Becky and Nellie's Saturday Rhode Trip (see what I did there?!). John-Eric was kind enough to let me tag along on the way to Big River today, to check out not only a new map, but also another new state for me to orienteer in. I didn't go anywhere near far enough along the ridge to number one, the subtle re-entrants on the map looked way bigger in real life, and had to drop out to the road and head back in. After that I was lacking in confidence and my legs were pretty dead. The bad route choice was intentional to 6 in the early stages, after I failed to plan ahead and didn't realise the track I wanted went straight back down the hill again just after I had climbed to the top. So I maintained my height, and after that none of the tracks really made sense, despite many compass checks. I somehow ended up close to the control, and was way too slow going in. Then for 7 I went way too far north, still no idea how that happened, but a few others did it too. After that things improved, hesitant finding the actual sites in the thick pines on a couple, but as I got used to the map style things got a bit easier. Very happy to nail 10, as that seemed like a danger control.
http://sprintseries.org/doma/show_map.php?user=bec...
After that we extended our road trip by heading for lunch at a diner in Niantic, and then onto my favourite place, the Book Barn, which also seems to be one of Nellie's favourite places too. We had a lovely day, with excellent company, which I then extended further by strolling up to Judges Cave on West Rock with Rob just before the sun came down. Spring=awesome.