Orienteering race 1:00:10 [4] 6.89 km (8:44 / km) +239m 7:26 / km
spiked:11/13c shoes: VJ Falcons 5
Green X Day 2 at Mountain Lakes (5.8km, 205m climb). Same wonderful open woods. Similar map printing. Course design significantly better than yesterday with some nice technical stuff in the northwest section of the map and some good route choice legs (6 and 10 in particular). My only criticism is that there seemed to be very heavy use of controls 6-7-8-9 and their connecting legs, so I'm sure that some people had more "help" finding controls than others. Weather a bit cooler (50ish) but good for running.
A good run except for one leg. Lost 6-7 minutes going from 4 to 5. Apparently my brain took a break and failed to notify me. Looking at the GPS trace, I was on the line headed toward the powerline and for some reason turned and headed east, thereby missing all the nice linear features I would have crossed in about 80 meters. Things weren't making sense but I continued on, even running along a trail for a while (not headed in the right direction). Then I saw an uncrossable fence which I couldn't find on the map (along the border so under the olive green border symbol). Still not thinking, headed north and got lucky by getting to control 2, from which I started navigating correctly again. Doh. Also dropped a minute on #11 drifting too far down the hill and had to climb up 2 contours to get to the control.
Ended up 3rd in M60 for the day and for two day combined time. Third place turned out to be the place to be however. While 1st and 2nd got trinkets as prizes, 3rd place got a half dozen apple cider doughnuts. Woohoo! Mmmm...doughnuts.
Good job organizationally by HVO and WCOC, and special thanks to Geoff Connor who I assume found this gem of O-forest and made it so we could all enjoy it.