CHCCS ARDF
2018-10-20, Fall #3, Foxoring
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Carolina North Forest - East
Event Report

Island Creative Time
The family website of Kelly and Patrick Sears





The rain started before 11 AM and kept up throughout the event. But nine participants still decided it was worth coming out. Five students and four family members went out in four groups. Excellent!

If you find a mistake or need some information changed, please let me know [ patrick (dot) r (dot) sears [at] gmail (dot) com ].

The course.

We designed the course so that participants could choose different difficulty levels. Our white course had just three foxes and only includes foxes that where easier to find. There was a green course with five foxes. It was quite a bit longer and included all the easy foxes. Finally, the red course included all ten foxes, some of which had difficult features to find and foxes farther from the feature. But mostly these courses were there as a guide in deciding what to go for, and everyone was encouraged to make their own course.

Foxes were placed within 30 m from control features. The straight line distance through the 10-fox red course was 4.4 km. The longest distance across the course area was 1.7 km.

Participant Activities

We had many people try ARDF for the first time: Josh, Morgan, and Owen (all from Smith Middle School) with family members Michael and Scott. To keep out of the rain, we started the class under the big tarp. As the class was going, Andrew and Steve showed up. They had done it before so they first collected their equipment and adjusted it. Soon they joined the class to help out and explain some of the tougher aspects of receiver use.

After checking out the practice foxo, we all headed out together. We headed for foxo #1. We bypassed foxo #9 which was one of the more difficult ones. Everyone felt super confident after foxo #1 and the group split up. Josh and Micheal were first off. They decided they wanted the challenge of finding foxo #9 and headed back south. Patrick started heading back to the start. The rest kept going North toward foxo 10 and then split into two groups; Andrew, Morgan, and Steve in one, Owen and Scott in the other.

Toby and Jason showed up to sign in around this time. They headed out together to look for the tougher foxes.

Over all everyone did a fantastic job with everyone finding some of the tougher foxes. In particular, Owen and Scott did a fantastic job, finding all 10 foxes. Outstanding!

Results

Only one category this time. Everyone went in groups, deciding which foxes to go for as they went.

#participants (school, grade)findstime
Groups
1 Owen (SMS-6), Scott (f) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 H 194'
2 Toby (SMS-8), Jason (f) 1 2 3 6 9 H 69'
3 Andrew (SMS-8), Morgan (SMS-8), Steve (f) 1 5 9 10 H 79'
4 Josh (SMS-6), Michael (f) 1 5 9 10 189'

Within each group, entries are listed by the number of foxes found and then by time on course. The # column gives the results placement for that course. The finds column notes the controls found: foxes 1 through 5 and H for the homing beacon. Foxes numbers in parentheses were not on the chosen course. The time column is the time on course. Students are listed with their school and grade. We use the following schools abbreviations: PMS Phillips MS, SMS Smith MS, McDMS McDougle MS, CMS Culbreth MS, CHHS Chapel Hill HS, ECHHS East Chapel Hill HS, CaHS Carrboro HS, f family or guest friend, es elementary school, s chccs student (no school info). t teachers and staff members.

Thank you to all our helpers.

Thanks Scott for helping us carry boxes to the car when we were packing up. It seems like nothing, but after the long day, every bit helps. 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), 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), Margaret Devetski (Library Assistant, Carrboro High School). Thanks to Greg Kopsch (Park Manager at Carolina North Forest) for the use of CNF.

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. If you took any pictures during the event, we would love to post them. If you would like that, email us your pictures.

Owen, Scott (in back), Morgan, Michael, Patrick, Josh. We're going over map symbols.

Morgan, Owen, Patrick (bent over), Scott, Michael, Josh, Steve (outside tent). We're starting to go over receiver technique.

Owen, Patrick, Scott, Michael, Josh, Steve (outside tent), Andrew. More receiver work.

Morgan, Owen, Patrick, Michael, Josh. I think we're tuning in the homing beacon.

Morgan, Owen, a group in the middle, Andrew (at right). Final preparations before looking for the practice foxo.

Owen (behind trees at left), Morgan, Steve. Looking for the practice foxo and final receiver frequency adjustments before heading on course.

Toby. Checking out a GPS tracker. We don't use them on course. But carrying one and checking your track after the run is much fun.

Jason. Map and receiver in hand, punch card in shirt pocket, ready to go on course.

Steve. Heading for the homing beacon.

Toby. Just came down the finish shoot.

Owen, Scott. Owen just found foxo #4. He's heading right for it, about a meter away. If you look carefully for a spot of red, you'll see the punch. And just to the left is the pole on which it is hanging.

Scott, Owen. Scott is punching his card for foxo #4.

Michael, Josh. Just after they finished.

Kelly, Josh, Michael. During our discussion after Josh and Micheal got back. Kelly and Josh had to keep emptying the rain accumulating on the tarp.

Kelly, Michael, Josh. Talking about their time on course.

Michael, Josh. Posing after braving the rain for three hours as they searched for the elusive foxos. Outstanding!





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