The environment was the big winner at this Earth Day event as more than 300 pounds of trash were removed by orienteers from the beautiful woods of the Hammond Pond Reservation. A "time-for-trash" exchange provided competitors with a 12 second deduction from their time for each piece of trash, up to a 50 piece limit, collected while on the clock. Many competitors went above and beyond and returned with significantly more than a 50 piece load. A few participants, including Sharon Crawford, really got into the spirit of the event by grabbing a bag and doing some extra clean up around the Start location. Tyler Carpenter returned to the finish with his arms significantly more fatigued than his legs. This might have been due to the two trash-laden bags and broken chair he was carrying! When last seen Octo Barnett was headed home to get a wheel barrow to remove the television set he found in the woods!

Mother Nature shone us and we were treated to a beautiful sunny day with temperatures in the 60's making it a perfect day for a run or walk in the woods. More than 85 participants enjoyed the day running the White, Yellow, Orange, "Get-All" and Motola courses. Many family groups participated with a number of young and enthusiastic orienteers. They were typified by Connor Levine who as he took off down the trail from the Start with his map, punch card and Yellow clue sheet but without a start time shouted over his shoulder "My Dad is coming. He'll catch up. Give him the starting time!" Connor with his Dad Steven, who I suspect worked on catching Connor over the entire course, logged a very respectable 114 minutes on the Yellow course. Dave Marca returned to competition with wife Julie and young daughter Kelsey who seemed to enjoy herself immensely.

A number of young competitors spoke about also running in the Mentomy Rocks Park event on March 30th. Several, such as Annie Jose, cited Scout-O events as whetting their appetite for orienteering. Congratulations to the dedicated and hardworking NEOC crew who year after year conduct the two extremely well done Scout-O training events that draw Scouts from all over New England.

Although the area is relatively small it features a pleasant and interesting mix of open glades, thick undergrowth, soaring rock faces, gentle contours, old stones walls and water features. The detailed, 1:5,000 map allowed for variation and some challenge in the control locations. Despite the course design limitations presented by the small area and the requirement for the Yellow and Orange courses to cross busy Hammond Pond Parkway at a single point the courses received generally favorable reviews from the competitors. Rookie course setter Bill Neacy attributes this to patient and expert coaching by Jeff Saeger.

For the more experienced orienteers Jeff Saeger ran a "Get All" where participants received a map as they started with 24 control locations printed on it. Controls could be visited in any order. Competitors were challenged at the start to think on their feet and on the clock to determine a strategy that, for better or worse, would guide their approach to getting all the controls. To make it a little more interesting no clue sheet was provided. Due to the "feature-rich" 1:5,000 map many control locations presented the competitor with 3 or 4 features where the control might be located. Based upon the vigorous discussion at the finish regarding individual strategies and stories of hunting for a control locations amongst several features competitors seemed to enjoy the event.

Two "Iron Men", Peter Frykman and Stephen van Ness enjoyed completing the Motola.

To the knowledge of the event directors there were only two course glitches. Very early in the day Control Number 10 on the Orange course disappeared and had to be replaced. Apologies to the four competitor impacted by this. Apparently this is a standard occurrence in this location. Future event directors should be sure not to place a control within view of the house on the far northwestern edge of the map. Due to a miscommunication between the event directors one of the controls on the "Get All" was misplaced. Our apologies go to first runner John Hansman for this error which was corrected for subsequent runners, Sharon Crawford, Nancy Koehler and J-J Cote.

Thanks to the volunteers who worked to make the Hammond Pond Earth Day Event a successful and pleasant experience for everyone. Bonnie Neacy, Judith Karpinski and Hillary Saeger set up the Registration, Start, Finish and Refreshment areas. Judith and Bonnie handled registrations. Hillary adroitly handled the Finish despite the complications presented by the additional calculations required by the "trash-for-time" exchange. Pete Beckwith manned the Start and got everyone off smoothly. Joann Sankus set out the direction signs on the nearby streets and offered instruction to a number of new orienteers. Michael Commons helped with the registrations and picked up the Orange controls. Ken Menzies and Sam Levitin were also on hand to assist in getting folks new to orienteering off to a good start. Thanks also to the behind the scenes folks, Cam Murray, Donn Springer, Paige Williams, Harriet Cohen and Barb Bryant, who were instrumental to the success of the event.