Orienteering 3:04:41 [3] 7.8 mi (23:41 / mi) +1027ft 21:03 / mi
shoes: MPMW15:w
Little Bennett
Stumble Bumble
Red - 30 controls, 9.5 km, Windows 1 - 4
Actual Distance Traveled: 12.6 km
I dropped the compass I borrowed from the club between E and D. Just like the last time I lost a compass, this time it happened when I took off my gloves. I spent about 8-9 minutes looking for the compass before I gave up and continued the course without a compass. I need to find a better way to secure the compass to my body so that this doesn't happen again.
Window 1: A-B-C-E-D-F
Window 2: I-G-H-J-K
Window 3: L-N-M-P-O
Window 4: R-Q-S-T-U
Window 5: Skipped
I walked right past a couple controls without out seeing them and had to sweep through again before finding them:
M - I don't know how I missed this one on the first attempt. I must have walked right past it. It was probably on my left side on that attempt, which is definitely my weaker eye.
Q - I walked past this control twice before finding it on my third sweep through the area where it was located. I lost about 9-10 minutes because I didn't spot this control when I first walked past it
Just after punching 23/140 I stopped to talk to someone doing the green course. He asked me about 16/130 and 22/138. He couldn't find them and didn't think they were there. I told him that I had found them both. He said they weren't there. I think he must have looked in the wrong area but I didn't tell him that. I just insisted that I had found them and moved along.
I originally planned to do the Blue but I ran out of time. I arrived at 29/116 with just 15 minutes to go, so I skipped the last window and headed for 35/119. Unfortunately someone doing control pickup pulled that control early. It was about 2:55 when I got to the location where the control should have been. A couple other people got there just after me and were equally perplexed.
On the whole it was a pretty good day of orienteering. The course wasn't quite as navigationally challenging as I feared it might be; a number of controls (not in windows) were along trails. I wish that I could have finished the blue course. Maybe if I hadn't lost time looking for the compass or sweeping back and forth looking for M and Q I would have had enough time to also find the controls in the 5th window.
My feet were cold and wet by the time I finished orienteering. I have experienced worse but it sure felt good to change my clothes and put on some dry socks and shoes afterwards.