Training Log Archive: JanetT

Success! A much cleaner run than yesterday, albeit on a much easier course. Lost a couple minutes leaving 8 where I got caught in more green than expected and had to fight to reach the trail.

A simplified advanced course with only 7 advanced controls; 4 were on trails, for some reason (I understand 2, which was to guide us across a road bridge; but the other 2 were unnecessary because there were other features in the area that could have been used). Course did not go back to the area we were in on Saturday and stayed in simpler terrain and ended in the area we used for the sprint on Friday so I took a route from 9 to 10 that was based on previous knowledge.

3rd in F55, less than a minute behind Ulla Engelby (from Sweden) and Debbie Newell. Fastest time on the course was around 46 minutes.

On the drive back to Boise to catch our flight tomorrow, we stopped over in Richland (near the Hanford site) and drove to the Sacajawea State Park at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia Rivers. From the point we saw a cormorant fishing in the Columbia (I saw it catch/consume two fish while we were out on the point). And we saw a pelican fly over, possibly an American white pelican because it didn't have the gray/brown look of the brown pelicans we've seen before. The park would make a nice park-o map, we thought. :-)

Long Brown - Splits

Walk to start of middle course at Cle Elum/Salmon La Sac, advertised as 1.1 km, 140 m climb. Went early because I wasn't sure how far it was or how long it would take, so we had about 30 min wait. Temp in upper 60s (got up to 80 by the time I finished).

Time is NOT my total on the course, just the good part.

First part of the middle/brown course. I did FINE up through control 10, then blew up. Good routes through the not-so-great woods, concentrating on reading the terrain. Didn't use my compass as much as I should have but did use it to leave the controls in the right direction.

The rest of the course. I never found # 11.

Part of my problem was that I don't pace count and hadn't checked my time/distance from # 10. I actually thought I'd gone too far when I turned down a likely spur.

I checked just about every other piece of rock in the general area north of my control, but (based on my Forerunner track and OGPS, to be loaded later... maybe...) I never did go far enough, or actually high enough.

After not finding 11 for the longest time I decided to have my first Ameet dnf and bailed to the trail to finish. Didn't find 12 and 13 along the way, either.

Tomorrow is another day. :-)

[I think was actually on a pretty good pace to place pretty high on brown if I'd done the course correctly.]

Matt & Brittany's wedding

Sprint 2 (F50) near Sno Park in Cle Elum. On the walk to the start we had to cross a stream, but before getting to the stream crossing I managed to fall over some downed log/sticks and arrived at the start with scraped knees and hands -- silly me.

Not all times were posted before we left (we started at 6:40 and hadn't checked in or eaten yet!), but I was about 1 minutes ahead of Clare; 3 min. behind Tatyana; the 2 F20s whose times were up were faster. No F50s posted at that time.

Did a 180 out of # 5 (45 sec), poor route to # 10 with no attack point (2-3 min?), and overran # 11 (45 sec), not reading the vegetation very well. It was a woods sprint, and I think one of the keys on sprint 2 was to use the trails as much as possible, which I did for many of them, but didn't go far enough on # 10 to have a safe attack off a fence corner. Sprint 3 (Red/Blue) apparently stayed farther away from the trails.

Now that we have internet service (well, slightly; it doesn't quite reach our room at the moment, so I may have to move my computer to the lobby) I might post more about what we did Wed through today, and upload more photos. It was nice that the skies cleared up enough today that we could see the mountains (tops were shrouded yesterday and it was rainy the day before) including Mt. Olympus. :-)

Salmon Run Sprint 2 - Splits

Got up early to get to Second Beach near La Push at low tide (actually, a super low tide at 2.8' below mean). Saw tons of orange and purple sea stars, and whelks, anemones, barnacles, mussels, and a few limpets, in and around the tide pools there. The driftwood on the beach is something to behold, with bleached logs up to 5' in diameter in places. We have a photo of an extra-large 'rootstock' that I'll get posted eventually. :-)

Went to Rialto Beach to walk to the Hole in the Wall, a natural arch in a seastack near the beach. Because the tide was near high, we had to climb over the headland for a better view of the arch. Saw cormorants, but no seals or eagles or whales. :-)

From Vancouver we headed towards the ocean and stopped at Ruby Beach, and the Hoh River valley and rainforest trails. Though it showered a little on the drive, it was dry in the temperate rainforest, May-July being the low-rainfall months there. :-)

Strolled on beach and trails, 1.5 mi or so at Ruby Beach, and 3.5 mi at Hoh River valley.

Event: WCOC BBQ, Sprints, Meeting at DeWeese Farm
 

Green long course on Gold Rush Hills map, Idaho City, ID, temps in upper 40s to mid 50s at our early starts (just after 9 am).

Good routes to 1 and 2, then apparently did well to 3 -- others I talked to had trouble, I think trying to follow the beeline. I went slightly left of the line and hit a trail junction and was able to figure out which junction it was.

Twisted my left ankle (again!) in a pothole in a field on the way to 4; sat for 30 seconds, got up and hobbled for a minute or so, and then continued, but not reading terrain well. I hit the stream bed beyond the control, corrected back to a trail, and followed it to closer to the control (by which time there was another runner heading in).

Good routes to 5, 6, and 7; at 8 I dropped a contour too low on the wrong side of a thicket (but did well reading which spur to descend). Lots of ups and downs to 9; climb to road for 10. On the way in to 10 started hearing a sound that didn't quite sound like cows -- turned out there were several hundred SHEEP in the 200m between the stream and my control in a little reentrant, including one no more than a dozen feet away. I saw a person (shepherd?) and a border collie on my way out. Glen also had that control, though much earlier in his course, and had also seen the sheep.

CLIMB to the next control; I took the wrong reentrant and ended up even higher (a couple of contours and several hundred meters away) than I needed to be on a spur NE of my reentrant -- ugh. And then I visited the finish before the go control which was 60 m away up the reentrant. Still managed a first place (of 3 on F50) finish, 20 or so minutes ahead of Ardis and Sally Dow.

Then we started our drive across Oregon, finishing up just north of Portland in Vancouver, WA for the night. We're skipping the mid-week O days.

Green (F50) middle distance course on Gold Rush Hills map in Idaho City. Map, by a Russian mapper (Alexey Zuev), was printed 1:7500 (5m contours) -- really, really detailed and probably unreadable at 1:10000. Much of the area used was extensively dug/mined for gold in the 1800s, and the mapper did a good job of capturing the intricacy. Fun orienteering with LOTS of contour-reading required. The climb (and a few errors) was what made my per-k time so slow.

About 6-7 minutes of error (est.) including at least a minute on # 1 and almost 3 min on #4. I circled around 10 before finding it nestled between two little hills. Slow and steady on some tricky controls was key to not wandering. If this area wasn't so darn steep I would love this map more.

1st/3 F50 (Ardis had a 25 min error on # 2, wandering in the green south of the control). Should be interesting tomorrow when we're on the other side of this mapped area (with much less mining detail); Green tomorrow is twice as long and 20m LESS climb!

FR: TC 4.02 km, ST 4.74.

After running we headed back towards Boise, and took the turn onto the road to Arrowrock Dam (when built it was the highest in the world at 350'). Interesting travel along the edge of the reservoir (steep!) and not as many people on the water as you'd think for a summer Saturday. Saw 3 sailboats in addition to the motorboats and personal watercraft. Interesting AOWN: an osprey and a yellow-bellied marmot.

Dinner at another brewpub, Highland Hollows. Liked the food better than the beer this time. :-) Last night we went to Sockeye Brewery; very good beer, food was satisfying.

Event: 2009 Pacific Northwest Orienteering Festival
 

photos from around Boise, and beyond (more will be added throughout the trip)

Walked around the MK Nature Center in downtown--nice area with a pond for watching birds, mink(!), fish, etc. We saw a mink, and also 2 deer (which aren't necessarily part of the display, but are noticed now and then, esp. since they installed a native-plants garden where there used to be parking lot. Displays talk about the different habitats along a stream; crayfish; birds, etc. Inside, mounted bears, lynx, owl, wolf, even a badger. :-)

Then we drove up towards Table Rock (also viewing the variety of houses that overlook the city), and then down to Diversion Dam and Lucky Peak park (see photos).

Before and after the Boise State campus sprint. Before, along the path near the river; after was jogging back to the car parked in Julia Davis park.

Middle sprint at Boise State Univ. Could have had better map reading on the way from 3-4; was confused by the mapping around the tennis courts and unsure what was runnable and what wasn't, so went around where I probably didn't have to. Later on, checked a tree that wasn't mine (on the way to 10) but it didn't slow me down too much. Only climb was up to the finish (about a contour or so), plus a dot knoll on the course (about 1.5 m high). :-)

I'm registered for F50 for the sprints this weekend and next, and F50 for the next two days, but F55 next weekend (Middle Champs and long course in Cle Elum). I was 1st/2 F50, but maybe 7th (or so) woman overall on the middle-length course--a couple of F60s beat me, as well as a couple of F20s.

Around Julia Davis Park (along the Boise River) and downtown/old Boise after dinner at the Table Rock brewpub (nice beer, okay food). Distance is an estimate.

Flights here were uneventful; pilot/s arrived alive as far as I know (unlike the Continental Airlines pilot flying from Europe to Newark today...). We were in the last row on the second flight, next to the jumpseat for one of the flight attendants, who was a young woman (named Raven) doing this before grad school to earn money and get some travel in before settling down. :-)