Pawtuckaway Canoe-O by Joel

Pawtuckaway 99 Canoe-o Pictures

Last year, Lex asked us to organize the canoe orienteering course at the annual UNO Orienteering/Camping weekend. Daphne and I agreed. We planned the course, and handled canoe-O starts and finishes. Because we did such a good job, or perhaps because there was no-one else, we were drafted to run this year's canoe-o as well.

Planning started three weeks ago. We went over the maps of the canoe-o courses for the previous three years to make sure this year's course was different. Last year's course was very popular. Lex Bundshuch seemed particularly excited after she and Pete won last year's course getting all the controls within the hour time limit. Lex and Pete were able to get all the controls by optimizing their route, and by splitting up with Lex running to as many land controls as possible while Pete moved the canoe to the next place it was needed. Our goal for this year was to create a course which would be just as exciting.

This year we designed a course with 14 controls. Some were on small islands which could only be reached by canoe but most were reachable by running. This gave the participants lots of possible route choices. We planned the course at home and then went to Pawtuckaway the weekend before Labor Day to check out the course and flag the controls.

When we got to the lake, we were shocked at how low the water was. Many islands on the map were now connected by dry land, and dozens of new, unmapped, islands had been uncovered by the receding water. Oh well, it only made navigation more interesting.

The Friday before the camping weekend, we wanted to place the controls. After all, Lex had indicated in the advertisements that the canoe-o course would be available for use Friday afternoon. But the drive up was very slow and it was raining very hard. I placed four controls which I could reach by car on Friday night. The rest Daphne and I placed Saturday morning.

Lex and Jeanne Walsh had planned the canoe-o logistics very well. They had map copies of the map and sealed those copies in plastic. Then Pete carved up six wooden markers which we would use to keep track of the loaner canoes.

Daphne and I ran the canoe-o start and finish table. Mornings were slow since people always ran their land courses before thinking about the canoes. But by mid afternoon we started to run out of loaner canoes.

The canoe-o proved to be very popular with 31 different groups finishing. The team of Aims Coney and Ernst Linder took first place, getting all the controls (14 controls worth 3 points each) in just over 41 minutes. Their effort was truly amazing, involving careful route planning and cooperation between runner and paddler.

On Sunday, Aims wanted to try the course again with the benefit of having thought about it overnight, but by himself. It only took him 8 minutes longer without Ernst, paddling, running, carrying the canoe and even swimming where appropriate.

Anyway, here are the results. Results are sorted by point, 3 points per control less 1 point per minute over one hour. The total time is also shown which is used as a tiebreaker.

This web page (http://www.gouldhome.com/Pawtuckaway99Canoe-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.