There's an event that you could put on your January calendar for a little short term motivation: An on-your-own-time print-and-bring-your-own-map
rogaine-style event southwest of Albany with ribbons (no real controls) in place for the month. Go as soon as possible to get bare-ground orienteering (or close to it), or wait until the end of the month and cross your fingers if snowshoeing sounds appealing. Or use UsynligO to do it after the ribbons come down at the beginning of February. I've paid the (very cheap) fee and gotten the map, and did a real quick swag of it; looks like 35 or 40 km to clear it (but I emphasize that it was a real quick swag and I could be off by a lot). So in the same ballpark of distance as Crooked Compass, but (I think) a much better map and not quite as rocky or hilly.
Off topic, or tenuously on topic, 1) belated happy birthday, 2) I belatedly replied to your
comment on my Crooked Compass log entry (where I *still* haven't written my own race report).