The Estabrook Woods map has a long and checkered history. Deep in the heart of Musketaquid territory, the area was one of the first mapped by NEOC, in black and white form. The map was updated into color in 1987 by Bill Jameson and John Robbins for an A-meet that was ultimately moved due to parking and land use problems. In the 14 years since then, developers have gobbled up the eastern third of the map, grumpy property owners have declared the southwest quadrant off limits, and the Town of Concord has expressed concern about the environmental impact of orienteering in the Punkatasset Hill area. In addition, trails, vegetation, and mapping standards have changed. Still, almost every meet held here has a good turnout, and most people return from the woods smiling, as long as they kept track of the stone walls.

This year's meet was no exception. Coming soon after the September 11 terrorist attacks, attendance might have been low, but it seemed that many people were ready to focus again on life's blessings. We had well over 200 participants on a full range of courses, including 25 on the String whose names I neglected to capture. Since the original map is out of print, we used color photocopies on which I had made some crude map corrections. The White and Yellow used a blown-up 1:10,000 version to make their task a bit easier. Due to the layout of the trails n the Middlesex School area, the lower-level courses were tougher than usual; even the White involved an off-trail leg, following a stone wall and some streamers.

The results show the usual spread of times on all the courses, reflecting the difference between walking and running, and the fact that some people found the old map hard to read while others were unfazed. One control on the Green and Red gave problems to several competitors because it had no attack point coming from the obvious direction, but there's a moral there about relocating to firm features. On the Yellow course, a bee's nest got stirred up near number 4 and several folks were stung, but persevered. An entire group from Saint Paul's School in the other Concord (New Hampshire) came and did well on several courses. Perhaps my favorite competitor was Kathi Davis, a newcomer who shouted "That was awesome!" while finishing her first White course. That's what makes a meet director's work worthwhile.

I owe thanks to many people for helping out. Hans Bengtsson deserves special recognition for showing up early to do set-up and then staying late, picking up controls as the sun dropped in the west. Ben and Meg Parson were there nearly as long, setting up the String course and picking up the White, and doing a lot of scootering in between. Other assistants included Michael Commons, Patti Miller, Dennis Struble, Bob Dangel, Charlie Toulmin, Dean Sturtevant, Tom Baldwin, Ralph Jones, Bill Neacy, Nancy Koehler and Elizabeth Parson. Finally, the club is grateful to Harvard University, the owner of most of the Woods, and Middlesex School, owner of the nearby portion and patient host to the mini-carnival of parking, registration, String-O and Start / Finish.