Training Log Archive: vmeyer

It rained lightly in the early morning hours, and around 6 AM, I heard an animal scramble up the tree near my tent. This whole camping thing takes some getting used to.

I moved up a level from yesterday by tackling Orange today. Easy enough in parts to be fun, and technical enough in other places to give me some confidence back.



Just one smallish mistake over running #5 control thinking I would see the flag from the trail, and on the way to 7 I drifted off line and went around the longer way.

When I was done, I had a warm shower, two hot dogs, and then I hung around until it was time to catch my plane home.

This was such a fun weekend. Some of the local people were surprised that I would come all the way from Arlington, VA (not MA) for "just" the weekend, but I will recommend this trip to anyone. I didn't even do have of the events I could have - canoe, radio, bike, vampire...

Thank you to Lex and Pete for being my hosts, Michelle and Darryl for being the food people, and Sam and Ross for being Saturday & Sunday course setters, J-J for the Wicked Hard Night-O and the rule friendly to this tipsy weenie, and all of the others who make a weekend like this possible.

C • Regarding camping noises an... 2

Event: UNO Pawtuckaway Camping Weekend
 

Pawtuckaway Camping Weekend - Saturday Part 1

Went out early to attempt the Brown course. Not really confident after yesterday, and perhaps brain still fuzzy, so it was an adventure. I found #1, and then no more. The tracks leading to #10 are my first attempt at #2. Had enough, and headed in, but I didn't want to take the same trail as yesterday, so I decided to head straight to the road. That didn't exactly happen, and since I was much further up the road then I thought, I cut off the road way too soon and stubborningly stayed down in the woods instead of going back up to the road. Oh, well, it was a beautiful day.

After a rest and refueling, I decided to go and run around the Yellow course before working a shift at the Start/Finish.



This went better, i.e., I found them all. A little chagrined about the error from 6-7, especially since the tracks indicate that I went right by 6 again when I was attempting to relocate. I didn't relocate until I found 9, and then from there I went in the opposite order to 9-8-7, and then 8-9 again.

Later on it was another fine meal of hot dogs and beer & wine (of course), and great conversation.

Wicked Hard Night-O - no lover of the night to begin with, I had a plan to get one control to be official, so I set out on the course for that one control.

At the start line, I was being encouraged to get at least 13 &14, but when I got to the road and looked into the dark woods, I thought better of it and headed around on the road to the close by control and in - first in, last place. WooHoo!

Pawtuckaway Camping Weekend (PCW) - Friday

After a very late night of good company (Pete, Lex, and Alar) and good wine, and some assistance getting ready for the PCW, I woke up around 7 AM and baked brownies.

After sending Pete and Alar off to work, Lex and I had a leisurely breakfast, we headed out to drop the dogs (Cody and Jazzie) at the boarder, and then some light shopping.

We headed off to Pawtuckaway, with the canoe on my car.



The canoe was on there nice and securely, but it was a bit frightening driving with it on the highway, especially when the ropes were humming loudly. After 40 minutes of driving, I had to stop and take a break, then I finished the trip to Pawtuckaway, only getting lost once.

After checking in, and since the Saturday controls had been hung the day before, I headed out on the Green course and Lex went out on Brown. I found 1 & 2 eventually, and 4 on the way back from looking for 3. Then I took the bike trail all of the way back to the road.



After Lex returned from her successful Brown course, we went for a paddle around the lake. Not having eaten much all day, we each carried an apple and a beer with us to replenish our low stores. A very nice interlude and a beautiful day.





Pete and Lex provided a fine pasta and tomato and mozzarella dinner, and some more fine wine. With this in mind, I was being super careful while exiting their camper, but I still managed to turn my ankle after I was on flat ground and went to pivot. This picture is 48 hours later. I wore a brace the rest of the weekend, and it was fine.



I slept in a tent, and I heard animal noises behind it all night. Like a baby raccoon or moose or something. I eventually stuff earplugs in and slept until 7 AM.

P.S. Yesterday's adventure was a wee bit of dipping in the lake to rinse off, sans clothing. Thank goodness for pitch darkness.

Pawtuckaway Camping Weekend (PCW) - Prelude

I couldn’t get to any orienteering events this summer, so I decided to attend the Billygoat in May and the PCW this weekend. "Instead" seems to want to be on the end of that last sentence, but the Billygoat and the PCW were anything but consolation prizes. Since I had no responsibilities to the events, I wanted to include an adventure or two that I haven't done before, so for the BG weekend, I went on a zip line tour with Gail. This turned out to be only a little bit out of my comfort zone, and lots of fun.

So, for the PCW, I settled on tandem hang gliding. I was pretty scared about this, but I was also excited. However, when I arrived in Manchester, NH late afternoon and called the hang gliding place which was about two hours away, the weather conditions weren't right for that adventure, so I headed to Maine instead.

Somehow my GPS route to Portsmouth got switched to Salem, so I was almost to Boston, and suffered through about three miles of stopped traffic before I realized that I was going the wrong way. I got off at the next exit and headed back the other way, and arrived in Maine. First I went to the Portsmouth Shipyard and drove around there a little bit and stopped at the grocery store and wine store.

After that, I stopped at nearby Fort McClary, paid my $2 admission, and walked around there admiring the beautiful scenery.












Then I went to Fort Foster State Park and for a run.








Roger tasked me to have a lobster roll in Maine, but I didn't look too hard.

Headed off to spend the night with Pete and Lex in Hollis, NH. No directional mishaps this time.

C • hang gliding 1

Mowed part of the lawn again.

Walked down the hill and back. Still pondering a real work out for the day.