Training Log Archive: furlong47

Event: QOC Seneca Creek
 

QOC Seneca Creek/Smokey Glen Farm Bumble - Green

Distance from Garmin, climb estimate

1 - ONKLM - UVWXY - TRQPS - 27

I started out unsure if I would do 3 windows (Green) or 2 windows (Brown). In the past this event had women on Green do 2 windows and called it Mint, but more recently they stopped doing that. Last year finishing 3 windows was a struggle and the year before that I only did 2 windows and it somehow took over 11 KM.

I pretty much immediately decided on the middle window (obvious with the first mandatory control in the middle of it) and the two to the right, as the two to the left seemed to be getting too far out and with no super easy route back to the end.

At the mass start, run down the road to 1. I then went clockwise beginning with O, starting out in a group of people that gradually dwindled down as they pulled away. But there were always people in sight and moving in the same direction through the entire window.

Since that window took me under half an hour, I decided I should probably all least give myself the opportunity for the 3 window option. From M I went out to the road and crossed to the parking lot. I went up the trail (dropping in and out of the stream as the bridge here is still washed out) to U, with a couple other people just ahead of me. Gary, a woman, and an adventure racer type who had one of the time bonuses around his neck. When I got to the control the AR guy was coming out of the woods on the other side, I guess after trying to get to the road and realizing the fence was there. We all went N of the wetland to the underpass there.

Tried to drop into the reentrant too early at V, but it was full of impassable stuff, so backed out and went along it to the end where the control was reachable without going down into it anyway. Now with Gary and Jody. We all dropped to the trail and went down to the creek. It was too much of a drop for me here, and the green too dense to move along the bank, so I backed out to the trail again and went down further where I was able to cross. They must have made it across there. I didn't see Jody anymore but saw Gary throughout the rest of the course.

Climbed up along the side of the ditch, though the green stuff pushed me up to the road and I had to double back a bit into the pines to the control. Then out to the roads to cross over the bridge to the disc golf area. Despite the large number of parked cars I didn't see a single player on the way to X. Went along the stream a bit, saw the lone cliff on the hillside and angled up to Y.

I was flagging a little now, but would have to go through most of the last window to get back anyway so why not finish it.

The obvious choice here was to go to T next. I could not really figure out a great plan for getting S in this window and will be interested to see the order used by others. All of the options seemed to add a good bit of distance, and most people I passed in this window were going the other way. I ended up doing T, then R (as I approached a large number of people were coming from the other side), Q, P, and then taking the trail and nose of the hill to S (again given away by about 6 people suddenly approaching from the other side). Then I went up into the fields and across them to 27 and the finish.

Just walking pre-Bumble

Lesson on Cricket

Event: QOC Patapsco Glen Artney
 

QOC Glen Artney - ARDF (Radio orienteering)

Decided to give this a shot. I had some knowledge going in (I actually have an amateur radio license, although you don't need one to receive only) but I found it to be quite hard. At first I was going around trying to triangulate the location of the transmitters from several points, drawing lines on the map for the direction I thought the signal was coming from. My accuracy must have been pretty poor because what I came up with was just a mess.

After an hour I was out in the more open area and decided to just choose one transmitter to concentrate on. Then I just moved toward it whenever it was transmitting and continued moving in the general direction when it was off. Doing this got me to control #1 on a copse of trees. Finally a bit of success!

I tried working on control #2 in this manner and apparently was pretty close to it, then decided I would head back based on time, then once I was in the woods ended up trying some more and later found I had gotten quite close to it again before quitting for good.

I think I would have done better had I used my second technique from the start. But overall it was fun trying something new and it was a beautiful day out in the woods.