Training Log Archive: levitin

I feel pretty beaten up and tired after a long week. However, I am staying *so* close to Saxon Woods, that I could run there as a warmup. How can I not do the O-exercise for which I already have the map ?

Part of the training at Saxon Woods. A pretty little park. The 3 orienteers from Brazil were beginning as I was preparing to run, and had just finished as I reached my car afterward. I venture a guess that they did substantially more work in the woods than I did (faster, too). I was mostly walking, occasionally joggling a little, mostly trying to remain in contact. Managed to wander off at least twice, as well as make a couple of parallel errors.

I did not find the streamer for control location #8 (marsh).

HR data not reliable from this session. I had received the Gay City State Park bike-O course from Becky, constructed a jury-rigged bike-O map holder, and wanted to give it a try.

I think the design is workable, but needs fine tuning. I used cardboard and duct tape to attach the cardboard base to the handlebars. I created a rotatable map board out of a smaller piece of cardboard, map case+map, baseplate compass, duct tape, and a brad (brass T-shaped bendy thing with two prongs that can be bent apart to secure both pieces together).

Note for future designs:
1. Use a robust brad, not the tiny p-o-s I had around the house. Each time I jostled either piece of cardboard, there could have been a tendency of the brad to release its grip.

2. Use baseplate compass only, not baseplate compass + whistle on a lanyard. (This part worked well. When the rotatable map rotated to match the terrain, the compass needle pointed north, and vice versa. Hooray.)

3. When affixing the bottom cardboard to the handlebars, a figure 8 of duct tape is superior to the U-shaped, completely underneath the board, system. However, I wasn't careful to keep the tape from going over the gear shift levers. The figure 8 began on top of the bottom board, running NW to SE, looped under the R handlebar, returning back to the top of the bottom board running NE to SW. On the left edge, the tape begins on the board running NE to SW, loops below the bar, and returns back to the top of the bottom board running NW to SE. Advantages: the bottom board doesn't slide fore, aft, left, or right, nor does it have enough slack to pitch forward. Disadvantages: Duct tape blocks part of usable handlebar grip, can also block gearshift levers if careless.

Unresolved issues:
When the rotatable board is oriented such that it's completely above the bottom, the rigid bottom keeps the wind from pulling on the top board. When the rotatable board is oriented such that it sticks out beyond the front/rear edge, there is a double whammy of undesireable effects. One is the sail effect of the wind pushing against a movable top board. The other is the inadvertent jostling of the top board with knees or thighs. I experienced both, issuing some "choice words" at the flimsiness of the attachment.

Training on the Rockhouse Mtn map. I had a devil of a time figuring out how to get to the streamered area by trail. I was not quite sure where the parking lot was with respect to the map, and the clues overprinted an interesting, but necessary area, relating the access road to the trail network.

When I eventually overlay the Garmin track on the map, I'm sure it will be quite interesting to see.

First I went north on the road to see if perhaps the bottom of the printed map was north of the parking lot. It began to drizzle, and I concluded that the lake to the east was the lake on the map. I eventually got back into the car to check road junctions to make sure. The trick was that the trail crossing road junction was hidden under the clues, so I had to guess. My first guess was wrong, but I didn't know it until after expending a great deal of effort. I first went to the green-blazed trail crossing the power line, discovered I had left my Camelbak in the car, and so I returned to get it.

It turns out that was the wrong trail anyway. The green-blazed trail went southeast toward the other paved road. It did not curve back to the north to head to the streamered locations.

The second time, I tried to follow along the powerline, but the scrub was too aggressive. I follow a bit west of it, then crossed to the east side, expecting to join the trail any moment. At some point later, I discovered I had not restarted the garmin after retrieving the camelbak. I followed a white-blazed trail, going in vaguely the right direction, but it didn't match the map either.

After failing to find the streamered area, and finding myself mislocated in spite of having 2 compasses and an O map, I decided to bail out to the west, figuring I would hit either the powerline or the road. I think I hit the trail in the neighborhood of the purple line from 4 to 5. I managed to find the start and orienteer a bit, before deciding I'd had enough.

Hogencamp training, start through control 14. At this point, because of my late start, I decided to take the trail back to Kanewaukee Circle rather than risk running out of daylight.

Hiking out from Hogencamp Mt. near #14 to Kanewaukee Circle. Picked up trash on the way back. I was not surprised that there was trash by the roadside. I was surprised that there was trash along the trailside, but into the woods a good way.