Orienteering (Foot) 1:22:40 [4] 4.08 mi (20:16 / mi) +206m 17:31 / mi
spiked:4/8c
022 US Orienteering Masters Championship, Bigelow Hollow State Park, CT
Day 1
S-1 - Right off the start, I cut right on a smaller trail. I didn't take a good look at the leg but when the trail bent, I felt I needed to go straight. This was 90 degreees off. I soon realized what I'd done, since the contours didn't match. I corrected climbing, and found another control before finding mine down lower.
1-2 - I angled to the trail, passing a control on a dot knoll. I heard my son Max's voice behind me as I was walking up the hill-- decided to stay safe and climb since I didn't feel I was moving so fast, nor competently in the forest yet. Though I started to run, Max passed me. We both bore left at the intersection and left at the sharp trail bend. I lost sight of Max but followed the change in steepness of the hillside. Eventually, I cut up higher when the same bearing hit a spur. I got much higher than expected and ended up at a knoll which I found on the map. From there I dropped more than a contour to the control, and saw Max closing-in on it as I approached.
2-3 - I went straight and could see Max going to the left a bit. I got slowed in the rocky ground. When I hit bottom and the green, I cut right to go around the green. It seemed a long way--further than what was mapped, and I never found a clear opening; just a thin spot. After crossing the marsh there, I hit the trail but it didn't look like where I expected I'd be. Max had just got there coming up the trail from the SW. He didn't think it was where he'd come from but I wanted to be sure for myself, and I went SW. Soon I saw the trail was too straight ahead and that I'd actually come out to the trail originally, at the right place. I went back and again found Max where I'd left him. He played it cool so as not to give it away but I felt he had just come from the control. I went in, crossed the marsh and found it on the second boulder that I went to. I lost about 2 minutes altogether.
3-4 - I went back to the trail, and around the ridges. Somewhere NW of #6, I cut in and went along flat lands and the edges of the hillside. I got on the right ridge, and found a trail. Going further, I hit the flat lands south of #4. Climbing, I checked a lot of boulders before moving more to the SW side and higher. Eventually I found it was where a lot of people could be seen. I lost about 90 seconds for coming-in too far to the south.
4-5 - Lydia Andrews had punched a little before I had. I figured I would catch her, but I was moving up the hill at her pace or slower. We went to the east a bit so that we could get a more gradual climb in an area with few rocks. At the top, Lydia got into the light green. I went around her on the east side in white forest, and I started moving better. I passed the small line of cliffs and headed to the next hillside. Vitolin A. was leaving the area. I kept going and hit the control well.
5-6 - I went due south, for a gap in the rocks. I crossed the marsh on the north end, then climbed the next ridge. Keeping a SE bearing, I got just below and SW of the uncrossable cliffs. On the next small ridge, I recognized some of the small knolls and felt confident. I crossed the big trial that I'd run earlier and kept going across the marsh. Emerging on the other side, I was on the leg line. I could see the reentrant to my left, and I saw the 2 green areas. It took me a while to climb to them but I went right in to spike it.
6-7 - Someone had come into #6 from another direction just before me and seemed headed towards #7. I passed him going more or less straight. I dropped to get across rocky ground but used the change in slope to keep me on target. I didn't see the smaller trail but did see the bigger one going more up and down the ridge. I got to the flat ground below a rocky area after the control, and passed Sandy Fillebrown. From there I ran to the only boulder visible and spiked it.
7-8 - I angled down to the trail, and ran on it a short way past the stream. The woods looked good so I cut across the trails, going on the south side of a small mapped marsh before hitting the next trail. I turned left and got to the GO control.
8-F - I followed the trail to the finish. I finished more confident than I had started.