Training Log: KFish

Event: Scrabble Rogaine
 

Event: EMPO Margaret Burke WMA
 

North Country Orienteering 6hr rogaine
Bonapartes cave state forest

3, 6, and 9 hours were offered, but being summer and a decent drive, 6 seemed like the right choice. Syd considered coming to do a trail run, until we realized there is almost no trails in the entire park!

Arrived at 6:45, got my pack and self ready, then picked up the map. No mass start, just a start window, so I took my time planning. With the lack of trails I estimated 2.5 miles per hour with the wheel. Was ready to go and started at 7:35.

The first several controls went really well, but by my 2.5 mile/1 hour mark I was already a control behind. That persisted at the 5mile/2 hour mark, and by 7.5 miles/3 hours I was 3 hours apart. I still wasn’t bothered, there were options to shorten my plan. The most interesting happening to this point was the mapped and crossable beaver dams!

Between 81 and 85 I had planned to do to another swamp crossing. To this point swamps had been very dry and actually quite nice traveling. When I got to this one it was open water and quite far. I hemmed and hawed and finally decided it wasn’t a smart choice to attempt given how few people I had seen. Just as I turned around 2 guys from Toronto showed up and decided to go for it and we’re happy to let me tag along. I felt much more comfortable knowing there were other people there. Crossing went well, but I did end up up to my belly button in water.

2 controls later disaster struck on #80. I could not make sense of the contours and spent a long time trying to find something to relocate off of. Turns out I was too far east (although my initial approach I came so close!). Eventually I bailed towards the Forrest boundary, but since I wasn’t where I thought I was, I bailed in the wrong direction. I finally found a boundary, but again it turned out not to be the one I thought it was. A friendly orienteer taught me that corners were denoted by three blazes, and eventually we got to a corner we recognized. By this point I had wasted about 45 minutes without a single flag, and had less than 2 hours to get back.

I scrambled together and end game plan that wasn’t very efficient, but got me as many points as possible. I executed that plan pretty well, and even reattached 80 for a different direction and found it without a problem. I was able to pick up 71 as my final control which was right next to Bonaparte cave (where napolean bonapartes brother hid, supposedly).

In addition to punching at every control, there was a scrabble letter m/point value to write down. Best 7 letter scrabble word wins the side game. I came up with BLAZERS (z on triple letter and on a double word) for 78 points.

I had a really good time. I stayed on top of nutrition and the 70F weather was quite pleasant. The navigation was pretty difficult mostly because of the lack of trails to travel on or bail to. The map was impressive (200 hours of field work!) and the controls were all placed perfectly. Wrap at the end was good too! Thanks to Joe and Dave at NCO for the great race!