orienteering 1:00:00 [2] **
8c
Control pickup at Mitchell. Although I had been to all of these before, they were in some of the most challenging and remote parts of the park. After 3 or 4 visits to each, I'm still not sure that I have found the optimal combinations of trails vs honeysuckle, climb vs flat, safe route vs risk. Adding to the challenge were the difficult and greatly differing conditions - on my first visit (and second for some), the trails were sloppy quagmires (and we'd been asked to avoid them since they were officially closed). Hillsides (especially those facing south) were also very muddy and slippery. Wallowing like a pig was the rule of the day. On my next visit, trails were frozen solid, but covered with a sheet of ice, and equally treacherous. On the final visit, the surface ice had mostly melted, but the ground was still frozen solid, making the trails a viable option, although not necessarily the most efficient.