Pawtuckaway Camping Weekend, Green Day 1.
In control the first two easier ones, saw Nellie between 1 and 2. Got all the way to 3, and apparently in the circle, but couldn't find the right little re-entrant, so wandered for a while, lost several minutes. Reasonably straight to 4 and 5. Glad I had the foresight on 6 to mark the new trail on the map, as that was a big comfort. Went right by the depression W of the control on 7 as it was filled with water and I was thinking it was the pond 50 or so M south. So kept going, searching, until I hit the stream and came back and got it. At least 5 minutes lost there. Too far E on the way to 8, so crossed in the green boulder field NW of incredible pond, instead of NW of the NW pond as intended, but not problem finding it. Got too far W of Upper Hold and hit the stone wall at its western end by the marshes, then drifted S on the hillside and relocated off the eastern stonewall. A mess. 5 minutes more. Easy to 10 and 11, then drifted south on the way to 12, hit the bottom of the marsh to the SE of the long thin one, big parallel error, probably 8 minutes. Saw Ed a few times, putting out sprint controls. Walking exclusively by then and totally beat. 13 easy, 14 fumbled a bit in a different, larger, apparently unmapped depression.
map.
Very glad I went. If I ever get it right here, perhaps then I could stay home, but we missed two of the last three years and I was sorry to miss it. A lovely weekend. Bundschuhs and Ruutopolds, and others, work so hard on it. Really, really nice time. Delightful visiting with so many friends.
As always, challenging, physically taxing. A bit over my level of fitness, but of course navigational errors are the real problem. We drove up Friday, so camped out and mostly got some good sleep. I had planned (with some trepidation) to run Brown, both sprints, the canoe-o and the night-o, but liked the looks of the Green course more. By the time I finished, I was walking, sore calf and back, feeling pretty beat. Also, I had strained my forearm putting the kayaks on the car, so canoe-o wasn't looking possible. Sat around in a daze for an hour or two, then did the sprints, still mostly walking, but perhaps a tiny bit spunkier. No point in trying to do the night-O. I was asleep before it started.