orienteering 1:48:26 [3] *** 6.2 km (17:29 / km) +135m 15:46 / km
11c shoes: Inov8 O-roc 280 Redux
QOC Rosaryville - Green
I mostly walked this, not pushing super hard. Yet as of when I left the park I was in 4th place (probably got pushed down some later, but maybe not.) Edit: yes, in 9th.
Decided to go through the yellow to 1, coming in from the bend just NW of it. (The road probably would have been much faster but while driving in I saw that there was search dog training down in that area near the control and didn't want to run through that.) However, I judged distance poorly slogging through the tall grass and confused some of the vegetation and must have entered the woods much earlier, I think from the bend of the yellow/trail section about halfway along the line. I sort of figured this out and kept going, eventually seeing a control which was on a dot knoll NW of my actual control.
Still a little sloppy heading to 2. I just went South into the woods, intending to pick up a trail and head around or over the hilltop. I had to cross one of those long, deep gullies here, which on the map are hard for me to pick out because they look just like index contours. (Even though I knew about them this time, unlike last time when I was surprised.) It can take a little while to find a decent (not straight up and down) place to get in and out. I hit a trail then cut SE down the hill and came out right above a distinctive bend in the stream. I could see the big gully from there, just had to get over to it, though the dot knoll was actually down in the gully and not next to it as it appears on the map.
Followed the reentrant South and climbed up to the trail, then cut through the woods immediately to the next trail and followed it out to the power line. I intended to take a trail in North of 3 and go down the wide reentrant, but I never saw that trail and ended up crossing the stream and taking the next trail which went over the hill. I climbed over the hilltop and down into the wide reentrant and then went left up into the smaller branches of it. Someone was standing at the control and I momentarily didn't register it because it was hung quite high and I didn't expect it to be up by a person's head. (They were mostly hung very high, which could sometimes be nice in the green but other times I wasn't looking up enough.)
North through the reentrant to the yellow squarish trail, then took the bigger trails West, North, took the right fork and entered the woods where the second jump was (black x). No problem with 4. However, I had to cross another gully on the way there and the ground gave way as I was stepping down, so I slid most of the way down on my hip. Everything was covered in globs of mud so I washed my map (this is why I always take a case!) and hands as best I could in the stream. Then I had a hard time finding a way back out as everything was slippery and it looked like others had clawed their way up in a few places. On the way to the next control I was sipping from my Camelbak and spitting it out on my hands to try to get more of the globby mud off.
Crossed the road into nicer woods. I went down to the trail just above the lake, then followed the stream with all the rootstocks (which are no longer actually there) and kept going to the stand at 5.
Straight lined it to 6, actually found the other pit first.
Went toward the end of the pond, parallelling the stream, couldn't find a good place to cross because it was extremely marshy/deep. Just about to splash into it when I saw a horse, so I stood still for a moment until they had passed, then went up to the bridge they had just crossed and got out to the road via the same trail I had entered. (Didn't realize I was that far down already, ooops.)
Trail/ride and compass to 7, and then direct to 8 as well. Was a little bit off but looked up the spur further and saw it there.
Went up the road intending to take the large trail W toward 9 but never saw the trailhead. So I kept going to plan B, up to the driveway with small loop at the end and another wide trail going W. Trail went faster than I expected and I actually hit the junction S of 9 and then went up that trail a bit then climbed the formline hill to be certain I'd see the small saddle.
More trails to 10, looked for some of the ones branching off but they had kind of disappeared. So I took the same trail from next to 9 up to one of the places where it looped around a spur, went on bearing from there, had to cross another big gully, then used that and veg clues.
Went back to the trail along the gully, used that trail system along the top of the map to get out in the yellow, followed fields almost back to the start and went down to 11 which I realized I had passed on the way to 1. And then to finish.