Here's my
route from Sunday's Billygoat. No mistakes except for looking for my glasses which were safely in the car.
I skipped #9. I don't think many others did. Since I was just walking, I wanted to save distance more than climb and that seemed as good as any. I didn't even notice 18 as a skip until I was on my way to 16 and I asked someone running past if they had skipped and they said No, and then I saw 18 was a good skip. But I don't think it was best for me.
The BG has always had a tradition that following is allowed. Perhaps it is best to leave it just like that, but after Sunday I wonder if the "rule" shouldn't be modified a little, maybe something like -- "Following is allowed, but only for 15 minutes without the permission of the person you are following." Or pick whatever time limit you want.
The reason I suggest this is I was followed for the first two hours. Always about 25 to 50 meters behind. A few times I thought I was clear but I just hadn't seen him, he was still there. And it got a little annoying. Especially on the way to 16, long gradual downhill trail walk, and he stayed right behind me, even though he clearly could run.
So one last attempt, on leaving 17, up the trail to 18, walked as fast as I could, opened up enough of a gap that I wasn't showing him the route and, well, the usual saying is that a picture is worth a thousand words....
Ah, well, I guess it just comes with the territory.
One other comment about the BG, or more particularly about Moreau -- there is almost no green on the map, and even where there is green it is hardly thick at all, and the visibility is uniformly good. That makes the orienteering a lot easier, especially when you add the marshes that are these nice big distinct landmarks. I'd guess the amount of mistakes by the field as a whole was pretty small. Look at the map and it looks very difficult, but it's not really that hard.
Either that, or we're all just getting better.