Entering at the last minute after cricket was cancelled, Bill Edwards beat top MTBers Simon Kennett and John Randal by 300 pts in today's bike-optional 4hr rogaine in St Pats Forest. But early rain and blustery northerlies gave way to a fine day and the sumptuous barbeque was held in calm conditions.
An afterwork rogaine had been held in St Pats in April, and there were more than enough controls. Looking for an idea to repeat last year's Pencarrow bike-or-foot rogaine, a re-run popped up. In the end only a handful of people re-visited controls, some of which were modified by planners Grame Silcock and Sue Eastwood. Though steep, the area contains increasing amounts of passable forest, and with due attention to the contours lots of streams are good travel too. So the footies were able to do a lot of off-track nav, while bikers had enough choice to pick those that were on or near tracks. Unlike last year there was no penalty for using bikes, so partial bike use was another variable in the route choice.
There's a big overlap between the MTBO and rogaine people, so there may be more mixed bike-foot events. The final event for 2009 was OHV's 32nd.