Frozen Beaver 2018
6 hr Rogaine, USGS Map
Solo
This was a rough race for me. My lower back started bothering my early friday, and wasn't feeling great as the race started Saturday. Even so, I dont think that that slowed me down at all.
Planned a route trying to minimize climb and am actually really happy with my plan. It was the execution that was lacking.
Hit #65 as my third control to try to break from the crowd, which worked well. But I went in 1 reentrant too early having forgotten that decent sized reetrants dont show up on USGS, only huge ones do. Spent probably 15 min in the wrong reentrant before realizing my error. When I got to the right one I was happy to find a drink token!
Found 81 no problem, but upon exiting I got myself stuck in a semi-frozen pond wasteland that I couldnt figure out how to cross. I should have followed Richard back to the trail and way around, but I was too stubborn. I eventually found a narrowish spot that I tried to leap, came up short, ended up wet from the knees down and also smashed my shin on the ice... Great place to be 1 hr in..
The next 3 went alright, but then exiting 72 I got pushed around by thick stuff and ended up going down a very different spur than I thought. Again was in the wrong reentrant (by almost 1 km!) while searching for 42 - richard came to the rescue telling me i was not where I thought I was. After finally correcting i made it to 52, my 1/3 mark, 10 min late.
The next 4 went alright, but I got quite winded coming up from 81 and my mind started to wander. I took a terrible spur down to 74 - thick with thorns, burrs, and sapplings. Then I took a bearing from the E-W lines instead of N-S, which had me really confused why I couldnt figure out the terraine for a while. Pretty much the start of my race falling apart. Eventually made it back to the road at the top of the ridge, and must have looked confused (i was) because Mr. W asked "do you know where you are" as he ran past.
On the way to 43 i noticed i couldnt really feel either of my hands, and could barely make my fingers move. Tried to pick up the pace to get my blood flowing, but they stayed cold down to 32 and 51. On my exit from 51 I dropped my compass, and only knew it was in about a .3 km stretch between the flag and the valley. I trekked back up to the flag trying to retrace my steps, and then back down towards the valley with no luck. Then Barbara and Jens showed up again and said "Did you lose your compass, we just found one". I was very happy to have my compass back, but cold, dejected, and not able to find any motivation so i headed back to the finish, picking up 4 controls near the roads and trails on the way.
21/30 controls
1120/1630 points