Orienteering: USA 2021 Nationals – CROC Medalists

Posted on August 10, 2021 by Richard H. McBee Jr.

This was a great year for getting back to orienteering after the 2020 hiatus caused by the COVID-19 virus. CROC, our Columbia River Orienteering Club came together and was able to send 7 persons to compete in the USA National Competitions.

Unfortunately we were still unable to have the full North American Championship meet to confront our nemesis, Canada, from the North is the woods of central California. But! That said, we had a wonderful reunion or world class cross country and urban orienteering specialists from as far away as Pennsylvania, Oregon, Washington, and even a couple Canadians who sneaked over the border with their compasses, to chase through the buildings of Sierra College in Rocklin, CA on the sprint, hoping to collect the hidden controls in the fastest times possible for their age and ranking groups. Then from an altitude of 1000 ft we ascended to the 7000 ft. slopes outside of Truckee, CA for the Middle length event which was a chase through the woods at Little Truckee Summit in the gray smokey air blown in from the Dixie Fire, raging 100 miles away in upstate CA. Finally, the third race, the long, at Sagehen Pass, north of Truckee gave us nearly clear skies to run a grueling bunch of races through fast Sugar Pine and Manzanita forest with old logging roads and occasional clearings and boulders to confuse and distract runners. The four day meet ended with a team relay event at the Southern Tahoe High School campus with teams vying for individual and team scores. A huge thanks goes out to all the members of the BAOC (Bay Area Orienteering Club) of the San Francisco area who have spent almost 4 years making high quality maps, dealing with COVID restrictions, Forest Service fire restrictions, the need to plan for the North American meet which has now been postponed for another two years, and a gazillion frustrations as last minute fires and smoke hazards caused postponements and changes of venue. WELL DONE BAOC!!

CROC walked away with 7 medals from the events, which for our small club feels like a really great achievement.

Here’s a picture of our medalists at the Pizza feast held at the Northstar Resort between Tahoe and Truckee.