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It was a beautiful day. A bit hot for running but cooler in the woods. This was the first CHCCS ARDF event held on the East side of Carolina North Forest. Five teams went out. In total, we had 17 participants (4 middle school students, 4 5th graders, 3 students for which we didn't record the school, and 6 family members). If you find a mistake or need some information changed, please let me know [ patrick (dot) r (dot) sears [at] gmail (dot) com ].

Our usual 80m classic course was the longest CHCCS course to date, 2.8 km. Compare this to the 2.2 km which was the longest course we had on the West side of CNF. A good arc through the three closest foxes would go through 2 4 5 and then to the homing beacon. Foxes 1 and 3 were much further out, 900 m and 800 m from the start. The longest distance across the course area was 1.7 km.

Thanks to our volunteers: Nadia and Charles Scharlau who helped with control pickup. Isaac Sears who went out on the course. Thanks to all the middle school and high school teachers and staff who helped get the word out to the students: Rachel Hopler (Science Teacher, Culbreth Middle School), Christine Lippy (Science Teacher, McDougle Middle School), Dale Haiducek (CTE Teacher, Phillips Middle School), Al McArthur (Technology Facilitator, Phillips Middle School), Haley Wamble (Science Teacher, East Chapel Hill High School), SaCola Lehr (Media Specialist, Chapel Hill High School), Libby Diesel (Library Assistant, Chapel Hill High School), Kara Watson (Media Specialist, Carrboro High School). Thanks to Greg Kopsch (Park Manager at Carolina North Forest) for the use of CNF.

Participant Activities

Toby and Lucy were our most experienced team. They went out early and had a fantastic run finding all five foxes on unfamiliar terrain over the longest course we've ever had. Outstanding!

Everyone else took the class. We started the class at the start/finish area. By around 11:30, the class started onto the course with our first goal, Fox #2. We started slowly along the trail going over map symbols, receiver technique, and route strategies. Soon after leaving the exclusion zone, we headed off trail since the bearing to Fox #2 made such wide angle with the bearing pointing down trail. As we went through the forest, the group split up. By the time the main class group found Fox #2, some others had already found it and headed for Fox #4. On the way to Fox #4, the main group split into all the final groups. Everyone found Fox #4. Excellent! And some went on to even find Fox #5 Brilliant ☺ .

For the first time, we managed to record everyone's time on course. So the entries are listed in order, first by the number of foxes found and second by the time on course. The finds column notes the controls found: foxes 1 through 5 and the homing beacon (H). The time column is the time on course. Students are listed with their school and grade. Schools designations: PMS Phillips, SMS Smith. Other designations: s student but we didn't write down the school (oops, sorry), es elementary school, f family.

#	participants (school, grade)	finds	time
1 - 5 foxes	Toby (PMS 6), Lucy (PMS 6), Jason (f).	1 2 3 4 5 H	104'
2 - 3 foxes	Josie (es 5), Erik (f), Tawny (f)	2 4 5 H	74'
3 - 3 foxes	Will (PMS 7), Lyla (es 5), Brook (es 5), Derek (f), April (f).	2 4 5 H	82'
4 - 2 foxes	Megan (s), Tessa (s), Madi (s), Kari (f)	2 4 H	54'
5 - 2 foxes	Avi (SMS 6), Brenna (f).	2 4 H	55'

Pictures

Clicking pictures will bring up original full-sized versions. All participants are listed as seen in the picture from left to right. Pictures are generally listed in chronological order trying to keep groups together.

Toby going off to hunt for foxes.

Lucy going off to hunt for foxes.

Lucy and Toby collecting their tags at Fox #3. It was more than 800 m from the start/finish area. Outstanding! ^[1]

Toby and Lucy. On the hunt for the most distant transmitter. ^[1]

Brook, April, Isaac (blue shirt way in back behind Brook and April), Nadia (only orange shirt visible, also way in back), Derek (gray shirt), Josie (at back), Will (white shirt), Patrick. The class is going over how to use the receivers. Isaac and Nadia at back are also talking about receivers.

Avi, Brenna, Brook, April, Will, Patrick (in foreground), Erik, Josie, Megan, Kari, Madi, Tessa. The class is preparing to go onto the trail.

Patrick, Avi, Brenna, Brook, April, Lyla, Will (behind), Derek, Erik (black shirt), Megan, Madi, Tessa. Last minute prep before going off to hunt for the foxes.

Madi (white shirt), Megan (gray shirt), Tessa (blue shirt), Josie (white shirt), Erik (black shirt), Tawny (red shirt). The class is starting down the main trail heading into the center of CNF. Our first target: Fox #2.