Training Log Archive: cedarcreek

Event: OLOU Yost Recreation Area - moved to Horine!
 

Event: ORRRC Twin Creek 10k Trail Race
 

Event: Pond Lily Lookout - SMOC
 

The correct event is---none of the above!

I went to Gov Bebb for the Easter Egg hunt. I did a "dust off the cobwebs" radio O' course set by Bob Frey. He used his new 80m microtransmitters. The course was amazingly fun. Despite having used my 80m receiver last in Bastrop, Texas in May of last year, I did everything just about right. (I won mostly because I got lucky a few times.)

I started off down the corridor and found that 1 was directly ahead. I settled in to run down the road a while. And then I realized that 2 was off to the right a little, and loud! So I peeled right and switched to tone mode and ran at it. It went off suddenly, with no ID, so I just guessed at my last bearing and went on the compass. I almost missed 2. Brian (k4bri on AP) was to my right, and when I looked I could just make out the flag on the backside of a tree. (This is actually within the rules of ARDF, but I'm not so sure I agree with it.) So I got lucky on 2. It was technically offcycle, but less than a minute, so there was no gloating.

I got back on the road and went for 1 again. I had 5 farther in front of me off to the left. I waited at the end of the road for 1, and spent about 20 seconds deciding to come back to it. (5 appeared to be constrained to a small corner area of the map, and 1 would be on-the-way coming back from it.)

So I ran out to that little corner area, checked the reentrants for flags, then crossed the little bridge. 4 came on, and it shocked me how loud it was. I realized that although I was going for 5, that I had made a mistake, and it was really 4. (This is not uncommon, but it is a newbie error.) I realized that 5 was in fact back in the direction of the start.

So I had 2 and 4, and 1 was next. I don't remember having a clue where 3 was, so I paid attention and got a line marked for it on the next cycle.

So 1 was next, and then 3 and 5 (not sure which).

1 came on, and I could see the trails on the map zigzagged along the bearing. So I ran as fast as I could on the trail, and kept spinning the receiver so I could make sure I (1) had a bearing to it, and (2) that I hadn't overrun it. It went off, pretty strong, so I walked along the trail looking right and left, expecting to see it. I went almost to the bottom of the hill, checked the line drawn on my map, and looked down a ditch---and saw a flag. This was really offcycle---so a big smile.

I was a little more than halfway down the slope. There was a trail at the bottom, and a road at the top. I thought there were a few indistinct trails around where I was, so I contoured a little and found some game trails.

3 came on to my left, down along the lower trail and stream, so I hightailed it down there. I had a good bearing from the hilltop that crossed this one, so I knew I about where it was, and I ran there.

Along the way 5 came on, and I slowed down to look at the white hillside. I saw some O'controls (with blue stripe), but no plain orange and white ones.

I'm pretty sure I got 3 offcycle just seconds before it came on.

I hurried up the road towards the park exit. There is a big ditch on the right that I wanted to be at when 5 came on so I could just select the correct spur and not have to cross the ditch. But when 5 came on, it was on the other side of the road. I ran up the road until it was almost 90deg to the road, and ran into the woods just as it went off.

Almost immediately I found a blue-stripe control with SI (which means it wasn't a radio control). I always suspect trickery at local radio events, so I looked around it for the transmitter. It wasn't there, but I knew that transmitter had to be close. And there weren't a whole lot of places it could be. There was a fallen tree that looked possible. About the time I decided to move towards the tree, I saw Addison (11 yr old) running towards it with a receiver. (He was coming from a direction where there were no radio controls, though, so he might have had some trouble). I followed him into the control (he could see it from where he was), and got 5 offcycle as well.

I hurried up to the finish, and found out I was fastest at 28 minutes. That's pretty remarkable because if you find 1 per cycle it takes about 25 minutes. I found four transmitters offcycle, but I'm gonna call it three because I would have missed 2 for sure if Brian wasn't there.

This was a really fun event. I think this is how the really fast runners experience ARDF. It is very fast and very strategic---you have to keep your head as you figure out where the Ts are so you don't add distance. For example, if I'd gotten 2 then 1 then 4, rather than 2 then 4 then 1, I would have not only added distance, I would have given up 3 minutes off the cycle. (You hear 2 then 1 then 4 in 7 min, but 2 then 4 then 1 in 4 min.) I didn't realize this at the time, and I certainly didn't get three in 4 minutes, but I did realize 1 was better after I got 4 rather than before.

I have ordered some 2m microtransmitters. I hope I get them in time for some practice events prior to Boston.

6 hours of moving a relative's stuff from one apartment to another. It ended up being 2 UHaul loads. The worst was the couch. It is a big couch with 3 recliner mechanisms inside---I'm talking HEAVY.

But it was totally worth it, and I got paid. Plus some free stuff he didn't need anymore. So...w00t!

(Oh and I am still sore Monday as I write this. Sunday I felt almost like I'd been in a car crash.)