Sprague Brook Park. Temp in upper 70's and very humid. Glasses were no good after a few controls.
WinSplits /
RouteGadget
Distance and climb above as reported on control descriptions. I made it a bit longer...
FR = 5.28 km, 152 climb
I was doing fine through 7. Safely identified the trail to 1, then in from the N. Back to trail for 2, between the hills to dot knoll. Compass to trail, then off the sharper of the two trail bends to 3. 4 on compass, reading the spur; 5 compass to trail, then around until I saw the building just north. Okay, those were easy, but can't get too complacent.
6 was a slog to get to the trail across the stream. I went west to the gentler spur and then headed NW to hit the stream near the sharp bend. Climbed the hillside at an angle (crossing the trail/"clearing" which looked more like a stream), taking the sharp reentrant that touches the trail, then W to the depression. Careful compass to 7 (I was still talking to myself here), ignoring the other people in the area.
Then it all fell apart. Thought I was headed SSW to the trail which I was going to take to the bend before heading to the swamp. I think I actually headed WSW and hit the trail much farther down the hill, then got confused in the trails/contours near the edge of the map, wandering off the map for several minutes before heading back and eventually finding the proper swamp/rootstock.
Left 8, south to the trail. More disaster, as I though I had climbed past the pond (never saw it) and angled down the hillside to hit the clearing/earth bank at the stream just northwest of the control circle. At least that was my plan. Execution is another story. I think I crossed to the slope-edge trail much sooner and angled down a pretty steep slope and crossed almost due south. Ran to road to relocate and found myself way far away. Instead of running the road I took the trail towards the campground, which was slower. Had to duck into the woods near playground to avoid the out-of-bounds, then hesitated at someone else's control in a reentrant. Got too low, near the stream before realizing it was up another contour. Ugh. Then had to make my way back toward the playground.
10 through finish were fine, though it was a slog climbing that last hill to the rock pile at 11 (through the woods which were wide-open; I didn't see any advantage to taking the road).
AP calculates about 19 or so minutes of error, though some of that is on #6 which is just slowness due to hills. I figured 16-17 minutes on 8 and 9.
Glad I got my head on straight on Sunday.