orienteering race 1:31:59 [4] *** 4.8 km (19:10 / km) +185m 16:04 / km
13c shoes: Inov8 O-roc 280 Red
ROC Fall Classic - Letchworth State Park West - Green Y (F35+)
Beginning of this course was shades of yesterday, but with more options to avoid climb. After a short jaunt on trails out of the start, for 1, 2, and 3 I pretty much went straight at them while picking off features.
To 4, went down to the stream, found a decent place to climb up to the trail, then went along the trail to the S until I found a less large/steep climb to the top of the hill. Then went along the top of the steep edge picking off features again until I found it.
Across a comparably semi-flat area to the trail, noted the big rootstock, followed the intermittent stream down, saw the rocky area, nailed 5.
Here I went left to avoid the large up and down, bowing around to the trail and then dropping down to the lower trail pretty close to their junction anyway. Passed the pond and building, dropped into the woods and walked along the top of the long, narrow spur to 6. Then back along the top in the opposite direction, between building and pond, and from pond corner could see 7.
A little climb out of here, but nothing compared to yesterday, across both trails and in to 8. Now came probably the worst climb of the day, after crossing the stream, getting back up to the main trail.
NW along the trail briefly, then cut in to 9 from the reentrant S of it. A bit of a bash through some slightly thorny stuff and a lot of ferns with slippery logs under them to slam my legs into. But I popped right out at the little pond, which really was pretty much a marsh.
Headed for next big trail to the E, although drifted N more than I would have liked and caught the marsh near the top of it. Went up to the trail at the top of the map and followed that along, then in as it curved away from the open OOB area, then cut through the woods using the OOB as a handrail on my left, across marsh, hit telephone line, and used the (blazed, not really very indistinct) trail to go to 10, which was basically right on the trail.
The rest of this was trails, with controls right by them, a nice flat and forgiving end to the weekend.