Mt Hood Orienteering
2025 Silver Falls Point-to-Point Summary and Results
SILVER FALLS POINT-TO-POINT SUMMARY
Mt Hood Orienteering’s Silver Falls event was its first woodland foot-O event and its first event using electronic punching for timing. We had a record number of participants for a MTHD event. Except for dealing with the fully grown ferns in the beginning of most courses, the competitors seemed to have had a good time with their courses, and many of them stayed afterwards to share their course experiences. Hopefully, next year, we can plan this event earlier in the year when the vegetation is not fully grown, the weather is cooler, and the campgrounds are not as full.
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In addition to the standard seven color courses, we created an additional Orange course ("Orange-Y") for orienteers who needed to stay on, or close to, trails. We were surprised at the number of people who went for that course. For local events, we will try to include more such courses.
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With higher attendance numbers, there were more children having fun on the kidd-o course at the event center. With the added number of children, the kidd-o course was extra fun because the kids would do the course over and over with different combinations of siblings or friends. We will continue to include these courses at future events.
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An event like this one cannot happen without the help of an incredible group of volunteers. Julie Pohl and David Rogers ran all of the starts, Mike Poulsen provided some incredible beginner clinics that the beginners talked about all day. Kelly Witty and Laura Weller provided cookies and trail mix for the social. Bjorn Freeman-Benson, Peter Graube, Del Scharffenberg, Mark Sandifer, and Austin Sandifer picked up controls after running very physical courses. Julie Pohl helped remove the starts station after the last person started. Kathleen Kerns ran e-punch results as well as maintained the food for the social. Our thanks also to Julie Pohl and Christoph Zurcher for their suggestions for future events and to Dan Simon, Debbie Newell, and Mike Holliday for helping us to get our electronic punching system to work before (and during) this event. Last, but not least, our thanks to Silver Falls State Park rangers Chris Gilliand and Jeremy Wagoner for their permissions to use Oregon’s largest state park for an orienteering event, for providing the event shelter and parking area, and for their recommendations that made this event extra fun for our participants. Thanks very much to all of you!
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Tony Pinkham
EVENT RESULTS SUMMARY
29 Starts, 36 Participants
Silver Falls Point-to-Point Summary
Mt Hood Orienteering’s Silver Falls event was its first woodland foot-O event and its first event using electronic punching for timing. We had a record number of participants for a MTHD event. Except for dealing with the fully grown ferns in the beginning of most courses, the competitors seemed to have had a good time with their courses, and many of them stayed afterwards to share their course experiences. Hopefully, next year, we can plan this event earlier in the year when the vegetation is not fully grown, the weather is cooler, and the campgrounds are not as full.
​
In addition to the standard seven color courses, we added an orange Y course for orienteers who for injuries or other reasons needed to stay on or close to trails. We were surprised at the number of people who went for that course. For local events, we will try to include more such courses.
​
With higher attendance numbers, there were more children having fun on the kidd-o course at the event center. With the added number of children, the kidd-o course was extra fun because the kids would do the course over and over with different combinations of siblings or friends. We will continue to include these courses at future events.
​
An event like this one cannot happen without the help of an incredible group of volunteers. Julie Pohl and David Rogers ran all of the starts, Mike Poulsen provided some incredible beginner clinics that the beginners talked about all day. Kelly Witty and Laura Weller provided cookies and trail mix for the social. Bjorn Freeman-Benson, Peter Graube, Del Scharffenberg, Mark Sandifer, and Austin Sandifer picked up controls after running very physical courses. Julie Pohl helped remove the starts station after the last person started. Kathleen Kerns ran e-punch results as well as maintained the food for the social. Our thanks also to Julie Pohl and Christoph Zurcher for their suggestions for future events and to Dan Simon, Debbie Newell, and Mike Holliday for helping us to get our electronic punching system to work before (and during) this event. Last, but not least, our thanks to Silver Falls State Park rangers Chris Gilliand and Jeremy Wagoner for their permissions to use Oregon’s largest state park for an orienteering event, for providing the event shelter and parking area, and for their recommendations that made this event extra fun for our participants. Thanks to all of your for your generosity.
​
Tony Pinkham
Event Results
29 Starts, 36 Participants
