Orienteering 54:16 [1] 2.83 mi (19:11 / mi) +123m 16:54 / mi
Middle Model @ Taleni
Time to switch to forest! Headed out to the middle model with Greg and Tori. Was great to be out in the woods finding controls! Legs are sore from yesterday, but not destroyed. I'm skipping the library multi-level spring that Greg, Tori and Anton are doing because it sounds like too many staircases for my quads right now...
start -> 31: turned off trail late because the pits marked right off the side of the trail were higher up - I saw them, but worried weren't the right ones, but need to think more 1:10,000 "right off" doesn't have to be first few meters.
31 -> 39: good on a bearing, noted the spur-reentrant combo on the way there, this one was mostly in beautiful white woods
39 -> 35: downhill, trying to be a bit speedy, on a bearing, but deflected too far right into wrong marshy reentrant. Think I misidentified some light green which led to hte initial heading too far right. I didn't see the ride indicated on the edge of the wrong reentrant, so perhaps rides aren't very visible. Didn't correct as early as I should have, should have noticed direction of stream wasn't right earlier.
35 -> 39: wanted a redo, so back to 35. Did ok uphill on a bearing (not going too fast now), pretty much spot on, just didn't see because not a big control. Saw the broken ground along the way.
39 -> 35: better on my bearing this time, didn't get pushed
35 -> 36: down to field, I didn't see the small hogsweed markings until now... eep! But I guess I'm ok... anyways, rough yellow was ok to get through, but is some nettles and such, so not too fast. On the way down the slope, was right of the line, corrected using reentrant, then could follow (but barely) form line reentrant to control. Wide green slash wasn't tough to get through at all - small river reeds.
36 -> 37: not far apart, but nailed it! pretty small knoll.
37 -> 35: wanted to set up next leg, 35 wasn't hard to find from downhill side (corner of field very close)
35 -> 33: pretty much spiked, but there wasn't a control out - eventually did spot the numbered stake. Could pick out distinct veg boundaries on the way. And dense green slash was particularly nasty zones of downed trees - good to know!
33 -> 32: a bit hard to get through the downed trees following the stream up, but ya just gotta ninja it through! Cliff above the dot knoll was definitely a cliff
32 -> 46, out of ravine in a nice reentrant that let me take a bearing to 46 pretty easily - would be harder if coming out of ravine at a less distinct location
46 -> 44: drifted off a bit left, probably pushed by light green intermittent marsh. Noticed the contour in front of me and corrected. Seemed then to be on a hill so took a bearing from there and worked. These fairly featurless flat zones will be tough in the race.
44 -> 45: Not good! In the race, would have used the trail more, but was attempting not too and just go on a bearing. But dumped into stream reentrant to early and then mistook a bend about 150m too far south for the right one, but then didn't add up. Bah, big correction needed! In race, would have come out to trail, pace counted about 15 paces from junction, then diagnoled in to correct stream bend.
45 -> 44: This time did use the trail, nailed from trail junction.
44 -> 40: On a bearing, did correctly pick out the med green veg amongst the light green, depression was right behind.
40 -> 44: Went the other way around the dark green, bearing still worked.
44 -> 46: Wanted to thread the greenish zones, so pacecounted 80 on one bearing, then corrected and finished with another ~80 straight W. Worked pretty well, but on the approach saw the hill right beforehand and that helped me in anyways.
46 -> 32: Coming at the dot knoll from the top: is some dense green slash indicating downed trees, but it is all of 2 mm long, so real hard to see...
32 -> 31: mostly back on the trail. Kept track of distinct veg boundaries to dive off trail in the right spot to nab 31 again.
A good set of 19 control visits. Learned about the mapping. The green slashes: dense = slow-you-down downed trees, sparse = not-a-problem low veg, also the open dot marsh had some distinct marsh grass and some marsh bushes. Pits were deep and noticeable. Distinct veg boundaries do appear distinct. Even little streams are still wet (rained yesterday) and have quite clay-y soil, so can suck your feet under!