Training Log Archive: furlong47

Event: DVOA White Clay Creek
 

DVOA White Clay Creek - Green

Slept in as much as I could after Kathy's dinner party last night, so I got a late-ish start (probably got out in the woods just after noon). This was the first really cold orienteering day since last winter/spring, but I was mostly ok in the woods except for hitting an occasional chilly area.

Right off the bat I lost time on 1, which looks like it shouldn't be that hard. I didn't want to go right because there was a house/outbuildings there and although it was not marked as OOB or private on the map it sure looked it and there was a guy outside. I went along the stream to see if there was anywhere to cross (there was not) and then got caught up in thorny stuff trying to get to the trail that entered the woods. I was probably within an arm's length of it but could not get through. So I had to back out and go around. Thorns also pulled my hat off my head in there and apparently I lost my hair tie so I had to try to keep my hair stuffed under my hat for the rest of the time. By the time I finally reached 1 I was already not very happy with all of that.

I did not really have any issues with anything else through 8. It was a lot of climbing though - almost every control seemed to be on top of a hill and then down and up to get to the next one. Went along the very edge of the golf course between 6-7 and a little from 7-8, not sure if that was private or part of the park but it was way nicer than trying to use the woods at all. (From Google it looks private....)

From 8 to 9 I decided I did not want to go over another green hill and I took the trail to the left. I thought I would be able to cut over from the other trail (the one mapped as a small road, even though it really wasn't). At one point there was an unmapped trail heading the right way, so I tried it, but it didn't seem like it would pop out into the open. So I went back to the small road and kept going north. Then I could actually see the control way over there on the hill, but there was no opening to get there. So I ended up going all the way to the big road and along that until the woods finally got decent. From there it was not hard to get to the control and back out the same way. I felt like this wasted a whole lot of time, but apparently some people who went over the hill had issues too.

The rest was pretty much fine - I wasn't sure about 10 to 11 but the woods there were not that bad so I angled up toward the hunter stand (which I could see) and picked up the trails there. At 12 I went south of the stream and curved around to avoid the green and the private property. Apparently people had been going through that guy's yard and when I got to the control he was standing right next to it. He did not say anything to me (I was not on his property) but apparently other people got yelled at. And then the rest of it was pretty much trivial, but I was really tired and kind of slogged through the last two controls.

Kept going back and forth with Patty - she would disappear and I would think she had gotten away from me, and then later she would be coming into the control after I did. I thought maybe she was on red, but it was in fact green just with some issues. I didn't really see all that many other people out there.

GREEN - Splits

Lesson on Neo