Orienteering (Field Checking) 3:53:00 [2] ****
slept:6.5 weight:170.5lbs
Blockhouse Conservation Park, MD. Being in the southwest part of the park, I suppose it was fitting that was a day of lawlessness. I suppose I could begin with myself, since I'm still at the point of seeking use of the park for orienteering but have been working in earnest to map it anyway (at least it's good map reading training for me). Early on, I encountered two male teens with overnight backpacks. Camping isn't allowed in the park. After doing our own separate thing for a while, I later came in view of their tent near a marked trail and an overlook. Boom! Boom! They were discharging a firearm somewhere just over the edge of the hillside. I stayed away from their tent but did get a little nearer to finish the area I was mapping. Later, I descended a trail I hadn't used before, when heading back and noticed for the first time a sign about entering an environmentally sensitive area in a reentrant. People are supposed to stay on-trail there. Too bad. I stayed on trail having mapped it earlier but there's a lot of natural erosion and a snaking stream that might have for made some nice control locations. I came upon an older man who was standing off trail and getting a closer look at the erosion. He moved on. As I left the sensitive area too, I cut across the park and happened upon a couple who were rat-a-ting paintballs at each other across a reentrant. I left without further incident. Despite all of this, it was a good day to be out
I've nearly completed the mapping of the southwest part of the park now. I've gotten the steepest and probably worst hills out of the way. There was a lot of rock detail and large cliffs. A reentrant I covered appeared to have been lived-in long ago. I found the remnant of a dam and some interesting earth banks. On higher ground I came across two other formerly inhabited areas with old foundation earth works and pits. These would make for some interesting navigating but they are not very big.