2026 Cedar Mill - Bethany Metrogaine Results and Summary

Mt Hood Orienteering’s first Cedar Mill/Bethany Metrogaine was a success despite occurring during the first heat wave of 2026. We had our highest number of registrations (30) for a local event this year with all but one person braving the heat and incredible climbs offered on our courses. Somehow, everyone returned with smiles on their faces, which might have had something to do with their fun adventures as well as knowing that their incredible efforts were finally finished.

 

For this event, our new map had 61 control sites spread over the 35+ square kilometers of hilly terrain that makes up the communities north of Highway 26 in Tualatin Valley. The greatest concentration of high-value controls was in the very steep hills immediately east of the event center, so it was no surprise that nearly everyone on the 2-, 4-, and 6- hour courses went for those controls.

 

As usual, the Kidd-O course was a hit with our youngest orienteers who did that course. It had controls spread around the Jackie Husen Park event center. These courses enable kids to do their own courses with or without their adults, but always under the watchful eyes of their guardians. We had kids from the Boyles, Allen, and Hayes families do this course.

 

The 1-hour foot-O course was designed for new orienteers or for families with children. We had four teams on that course and all seemed to have had a good time. The time for their course  limited the number of controls found unless they did as one team did and went overtime to add to their adventure. Of the new orienteers on that course, everyone seemed to have had a good time and we expect to see more of them.

 

The 2-hour Foot-O course had five entries with four of them vying for the top finishing slots. All of those top four finishers found a significant number of controls but they also were overtime and lost points. Had any one of them avoided the overtime penalties, then they would have easily won for their course. Based on the smiles on their faces after finishing, the overtime penalties ment less than the fun that they had in the steep Cedar Mill hills with their incredible views and beautiful homes.

 

The 4-hour Bike-O course had only one start, Team Lago (Nick Appelmans and Irma Lagomarsino). They ventured by bike up to the top of the eastern hills and all around the eastern portion of the map in pursuit of the highest points. They provided great input on their course that makes it possible to continue offering bike-O options at many of our future events.

 

The 4-hour Foot-O course also had only one start, Nora Tom. Nora thrives in the heat and readily went around the very steep eastern hills enjoying the pursuit of control sites and wonderful views.

 

The 6-hour Foot-O course had three incredible performances by their participants. Dan Simon won with 1370 points in just under 4 hours and 20 minutes—he started strong with running up the eastern hills and finally had to stop from a lack of additional energy. Del Scharffenberg forged on for just under 6 hours and accumulated 1210 points—his carefully maintained speed made it look like he could have gone on longer. Jason Breaker found 850 points in just under 4 hours.

 

Our thanks to Steven Boyles for managing our beginner classes and Danielle Boyles for her suggestions that we offer free admission to first-time MTHD orienteers and offer a 1-hour course for the individuals and families orienteering for the first time. We also had many offers from others to help us cleanup after this event as well as to help at our future events (thanks for those offers, especially for the future events). Additional thanks to Ali Crocker, Dan Simon, and Team Lago for their suggestions to update the event map for a blocked trail and a couple of missing roads.