Over the May long weekend several of the juniors from FWOC went to Kamloops, B.C for the Sage Stomp. These juniors were Emma, Bridie, Darya and Alix and below is an article they wrote about their experience. Look for it in one of the upcoming issues of the Canada Orienteering magazine!Off to Sage Stomp We Go!!! |
During the May long weekend, we (Darya, Alix, Emma and
Bridie from the junior program of FWOC) got to enjoy the excellent experience of
the Sage Stomp orienteering camp.
We all piled into Marsha's (Emma's mom) car, bright and early
friday morning and headed for the hills. After a long eight hour
car ride we arrived in time for a delicious supper and a night-o. The night-o
was tricky because it was a memory-o, but at each control we had a clue to the
next control. We went in a group because we were scared of the dark :) We got
lost a few times and wandered around in the forest. Later that night, we got set
up in the grey jay hideaway cabin.
The next morning we got put into our groups for the morning
training session with Brian May. This exercise was to focus on flowing through
controls and we found it really informative and helpful. After a great lunch we
set out for our next training session which focused on contours. This was lead
by Louise Oram. To get to the start we had to walk up a massive hill. The view
at the top was magnificent, it was worth it. Louise's explanation of contours
were nothing we've ever seen before - lots of running around and hand gestures.
We completed the course in a buddy system and Emma had a pretty fantastic
wipeout where she face planted and slid along the grass for a couple of meters.
We finished before the adults and sat by the lake trying to "mate with the
birds" by making bird sounds with stalks of grass. Once we got back to the camp,
Bridie and Emma went for a swim in McQueen. It was refreshing and a nice way to
clean off. In the evening Brian May gave a talk about map simplification which
helped us with our race the next day.
On Sunday we all raced up in the 17-20 age category, which was
course 6. The course was 7.6km long and very challenging. At the start we saw a
massive hill and told each other that if we had to go up it that we would sit
down and start crying. Our 3rd control was on the top of that hill. Despite the
hill, it was our best leg. The most challenging control was number 7 because you
had a choice between a path and a forest navigation. Most of us went through the
forest and took between 10 to 30min; however, Darya who followed the path had a
much stronger leg. Bridie really struggled on the 9th leg causing her to wander
and lose a lot of time. By the end we were all tired and wanted to sleep. But
no, we had another training. This time it was based on relocation and our coach
was Catherine, an orienteer from Belgium. She would get us lost and then we
would have to relocate and head to a certain control. We also redid the 7th leg
and realized how much time we could have made up. Catherine gave us some
valuable advice for when we run, she said " it's not like you run with your eyes
closed and get somewhere and go, oh sh*t." Later that afternoon there were
awards, Emma came in dripping wet from her swim in the lake. At awards Bridie
got some candy for her perseverance in her "rough race" and Darya received a
flute from the draw prizes. The flute was handmade by Hunter, a newbie.
At 9:00 there was a night-o, only Emma participated in it, the
rest of us were tired and watched. Emma used Louise's massive head lamp and
found it very useful. Upon asking Emma about the night-o she replied by saying:
" it was dark."
On our final day we left early in the morning to head back to
Calgary. Unfortunately we missed training in the morning.
We would like to thank everyone who made this camp happen. Thanks
to our coaches Louise, Brian and Catherine and the volunteers that made this
weekend possible. Also thanks to our parents and caterers for the delicious
food. Special thanks to Marsha for driving us and putting up with our singing.
