Team Clearly Elk (an anagram of Clare and Kelly) competed in our first snowshoe orienteering contest. The contest was hosted by the Rocky Mountain Orienteering Club (RMOC), whom I met a few weeks prior at the Frisco Nordic center. They invited me to attend this event at Devil’s Thumb Ranch, so I was happy when Kelly said she’d join me. Off to experience the next adventure!
Kelly & I both enjoy hiking and navigating, so this event seemed right up our alley. We were both eager to try something new. It would be Kelly’s first time snowshoe hiking as well, so I’m sure she was doubly excited.
The competition was supposed to start at 10am with a short tutorial just prior. It was quite disorganized in the lodge. It was a little chaotic, seems like they need some more volunteers. So, we just talked directly with the president of the RMOC, Bob, about the details of the competition.
When it was time, they shuffled us down to the starting line. About 5 minutes prior to the whistle, they handed out maps. However, in helping Kelly with snowshoes, I didn’t hear the map disbursement anouncement. We only had about 30 seconds to look at the map, then, “READY, SET, GO!”.
Competitors were scattering to the winds and suddenly, I was very confused & anxious. Where in TARNATIONS were we on *this* map? It’s different than the TOPO! maps I’m used to, so it was tricky to get oriented. Thankfully, some nice older guy pointed out our location before he promptly disappeared.
Kelly and I just stared at each other, momentarily dumfounded. We needed a plan.
I gave Kelly her map and tucked mine into my shirt. We looked at her map together. Our immediate strategy was to follow some other snowshoers, and devise a plan on the way. As we walked over to our first station, Kelly safety pinned the map to her jacket and at the same time began analyzing options.
One nice thing about Team Clearly Elk is the operating efficiency. I have a very good sense of direction and know how to best preserve elevation gained – raw terrain skills. While Kelly is very good at planning routes & discovering efficiencies – map & strategy skills.
I believe we worked very well together and all afternoon we were having tons of fun.
The temperature wasn’t bad, however the lighting was horrible. Flat gray winter lighting made it very difficult to see the trails. I was totally happy we were at a nordic center because the grooming really helped to keep us on track.
We made the first station, #33 with relative ease.
The second station, however, we completely missed. It was located by a fence, tucked away, so we walked right by it.
Oh well, we are newbies!
We managed to complete 12 stations in 2 hours 32 minutes 35 seconds. Here are the times:
Here we are at the finish line:
When we got back to the lodge, most of the other competitors were already back, but we did manage to beat the highschool kids. Whew! We had a quick snack and then hit the road back to Denver.
Tags: Devil's Thumb Ranch, Rocky Mountain Orienteering Club, Snowshoe Hiking, Snowshoe Orienteering