Orienteering 1:49:08 [3] *** 6.02 km (18:07 / km) +179m 15:47 / km
spiked:8/10c slept:5.5 shoes: Jala Jukola Spider 6 #3
Fun Green course by Rob Wilkison. Nominal distance 5.25 km, 155 m climb. Cloudy and upper 70s, with some rumbles of thunder later but no rain (showers) until we were changing clothes.
It was slow going out there; if it wasn't rocky underfoot the saplings were close and needed to be skirted or pushed through (and they kept grabbing my hat off my head). A variety of orienteering skills were needed with some legs across bland areas. The green course had a number of such legs, but with control points in more detailed areas. It was a great feeling to get to the end of leg 2 through bland woods (with saplings) and approach the top of the embankment where my cliff was -- and I was right above the cliff. Nice. For 6 I was headed a bit farther up the hill than the boulder was located and would have had to relocate except I saw Valeriy Doverov coming out of the woods to my east...and then I saw a flag and my boulder. :-) I got a bit off line to 8 and did a bit of a zig zag to the control, which was probably the most difficult leg on Green, approaching a small reentrant from the uphill end.
We had several stream crossings, where the water was midway up my shins. On the last crossing I found a stick to help steady myself as the water looked like it was moving faster there and I didn't really want to fall in (but it was warm enough it would have felt good). Heard cicadas here too.
We were among the later starters, and, other than Glen (who did the Red course), who I saw near or on the way to 4 of my controls (from different angles), and Valery, I only saw one other orienteer, someone else on Red. Most interesting (to me) AOWN sighting - a small toad the size of my pinky fingernail, which I only saw because it was moving across my path.