Discussion: Orion

Thanks for describing what happened with Orion. I debated whether to say something to you when I saw you. Which would you have preferred?

I saw Merrick climbing the hill as I was coming into the Finish, and I was very relieved to hear that Orion had just come through that control and assumed that Merrick planned to follow him in. Good for them both.

Oh, that didn't register with me. Thank you for the consideration! I would not have been concerned with my course at all, however, I think maybe it worked out better that you didn't tell for the fact that I probably panic a little too much and become counter-productive. If he had been injured or something like that, certainly that would be different, but I have no doubt you would've stopped me for sure in that case. In the end, his ego was hurt more than anything else. Thanks again Valerie.

I talked to Orion in more detail tonight and understand much better what happened. I think there are two things we can do to prevent this in the future. 1.) Get Orion a functioning watch. I didn't realize his other watch is broken, and he didn't realize how long he had been out there for. He knows now to set a time limit to his determination. Even though he was erroneous in his interpretation of his location, I am confident, based on our discussion that he could have come back to the finish without difficulty at any time he wanted to. That is kind of the point on a white course. 2.) Practice checking our compass when going down a trail to be sure that it is really the trail we think we are on. He actually relocated many times quite successfully, however, I think he would have given up on the wrong trail sooner if he had seen that it was not going the right direction. I talked to Sahara, and she says that she doesn't really do this either. It is hard to remember to teach someone to do something you have learned through experience and do mostly without conscious thought. I get on the wrong trail all the time, it can happen to anyone, but I usually remember before long to take a peek at my compass, just in case.

I had to look up this one just to be able to compare duration out on a course. I wasn't running at the time that one occurred and I was pretty panicky, Clint could attest to that. I didn't remember that William had the same issue as Merick.

Thanks for the thoughtful input. Yes, an injury would have been relayed immediately. Part of the debate was considering whether his siblings were reacting prematurely. :)

It was good to see that the extra punch he hit about halfway through was the next to last on Yellow, so he wasn't too far afield.

Your children are wonderful, and it was nice to see them around this weekend.

Yeah, they probably did. It sounds to me like they went searching for him a bit sooner than I would have. Did they try getting other adults searching?

I am glad that Merick jumped in with a shadow when they saw him, mostly because it shows a level of responsibility on Merick's part and it gave some assurance that there wouldn't be further issues. In retrospect, the point when he started tailing him was already past the real problem.

Did they try getting other adults searching?

You would have to ask your nurturing child about that. ;-)