Pandapas Mostly flat ride. Biggest climb was Horse. Was worried about the leaves on Snapper but I was pleasantly surprised that the powerline section was completely clean. I still took it easy and rode it maintaining complete control. Lots of people on the trails but all E of Beauty.
Pandaplace Planned not to push too much. A little chilly at the start but warmed up. Had a strong climb up Beauty. Cleaned the bottom except for a random catch of my handlebars while drinking just past the jumps.
Almost cleaned the switchback at the top! Strong time despite lots of leaves. Hasn't been ridden much.
Fell on my left elbow a second time descending Crosscut. Decided to ease off more. After Crosscut the trails to the bottom were much cleaner.
Ride from CBurg via Seneca Creek Light pack. About 40 F at the start and warmed a bit.
BRIDGE OUT on Seneca over South Fork of Roanoke River. I left the road just a bit early. Walked through the river and over the train tracks to get back to Seneca Creek.
Trail Running - Pack3:27:00 9.81 mi (21:06 / mi) +1829ft17:56 / mi ahr:115 max:165 shoes: Salomon SuperCross Blue
Muddy Squirrel Fall Frenzy w/E 50# Pack It was a bit cold at the start but was warming fast. So we figured the best way to keep E warm would be for her to start out walking/running. She was excited for this and did a lot of the Nav to the first 4 controls.
It was great to have her so excited and energetic. She did well. She had to get in and out of the pack a couple of times though (which wasn't very time efficient) because of thick brush/briars and steep hills.
We had originally planned on skipping the two hardest controls which made getting 3 other controls inconvenient so we planned to skip those as well. There were several controls in the second half that we could either skip or get depending on how things were going and we skipped the controls near the start to save for the end if we wanted. I thought we could clear the whole course but didn't want to be too aggressive trying to get the hardest (steepest) points. Going the other direction might have been an option but it saved the "easier" points for the end making it more likely that we'd still want to get them.
Since we were in good spirits and moving well we started exploring the option of adding some of the controls we planned to drop. She was mostly game so we went for it. She got in the pack (permanently) just before the hardest control and on our way to the second of the two (only about ~1.5hrs in) she said she was ready to go back. Not great timing. I told her such but we planned a route back to the car unfortunately over some big terrain to start.
The next control was certainly the toughest. Steep uphill through shoulder high mountain laurel. We took our time taking breaks and made it. At the top we got some positive vibes from accomplishing a tough task and continued to move back towards the car through some controls. At the next control we got more energy from an easy win and some "power pellets." This gave us some energy to get a few more controls. An additional call to Mom boosted our spirits even more.
Our new plan was to try and get most of the controls (which meant more power pellets) with the option to bail whenever we wanted. But because we changed from our initial plans we now had to leave out a control that was well out of the way. We made our way back down the mountain and as we got on more roads and trails that gave us more energy as well. E got a bit cold so we stopped to put on a hat and another layer of pants.
And then Ronny (who started about 30 min after us) caught us on the course so we started running with him. We both enjoyed the additional company of a friend. Unfortunately, one of the controls we went looking for with him wasn't there. We spent 20 minutes searching with him and I felt confident we had checked the correct spot initially and covered several other possible incorrect placings of the control. So we started heading back to the car. Ronny stayed to check one more time.
We got back to the car and then went to get the two controls we had saved for the end. We were ready for a break but knew we could push through to finish everything and then rest afterward.
Ronny was at the finish when we got there. He had gotten the two controls at the start in addition to the one we left on the course. We could have gotten this but I am not sure I would have been so aggressive after just the second control, not knowing how we'd feel.
We had a great time and E even got to reflect on some of the ups and downs she had while also feeling proud of doing so well.