of the dreaded "lost stick" charge.

Then the Jessiman family showed up; one daughter an accomplished road racer and another NOLS-trained, but all first-time orienteers. They insisted on trying the Advanced course (danger Will Robinson!), which they proceeded to complete with a very decent time! We hope to see you back orienteering in the spring.

Lots of folks deserve thanks for selflessly working today. Special Gold Star goes to Kelly Guarino, who handled data input and downloads for the entire event, both Rec and Traverse! Pia Webb gave early, valuable design guidance, and helped with Registration and instruction. Peter Amram helped at every stage: course design, location vetting, hanging controls, Registration, and control pick-up. Barb Bryant came early just to hang controls, but couldn't stay to run a course :-(  Sylvie Guichard brought snacks/water, and worked all day with Registration and instruction. Mark O'Connell helped with set-up before his Traverse run. Andy McIlvaine and Suzanne Robinson dealt with the early crush at Registration. Bill Binette dealt with returned finger-sticks, and did "public relations" work with curious passersby, then picked up some distant controls. Joanne Sankus caught most of the day's snapshots (see menu News>Galleries) and picked up many controls. Jeff Leiserson continues to customize and send the Weekly Update emails, where we beg for volunteers. Thanks also to those people who volunteered to help, but were not needed—it's a rare thing for a meet to have an excess of volunteers! If I've not mentioned your help, please let me know.
- Jim Paschetto


View the splits here (courtesy of WinSplits). For the raw splits file, click menu Results>Raw Splits Files.

This event is available in RouteGadget (in the Results menu) — share your route, or just use the Splitsbrowser (click RG2 splitsbrowserin the Routegadget2 menubar).

Beginner 2.2k 90m
Name Club Time
1 Tor Webb CSU 31:44
2 Lukas Webb CSU 33:17
3 David, Michael, Alberto 37:17
4 Winston, Jhon, Luis 44:53
5 Alexandra, Cheri, Hal, Joey 45:01
6 Djoulissa, Hannah, Monica 47:22
7 Jinelle, Caterah 48:44
8 Julian, Noah, Mariah 49:43
9 Scania, Vialexa, Jasline 50:51
10 Sierra Springer NEOC 53:33
11 Lily Springer NEOC 53:50
12 Chao 54:11
13 Tom Howard 55:33
14 Hannah Kielec T303 57:43
15 Wander M, Quemaye W 57:52
16 Peter Campbell NEOC 59:58
17 Grace, Sam, Alexis 65:32
18 Ethan, Zack, Will 71:45
19 Jason Louis Ruby, Alex 78:11
20 Ciarra, Kimberly, Shali 133:22
21 Maria, Jannat, Trinity 141:35
22 Patrice Miller NEOC 152:37
23 Michael Commons NEOC 153:00
23 Alana Commons NEOC 153:00
Samantha, Grace, Alexis DNF
Short Interm 2.9k 105m
Name Club Time
1 Don Hall NEOC 58:51
2 Suzanne Robinson NEOC 65:52
3 Jean Hall AIRE/UK 82:47
4 Arina 137:52
5 Rutter 168:08
Chao DNF
Kirill DNF
Robert Janus DNF
Hannah Kielec DNF
David Hall AIRE/UK DNF
Intermediate 4.3k 150m
Name Club Time
1 Andy McIlvaine NEOC 71:48
2 Trisha Underwood NEOC 72:56
3 Mark Webb CSU 75:49
4 Pia Webb CSU 79:01
5 Ann Jochnick NEOC 81:37
6 Roger Underwood NEOC 90:16
7 Alan Chisholm NEOC 106:02
8 Alexandra Cheri, Hal, Joey 112:54
9 Jim McGahan NEOC 160:57
David, Alberto DNF
John Bottoms NEOC DNF
Advanced 5.2k 235m
Name Club Time
1 Audun Botterud CSU 52:12
2 Becky Carlyle NEOC 53:28
3 Kristin Hall NEOC 57:08
4 Bridget Hall NEOC 60:09
5 Tobias Karlsson NEOC 69:34
6 Roman NEOC 76:02
7 Tom Randall 81:54
8 Aims Coney NEOC 106:14
9 Anna Campbell NEOC 112:19
10 Caroline Pflueger Dylan Venell 118:16
11 Chris Noon NEOC 119:42
12 Celia Jessiman +3 120:31
13 Pete Lane NEOC 121:51
14 Rob Kitchen 123:31
15 Tom Stevenson 153:07
16 John Kernochan NEOC 156:53
Brian Rhoden DNF
Faye Doria NEOC/UNO DNF
Traverse
Name Class Time
1 Carl Underwood M-39 94:07
2 Anthony Riley M-39 99:05
3 Keegan M-39 105:43
4 Alex Rothman M-39 105:49
5 Wyatt Riley M40+ 109:25
6 Ernst Linder M55+ 111:16
7 Ari Ofsevit M-39 112:34
8 Jon Campbell M40+ 116:03
9 Alexandra Jospe F-39 119:03
10 Jimmy Burnham M-39 119:59
11 Aaron Aaker M40+ 120:05
12 Rachael Rothman F-39 120:36
13 Bo Nielsen M55+ 136:58
14 Neil Martin M40+ 138:28
15 Michael Springer M40+ 141:38
16 William Daniels M-39 142:47
17 Justin Wiley M40+ 143:47
18 Angelica Riley F40+ 143:52
19 Tori Campbell F40+ 143:54
20 J-J Cote M55+ 144:07
21 Alar Ruutopold M55+ 147:09
22 Evalin Brautigam F-39 154:01
23 william davidson M-39 156:08
24 Seth Brewer M-39 156:14
25 Maria Bloom F-39 158:07
26 Jim Arsenault M55+ 158:20
27 Phil Bricker M55+ 166:35
28 Evgeny Remizov M-39 167:44
29 Daniel O'Leary M-39 173:44
30 Stephen Tarry M55+ 176:00
31 Doug Sevon M55+ 176:42
32 Ken Walker M55+ 181:23
33 Xavier Fradera M40+ 203:08
34 Mark O’Connell M40+ 203:46
35 Michael Lyons M55+ 207:46
36 Sam Levitin M55+ 214:31
37 Dean Sturtevant M55+ 216:17
38 Jeff Schapiro M55+ 223:50
39 Jim Crawford M55+ 280:29
  Matt Picard
   DNF