orienteering race 2:08:07 [3] *** 5.7 km (22:29 / km) +220m 18:50 / km
14c shoes: VJ Falcons
DVOA Elk Neck - Green
When I arrived I heard that Green was tough and physical, so considered dropping to Brown, but decided not to be a wuss and just get it done.
Across the beach toward 1 (I love the smell of the beach and water) then up the trail into the campground. First I went in on the wrong side of the deep re-entrant and realized my mistake, so back out to the trail and around to the proper side and the control. Attacked 2 from the water tower. Then I went over to the road and up to the next camp area (nice smell of wood smoke here) taking the trail across and attacking 3 from the North. First I didn't see it, looking in the 2 small re-entrants, then went lower and it was down in the main re-entrant.
Cut straight over to the field and then dropped down from the field to 4. Attacked 5 from the field below the gray paved circle, following the indistinct trail a bit. This was another one I didn't see right away even though I was in the area, had to poke around a bit. Again, attacked 6 from the other water tower, no problem.
Because of how my map was folded, I didn't see the possibly better route to 7 (going East of the lake to pick up the trail) so I went around on the road and attacked from the road junction with the big trail. Hit a little bit right in some rocks, tried going a bit further, turned around and saw the bag. Went directly to 8, partially using the indistinct trail. Had to stumble around a little in the laurel and actually saw the water jugs and cups before the control. Crossed the road and followed along the stream to 9.
10 was the one I most worried about and I decided to be very conservative and take the road all the way around, actually past the control, and attack from the clearing to the West. Unfortunately this plan backfired when I entered the woods and found that it was very torn up in there (lots of deadfall, vines, thorns, and bad visibility) and couldn't find the control. So I went North to the trail, relocated at the sharp bend, and attacked again from there. I was coming in with a spur on my right and it looked like the right size and shape so I popped over the top of it and there was the control. Finally!
Across the road to 11. I landed square in the middle of a ton of rootstocks, some old, some new, and just had to poke around checking them until I found the correct one. Then I hit the trail to the South and took that until it crossed the stream and walked back the stream and the re-entrant to 12. From there, to the road, right in to 13 through nice open woods with beautiful early fall sunlight streaming down. And after that just 14 (Go control) and in.
So in the end, except for #10, it wasn't all that bad, even the climb didn't feel so awful. I was probably too conservative on routes and went around too much but it allowed me to find most everything right away.