Orienteering 6:45:00 [4]
Another gorgeous Highlander! Rode down and back with Dean. The woods were beautiful as they always are in October. It was warm and very humid, but not hot hot. The person I saw most on the course was Peter Goodwin. My right knee bothered me a bit in the beginning, but was actually pretty good overall. It seemed to settle down after I had had ibuprofen. This is good news, because it looks like the injury from the last rogaine might heal up over time. I still have the under-the-kneecap pain from falling on it with my weight and Dave's a few years ago.
It took me a couple hours to settle in and start navigating at all well.
Start to 1: Got to the back of the pack by stopping to pee. It's always a relief to me when I lose everyone and can just get into the swing of it on my own, but that didn't happen for a while. I considered going along the Pine Swamp Mountain ridge to the right of the rocky reentrant, but ended up going in the reentrant and sometimes up to its left until the stream widened out and then I crossed behind Peter. Stayed low and angled around to the left on the final approach; should have stayed lower, but for some reason allowed myself to drift up into the steep rocky stuff which defeated the purpose of my plan. Which was a typical problem for me on this first map: not executing the plan very well. As well as waffling about what the plan was.
1 to 2: got on the trail fairly quickly. where the trail bends from heading W to NW, I knew I'd been there before and had previously headed off the trail at that point into the ferns. Stayed on the trail and ended up leaving it not long after, which seemed silly because it was a bit trashy with ferns and logs across the marsh. Headed up the nice long wide reentrant, and then I think I made a parallel error. My intent was to skirt along the top of the cliffs running SW from where they touch the purple line near the trail bend. but I think I may have followed the steep line south of that band, crossing an intermittent stream where I thought I was threading the needle between green patches beyond that line of cliffs. Anyway, I eventually ended up on the open hill with huge rocky patches south of the words "Hogencamp Mountain" and relocated off the trail there. But I spent some time thinking how interesting it was that so much vegetation had been lost and bare rock exposed since the map had been made. Arg. As I was looking at the map at the beginning of the leg I'd convinced myself that the last part of it was in an area I'd struggled in before, and told myself I had to be extra careful, but I think maybe I spooked myself instead. I definitely had the feeling of not being able to match things well to the map, which was common on this first map.
2 to 3 was OK - really using the compass carefully, but still hesitant as I approached the control which was in fact right on my line.
3 to 4 - stay left of the green, climb to the top, head down the reentrant. Just a bit slow and unsure of myself on the final approach.
4 to 5 - went straight. Attackpoint was crossing the last stream right at a general transition from flatter to steeper. Hesitant approaching the control.
5 to 6 - got a little confused on the second half, just left of the purple line, because I thought the first trail after the road was actually the second trail for a while.
6 to 7 - fine. fairly straight; went over the saddle then down along the marsh.
7 to 8 - waffled on this decision, but eventually took the trail to the south of all the climb, to the road, slow jog.
At 8 they didn't have bandaids (the feet were beginning to blister despite the protection I'd put on) or ibuprofen (for the knee), but it was good to get some fruit and drink and chips. I'd decided not to eat a lot the night before or that morning. Although I was sometimes hungry on the course, I don't think I suffered too much from lack of food, because of the aid stations. I was glad that there was water at every water stop - that was key, and I always worry about it since I visit the water controls relatively late. I wore my Italian trail running shoes. I don't know why I didn't put goopy stuff on my feet; just didn't think of it.
I enjoyed the trail run, so relaxing mentally. But I spent the first part of it confused because I had in my head that it was supposed to be 1.7 km (I was wrong - that was the King of the Mountain length)... At the aid station I got not only bandaids but moleskin, which worked really well on my new blisters, and also some ibuprofen.
To 11: On the Pole Brook map, I started off making an unfortunate choice to go left of the 2nd swamp in order to use the trail at the end to get through the green. Staying right, along the straighter line would have been much better - and apparently there was more trail through the green than was marked.
To 12, stayed fairly straight, a bit left of the line. Peter and Bob showed up and hit 12 cleanly while I foundered toward it having gone downhill too far to the left, due partly to my usual discombobulation when other people are around.
13, 14, 15 fairly straight shots; got a little left going to 15. Trying to stay ahead of Peter and Bob for the heck of it, and just behind a guy who I think is French Canadian because on the way from 11 to 18 he said something in a nice french accent about how nice it was that the marshes were dry.
17 to 18 went right by 11 then threaded through the marshes heading NE.
Funky route to 19: went NW to the road, instead of a more northerly route to hit the road more on my line.
Running past everyone who was done was nice because you get a bit of support, but it was SO tempting (as usual) to just stop and have a hamburger and hang out because I knew everyone might be gone by the time I finally finished. And I seemed plenty hot and tired to call it a day. Had a pretzel and for some reason refused fruit - it didn't look good to me right then but that was probably a mistake.
Going to 20(1) I inexplicably climbed all the way up to the tower.
Going to 21(2), I headed left to the top of the hill just so I'd know where I was for sure.
21(2) to 22(3), went right of the line to take the green-free corridor.
3 to 4: a bit left of the line, above some, but mostly below the cliffs along the way. Approached the control from the south (!), and briefly pulled a 180 coming out of it as a result.
24(5): stupidly fought my way up the thick hillside. At 5 I stopped for a while, drank 4 cups of water and ate a pack of cookies.
25(6): at first assumed this was a spur, until I read the clue sheet.
26(7): back in OK form now; the cookies and water must have helped. Made better decisions locally. A bit of hesitation on the road as I tried to convince myself that I might be mistaken about where I was, but I wasn't.
27(8): Considered going high, to stay along the ridge, but thought going just left of the power line looked OK, and it was. Sure of myself on the final approach.
28(9): Very happy that I was just about done. Trails to road and then in. Weirdly pulled left at first, but corrected after matching some very obvious features like the building.
Yay! I love the Highlander. I'm so glad that people go to all the effort to put it on; it is such a treat!