Orienteering 2:55:46 [3] 7.6 mi (23:08 / mi) +1115ft 20:18 / mi
shoes: MPMW15:w
Prince William Forest
Red - 16 controls; 8 km; 340 m
Actual Distance Traveled: 12.2 km
One big blunder leaving 3/101 heading to 4/127. I meant to head southeast leaving 101. I started in that direction but then I turned started heading southwest. I mistook one hill for another and one streaming crossing for another and before I knew it I was way off course. I knew I blundered but I wasn't sure exactly what I did wrong until I saw my track. I recovered well before I got to 127 but my blunder cost me quite a bit of time.
I think that I know what I did wrong, and it took me a while to stop doing it: for the first couple hours I wasn't turning the ring on my compass like I usually do. Instead I was eyeballing it and trying to read the direction I was headed in based on where the needle was pointing. With a lot more practice I'm sure I could get that to work but it cost me some time today.
Other than that I had a fine time orienteering today.The weather was nice.
I am a bit suspect of the base camp software's analysis of my Garmin track. It says I traveled 7.6 miles even though when I finished it had my distance at 9.99 km (6.2 miles). That seems like a pretty big variance. Base camp claims that I climbed over 3500 feet. There is no way I climbed even half that much today.
I think I made the right choice in choosing red over blue today. I might have been able to finish blue before 3, but I'm pretty sure it would have taken me at least 3.5 hrs, and that's assuming I didn't make any colossal blunders.