6-Hour ROGAINE in Pagosa Springs, CO.
This course was set by a guy with an adventure racing background, so the controls and clues were kinda non-standard (for orienteers), and not always on mapped features (e.g. "tree struck by lightning in aspen grove" -- and the aspen grove is ~100' long). But, it was fun and I would definitely go back next year. They had post-race pizza, brownies, drinks, and prizes, which is more than what we have at our local meets...
My plan was to rely heavily on pace counts and bearings, and I started out OK for the first few controls (especially considering how badly I usually do on 1:24,000 USGS maps).
* I messed up by relying on trails on my way to #43. The course setter had warned us that everything from dirt roads down to single-track trails would be shown with the same red trail symbol and that some trails weren't mapped, but I still let myself get confused here. I finally relocated at a pond -- one of the few useful features shown on the map. :-P
* At the three-hour mark, tiredness was kicking in and I forgot where I was going shortly after I left #43. My plan was to go for #55, but for some reason I started aiming southwest to hit the trail. Eventually I turned back to the south when I remembered I was supposed to be going to #55, but I wasted some time and distance in the process.
* I missed a very subtle trail turn-off on my way to #37. I decided to just take a bearing and go cross-country, but then I found and followed an unmapped trail that I should have ignored. Luckily, I ran into Troy and he helped me figure out where I was. So, I circled back and still missed my intended trail turn-off a SECOND time. When I realized I was backtracking towards the Powerline trail, I turned around and finally noticed a beer can nailed to a tree ("East PBR" trail). Wasted ~35 minutes. Blew off #37.
* By the time I got to the water stop, my calves were really hurting, I was moving incredibly slowly, and I had 50 minutes left to go about 2.25 miles back to the finish. I didn't want to risk being late, so I didn't bother trying to find #41, #47 or #25 on my way back. I was tired enough that I just wanted to be DONE. #23 was on the way, so I grabbed it.
I got to the finish with about 10 minutes to spare, but at that point I was more interested in just sitting down rather than going for another control (#22 or #26).
Fun overall!
[Photos]