Pawtuckaway 2004 Canoe-O by Joel

Pawtuckaway 2004 Canoe-o Pictures

Welcome to the official results page for the 2004 edition of the Pawtuckaway, NH Canoe Orienteering meet.

Every year, Daphne and I organize a canoe/kayak orienteering meet in conjunction with the annual UNO (the orienteering club that covers New Hampshire and Maine) orienteering and camping weekend at Pawtuckaway State Park in Raymond, NH. This was our sixth annual Pawtuckaway canoe-O. (There was no canoe-O in 2003 because there was no UNO camping weekend that year.)

It was another great weekend, with perfect weather -- sunny and low 70s. This year we had 38 groups compete over the day and a half that the course was available. And we would have had more starts if we had more canoes available for people to borrow.

2004 Course	Aims and JJ's Route	Aims' Solo Route	Darrell's Route	Visit Counts

The canoe-O is organized in score-O format. There are 14 controls placed around Pawtuckaway Lake, all accessible from the water (except for one land control). Paddlers have 60 minutes to find as many controls as possible and then return to the start.

Darrell Scott was our first contestant, paddling solo in his own kayak. Darrell was able to get every control with 12 seconds to spare. As Aims Coney observed, this changed the character of the entire event. To win, subsequent racers would have to get every control and beat Darrell's time, instead of making strategic decisions about which controls to skip.

The winning group was Aims Coney and J.J. Cote, same as 2002 and 2001. Aims and JJ are the current national champions, having held that title for the last four years. Aims and JJ combine fast paddling (in a racing canoe), with strategic route choices, including both running to controls whenever possible and portaging the canoe across land to save paddling.

You can see Aims and JJ's winning route on the map above (click the appropriate tab). Notice, for example, the decision split up at the end of the course with JJ running to pick up the control number 2 and Aims carrying the canoe across the peninsula to save time.

Darrell Scott ended up with the second best solo time; and his route is also shown above. Darrell paddled to every control, only leaving his kayak at control number 8 (the land control), and at the start and end of the race. (The start/finish table was a short distance from the canoe launch.)

On Sunday, Aims and JJ decided to repeat the course. However, this time they would go solo in a head-to-head competition. They started just after 10:00am. Meanwhile, I waited down at the canoe launch, camera in hand, hoping to get a shot of Aims and/or JJ taking off across the lake. After a few minutes, Aims and JJ both came running to the canoe launch, but from different directions. Then each contestant picked up their respective canoes (pic and pic) and ran down the trail, again in different directions. Couldn't either one of them find the lake on their maps? Anyway, Aims finished 7 minutes ahead of JJ, and you can see his solo course on the map above. Notice how we carried his canoe across four different sections of the course to save time.

Also on the map above, you can see a graph showing the number of groups that visited each control (click on "Visit Counts"). You will notice that every group visited the first control, although many of the groups missed that control on the way out and had to punch it on the way back. On the other hand, very few groups went all the way to control number 11 at the bottom of the map.

Finally, I should mention that this was the first orienteering meet that featured a wedding. Actually, the wedding, held at the shore of the lake, was not associated with the orienteering meet although one of the white controls was hung just outside their venue.

Don't forget to check out all the pictures that I took at the camping weekend, including shots of the canoe racers as well as foot-O racers.

Here are the final results for the 2004 Canoe-O

This web page (http://www.gouldhome.com/Pawtuckaway2004Canoe-o.html) was last updated on October 03, 2004. For any comments or suggestions about the site contact Daphne Gould. Contents copyright © 1999-2003 by Joel and Daphne Gould.