The New England Orienteering Club

Noon Hill, Medfield, MA
April 16-24, 2022
Meet Director: Jim Paschetto

A week of ideal orienteering weather, together with school vacation, drew about 86 participants (60 starts) to Noon Hill.

This property is very popular with local walkers, "dog people," and mountain bikers, so I decided against a White course that might tempt vandals. The Yellow had a couple of controls I'd call "advanced Yellow" (#5 & #6), which could account for the high number of DNFs. Both Orange and Brown had a crossing of a narrow marsh/stream — the dry weather kept that from being a foot-soaker. Green and Red had a route choice to cross a broad marsh: either run trails (a longer route, but dry feet), or aim for a stone wall and hope it was dry & runnable. Again, the dry weather made the wall route a breeze. The few experienced orienteers I spoke with chose the wall, either through intuition or just figuring "what's the worst that could happen?" (The routes posted on Livelox for these courses are instructive.)

Thanks to:

  • Bill Binette, for help vetting and "tuning" control placement.
  • Stephen Tarry, for pulling the last streamers as he ran Red.
  • Karen Yeowell, for help pulling the QR cards & streamers, and for her months-long negotiation with the local authorities to get permission for this BYOM.