Training Log Archive: MJChildsIn the 7 days ending Dec 2, 2017:
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Saturday Dec 2, 2017 #
Orienteering race (RHINO) 1:02:21 [3]
Night-O at Rhonda and Charlie's (written from memory on 12/28/17).
Not my most stellar moment. Warmed up for a few minutes in the yard then started, but within a few seconds my headlamp quit. Went back to the house, got my old headlamp with the 3 LEDs and an incandescent bulb which normally sends out a nice long beam of light but which seemed dim. Chocked it up to being inside the house where it was bright. Got a new start time and began again.
Eager to be off, I looked at the map and found the start, #12 and #3 (which was actually #13 minus the 1) so backtracked to what I thought was #1 and then took off through the yard and into the woods. I quickly discovered that my headlamp was indeed quite dim and I could only see about 20 ' in front of me, but didn't really care too much since I had been on the property before and felt comfortable there.
Got to what I thought was #1 (actually #11), which I found easily, and the feature didn't quite match, but was possible (a charcoal platform that looked like a hollow on the slope), and a code that did not match. Hummm. Backtracked to the trail thinking I was at someone else's control, headed down the trail, then up the trail, then to my attack point and back to the same control. I saw #12 on the map and in the terrain but still thought #11 was my #1 and was stymied. Headed back up the trail walking, trying to figure out what was going on when, finally, I could see that I was looking for #11. Geez. Things went downhill from there.
I lost confidence after totally blowing #1 and not being able to see either my map nor the terrain very well, I blew #2, even though I stopped at the correct trail junction and decided it wasn't really a trail junction only to run another 20 m and realize it HAD to have been the correct trail junction. That's how the night went. I considered giving up but decided that I was a fortunate girl to be out in a beautiful forest on a beautiful moonlit night with friends roaming around me so I kept on.
The lesson? Make sure your headlamps have fully charged batteries (I put what I thought were new batteries in my backup) and the strong headlamp had been recently recharged, but I must have used it during a power outage and run it down. No warning, just suddenly no light. Actually, that's another lesson: never go out with the kind of light that suddenly quits without warning without having a second light with you for backup. Lesson learned.
Aside from my abominable orienteering, the socializing, food, and the hospitality was fantastic, as always. Great weather for driving again this year. Many thanks to Rhonda and Charlie for everything.
PS. I just looked at my splits and want to explain #6. Going to #5, I couldn't read the map and see that the large trail continued, so I cut through the medium/dark green mountain laurel to the control which was actually at the end of a finger of white, but couldn't see that with my dim light. To make things worse, I backtracked through the green to the large trail and then slogged through about 100m of wetland and light green going due east until I reached the next trail. Couldn't locate where I was on the trail--couldn't see the side trail until Jeff Saegar came running down it--then was able to follow it up the hill to the control #6. Just before reaching the control I could see a small trail heading back toward #5. When I finished, I looked at my map in the house lights and could see that there was basically a trail running from 5-6. Geez. When I was slogging through the mountain laurel and wetland , it occurred to me that it was odd that Charlie would expect us to bushwack through such tough terrain in the dark. I should have realized that he wouldn't do that and an easier route must have been an option.
AND, I see that I tied for the fastest split on #11. Victory! And easy considering I had been there twice already. :)
What a crazy night it was! But still fun.
Not my most stellar moment. Warmed up for a few minutes in the yard then started, but within a few seconds my headlamp quit. Went back to the house, got my old headlamp with the 3 LEDs and an incandescent bulb which normally sends out a nice long beam of light but which seemed dim. Chocked it up to being inside the house where it was bright. Got a new start time and began again.
Eager to be off, I looked at the map and found the start, #12 and #3 (which was actually #13 minus the 1) so backtracked to what I thought was #1 and then took off through the yard and into the woods. I quickly discovered that my headlamp was indeed quite dim and I could only see about 20 ' in front of me, but didn't really care too much since I had been on the property before and felt comfortable there.
Got to what I thought was #1 (actually #11), which I found easily, and the feature didn't quite match, but was possible (a charcoal platform that looked like a hollow on the slope), and a code that did not match. Hummm. Backtracked to the trail thinking I was at someone else's control, headed down the trail, then up the trail, then to my attack point and back to the same control. I saw #12 on the map and in the terrain but still thought #11 was my #1 and was stymied. Headed back up the trail walking, trying to figure out what was going on when, finally, I could see that I was looking for #11. Geez. Things went downhill from there.
I lost confidence after totally blowing #1 and not being able to see either my map nor the terrain very well, I blew #2, even though I stopped at the correct trail junction and decided it wasn't really a trail junction only to run another 20 m and realize it HAD to have been the correct trail junction. That's how the night went. I considered giving up but decided that I was a fortunate girl to be out in a beautiful forest on a beautiful moonlit night with friends roaming around me so I kept on.
The lesson? Make sure your headlamps have fully charged batteries (I put what I thought were new batteries in my backup) and the strong headlamp had been recently recharged, but I must have used it during a power outage and run it down. No warning, just suddenly no light. Actually, that's another lesson: never go out with the kind of light that suddenly quits without warning without having a second light with you for backup. Lesson learned.
Aside from my abominable orienteering, the socializing, food, and the hospitality was fantastic, as always. Great weather for driving again this year. Many thanks to Rhonda and Charlie for everything.
PS. I just looked at my splits and want to explain #6. Going to #5, I couldn't read the map and see that the large trail continued, so I cut through the medium/dark green mountain laurel to the control which was actually at the end of a finger of white, but couldn't see that with my dim light. To make things worse, I backtracked through the green to the large trail and then slogged through about 100m of wetland and light green going due east until I reached the next trail. Couldn't locate where I was on the trail--couldn't see the side trail until Jeff Saegar came running down it--then was able to follow it up the hill to the control #6. Just before reaching the control I could see a small trail heading back toward #5. When I finished, I looked at my map in the house lights and could see that there was basically a trail running from 5-6. Geez. When I was slogging through the mountain laurel and wetland , it occurred to me that it was odd that Charlie would expect us to bushwack through such tough terrain in the dark. I should have realized that he wouldn't do that and an easier route must have been an option.
AND, I see that I tied for the fastest split on #11. Victory! And easy considering I had been there twice already. :)
What a crazy night it was! But still fun.