A catering truck? Fans on bleachers? The national anthem playing? Police assisting with parking? Yes, all these things happened at the National Orienteering Day event in Worcester, but, alas, the fans and snack truck were not there for the orienteers.

Lake Park is a tiny urban park, about half a square km. It is so densely crisscrossed by trails that it's difficult to set any challenging legs. Orange is a squeeze to fit into the park. Since this map was made in 1986 there have been a few meets held, the most recent directed by Ed Tulloch in 1999. Various areas of the park have been sullied by vandals, dumped trash, and yard wastes that might charitably be considered an organized composting operation. There is evidence of a recent fire in the forest.

I drafted the map in OCAD from one of a few remaining pristine paper copies, and with the help of some OCAD users got the map into shape to fit onto an 8 1/2 by 11 inch sheet of paper at a scale of 1:5000. The event appeared in the running column of the Worcester daily newspaper, and I received a few emails, so I expected a moderate to large turnout. Because the trail network is so extensive, no point is more than about 50m from the nearest trail. There are limited opportunities for challenging orienteering. I set a Park-O style Orange course with many short legs. Expecting an onslaught of first timers, I set both a short white course with all controls on trails, and a long white course that used linear features besides trails, some legs of which required a bit of bushwhacking.

Imagine my surprise on meet morning after setting the controls to find a catering truck parked in the lot adjoining the woods and the baseball field, which the parks department advised me to consider out of bounds. There was a major college baseball tournament beginning at noon. Fans came in droves. The national anthem preceded the game. Many people walked past the NOD registration table, but there was very little interest generated among the baseball fans.

The orienteers stayed away in droves, as well, in spite of near ideal weather for orienteering. Early starter Dave Dunham blazed through the Orange course in 27:55 on his way to a triple crown of 3 NOD events in 2 states on the same day. There were 16 competitors and 6 kids on the String course. Three of the 16 were first-time orienteers.

The Orange course was most popular, with over half of the orienteers on it. Least popular was the Long White, which had no takers. HVO member Guy Olsen, visiting for the weekend, brought along two local boys to try out orienteering.

In the end, those who competed enjoyed it. No controls were mishung. No major complaints about the map. No controls were vandalized. Not even the one hung on a stone wall in an area where the baseball fans set out lawn chairs.

Thanks to all who willingly volunteered to work, waiting for the hordes that never materialized.

Winners of the Brunton compasses were the Garinkol family, the Mason family, the Ehrlich brothers, and the Kubik family. Tom Varney and Bill Neacy won copies of MapTech software.

With thanks for the their help to:

Bill Neacy	(starts)
Ed Kotowski	(finish)
Liz Kotowski	(finish, registration, photography, breakdown)
Ed Tulloch	(finish)
Don Sprowl	(novice instruction, registration)
Elaine Dill	(registration, novice instruction)
Susan and Brenna Levitin	(string-O setup)
Michael Commons	(control pickup)
Dave Dunham	(setup)