Bob Domine wrote - Yesterday we again celebrated our annual National Orienteering Day. What an outstanding day!

This year our event was at Dauset Trails in beautiful Fall weather and the crowds came to share it with us. We had well over 100 people running more than 130 courses. People really seemed to have a wonderful time.

Kevin Haywood did an outstanding job directing this meet with the assistance of Felicia (a new girl friend and very nice person) and a handful of other dedicated volunteers. Thanks to all.

Kevin had something for everyone from beginner to advanced and all went smooth from start to finish. Great job! We had a nice new map too! Bill Cheatum redid the map in the month just before the meet. It now includes the over 17 miles of bike trails as well as the new camping facilities. Lots of new possibilities. It looks outstanding.

Next year maybe a runner vs biker meet. Maybe a Night O. We'll see! If you missed yesterday you missed a fun, FREE day.

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Kevin Haywood wrote - Good news for orienteering in central Georgia: our NOD event had about 60 participants from just the Macon, Warner Robins, and Perry areas. Most of these were Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, but it shows that orienteering is growing and that people are learning what we do.

One father wrote: " ... just wanted to drop you a quick note to say how much my boys enjoyed the Orienteering. I was impressed at the organization and the various levels of skill available. Thanks for a great experience! "

I have e-mailed participants that may not be on the GAOC list and encouraged them to join us for future events.

thank you

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Linda Domine wrote - I'd be re-miss not to recognize the great outcome that Kevin and Felicia's diligent efforts brought for making last Saturday's meet such a successful NOD!

Make no mistake, Kevin and Felicia with Bob's help, "carried the ball" on this meet. Bob had my name there, hoping I'd one day be a Robin, Laurie or Martha but I'm not there yet!

I appreciate ALL the effort everyone did to tend the meet's details and you know it was a success when so many new-comers asked questions like, "Can we run another course?" or "How often do you this?" or "When will your next orienteering event be" or "Do you have a website?"

It was wonderful having such perfect weather to be out doors but the meet's good courses, set mostly for those brand new to the sport, encouraged the less experienced to want to come back and orienteer some more. Isn't that what NOD is for?

Way to go, Kevin and Felicia! Great meet!!

I wish to give a BIG THANK YOU to all who were able to help with the camp.

Robin and Steve Shannohouse, Rick Shane, Kevin Haywood, Sam Smith, Martha Carr, Shawn Callahan and Frank Campbell; Liz Curcuru and her staff, all did an excellent job.

I would love to report on everything these kind folks did, but it would be too much... and nobody would believe it anyway!

Our only major problem was the massive attack of "ground wasps", giving a few of the kids massive stings, but to their credit... and fortitude, most of the kids went back out after their trip to the hospital! Now, that is positive attitude!!!

All of those involved worked very hard to show the kids a good time, expanding their orienteering skills. Bill.

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Robin Shannonhouse wrote - While some of you were having fun out at Lake Russell, a few of us were working with over 200 JROTC cadets and their instructors at F.D.

Roosevelt State Park on 20 courses using 99 control flags. We'd had 135 cadets & JROTC instructors at the training camp since Friday night, and 77 more Union Grove cadets showed up unexpectedly on Sunday morning, thinking it was the location of the regular GAOC event. Thanks so much to the pitch-in JROTC instructors, especially Frank Campbell, who helped the 5 of us left or we'd never have been able to handle all of them.

We were highly understaffed this year, several of our regular GAOC trainers decided not to participate and no one new volunteered. Both Shawn and I got sick trying to keep up with the demands of running the camp, and Sam and Martha had to leave Saturday evening due to other obligations, so it kept getting worse. Both Rick and Kevin made a big sacrifice staying for Sunday when they had other things they were supposed to be doing, but we absolutely could not have survived without them. Rick looked so tired, you'd think he'd just run a marathon, Steve and Bill and I were beyond exhausted. Ironman Kevin kept us going with encouragement and food and clear thinking.

Thanks so much to following folks for their dedication:

Bill Farrell - camp, course and curriculum planner, bag hanging and pick up
Liz Curcuru, the Loys, & SHS crew - registration, lodging, meals, logistics
Steve Shannonhouse - trainer, bag hanging and pick up
Rick Shane - trainer, bag hanging and pick up
Kevin Haywood - trainer, bag pickup, Sunday registration
Martha Carr - trainer
Sam Smith - trainer
Shawn Callahan - trainer
(plus his 2 friends for pitching in to help on Saturday)

The biggest problem all weekend was the cadets stumbled (literally) across several ground wasp nests and many got badly stung, including Liz's granddaughter. I think there were about 10 cadets & JROTC instructors who wound up being treated at the Warm Springs emergency room, plus many more that were not bad enough to go to the hospital. One instructor took his team home on Saturday after one of his guys got stung about 30 times. He seemed okay, but I can't blame the instructor for wanting to take him back where his parents could make decisions. Some of those that got stung said it was like a cloud of insects and several got chased by the insects for hundreds of meters, getting stung the whole time. We were very, very fortunate that none of those stung had a violent reaction. As we discovered the general areas of the nests, we had to close off several exercises and eliminate sections of courses. We also asked the instructors to be sure their cadets were not allergic to insect stings and asked everyone who chose to continue to be very careful and to be sure to assist anyone they observed in trouble.

I don't know what this infestation will do to our future use of FDR, whether this is a localized or even temporary problem or whether we are going to have to quit using some or all of the park for orienteering all or part of the orienteering season. I personally feel that, between use restrictions on the north side of the ridge prohibiting us from using the area turned over to a horseback riding concession, and ground wasps on the south side of the ridge, we should not hold a training camp there again. But, no matter where we hold it, we need a lot more help, and a lot fewer participants.

Guido wrote - Hi folks,

Looks like we had a successful meet at Lake Russell! Thanks to everybody who didn't mind the long drive. The weather was just right, no rain and very nice temperature.

We had a good crowd, more than 70 people went out for the flag hunt. Some of the runners even went out twice, on different courses. Not even the many, many spiders and seed ticks could darken the smiling faces.

Special thanks to Jay and Dan Pittman as well as Linda and Bob Domine for helping! It wouldn't have been possible without you. Danke vielmal! Also many thanks to Shawn for coming, who helped the days before at the NJROTC camp and then drove all the way from FDR to Lake Russell!

Well, if you missed it - the next meet is coming soon...

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Linda Domine wrote - Hi GAOC'ers,

What a Great Lake Russell meet Guido put on for all of us yesterday!! I appreciate Guido and all he had together for us, ready to go for the many orienteers who did come out for a beautiful day in the woods.

Although I only got in a Yellow Course after Registration before bag pick up, I loved being on new paths of the Yellow Course and various areas I was able to orienteer for bag pick-up that I'd never seen before at Lake Russell. By the time I got to some of those outer bags, I was designing a "Guido course" in my mind - for 'Guido only' at Dauset's upcoming National O-Day!!

We got our money's worth, with lots of good folks, sunshine and cooler fall temps!  Thanks too to Jay and Daniel Pittman for their support with bag pick-up and Finish Times. Grateful for all who helped and the many steps it took on Guido's part to give us such a successful meet!!

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Bob Domine wrote - Hi Team,

Yes, it was a super meet for the first of the season. Much cooler and more pleasant than some of our early September Fall season starts.

Guido did a great job of organizing the meet. I knew it would be well run early on with road signs at every turn guiding us to the event site. I believe I saw the first one in Athens.

The courses were well thought out and the Green keep me on my toes with only a few direct hits out of the 12 controls. I heard a lot of great feedback.

We had a very nice crowd too considering the distance from Atlanta and the much appreciated support and participation at the JROTC Training Camp going on at FDR. This may be the first time we have had 2 major GAOC supported activities going on at different ends of the state on the same weekend!! Thanks to all that made both of them possible.

Again, hats off to Guido for an outstanding job. ~ And Linda says she is still going to pay you back! A great Fall season start!

Bubba Goat at COK in November

COK is hosting the 2003 Bubba Goat on November 22, 2003 at King's Mountain State Park, Lake Crawford location. If you are familiar with a "Goat", this is fun event featuring long courses, a mass start, and following is allowed and encouraged. Prizes for those that successfully complete the course within the allowable time frame. There will be two courses available. One is 6K with a 1 1/2 hours time limit and the other is 10K with a 2 1/2 hour limit. Map cost is $10.00 for members and $11.00 for non-members.

Registration starts at 10:00 AM and the mass start is 12:00 Noon. Compete in bib overalls and get 5 minutes off your time. You can pre-register by e-mail to dandavis@fluidflow.com but you will need to pay at the site.

Dan