Training Log Archive: dlevine

Chestnut Ridge Park Map Hike

Start (caino parking lot) -> 1: Down the sledding hill, across the road and "to it", but I don't find it. So, I fight through the green into the woods and start looking from the inside out and find it after a bit. 4:33

1->8: Out to road, across and in at the end of the guard rail. Along the south edge of the "marsh" which is mostly dry but contains some "soft" dirt. Had a tough time finding the W edge as I had to envision it being a lot wetter. 4:29

8->9: Through the green - that I could see wasn't so bad, across the field and in at the stone wall. Again had a bobble while looking for the marker. 4:50

9->12: Out to road to the clearing just SE of marker and then in. It took me much longer in the circle than it should - 10 minutes travel time; 6 minutes search time. 16:12

12->14: Road to trail to T junction, to Y junction where I went straight in. First one I found right away. 7:34

14->13: N to trail; was planning to go through the rough field, but it was too rough, so I skirted it counter-clockwise and then headed straight in. 4:31

13->15: Out to road and then right to it. 3:25

15->20: Out to road; path to cut corner, through the picnic and across the stream E of the circle, then up to the trail and in. 8:50

20->21: Trail all the way, checking things off carefully, but moving more slowly as the heat got to me and my confidence was lower. 7:01

21-22: Trail all the way; confused a bit at the end until I understood the trail on the map. 7:55

22->25: Trail all the way and understood the green so I went right in. Confused as there were TWO rootstocks there, but I looked more generally and found the control on a nearby tree so I never had to decide which was the "real" one. 5:25

25->24: Down and up or 500 meters extra going around on the trail? Decided to chance it going down. It was slow and delicate, but I made it and found all sorts of families in the (nearly completely dry) streambed. One guy was fascinated by my map and we spoke for a while (see 0-level intensity). Climbed the trail to and around to the control, but could not find it at all. Spent over ten minutes looking for it including several different attacks and my spiral technique. No luck. I'll have to go back again, but I think it is either missing or misplaced. The reentrant to the north and the trail junction to the south make it tough to have been in the wrong reentrant. NO SUCCESS! 28:24

24->23: Trail to clearing to spur. Hot and tired, but no problem. 6:44

23->19: Down and up and then north to the SE corner of the clearing. In by the distinct tree and more or less to it, but slow as the green slash is a "pointy" pine forest. Almost missed it as it was facing "the other way". 6:56

19->16: Slow, rough compass to the road which I hit at the "bottom of the U" as I hoped. Straight in until I found the marsh, but no marker. Again, a repeated search, verifying which edge and ticking off the trees one-by-one. No luck. I could see the shelter to the north and decided to relocate off of it. As soon as I headed there, I saw an unmapped clearing, so I veered off a bit to it. There, on the north edge, was the marker - albeit only about 25m from the shelter. 12:57

16->17: Met a guy at the shelter who said, "You just find #16?", so we talked. Apparently he has only a vague idea of map hikes, but hangs out at this shelter a lot and lots of people (understandably) use this as their attack point. He says that the nearby clearing is very wet in the spring. He also says that some folks are surprised by how close the marker is. I think it's misplaced. After a while, I head out to #17, down the road to the bridge and up the trail. Almost went in too soon - the distance seemed right, but the reentrant was small - but continued another 25m and there was a larger reentrant with a marker in it, so I chose that one! 20:29

17->18->Car: My rule was "no more targets after 2:30" and I was a few seconds after that, but I decided that two evangelizations should buy me two minutes so I was "legit". On the other hand, I had to get to Tops in Olean before the pharmacy closed at 5 pm. I headed out slowly, but with a lack of concentration towards #18. Found "the stream", but I didn't see the marker. Did a quick "down and up", but it wasn't there. Truthfully, though, I can't say for sure that I was there either and the clock began to bother me, so I just ran/walked in. 37:14

Tried for seventeen; found fifteen, including one in the wrong place. Of the two I missed, one is not where it should be and I suspect that the other error is mine. I didn't speed (much) and made it to Tops at 4:59 so all was well.

Hunters Creek Map Hike

Start->1: Down the road to the trail. Trail in to stony ground. Didn't see the marker so wondered if there was "stonier" ground further along the trail. There wasn't so I returned. Then I saw the maker in shadows. Good lesson. 5:43

1->2: Trail to field where I discovered a new (practically double-track) mountain bike trail with jumps (and pits) leading almost directly to the control. On hill, once again I couldn't see the marker right away, but a quick search did find it this time. 5:04

2->3: Down the mountain bike trail to the trail north along the creek, angled down, but stopped too soon on the wrong terrace (one by the bottom of the "3") and got very confused. 11:19

3->19: This one scared me because the clue said "depression" and I could see no depression on the map. Still, up the hill to the intermittent stream bed/reentrant, to the first junction and towards the control. No side of a depression as I approached the trail junction. Wait? Is that a small one just ahead? No. To the left? No. There's the marsh with #4, clearly too far. Okay, there is no depression. Just head back to the trail junction and play the "outward/inward spiral" game until you see the marker. Wait, there it is at the junction facing the other way. Still no depression in sight. 6:09

19->4: Could see the marsh area from 19; could see the marker once I got to the south end of the marsh. 1:34

4->6: Up the hill, down the trail and around and in. Found a campsite, but no marker. Did look at watch and it read 2:33. Traversed entire edge of field three times and searched campsite from all angles. If that marker's there, I'm blind. Did think that I recalled bishop22 saying that he couldn't find one marker in HC near a campsite. Am I making this up or is this it? Finally gave up. 12:36

6->5: Although I was certain of where I was on the map, I was tentative and getting hot so I took my time. No real issues, but I didn't punch the watch, so no real split either.

5->9: One of my two planned "long" legs. Alas, this one was a cluster****. I headed NE towards the trail, but was walking and thinking about other things (always a bad idea in a bland area). I ended up turning NW a bit into the green and wandering a bit. When focus returned, I decided to bail N to the trail at the N end of the green. Did so and took it E towards the stream that #9 is on. At the bend, I saw "Posted" signs and got confused as I somehow didn't see the park boundary on the map. Another 1-2 minutes gone. Then N to the gas line and in to the rootstock. Spiked the rootstock, but didn't see the marker. Attacked twice more, the second time by walking the stream bed. Was about to give up when I looked at the tree above the rootstock and saw the marker a good bit above eye level. Arrgh! (Combined split: 36:11)

9->10: Along W edge of marsh, across stream at N end and into the white woods. Spiked it, albeit at a slow pace. 7:03

10->13: Compass bearing plus eyes that were open. Almost missed the marker again, though. 2:28

13->11: N to trail and down the hill. Momentarily stopped one spur too soon and then had to climb the actual spur because the light was making it tough to read the marker from a distance. 5:21

11->12: Trail around and attack from the NW. Spiked it, but didn't take a split.

12->8: The other long leg. Tried to run the hill, but the heat was getting to me and my ankles did not like the treadway at all. Not sure what was up here, but twelve hours later they're still a bit sore from "pounding". Park boundary made this a two-trail, ninety degree turn leg. Nothing tough other than conditioning, though. 29:50

8->7: Back up hill to trail, over to southern gas line cut and down to Hunters Creek. No good place to cut in and I could see the marker, but not get to it from where I was. Go figure. 6:31

7->15: Of course, there is an easy way out by the creek. Then, up the steep hill to the trail and back in to the woods. The marker was further from the gas line than I expected, so I lost a bit of time here. 6:57

15->14: Back to gas line, then trail N being careful to pay attention to trail to left in the failing light. Straight in from T-junction just SE of marker. No split again.

14->16: Trail out and in until I saw what I thought was "the" rootstock. It was. 6:51

16->17: Hoped that the bank wasn't too steep here. Shot a compass bearing and was rewarded by a place that was easy to descend and also could see what I thought was the knoll. It was and the marker was quite visible. 1:24

17->18: Had said (to myself) that I wouldn't start looking for any markers after 2:30, but it was now 2:25, so off to 18. Right back past 16 and thinking that I might hurry and get one more in after 18. Dark woods ended that thought, but I was able to find the "boulder" and the marker with no issues. 7:16

18->Finish: No more looking for markers, so I walked within 50m of #20 and #22 without grabbing them and back near where the A meet started a few years back. Ran into another hiker and chatted with him. Got to the parking lot to discover LOTS of daylight. I guess now I understand why some folks say this park "gets dark early". 19:43

Spiked 12 of the 19. Had "map hike" issues (spiked location, but not marker) with two others. Had three bobbles, one major screw up and one "not found" that probably ought to go down as a "map hike" issue.

Not counting #6, the remaining controls would almost be a "map hike sprint", covering only about 2km and 60m of climb.

Cutthroat with Lucas (young and great) and Steve (older and damn good)

Game 1: Steve took the early lead 2-3-9, but first Lucas and then I came back and it was 9-9-9. I pulled ahead and "won" 15-12-11 only to find out that we were playing to 21! Hung in there and won 21-15-12.

Game 2: Close all the way, but I lead 15-9-12 before Steve got hot and I couldn't hang in there and I lost 17-12-21.

Game 3: Steve pulled away and led 1-12-19 as I couldn't get anything going. Then I got really hot and scored fourteen in a row to make it 15-12-19. Then Lucas got hot and won 17-21-19.

One match apiece - as it should have been. I'll claim the total points tiebreaker 55-48-52, but no one really believes in that.