California and the start of the O-fest

Next up for our July travels = California!

The Cal O-Fest orienteering festival was on our schedule for a long time.  It was supposed to run in 2020, and I guess you heard about that year.  They put on a scaled-down "local" version in 2021.  Finally the real thing was in place and ready to go in 2023, yay!

A couple things were different this year.  Much cleaner air, much appreciated.  Also, an electric truck to tow our travel trailer, plus a Rivian Adventure Network (free!) charger in Truckee, complete with a pull-in spot for a longer rig.  Also much appreciated!

There's snow in the background of the above picture, nothing that would affect the O-Fest, but it would come into play in August (stay tuned).

We arrived a bit early so John could do some solar work in the Bay Area.  While he was down there, he spotted a Rivian electric delivery van "in the wild", super cool!

The first couple orienteering events were in San Francisco parks - always love a good park-O.  The sprint at the Presidio was fast and fun, a nice way to kick everything off.

[Most of the photos below are courtesy of Orienteering USA - thank you for capturing so many great images of all the events!]

The starting line:

Gavin the meet director - thank you for all the work you (and everyone in your organization) did to make this happen!

John running well:

Orienteers young and old roamed the streets of the Presidio:

Fun photo with people going various directions:

We were happy to hang out with Ron (from Phoenix) several times during the events.  Go Ron!

Sharon, one of the most consistent runners on the US team:

Not a checkpoint (as far as I know):

Day 2 was a middle-distance course at Golden Gate Park.  I love running around in GGP.  Even on a chilly, foggy day, as sometimes happens in San Francisco.  The course setter found a few little nooks to put the controls in, making the day even more surprising and interesting.

John figuring things out on the move:

My face isn't photogenic, but I thought the rest of my "jump over the log" looked half decent:

That's quite a rootstock:

Running for the finish:

The Atlas Obscura podcast did a little episode about the Golden Gate Park event, a neat 14-minute listen about a sport we've been doing for some time but really isn't well known (see episode 608).

The master map, divided into sections so we volunteers could gather controls after everyone was done on the course - just call us "pick up artists"

"Van Dolf"

We were super happy to get together with Kip and Jane for supper several times, yay!  It was neat to see downtown Mountain View again, and especially wonderful to spend time with them.  Hello to Mom!

Out of the cooler Bay Area and up into the hotter hills for day 3, a long course at Morgan Territory.  This was perhaps the most challenging of all the regular (non-rogaine) days.  Warm, full-on sun, steep slopes, and a stupid amount of vegetation that would attach itself to all of our clothing.

Other than that, it was a good day!

The start line, where no one knew quite yet what they were getting into:

The topography was really interesting and there were challenging/non-obvious route choices all over the place.  John and I had to work to try finish the longest course in 3 hours - he made it (by 39 seconds) and I didn't (7 minutes over).  Phew, that was some effort.

The photographer did his O-run, then stayed around the finish to recover instead of roaming on the course like he normally did (I don't blame him!).  Runners coming to the finish line:

It took a couple days to remove all the sticker burrs from our clothing and shoes.  This isn't us, but you get the idea:

At least we didn't pick up any poison oak; that would have a bad day.

Ron and Kathi's dog Rico, who was smart enough not to venture into the crappy vegetation.  Good dog!

Back to the Truckee area, back to cooler temperatures!  Day 4 was a sprint around the Northstar ski resort.  I think they saved this area for 2023 (we didn't see much of it in 2021) and it was worth it.  Lots of stairwells, walkways, condo buildings, and a couple dead ends for good measure.  Super fun.

To top it off, the course director decided to add a bunch of "Caution" tape that we weren't allowed to cross, making it into a real maze.  Reading the map on the fly was our type of entertainment.

Action shot of John:

Easy to find - once you figure out how to get in the right area:

Nice shot of an elite runner:

Mark from San Diego:

One way to punch the control:

John was in a good mood:

Gavin, you're supposed to do these things on foot, not in a car...

More to come!