Note
Up at 7:45, big breakfast of frosted flakes, cottage cheese, yogurt & bananas. Off to model 1. Needed to park and take the bus there due to limited parking. Then we immediately headed to model 2 after having a snack in the car.
Orienteer 1:00:00 [2]
shoes: Montrail Vitesse 610
Model 1. Cloudy and drizzly. I took the model controls out of order so I wouldn't be surrounded by dozens of people the whole time. My feet immediately got wet from the moss and swamps and I realized that I'd ALWAYS be running in wet feet so I'd better stop trying to dodge the swamps and just deal with them because they were they were reasonable fast because there was no muck, only moss. My orienteering was decent (probably because I walked most of it) but I had some difficulty with the pine saplings obscuring the contours and there seemed to be more clearing than mapped. I learned later that only very obvious ones are shown. Good practice, confidence is high.
Orienteer 1:00:00 [2]
shoes: Montrail Vitesse 610
Model 2. Different terrain from model 1 and billed as being similar to that of the final. It had taller trees and a bunch of similar sized hills making parallel errors a big concern. I managed to make one of these early and this was a good lesson to get in practice. I again walked for much of it got much more familiar with the mapping techniques. Confidence is high.
Note
Back to the cabin for lunch, showers & laundry. To event center for internet connection; there were only four workstations so there was always a line and 10 minute limit. This was a big hassle but one I would have to become used to over the following two weeks.
Then we headed into Kuusamo for bank, Avis, dinner & the opening ceremony parade. This quaint little town by a lake had a nice main street with shopping but few restaurants (we finally learned that "dining out" is not part of the culture). Avis was hard to find but Charlie resolved the insurance coverage issue. We found a great Italian restaurant for chicken pasta dinner with cream sauce, parmesan cheese & pineapple. We finished just in time to see the parade come by wit the US at the end right before Finland. There were only five representing us so we jumped in for a few pictures. We headed back to cabin early to rest for the first day of competition tomorrow.