Snowshoe Orienteering 2:45:00 [2] ***
Tested the Salomon Snowshoe Raid course at Horseshoe Valley. I'm logging the time as 50% orienteering and 50% snowshoeing so that my training hours reflect both activities, but this was just one long outing.
As I wandered for hours in the wintry forest without seeing anyone, I was pleasantly conscious that my love of the outdoors is a wonderful gift - and the ability to chase down little flags in obscure places makes it even better. I smiled a lot. Not that it was perfect - my feet got cold early on. It turns out that my summer-weight Sealskinz socks are intended to be worn in summer - who knew? But marching up and down (and up and down and up and down) scenic hills in fresh snow was fantastic.
I should offer a warning: Last year a team that reads Attackpoint used my course testing time to help determine their strategy in the race, and it backfired on them. I won't name names, but let's just say that they do some basement racing. :-) Course testing takes a lot longer than racing the same event. When one of Canada's top navigators wants to know if his flags (lots of them!) are in the right place - and he honestly wants the truth - it's a time-consuming job. If a flag is missing, I put a new one up, but I also check adjacent features to make sure the flag wasn't in the wrong place - as opposed to just blowing away in the wind. You're always supposed to see the feature before you see the flag, and in course testing, I try extra hard to do it that way, instead of looking ahead for a fleeting glimpse of orange, like I would in a race. Once I find the flag, I usually take a look at it from a different direction of approach, just to be 100% sure - or to look for any safety or mapping issues. And if I think a flag is in the wrong place, I'll spend a *long* time making sure, given the high skill level of the course setter. (For the record, I only moved one flag 10 meters, so our Race Director is as awesome as advertised.)
Since some Attackpointers are doing the race, I guess I can't go into too much detail. You might want to do some hill intervals and practise running on your snowshoes. I don't know what the snow will be like on the 23rd, but it was fresh and deep yesterday, and almost no one had been out, so I got a great workout. During the race, many of the trails will be broken - with the added bonus of trails leading right to the flags, unless you're the first person in. So for a lot of reasons, you'll be going faster than I was! My other tip would be to practise reading map contours, since you could walk right across a summer trail without seeing it in the terrain, so you don't want to rely on trails to navigate.
I didn't allow quite enough time, so had to make a dash for Horseshoe Valley Road at sunset. I'd found a big VHF radio on a snowmobile trail labelled "Horseshoe Riding Adventures" (extra weight for my workout), so I found a place to turn it in before heading home in the dark. Excellent day!
Snowshoe Orienteering (With Poles) 2:45:00 [3]
Should have brought ski poles instead of trekking poles - baskets were too small!