2012 Tombstone Trail

For the 35th running we returned to Fillmore County again, the venue for the first several Tombstone Trails, and a favorite of mine because of all the little cemeteries and the winding back roads. Ending an hour south of Rochester makes for a very late night, so the turnout was down a little from recent years. Still, 36 teams made the start and all finished.

It was a beautiful night, not seeming as cold as the thermometer would indicate. At times the nearly full moon peered out from the clouds to add a little assistance. It was a night for experienced teams, with not a lot of first-timers. Several former overall winners competed.

It was 20 miles from the start to the first cemetery, so it wasn't possible to visit as many cemeteries as we do in some counties. Still, the overall winners Ryan Hammond and Kevin Beck visited 20 cemeteries to score their 29 points in class A. It appeared the strategy of them and some of the other top teams to accept a small time penalty in exchange for picking up a few extra points. Second in class A and 3rd overall were Brent Hall and Suzanne Jackson, winning a tiebreaker with Nina Noe and Brad Odegard, 3rd in A and 4th overall. 4th in A and 9th overall were Bill and Julie Baker, who won a tiebreaker over Jim Anderson and Clark Pansch.

Class C featured a classic Tombstone beatdown by Graham Smith and Jasen Hoglund, dominating the class and finishing second overall on their very first Tombstone Trail! Naomi Donnellan and Margo Hill finished 2nd in C, and Andrew Pickle/Elise Schwartz were 3rd, 21st and 23rd overall.

D was for dominate as class D winners Peder Mobroten and Dean Sherwood finished their first Tombstone Trail in 5th overall. Tiffany Nagle and Emily Ditter came in 2nd.

Class G winners Clarence and Kate Westberg finished 6th overall in a convincing victory over Doug Atwill and John Wiersma.

Class B winners Jeremiah Davis and Allie Micka 8th overall put all 6 class winners in the top 8 spots, really challenging the seeding system this year, which puts the most experienced people in the top classes. Nick Johnson and Kelli Danger finished 2nd.

The best costomb award went to Sue Iverson and Jessica Trygstad. Picture this: Sue in a "Go Ceiling!" jersey (ceiling fan) and Jessica in an orange "π" t-shirt (pumpkin pie).

Finally, the coveted dead last award went to Heikke and Jolene Nielsen who scored 17 points, but guessed at the remaining questions, not realizing that wrong answers are deducted from your score, leaving them with a negative total. Without the guesses they would have finished mid-pack and probably 2nd in class C.

Thanks to Gary Starr, who co-rallymastered the event with me, Vicki Larson, the Luehmann's and Henningsens for the precheck and to Alexis Anderson and Vicki for their help with registration and scoring.

Mark Larson
Rallymaster

You can see the event results here.

Read the 2011 report.