Training Log Archive: JanetT

Event: CRNA Sanctioned Trail Orienteering
 

Tornado warnings last night (but no tornado), and heavy rain; almost 3" in a few hours. Retention "rain garden" out back is fuller than we've seen it. Eventually the builder will arrange for properly draining retention basins, but they're still building so it won't get done until next spring.

Mostly somatic yoga.

Later in the day I planted spring bulbs (maybe a week or so later than optimal, but we'll see what sprouts) around the front garden, and sweated a bunch in the 70 degree humidity. Daffodils, 2 kinds of narcissus, and squills (Siberian and Lebanon).

Little Lehigh Parkway, after shoulder PT. Continued up the trail across Fish Hatchery Rd from the main trail (where the Creek turns and goes under the road), to the end, and back.

Glorious Indian summer day, mostly cloudy (otherwise I would have taken photos) and about 70 degrees!

Went with Glen to Woodland Hills Preserve, a local parkland (defunct golf course) which he'd hiked at before but never run. Did the ~1 mile Blue inner loop first, then the ~2.4 mi Green loop next. Temp about 65 and mostly sunny.

Workers were leveling and adding gravel to another loop near parking that we figure will eventually be paved for disabled people to get out into nature.

Lots of birds flitting about near trails, especially on the longer Green trail. Some paved cart trails and pavilions still remain, along with ponds and sand traps but it's mostly rough open (mostly grasses, including some ornamental, some marsh; plus milkweed patches here and there) except for where they mow the trails. I took splits where the trail changed from grass (and mud in some low areas) to paved, thus all the splits.

Nice to be out in short sleeves at the end of October!

Cool down walk on some of the newly graded trail, and out to visit an ex-sand trap that Glen had noticed.

Lots of hips and balance

PT earlier in the day. Interesting that right shoulder felt weaker than left in some exercises.

Focus: hips and hip flexors :-) (how timely)

Savasana was lying on folded blankets...made my shoulder ache.

Event: Susquehanna Stumble XX - Pine Grove Furnace State Park
 

Susquehanna Stumble XX at Pine Grove Furnace. Temp about 46-48F with rare sun and rare sprinkles.

I did the Short version, nominally 7.1 km, 185m climb, on a 1:10000/5m map. We had a different first control, and then the second half of the full Stumble (whose controls 15-26 were our 2-13).

On the first leg, across the parking lot and up a trail, I was one of the last people climbing the hill so didn't have much advantage from seeing people head into the woods; in fact I checked the other platform first (it was on the Long Stumble) even though I knew I hadn't gone far enough yet...d'oh! In fact I overran it and had to run back. Time lost.

2) 32- Headed straight down the hill through the logged area which wasn't too bad to get through, just slow, through the edge of the clearing and kept on going until I hit the road. Was going to cut in after logged area ended but found the trail and attacked from there.

3) 33- Considered dropping to the trail below and running it 2/3 of the way to 3, but woods didn't look too bad and there were features half way that I thought I could use. I *thought* I identified the partial trail but evidently didn't, as I wandered quite a bit with not much definite to relocate off of. When I hit the top of a reentrant I thought it was the one E of the control but it was most likely the extension of it, almost due north of the boulder! When I attempted a bearing from the reentrant, my distance didn't get me anywhere close, so I turned uphill to check out a big boulder (not it), and climbed a bit more to be sure it was the one near the top of the ridge...which it was. Then I took a bearing and headed downhill, and finally spotted the flag. There was a QOC fellow with me through most of this (I don't know if it's the one who finished just before or just after me), who wasn't navigating any better than I was. Lots of time lost.

4) 34- Contoured above the worst of the rocky ground along the stream, and hit the trails and boulder clusters. Bearing from there and hit it.

Down to the window / control pick area. ;-)

5) Platform 36 in the window... Due south to the trail which I hit near the subtle bend. More wetness than mapped so wasn't sure exactly where I was but corrected off another platform that didn't have a flag. Time lost.

6) Boulder 35 in the window... Back to trail and attacked from junk pile and trail bend.

7) Platform 38... S along wetness and around green, then west; spotted the flag from a distance

8) Spur 37... point and shoot

9) 39- point and shoot

10) 40- L o n g leg to reentrant. Headed west, hit stream, then another, then another...guess I was a bit farther north than I thought though I tried to head SW. Eventually made it to the N-S trail which I crossed, and climbed a bit to the one headed NW. Ken Jr passed me crossing the first stream, the first Long Stumble-r I'd seen. On the trail Sam Kolins passed me, and then a minute or so later, Jon Torrance, just before the trail turnoff I wanted. Made it down to the stream and crossed it---farther SE than I intended, but I figured it out.

11) 41- For some reason I thought staying near the line above the steep hillside would be a good idea, but I lost track of where I was near the end because there were more streams than mapped. If the hunter's blind I found was on the map I would have found it faster. Time lost.

12) 42- Another tricky leg, but my bearing got me to the S end of the trickle before the control, and I attacked from the charcoal platform. Punched just behind a QOC fellow, and Florence and Mary who were navigating together. Set my bearing to the last control.

13) 43- Hit the twisty bike trail where I wanted, and headed up the steep hillside on the line...I thought. But when the hill leveled out some, I didn't see a flag, and kept looking around until suddenly I was at the trail to the west. Darn! Another hunter's stand/blind in the vicinity might have helped if it had been on the map. By the time I got back to 13, the other three were headed to the finish...I dropped three places. Time lost.

Finish. No problems there. I was 14 of 15 in the last results posted, with 4 mp...Lena finished just before we left but she never found 12 (and may have punched the wrong #1).

Done, and no falls! Got a towel (in fact, everyone got a towel because they had plenty). Thanks, Mike B, Brad, Julie, Amy, and anyone else who volunteered!

Short Stumble - Splits