Discussion: Next CMOUSA Corn Maze Champs?

Any word on 2021? Would love to get back into the fields.

It appears the corn is growing...

We haven't talked to the proprietors yet, but we'll let you know if/when we have news.

OK, we're tentatively a go.

2019? 2020? 2021?

I don'n know how to change the event that the discussion thread is linked to. Maybe Patrick can do that? Or maybe it would have to be Ken?

I don't see an option to do that, but did remove 2021 from the title.

This thread was started before the new event listing was created (because it was asking about the possible new event). We can certainly start a discussion thread about the new event. The question is whether we can change the linking of this thread (that really has served its purpose and should maybe just be abandoned).

(changed)

Our all-powerful wizard is awesome. (Thanks!)

I stopped by the maze to see if the corn was growing -- it was, maybe 3' high? -- and there was Mike in an adjacent field, checking on a crop. We chatted for a bit.

-- They've had about 12 inches of rain this month, but fortunately their land drains pretty well. (On my morning bike ride, I'd seen a lot of fields with standing water.)

-- The guy from Missouri who cuts the maze was supposed to be there today, but Mike said his schedule had gone to hell, thought he was someplace in Maine. Mike thought it likely he'd make it to Sunderland in a few days.

-- The corn was pretty healthy.

-- And, looking at the much bigger picture, the quote of the day, referring to the planet: "We fucked it up, and now we're paying for it."

To clarify, the reason this event is currently listed as tentative is threefold:
1) It's contingent on the maze actually coming into existence, based on weather and scheduling (see PG's post above)
2) It's contingent on the maze design being suitable for orienteering (some have been excellent, some not very interesting at all)
3) It's contingent on the public health situation: although things have improved a lot and most orienteers in the northeast are probably vaccinated, there's the potential for surges and new variants, so we're keeping an eye on that as well.

Due to consideration of the three factors above, and the fact that only item #1 is really working out, it looks like we are going to be able to go ahead with the event, with a slightly different format than in recent years:
1) Sprint
2) Classic
3) some other oddball format
but not the all-important dinner nor the night-O. What you do on your own after the event is of course up to you, but after the oddball thing we'll retrieve the controls and we'll all leave the farm. Registration and schedule details will be forthcoming in a week or so.

Thank you!!!

Does this mean Sept 5 is in fact the date? Or is that one of the details yet to be confirmed?

Are you looking for oddball suggestions for #3?

No date change, Sept 5 is it. And I have an idea for the oddball thing that I think will be good, but if you have a suggestion, drop me an email, maybe yours is better.

No reason not to go to Bubb's after the Odd-O, before heading home.

Your call.

We're on. See event description for registration info. (And let me know if I forgot something.)

IMAGINE this fall at Mike's Maze (via their facebook page).

I hope I'll be able to walk or even jog around the maze by then, but a quick question. Will SI Air be an option?

SI Air. Good question. I have no idea. We've got the WCOC SI equipment, I don't know if there needs to be special stuff for SI Air or if we'd need to configure the boxes in some particular way or what. Do SI Air sticks just work like regular SI sticks if we don't do anything special?

I believe you just select beacon control instead of control in the si config when you configure the boxes. But I've never done it myself, so not 100%

I wonder if it would register a punch from the other side of a corn wall?

Well, I suspect they aren't already set up that way, and I'm not planning on doing any configuring, and as Tori suggests, the dimensions of this kind of event might not be amenable to that sort of thing. And we're definitely not making SI Air sticks available for those who don't have them. So, regular epunching.

Potentially, yes. Especially when you consider you can stick your arm into the corn getting you another 3 feet closer.

The boxes have not been configured for Air mode. And are not to be changed from their current configuration. That way all runners are operating in the same mode.

If only I could still operate in the same mode as a younger runner!

The Mazes

Guy's "link" didn't work for me, but if you go to the Mike's Maze facebook site you can see the new video. Click the link above from Aug 24/umeditor and then click on the Mike's Maze name header for their page, or try this link.

Here's an picture of the maze:

Let the route planning begin!

So many l o n g dead ends

Link fixed

How many have registered?

I've got 46 names on the list right now, a few of them tentative. Email with details going out tomorrow.

The bulletin just went out by email, so if you think you entered and you didn't get it, let me know (maybe by posting here). Or just show up, we have room for a dozen or so extra people.

I sent a last-minute email but in case J-J doesn't see it in time, can someone confirm the start time info? Thanks!

3:30-4:00 for sprints. 4:30-5:30 classic.

Hey JJ, thanks so much for putting this event on. Seems lots of people had fun; even the "no phoning phone-O" event had fans.

In the end, who are the new reigning maze king and queen?

I'll let you know as soon as I figure out why I'm having trouble uploading the rest of the splits.

Thanks so much, J-J & Steven, and helpers (Peter et al)!
It was fun!
And wonderful to see everyone.

What has the history of weather been like at the Mike's Maze orienteering events? (Or really any other corn maze orienteering races elsewhere).

Our annual race is tomorrow morning and it's been raining all day today and it will continue straight through tomorrow.

In my head, I just assume all of them to be on pretty-as-a-peach mornings or evenings, but there must have been some ugly ones, right?

Rained steadily (but not heavy) through the first Mike's Maze event this year. Don't corner too fast. Just misty and damp for the second race.

One of the events at Mike's Maze (9/19/16) happened right after a heavy thunderstorm. I thought I had some drone footage of people running around in the ankle-deep mud, but I can't find it. Everybody had fun anyway.

(I did find some video from that event, but it was of the Night-O.)

Thanks, J-J. I thought I remembered a muddy Mike's Maze (but hadn't noted the conditions in my log).

Thanks to Ken for his help in sorting out my results problem; splits are now posted for both the Sprint and the Classic.

And here are the results for the third event. The format was that there were two markers in the maze (along the lines of the balloons used in the earlier Trail-O events), and teams consisted of one person on the platform who could see the markers and a second in the maze (carrying a ski pole with something distiinctive on the end that they could hold up to indicate their location). Each had a blank map. The two people had phones to communicate, but the rule was that you could use any capability of the phone except the microphone (meaning texting for the most part, though some teams drew on the map and sent pictures). There were two divisions: Puppetmaster (one person stays on the platform the whole time) and Relay (switch places after getting the first control).

Puppetmaster division
place time Puppetmaster Puppet
1 12:12 Sahara LaVallee Orion LaVallee
2 12:22 David Bryant Diego Bryant
3 12:58 Izzy Bryant Jared Girouard
4 13:05 Jon Campbell Tori Campbell
5 13:27 Mark Webb Pia & Tor Webb
6 13:48 Sam Levitin Gail Richardson
7 16:41 Phil Bricker Clint Morse
8 17:28 Kate de Blonk Anna Campbell
9 17:31 Mori Finlayson-Johnecheck Wendy Johnecheck
10 26:56 Joe Brautigam Pavlina Brautigam

Relay division
place time
1 12:24 Charlotte Duhamel Leah Greenberg
2 13:07 Elsa Barthel Keegan Harkavy
3 13:30 Patrick McNeal Ian Finlayson

Any info on 2022? I need to redeem myself.

We're in contact with the farm, we should get the maze design this week, and will evaluate the situation.