Race Evaluation
NEOC: Blue Hills Traverse: Traverse
pkturner
| 1. | +00:45 | Started with the pack, and soon was following Jeff Schapiro who was following William Hawkins. When Will grumbled aloud I looked at my map and quickly figured the right way to the crowded control, beating Jeff & Will to it. | |||||
| 2. | Followed Hawkins down the trail to approach the control contouring from the west. | ||||||
| 3. | Left of the hilltop, attacking from the trail junction. Seemed to gain a little on those who climbed the hill with me, but who went right. | ||||||
| 4. | |||||||
| 5. | +02:30 | Approached the control from below the cliffs. Angled up the hillside. Pace count went too high but there were more and more boulders (not seeming to match the map). Reversed course and wandered back, found control via one of those O-suited attack points. | |||||
| 6. | Straight up then took trail around summit. Down through rough to top of ski lift, then in. | ||||||
| 7. | +00:30 | Across slopes and down road and trail nearly all the way to the bottom, cutting through a bit of woods. Then along trail west of the marsh. Rounding the southern tip of the marsh followed eastbound trails then watched for stone walls approaching the control. Arrived at the clearing SW of the control, uncertain, headed in the direction where I had seen Ken Walker. There it was. | |||||
| 8. | +02:30 | Aimed to contour around so as to miss some green and climb. Crossing the trail found boulder and headed south. However, helpful spur did not appear. Found trail instead. The actual boulder had been much higher than the one I was looking at on the map. I had noted the boulder as being rather farther from the trail than expected, but didn't notice that the map showed a higher boulder, until it was too late. Saw Jeff Schapiro at the control. | |||||
| 9. | +01:50 | Attempted to follow the line once I had reached the trail junction, but my mind kept mixing up the road with the parallel trails. Mistook flattish area before the road for the flattish area near the control, and wasted time trying to pick out where the control was. | |||||
| 10. | Up the trail to the right, then in. | ||||||
| 11. | +02:00 | Thought I had a good bearing to the control, but after the trail found myself looking down a sizable reentrant to my right. Looking at the map figured I was off to the right and headed SW but missed the control and was stopped by the roads. Seeing Phil Bricker helped me find the control. He appeared to go to the road on his way to 12, while I punched. | |||||
| 12. | Headed fast and straight to 12 but didn't catch a glimpse of Phil until I got to the refreshments. | ||||||
| 13. | Includes 2:29 munching. Tried to get a good drink but my stomach wasn't taking it. Hans said that the second half would be a lot flatter. It didn't seem helpful, given that the next leg goes right up a hill. Phil was gone, and the little trail took a few seconds to find. Went straight in from the bend in the trail. The brush wasn't bad at all. | ||||||
| 14. | |||||||
| 15. | Left along trail to follow the reentrant in to the control. Charlie DeWeese was on the trail, way ahead of me in the loop. The stones weren't nice but I didn't regret my route. | ||||||
| 16. | Phil was well ahead on the road. Followed the road up then cut between the hilltops. Terry (?) was coming up the hill and I extrapolated behind him to find the cliff easily. | ||||||
| 17. | Back the way I came, then along the trail taking the right fork. Along the trail, saw Aims Coney on his way to 15. Spiked the control. | ||||||
| 18. | Straight looked messy so I "ran" around on trails. At times I reverted to walking on the flat trail, feeling more like the latter part of a Highlander than a Traverse. Worse, these Blue Hills dirt roads are treacherous to the ankles. | ||||||
| 19. | Terry, I, and another headed east along the trail to head up to the control from the south. I said this is where I get lost every year. Terry said we can just go straight. As I pace counted and checked my compass in the low-visibility woods, Terry was to my right, and I kept staying left because despite what the compass said, I thought the terrain to the left was a better match for the line we should follow. Eventually we were rather spread out and I spied the control a bit to my left. Competitiveness got the better of my companionship for the moment, and I sneaked away to punch. But Terry called out, "Is that it?" and I called "Yeah." Terry came right along and our third companion may not have caught on. | ||||||
| 20. | As Terry and I headed north we were half way to the trail and met Ken Walker and John Hansman. Terry asked, "Did you find 19?" They said "no" and I said "We did." I got ahead of Terry on the trail, and went left and up at the trail junction. At the next junction went NE around the hilltop. I hesitated, and Terry was there to tell me to keep going. | ||||||
| 21. | +01:00 | I led Terry and one or 2 others too far to the right. When we saw the trail we went back up and found it. | |||||
| 22. | +01:00 | Went way around to the north on trails and road. Phil Bricker led me most of the way. This route was a mistake because light green wasn't so bad. Also, cramping and fatigue minimized the advantage to running. | |||||
| 23. | West out to trail. | ||||||
| 24. | Walked it and spiked it. | ||||||
| 25. | I looked at the map and said to John Hansman and Phil, "It's time to run." They groaned something about cramps. I got out to the trail ahead of them, but they could see the southerly trail which we all wanted to follow, and I could not. They led out. I followed and immediately jammed my right ankle badly and had to walk for a minute. I was on my own after that. The remainder of the course was uneventful, happily I managed to jog most of the way. | ||||||
| 26. | |||||||
| F. |
Total Time Lost - 00:12:05