Pawtuckaway 2001 Canoe-O by Joel

Pawtuckaway 2001 Canoe-o Pictures

Every year, on the weekend after Labor Day, UNO (the orienteering club that covers New Hampshire and Maine) holds a family orienteering and camping weekend at Pawtuckaway State Park in Raymond, NH. This year's orienteering meet was a nationally sanctioned "A" meet. This meant that more people showed up at this year's meet since "A" meets attract orienteers from all over the country.

As we have for the last five years, Daphne and I organized and supervised a canoe orienteering event during the camping weekend. The canoe event is for fun only; the results do not count towards any awards or national rankings. But the canoe orienteering event is a popular activity for people, especially after they have finished their land-based courses.

We prepared the canoe-o course two weeks in advance. Daphne and I sketched out a course on the kitchen table. We wanted the course to be a little more challenging than in past years, since we expected that there might be some more advanced canoe orienteers at this years "A" meet. We also wanted to design a course that avoided the temptation to run through too many campsites, a problem with courses in previous years.

After designing the course, Daphne and I put our kayaks on the car and drove to Pawtuckaway State Park. We put out two kayaks (a double and a single) in the bathtub warm water of Lake Pawtuckaway, and proceeded to check out each of the control locations we had selected earlier. Most of the locations were fine, but a few had to be adjusted. In one case, an island that was mapped was missing. In its place were just a few rocks poking up through the higher water level of this year's lake. In another case, we adjust the control location from the shore to the center of the island to add another land control to the map.

We spent the better part of a day hanging surveyors tape at the site of each of the controls, and making notations, including map corrections, on our draft maps. There was no rush when designing the course; the weather was beautiful, and it was pleasant to just paddle around. When we got home, we prepared the final version of the map in Adobe PhotoShop and printed off around 40 copies to be sealed in plastic bags.

The Friday before the camping weekend, Daphne went north to hang the actual controls. Taking the one person kayak, she went back to each point on the map and added a punch (and replaced the surveyors tape if it was missing). The kids and I showed up around dinnertime and set up camp. (Editors note: hey, I set up the whole camp by myself while I was waiting for you.)

This year, the meet organizer's rented six canoes for people to borrow. First thing Saturday morning, Daphne and I dragged the canoes down to the beach and taped a number to each one. Then we set up a table next to the main pavilion, hung some signs and opened for business.

The mornings are always slow. Most people prefer to run their land courses before venturing out on the water. We were able to convince two groups to head out around 9am, but the real crowds did not show up until after lunch. A total of 32 groups tried the course on Saturday. Another 15 went out on Sunday morning before we closed down (just after noon).

The eventual winners, Aims Coney and J-J Cote, did not start until late on Saturday. Aims likes to start late, to have a chance to size of the competition and get a feel for how hard the course is. He and J-J started just after 4pm, shortly before we closed down for the day.

Just before 5pm, I went down to the canoe launch to try to get a picture of Aims and J-J coming in to finish. I took note of when they started and waited patiently with my camera, looking over the lake. An hour after they started, there was still no sign of them. But wait, I was looking in the wrong direction. Aims came running down the road with his canoe on his back. He dumped the canoe and then ran back towards the finish.

(The canoe-o rules require your canoe be returned to the canoe launch before you finish. There is no requirement that you paddle to the finish, however. Aims had portaged his canoe across the peninsula instead of paddling the long way around.)

Aims and J-J finished three minutes late. They claimed that control number 14 (the furthest control) was missing. A subsequent search confirmed their claim (no other groups had gone to that control, so we did not know that it had disappeared). The ruling of the judges, after a long night of deliberations, was to give Aims and J-J credit for the control and also give them back 1 minute, lost while searching for the missing control. This meant that Aims and J-J finished with 40 points, enough to win.

(The canoe-o is run like a score-o. Instead of timing how long it takes to get all the controls, in this canoe-o the participants have to find as many controls as possible in 60 minutes. Each control is worth 3 points, less 1 point for each minute over time.)

The results for the 2001 Pawtuckaway Canoe-O are shown below. Results are sorted by points. The total time, which is used to break ties, is also show. This year, I took pictures of every group, except one. There is link to each group's pictures in the last column.

In addition to the canoe-o pictures, I took a variety of pictures from around the pavilion. I also have pictures of the awards ceremony from Sunday afternoon. (I have not included the names of the award winners. If anyone can identify the award winners, send me an email (joelg@alum.mit.edu) and I will update the captions.

This web page (http://www.gouldhome.com/Pawtuckaway2001Canoe-o.html) was last updated on December 19, 2001. For any comments or suggestions about the site contact Daphne Gould. Contents copyright © 1999-2003 by Joel and Daphne Gould.