Hiking3:21:05 8.27 km (24:19 / km) +318m20:24 / km ahr:97 max:147 shoes: Keen RidgeFlex M7W 2021
We stretched out our trip to CA by tacking on a few extra days. Today's adventure was to Santa Cruz Island in the Channel Islands NP. While cool this morning, by the time we boarded the boat at 9am it was warming up nicely, and was in the upper 50s to low 60s on Santa Cruz.
We boarded an Island Packers boat in Ventura for the trip across the channel to Santa Cruz Is. We sat inside except for dolohin sightings, and I was okay to start but as we were going into the wind I started getting queasy when we hit the midway point. The rest was a mind game.
Finally we arrived at Scorpion Harbor anchorage. I asked a naturalist if there were good places to see the endemic scrub jays; he told us to head up the Scorpion canyon.
We saw (and I photographed) some birds near the settlement area, then continued on, and were hardly past civilization when I heard a "jay" call, and sure enough a scrub jay posed for us. :-) So instead of going further up the canyon, we could continue with our plan to head 2 mi on the trails to Potato Harbor overlook. As we made a turn onto a trail that climbed to the North Bluff trail we saw an endemic island red fox (near the last pit toilets we'd see for awhile). Wow! Multiple wildlife sightings in the first 10 minutes!
Made it out the 2 miles to the Potato Harbor vista where ate the sandwiches we'd made and brought (along with all the water we might need plus snacks), entertained by a pair of ravens nearby. Then we headed back towards the Cavern Point loop. Along the way Glen noted a raptor (possibly peregrine falcon) in pursuit of two larger black birds...which turned out to be bald eagles. :-O
Climbed to Cavern Point then headed down to the settlement near Scorpion Harbor where we'd board the boat returning to Ventura. That's all we time (and energy) for today.
Back near the settlement and harbor we saw at least two more island foxes which were smaller and had a bit more gray fur than the first one we saw. Fun to watch them while waiting for the boat. (Added...the island foxes are descended from the gray fox, not red as I had posted originally.)
On the passage back to Ventura I dropped my pack inside with Glen, then headed out to the bow area so I'd have a clear view to the horizon (though it was colder out there). It did the trick to keep me from feeling queasy, and I saw pods of dolphins and tons of pelicans; and the boat captain circled around when someone saw a whale exhalation... we spent some time watching the whale(s?) before continuing on our way. All in all we highly recommend a visit this island (or others in the Channel Islands NP system) sometime in your life.
Barrelhouse 101 in Ventura had a fine selection of brews (we had Thai food last night) and decent food.
After finishing and changing but before awards, I was chatting with Eileen B and she wanted to revisit and photograph her last control (Br X course) and I walked up the ridge with her. As she said, this is probably the first event we've competed in where we had Joshua trees as control points. :-) I thought the little JT "forest" clusters were cute too.
9 AM
Orienteering race (Long) 1:09:46*** 5.49 km (12:42 / km) +80m11:51 / km ahr:128 max:161 spiked:9/9c shoes: 2022 VJ Falcon 6.5. GA
US Nationals Brown Y course (F65+, M75+, Br Open), 4.8km, 120m climb, 9 controls at Red Rock Canyon SP, Red Cliffs natural/picnic area. My last year in F65.
For a wide open visibility course it had some interesting legs and a few with route choice. I had no trouble with the navigation (some points I could see from quite a distance, or at least I could see a feature nearby from that distance).
From start we climbed to the top of a ridge, then I could see across the valley 350m or so to where I needed to go. #2 was a route choice leg; I chose the simplified "wash" route to the right, turning NW before a spur with cliffs and using mapped Joshua trees for navigation to the one I wanted. To #3 I sighted NW across the flat to the wiggles in the cliff line, and refined my attack as I got close. It was neat to look up into the wind-eroded "chimney" formed there.
#4-5 there was an elongated hill in the way, and I went right (S) around it, then angled up from the elongated dot knoll in the wash bed.
#6-7 I crossed the main ridge between the two biggest blobs, south of the beeline, and then worked my way over. In retrospect, staying N of the beeline and north of the smaller blob might have been a little bit faster. The control location itself was very cute, I thought. Then I just needed to hustle out to the main trail via a creekbed, and find a major ditch/reentrant -- I could see from a distance where people, including Glen, doglegged in and out.
One final climb up and over a ridge to drop to another Joshua tree in a reentrant from which you could see the finish banner.
Silver again today, but the three of us were much closer today, less than 3 minutes apart, I think. Debbie in 1st again, but she said she messed up navigation to a couple of them. If Janet Petersen hadn't slightly missed on #5, and hadn't stopped for water she may have gotten in faster today; she was only ~30 seconds back of me.
Found some decent brewpubs in Lancaster. Last night we went to Lucky Luke's which had a wide variety of beers, and some apps, burgers, salads, and sandwiches. Their Luke's Hazy was very much to my taste (on the sweeter side). Tonight we skipped the potential O gathering at a pizza/pasta restaurant (which sounded like great place for kids, but maybe not so much for conversation), and went to Brävery Brewing...they had a pizzeria on site. They only had one pizza size (6 slice) and they didn't do halves, so we ordered a sausage pizza and Glen picked most of the meat off my slices. Just enough food and very good crust.
I enjoyed their hazy IPA (Tortoise) and then we split a flight with tasters of 5 other beers. Of the two breweries, this one had better beer selection; the other one had slightly better food selection. Nice discoveries.
11 AM
Orienteering race (Middle) 56:36**** 3.4 km (16:39 / km) +149m13:39 / km ahr:130 max:158 spiked:8/11c slept:7.0 shoes: 2022 VJ Falcon 6.5. GA
US Nationals Middle Brown at Vasquez Rocks in Agua Dulce, CA. Very neat place with giant blocks of angled rock sticking out of the ground. One had to interpret the map to get the right sized rock to navigate. Nominally 2.9 km, 115m climb (some of it gratuitous). Forgot to start my watch at start so I've adjusted the time to match my splits, and the distance is an estimate.
I did fine except on the two I lost the most time on, partly because I didn't believe the actual locations were on the Brown course. #4 seemed to me a poor choice for a Brown control, as did #7, and I struggled on both. I checked out a lower rock (#55) to #4 but then knew it wasn't mine so was resigned to climb to one I'd seen someone coming out of on the approach. To #7 I misread which way the cliff was facing and dropped more than needed....shoulda followed Steve.
Small error to the Go control as I hit the trail further north than expected (nnorth of the junction), but fine from there.
2nd F65 (after Debbie N, before Janet Petersen and Ingrid M). We and many others stayed for awards for Sprint/Middle because it was a beautiful day. Low 60s and sunny.
2 PM
Note
After awards, on the way back to the car, we encountered PG and a group, and found out Peter was challenging people to run across the parking lot and up the slope of one of the large angled rocks near what's labeled "Star Trek Film Site" on Google maps for time. Best time at that point was 3:42, but then Jan Lauenstein (nephew of Marc; exchange student living in the US) ran it in 1:41!! Yikes! Jan turned down the money Peter offered him for fatstest run up.
Orienteering-related (Model map) 31:37 1.05 km (30:07 / km) ahr:84 max:132 shoes: 2019 Altra LP4.0 9 rspb
Walked around the model map area at Vasquez Rocks Co Park, tomorrow's Middle venue.
Since we stayed in Lancaster last night and it was halfway to the sprint venue Pierce Coll back on the north side of LA, we stopped on the way down to the sprint. Should be interesting tomorrow.
Cool and breezy but sunny.
1 PM
Orienteering race (Sprint) 27:04**** 2.81 km (9:38 / km) ahr:136 max:163 spiked:12/14c slept:7.0 shoes: 2019 Altra LP4.0 9 rspb
Sprint champs at OUSA Nationals, Pierce College. 1:3000 / 2m map; 2.2km course. Very happy with my run; thank you to the organizers!
They didn't make our course climb the 10 contour (20m) hill, but there were some nice detailed areas to navigate. Had a bit of trouble on #2 trying to figure out what I was looking for (it was at the top of a staircase but described as the inside corner of a wall; about 15 sec lost). For the most part, course lines and circles were not cut anywhere, sometimes obscuring details, but I figured things out. My other (smaller) hesitation was to #9 but I found it (and gave the location away to two others).
Temp was around 70 when we ran, dropping to mid 60s by the time we left when a N breeze had picked up too.
I think I was 3rd overall in F65, 2nd US behind Debbie Newell (but not too far back). And I beat Sharon by 9 seconds. :-)
On a flat course like this we can usually multiply Glen's time by 1.5 and get mine. As he had run 40 min earlier than me, he looked up from the finish area at about 1.5x his time, and saw me coming in to the finish. :-D
Slept in (until 7 PT), dawdled, then drove to the Getty Museum, where we spent much of the day. Some of the art and sculptures were cool, and the outdoor areas and garden were lovely. We spent some time mentally mapping the outside for a sprint, and admired the succulents planted along the man-made stream. Photos may appear when we return home...