Patuxent

There are no QOC events for the next two weekends, but mark your calendars now for what follows: 7 events over 6 weekends, starting Sunday, Oct. 18 at Oregon Ridge, followed by Saturday Oct. 24 at Prince William Forest. We will also be opening advance registration on October 1 for our Nov. 1 C&O NHP/Great Falls (MD) event. Lots of Fall events to come!

QOC’s observance of National Orienteering Day was a tremendous success and the primary reason for the success can be attributed to the excellent courses and special activities that Nadim Ahmed set up. In addition to the standard complement of course, White through Blue, Nadim put in the extra effort to set up a nearly 12km goat course. He also set up a series of fun maze courses that challenged everyone’s map reading and route choice skills. Nadim’s ingenious courses made for a great day of orienteering. Thanks to Mark and Patti Mace for assisting Nadim with the setup and oversight of the maze courses for the entire day. As part of the National Orienteering Day observance, everyone who attended the event received a special gift of a stylish new QOC buff, designed by Kathleen Lennon.
We are indebted to the Greg Sheldon, Suzanne Sheldon, Courtney Sheldon, Mike Newman and Don Fish for their adept staffing of the event registration and map distribution table. Thanks to Valerie Myer, Amy Louden, Michelle Fish, Heidi Onkst, Torri Campbell and Hugo Estrada for helping out at the e-punch station. And a special shout out to Hugo for being a first time volunteer and stepping up to help with the distribution of the QOC buffs. We are especially indebted to the many members who agreed to help with control pickup, many of whom had run the extra-long goat course. Thanks to David Onkst, Mihai Sirbu, Jon Campbell, Tom Nolan, Kim Jepsen, Anne Jepsen, Ted Good and Sam Listwak.
Special thanks to my co-director Cecilia Landers for manning the grill and keeping a steady supply of hot dogs available for the finishers.
A couple of special notes from the day. David Onkst, who had a kidney stone removed just a week ago, not only ran the goat, but he then went out to the far flung corners of the park to pick-up controls.Others who ran the goat and then stuck around to help with control pickup include, Tom Nolan, Ted Good, and Jon Campbell. And lastly, it is worth noting that the club’s immediate Past President, Jon Torrance, came in first on the 11.9km goat with a time of 93:16, and he then went out on the 9.3 km, Blue Course and finished second in 103:57.
Thanks to all of the volunteers who helped to make the QOC National Orienteering Day event a great success.
Jody & Cecilia Landers