Orienteering (NEOOC Python Goat) 2:59:02 [3] *** 7.51 mi (23:50 / mi) +191m 22:06 / mi
13c shoes: X-Talon 212
I decided I would try the 10.6 km Python Goat since the Nanny Goat was 6 km which seemed too short for a 5+ hr drive on Friday evening. The rules were set out just before 10:00 am - 2 controls could be skipped but neither could be an odd numbered control. I was first off the mass start line but was very quickly overtaken by many of the other runners. The first few controls were fine, skipped 10, missed the faint trail off the field-side trail to 12 so had to double back along the stream, 13 and 14 were great, and then I entered the twilight zone of parallel errors..... I went north from 14 expecting the marsh to catch me if I ran off the plateau but I seemed to very suddenly come to an opening with some builidings that I thought were those mapped north of 15. So I turned back south and followed the edge of a clearing that I convinced myself was the pond just east of the control, found a stream that was running the same way the stream that the control was above but just couldn't see were the cliff/earth bank the control was below could be. Around and around I went for about 30 minutes at which point I decided I would just move on and mispunch. So off west I trod toward the N/S running stream that 16 was near on a knoll on a branched dry ditch. I came to "the" stream branch I expected and turned N, passing one ditch and getting to another that was obviously not the one I should have been at. At this point, I had been out about 2 1/2 hr and the temperature (80oF by this point) and humidity were enough to give me a reason to bail since I didn't have any idea how to relocate. Looking at my track and the map, I realized that my problem started when I saw the buildings too early on my way to 15 - they were much too early but weren't mapped just outside the park boundary even though the clearing, road, and buildings north were also outside the boundary but were mapped. So I ended up searching S of 15, very close to 14 and making the stream/park boundary junction just east of 14, the stream/park boundary junction just east of 15. After giving up on 15, I walked W, actually passing S of 14 and coming to the stream branch N of 12, and well S of the branch I thought I was at. Following the stream N, I found two ditches but these were S of those I thought I should have been at. So the mapping just outside the park boundary was a problem and sucked me into all of these parallel errors but I should have trusted my first instinct that the buidings came much too soon and continued N until I came to the marsh. Beyond this, it was a fun day and great to get back to hear that Aragorn was the first finisher on the Python and was 3-4 min ahead.