About 20 orienteers came out on Thursday to select the worst orienteering of the year. It was a fun, raucous activity (or at least boisterous – we are a bunch of geeky orienteers), and we all got the chance to laugh with and at each other. In the end, three orienteers made it past the primary to the final, ranked choice vote.
In third place was Cory Smith’s adorable route on the Hatcher Pass-O. Not content with simply staying low between controls 3 and 4, Cory ascended ever higher to gain as much elevation as possible:
The second place “finisher” was yours truly (I actually think I was robbed! I should have won.). On the Willow Red I took a fairly inexplicable route between controls 5 and 6. Multiple attempts by the crowd to tease out “what I was thinking” demonstrated that there was absolutely no thought or logic to my madness:
The winner was Springer Moore. Here’s the context: Springer was in the lead for the final sprint final with a host of fine orienteers chasing him, including our own Olympic skier, Scott, and his dear old dad, the best orienteer in the state. This was Springer’s day, the chance to demonstrate that a new generation of orienteers is on the cusp of something truly great. Springer ran fast and hard, keeping the lot at bay. But wait….why is his track doubled? Where is he? What happened? You gotta check those numbers, don’t mistake a 3 for 13…
