Indian Cave State Park is on the west bank of the Missouri River, just south of Brownville, Nebraska (about 100 miles northwest of Kansas City). It features the reconstructed mid-19th century river settlement of St. Deroin and Indian Cave, created several thousand years ago by silt and fine-grained sand deposits in a Pennsylvania rock channel. It boast several Indian petroglyphs.
I also boasts steep ravines and open forest, if you ignore all of the fallen trees. It would be a great orienteering map, but all we have currently is an upgraded USGS map. That means that only general contour and vegetation information is depicted on the map. Most of the trails, however, are fairly accurate. Given this, Mike Shifman did a great job of setting a 42-control Rogaine course. He used large features such as re-entrant junctions and hill tops. The 3-hour Score O event was merely 2/3 of the 10-hour Rogaine.
April 17 was a beautiful day. There were clear skies and temperatures in the high 60's. The venue was near the old town of St. Deroin, not far from the Missouri River. 16 orienteers began the 10-hour Rogaine at 10:00 a.m. Then 26 participants began the 3-hour Score O at 1:00 p.m. By 4:00 p.m. all of the Score O'ers had returned and awards had been given out. All of the Rogainers returned before the time limit of 8:00 p.m.
Mike Schuh, from Seattle, won the 3-hr Score O with 340 points. Mary Jones (1st Female) was second with 310 points, followed closely by Peter Gogol and Rich Carstensen. The Turtles were the first team (230 pts.) and Team Roberts from Boy Scout Troop 54 was next (190 pts.)
Phil Nicolas found all of the 10-hour Rogaine controls in 8:23:15. The Nebraska Rock Doctors (Chris Fielding and Dick Kettler) were the first Male Team; The Golden Girls (Susy Stephens and Connie Carpenter) were 1st Female Team and Team Glorious (Howard Robison and Gloria Waters) were 1st Co-ed Team.
Thank you to all the volunteers! Mike Shifman did a great job as Course Setter. Reta Roe was registrar and prepared the evening meal of brisquet sandwiches and baked beans. Nick Hockman brought the snacks, Paul Clatterbuck assisted with control placing and pickup and results. Nancy Neuburger prepared the lunch for the workers and assisted with control placing and pickup. The Golden Girls and Team Glorious helped with control pickup.
PS We appologize for the misplaced marker # 30 and hope it didn't affect results too much.