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Saturday May 30, 2015 #
Event: Dirty Kanza
12 PM
Orienteering 2:36:13 [3] *** 8.77 km (17:49 / km) +221m 15:49 / km
19c shoes: Inov8 Mudclaw
Red Course at Camp Friedlander, near Loveland, Ohio.
I've been looking for good maps to use for MTBO. England-Idlewild so far has been the most obvious choice because it's one of our few MTB areas with an actual trail network, but even EI is not ideal because of large loops with no "choices".
So I'm doing this longer-than-normal course (for me), a 5.9km Red. I've been stuck in a rut of 3-5km courses lately. And right in the middle of it I realize that Friedlander, a Boy Scout Camp, is absolutely perfect for MTBO. It's got lot of gravel roads. It's got lots of ridable grass. It's got lots of complicated spur-top camping areas with a variety of weird connections (gravel, wide rides, and **possibly rideable trails** (with appropriate permissions, which are probably doable). I don't need *all trails*, just certain ones, and I can design for trail closure in the even of wet conditions without calling the whole thing off. Exciting. Just need to start talking to the camp managers, I guess. Thinking the best time is after the scouts leave, so like early September, when it tends to be drier, although there will still be heavy weekend usage there.
The course, set by first-time setter Greg Fasig, was really nice. He used the opportunity to get his scouts to design certain WYO courses, and that meant using a lot of controls literally all over the park. I really enjoyed the course. It was long and kinda brutal, with a lot more climb than I'm used to. My only course comments would be to work a little harder to get people into and out of controls quickly, and to try to avoid the steepest downslopes. I only made it a few times because I was wearing Inov8s. I wasn't going to wear them, but I asked Mike and he convinced me.
I screwed up the first control, which I'm going to blame on the map being not quite right, although I'm to blame as well---I was wimping out and contouring to avoid the climb and I screwed up.
I screwed up the second control too, but it was an essential "spike" because I almost walked into it. I just was planning to go one more spur left.
I wimped out on 5 and 13 (?) by not going straight uphill. I'm just really gun-shy at Friedlander. I'm kinda embarrassed by 13 because I took the trail, but the hill looked so steep from below, and I think I made the right choice---the flat walking the first 100m really helped my legs.
I also had trouble at 6. I skirted the rough open to the left expecting it to be overgrown, and I found what looked like a trail end well below where the flag actually was. I eventually just followed traces of the trail uphill and found it.
One thing that was pretty cool was the water spigots. Control four was some sort of water feature, and when I got there it was a tiny fire hydrant thing with a handle. When I pushed it, water came out. I drank some, with Ken Kling's help (thanks!), and then drank more from ones I came across later. It felt like cheating.
I actually got a second wind toward the end. It was probably just the promise of stopping, but I really did feel better. I definitely need to do long courses more (at the risk of doing the Bill Donnelly, Frank Baukert thing). This means I really need to start arriving early to setup the download station...
Also---look at my GPS track and then scroll west a bit to "Grand Valley Preserve", a former gravel excavation site. Not sure what to do with that. Birding is mentioned, and biking and hiking. Looks flat. Probably more than a few nettles...
I've been looking for good maps to use for MTBO. England-Idlewild so far has been the most obvious choice because it's one of our few MTB areas with an actual trail network, but even EI is not ideal because of large loops with no "choices".
So I'm doing this longer-than-normal course (for me), a 5.9km Red. I've been stuck in a rut of 3-5km courses lately. And right in the middle of it I realize that Friedlander, a Boy Scout Camp, is absolutely perfect for MTBO. It's got lot of gravel roads. It's got lots of ridable grass. It's got lots of complicated spur-top camping areas with a variety of weird connections (gravel, wide rides, and **possibly rideable trails** (with appropriate permissions, which are probably doable). I don't need *all trails*, just certain ones, and I can design for trail closure in the even of wet conditions without calling the whole thing off. Exciting. Just need to start talking to the camp managers, I guess. Thinking the best time is after the scouts leave, so like early September, when it tends to be drier, although there will still be heavy weekend usage there.
The course, set by first-time setter Greg Fasig, was really nice. He used the opportunity to get his scouts to design certain WYO courses, and that meant using a lot of controls literally all over the park. I really enjoyed the course. It was long and kinda brutal, with a lot more climb than I'm used to. My only course comments would be to work a little harder to get people into and out of controls quickly, and to try to avoid the steepest downslopes. I only made it a few times because I was wearing Inov8s. I wasn't going to wear them, but I asked Mike and he convinced me.
I screwed up the first control, which I'm going to blame on the map being not quite right, although I'm to blame as well---I was wimping out and contouring to avoid the climb and I screwed up.
I screwed up the second control too, but it was an essential "spike" because I almost walked into it. I just was planning to go one more spur left.
I wimped out on 5 and 13 (?) by not going straight uphill. I'm just really gun-shy at Friedlander. I'm kinda embarrassed by 13 because I took the trail, but the hill looked so steep from below, and I think I made the right choice---the flat walking the first 100m really helped my legs.
I also had trouble at 6. I skirted the rough open to the left expecting it to be overgrown, and I found what looked like a trail end well below where the flag actually was. I eventually just followed traces of the trail uphill and found it.
One thing that was pretty cool was the water spigots. Control four was some sort of water feature, and when I got there it was a tiny fire hydrant thing with a handle. When I pushed it, water came out. I drank some, with Ken Kling's help (thanks!), and then drank more from ones I came across later. It felt like cheating.
I actually got a second wind toward the end. It was probably just the promise of stopping, but I really did feel better. I definitely need to do long courses more (at the risk of doing the Bill Donnelly, Frank Baukert thing). This means I really need to start arriving early to setup the download station...
Also---look at my GPS track and then scroll west a bit to "Grand Valley Preserve", a former gravel excavation site. Not sure what to do with that. Birding is mentioned, and biking and hiking. Looks flat. Probably more than a few nettles...