Pawtuckaway 2006 Canoe-O by Joel

Pawtuckaway 2006 Canoe-o Pictures

Welcome to the official results page for the 2006 edition of the Pawtuckaway, NH Canoe Orienteering meet.

Every year, the Goulds organize a canoe/kayak orienteering meet in conjunction with the annual UNO orienteering and camping weekend at Pawtuckaway State Park in Raymond, NH. (UNO is the orienteering club that covers New Hampshire and Maine.) Normally, Joel and Daphne host the event, but for this, our eighth annual Pawtuckaway canoe-O, Joel and Ben were in charge.

We had 29 groups compete this year, Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. The weather was wonderful both days, no sign of the rain that was forecast (and did fall further to the south). Aims rented three canoes for us this year and loaned us another. The Kotowskis also loaned us their canoe. Thanks to all of them for helping out. We also had a two person kayak (from the Goulds) and a one person kayak (from Aims) available as well.

This year's rules we the same as always. The canoe-O was organized as a score-O. There were 14 controls placed around Pawtuckaway Lake, all accessible from the water (except for two land controls). Paddlers had 60 minutes to find as many controls as possible and then return to the start. Each control was worth 3 points, and each minute or fraction thereof after 60 minutes was worth -1 point.

Course Notes

We have organized this event for eight years, and the lake has not significantly changed in all that time, so setting interesting courses is getting more and more challenging. This year, we tried to appeal to both the competitive teams by making sure that there were some interesting route choices, and the recreational teams by placing more of the controls within reach of the less talented paddlers.

You can see the 2006 course in the map below. Notice the cluster of low-numbered controls south east of the canoe launch. This was the area designed to be accessible to everyone. Then, in addition, we included controls some distance in all directions (9, 10, 11 and 14). Control 14 was interesting because it was accessible by land. We picked a feature (stream bed) that was easy for runners to find, if anyone want to try to save time by running instead of paddling. Of course, the addition of a nearby island control (number 13) made sure that the boat would have to get close enough to make for interesting route choices. Of the top teams, only Aims and Andy ran to control 14 -- of course, they were also the winning team. Control number 9 was also runable, if you were willing to wade through knee deep water. But no one chose a land route to that control.

2006 Course	Aims and Andy's Route	Miller's Route	Darrell's Route	JJ Cote's Route

On Friday night, after putting out the punches we were a little concerned that this year's course was too short compared to past years. That's because it only took me an hour and a half to visit all the controls (except 8, 12 and 14). In past years, Daphne needed over two hours to set up all the punches. But the winning time this year was two minutes longer than last year, and only two teams were able to pick up all the controls in the hour allotted.

The Winning Teams

This year the team of Aims Coney and Andy Hall were the overall winners. In past years, Aims paired with J.J. Cote, but this year J.J. was feeling under the weather, so Aims paired up with last year's solo winner. Aims and Andy put in a blistering time of just under 47 minutes for all 14 controls. And if you look at their course, they made a lot of smart choices to optimize their time. For example, they portaged the canoe three times, to avoid paddling around peninsulas. And at the end of the course, Andy picked up the last two controls (14 and 8) by running, leaving Aims free to paddle (and portage) the canoe back to the canoe launch using a direct route.

Aims and Andy ran early so their first place score results taunted all of the remaining contestants. The team who we felt had the best shot of knocking Aims and Andy into second place were the Miller brothers, Stephen and Seth. The Millers were the second to last group to complete, since they did not show up until Sunday morning. Since Aims and Andy had shown it was possible to visit all the controls, the Millers knew exactly what they needed to do to win. Visit all 14 controls and get back in under 47 minutes.

The Millers started at 11:48am, and after 48 minutes, Stephen Miller pulled into the canoe launch and ran up to the finish. But where was Seth? Stephen and Seth had split up at the bridge to Horse Island (see their course on the map above), with Stephen paddling back alone and Seth picking up controls 12 and 8. It hindsight, that may have not been the best decision, since it took Seth an additional four minutes to get back to the finish after Stephen had dropped off their canoe. The Miller's total time was 51 minutes and 41 seconds. Good enough for second place, but not fast enough to prevent Aims from repeating as Pawtuckaway Canoe-O champion.

Darrell Scott was the singles winner, visiting 13 of the 14 controls in just over 61 minutes, for a total of 37 points. J. J. Cote, who paddle the course alone late Saturday afternoon was the second place single. He picked up all 14 controls but took just under 68 minutes to do it, resulting in a score of 34 points.

The routes of all four of these groups are shown on the map above. Just click on the tab corresponding to each group's name. It is very interesting to see how route decisions on this year's course made a significant different in the times of the various teams. Especially compared to last year, where everybody's routes were similar, forcing the competition to be decided by paddling speed.

Stories from the Meet

Control number 2 gave us a little trouble this year. We wanted to place the control on a small island off the end of the Niels Cove peninsular; however, we were unable to get the kayak close enough to any of the tree branches to hang a legal water control. Instead, we placed the control on a stump, which was sticking up out of the water on the north side of the island. Tying on the control was tricky because there was no good place. We ended up wrapping the control's rope around one part of the stump and pounding a rock into a crack to help keep the control's rope in place. I knew that this control would be trouble.

And it was trouble. On Sunday morning, Darrell Scott, who was the first person on the course on Sunday morning, came back and reported the punch missing, although on of the streamers was still there. We gave him credit for the control and then send Daphne out in our kayak to hang a replacement punch. A minute or two later, another group returned and also reported the punch missing. But this group decided to do us a favor and brought back the streamer that was still hanging on the stump. Whoops. Now there was nothing at control number 2. We quickly ran down and caught up with Daphne and handed her replacement streamers as well. Hint for future canoe-o participants: if the punch is missing but the streamer is not, you are not doing anyone any favors by bringing us back the streamer. :-).

Normally when a punch goes missing, I assume that either it was stolen (it happens), or it simply came lose and was sitting at the bottom of the lake. Yet, later on Sunday, while I was down at the camoe launch taking pictures, I noticed a canoe-o style control hanging on a tree near the canoe-o. And next to the control was a streamer with the number 2 on it (this year we always hung two streams with each punch). So the punch at control number 2 didn't get stolen or fall in the lake. It was just relocated by some helpful person. Oh well.

As if the story of the teleporting punch was not enough, control number 2 was the feature of a second anecdote. When Allmuth Perzel arrived at control number 2, she was unable to find the control. She completely circled the island, avoiding two other kayaks which were also visiting that island. But no luck. Then Allmuth looked closer. Yes, there was the control on a stump next to the island, but it was inaccessible. It seems that the other two kayaks visiting the island were not competitors. No, they were taking pictures. Control number 2 was inaccessible because there was a woman sitting on top of the stump, while her friend in one of the kayaks was taking her picture. Allmuth had to wait. (As it happened, the extra minute or two at control number 2 did not affect her standing in the results.)

Speaking of Allmuth Perzel, she actually paddled the course twice. Once on Saturday with a group and again solo at noon on Sunday. For her solo run, Allmuth initially punched 9 controls in 46 minutes. But when she got back to the finish, we noticed that she had not bothered to pick up control 8, which was reachable without a canoe, by running from the start. "Allmuth," we said, "you still have 14 minutes. You can easily run to control 8 and get back before an hour is up." Well Allmuth was a little oxygen-starved after her paddling and it took a minute for her to understand what we were proposing and decide to pick up the extra control. Then it took a few more minutes for her to get oriented, and figure out which way to run. But there was plenty of time, and control 8 was pretty close. Allmuth picked up the extra control (3 more points) and got back with 5 minutes to spare. OK, so we gave her a little help on the course; but, this is a pretty casual orienteering meet and the point is to have fun.

I will be posting more pictures from the orienteering meet in this gallery. be sure to check them out, and come back in a few weeks when I should have more pictures posted.

Final results for the 2006 Canoe-O

Groups were ranked based on points scored. Three points per control punched less one point for each minute (or fraction) overtime. In the case of a tie, the group with the shorter time was ranked higher.

Aims Coney & Andy Hall 42 46:51 pic Stephen and Seth Miller 42 51:34 pic Darrell Scott 37 61:33 pic Ross Smith & Sam Saeger 34 61:24 pic J. J. Cote 34 67:52 pic Mark Webb & Pia Kivisakk 33 58:09 pic Charlie DeWeese 32 60:56 pic Judy Karpinski & Jeff Saeger 31 61:43 pic Calvin and Trisha Underwood 30 60:00 pic Tyler and Mile Carpenter 29 60:56 pic Dawn, Mark & Dick 28 61:20 pic Alan Dunlavey & family 27 56:18 pic Ernst Linder 27 57:50 pic Scott Turner 27 59:09 pic Clinton, Jackson and Hayden Morse 27 59:58 pic Carl and Eileen Underwood 27 62:03 pic David and Zakwani Gibbs, David Bryant & Theron Nipson 25 61:42 pic Confused 2 (Kukolich) 24 49:12 pic Jessyka and Samantha B 24 53:41 pic Neil Faiman & Lynne Pentier 24 56:26 pic Nat Brooks 21 49:25 pic Allmuth Perzel & group 21 53:07 pic Allmuth Perzel (solo) 21 54:41 pic Susan and Sam Levitin 21 65:10   Becky, Mandy & Sadie 15 58:31 pic Barb and Isabel Bryant & Rachael and Elizabeth Harkavy 13 76:31 pic Mary and John Underwood 12 40:45 pic Kate Kirkwood & group 8 73:00 pic Steve Lichtenberg & Alex Picard, Troup 21 6 40:55 pic

This web page (http://www.gouldhome.com/Pawtuckaway2006Canoe-o.html) was last updated on September 27, 2006. For any comments or suggestions about the site contact Daphne Gould. Contents copyright © 1999-2003 by Joel and Daphne Gould.