Discussion: Possum Trot weekend events

Anyone have more information on the OK event on December 3rd (Spike, MeanGene??) PTOC has it posted but I couldn't find anything beyond the date.

You probably shouldn't go. There could be swampfoxes and even osage oranges there. Snow is an ever present possibility, and there are proponents who claim that a Possum Trot sans snow really isn't worth racing. Plus, snow is the perfect excuse for post-race pizza and sauna. Sauna! Sauna! Finally, you can expect the presence of the El Supremo Mr. Spikester de Possum Trot. He is always there, and has never tested positive for blood doping. That alone is reason enough to disregard the first sentence and go anyway, and observe how the death match between the humorless Buckley and the ever grim Frei-man goes. The Possum Trot is *the* way to close out the orienteering year, and you can pour sand in your cowboy boots on it!

PS--Some years, if you go to all the controls and refuse to skip, you get Burger King gift certificates. Also an indisputable reason to attend. But whatever you do, never, ever finish second, because then you will get the de rigour can of creme de 'possum.

Tentative plans are for the OK event to be at Camp Naish (where last year's Trot took place). As usual, it'll be short courses with a start time of around 1 p.m. Fritz Menninger, who set the courses last year, will set the courses. Fritz always likes to try new things, so don't be too surprised if he does something new (maybe a micro O'?).

Swampfox has only seen the tip of the iceburg when it comes to the death match. If he attended the Saturday evening gift exchange (AKA stick your buddy with the worst possible gift) he'd see how heated things can really get. It got so bad 2 years ago that David kept stealing back the gift THAT HE BROUGHT. How sad is that? "I don't really want this thing, but for some reason I don't want HIM to have it either!"

And, yes, a Trot without snow isn't really a Trot, unless there's really cold rain like last year.

Yes, it's true: very cold rain is even better than snow, especially when it starts freezing on contact and coating everything in a cold clasp of ice. But that's the ultimate, too much to really hold out hope for openly in a public forum like this, less the gods become angered and send sunshine and 60 degree temps instead.

The upside of the aggrevating chore of designing the NTOA schedule is that I can make sure we avoid certain dates. And one of them is the Possum Trot! Will be there this year for my PTrot #2.

The possum trot is a fine event, but it has a ways to go to catch up to the Blue Hills Traverse for meteorological risk. I recall in particular the BHT of 1993 - a truly hypothermic experience. Highlights of that cold and rainy day for me included the time I lost contact with my sled dogs when it took me a full three minutes with frozen fingers to tie a shoelace that had come undone, and the point at which I attempted to drop out of the race because my core temperature was dwindling and I feared passing out - only to observe that the closest way back to the finish was past all the remaining controls. Never again was a Traverse held in December! Even long-o enthusiasts have some survival instinct, however impaired. BTW, is there a venue for the Possum Trot yet? I do plan to attend again, as it is quite a fine event, even in the relatively moist but generally pleasant weather that prevailed last year.
Another point to consider for the Traverse: you don't have to inquire as to the venue.

This year's Trot will be at Bluff Woods. PTOC made a new map. They used the area for a night rogaine in the spring. The night rogaine was on a USGS map. Bluff Woods is north of Kansas City. It is hilly.


http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=15&n=4387567.000...

I haven't seen the new map.

Well, the night event was on sort of a USGS map. Had some interesting updates. Check out the stream just east of #13. As rough as their efforts are, I've never seen USGS map a stream as going UP 3 contour lines. Aren't GPS overlays grand?

"Hilly" ~ 6%. I'd rather run into osage oranges, attack badgers (possums?) and slush than the experience back in March, which included near impalement on a honey locust and a run-in with a riled-up local boy. If Dick and Mike have been able to locate a better base map it should be quite a nice place for the Trot. As I remember, there were some very spectacular views from the bluff tops, especially in the SW part of the map.

Night rogaine? Sounds like something to try in Anchorage in the winter.