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Nobscot Night-O
Nobscot Scout Reservation
Sudbury, MA
September 23, 2011
Meet Director: Pete Lane 
Course Setter: Ian Smith 

About 65 people showed up for the first NEOC Night Orienteering event in the past several years.  The evening was clear and pleasant for running, though the woods were wet from recent rain.  The vegetation at Nobscot is light for New England, particularly as late in the year as September.  Conditions were very runnable with good visibility, and the reflective Night-O controls were easy to see when illuminated by a flashlight beam.  

I set three courses to cater to the varying degrees of interest, skill and experience: 

• Beginner: a white-yellow difficulty course with 5 controls
• Short: an advanced course with 7 controls
• Long: an advanced course with 13 controls

My initial expectation was that most inexperienced competitors would be scared off by the idea of orienteering in the dark, so I underestimated how many people came out to run the beginner course.  Thanks to Ed Despard for manipulating the NEOC printer to copy beginner maps.  Everyone I spoke to after the event was enthusiastic about night orienteering and interested in future events.  Since government-owned parks and properties tend to be closed after nightfall and won't grant permits for night events, only privately owned land is suitable.  We are very grateful to the Knox Trail Council of the Boy Scouts of America for granting us access to Nobscot for the event.  A few hundred boy scouts were camping on the property on Saturday night, and the scoutmasters with whom I spoke all regarded our activities favorably.

Thanks to Jim Paschetto and Pete Lane for working registration and results, and for Pete Lane for picking up the Night-O controls the next day.  After setting the courses, I was free to mingle with competitors.  Also congratulations to Ali Crocker, who obliterated the competition on the long course, to Ben Gallup for decisively winning the Short, and to Jim Paschetto for his obligatory victory of the season.

 Photos from the event are in Galleries (in the News menu).

Split times are available here (courtesy of WinSplits).