orienteering 2:12:38 [4] *** 8.86 km (14:58 / km) +275m 12:58 / km
17c shoes: Inov8 O-roc 280 Red
QOC Hemlock Overlook Bumble - Green
Distance/climb from Garmin
1 KLMNO JIHFG ECBAD 27
This ended up being a tough one for me. I always struggle a bit physically in these winter months in steep QOC terrain, but I also had a few nav issues and not the greatest decision making process today. Oh well.
Had seen #1 on the way to start and it was a road run back to there, so easy. For the first box I intended to do KLNOM, which was possibly stupid on two accounts - why not do L before K, and NOM looks like probably more up and down than NMO. Well, no worries about that anyway because I managed to screw that part up.
So I went down the trail to the side trail and skirted the left side of the reentrants to K. Headed to L, lots of people coming the other way which reinforced that this was a dumb choice. Got to L then headed down to pick up the stream and then cut across the hills to N. Unfortunately my thinking fell apart and I somehow made a parallel/too early error, stopping on the hill north of N and tramping back and forth on it trying to find the control. At one point I could see the field through the trees and knew I was too far east. Charles C was in here looking for it also, which reinforced my idea that I was on the correct spur. Unfortunately we were both wrong. I got over in the area of all the dot knolls and that's when I started having an inclination that I had made a mistake. Yet for some reason I still wandered indecisively before finally deciding to go down to the stream and find M and relocate.
So I went down, turned left, and right there was M with a bunch of people. I made an angry grunting sound which I think surprised some guy. So from M I trudged up the CORRECT spur to N, and then dropped down and back up to O. One window down but my confidence not steady anymore.
I had been planning on the three windows closest to start, but here I paused to examine if there was another choice I liked better. However, feeling mentally shaky, I decided to stick with the original plan in case I wanted to bail early. There were no easy options for getting out of that southernmost area.
So I passed back by M again and climbed the other side, skirting the top of the reentrant near the cairns and easily finding J. Followed along uphill of the stream to I, then continued down it to the trail and along the trail past some cool cliffs to H. By this point staying flatter was my friend, so I continued the long way on the trail until it turned inland and then climbed up to F, back down, and up the other side to G. This was the most slippery and one of the steepest sections.
I continued on the trail back to 1. At this point I really wanted to stop and just call it the 2-window Brown course. (Especially since prior years I sometimes did the 2-window Mint course, not offered this year, although I have also done the 3-window Pink in some parks.) But I decided I could drag myself through the last window.
And it was a bit of a slog, though I was able to get to E, C, B mostly on trails and with only a bit of a climb up to C. Unfortunately from B I had to go over the large hill and drop down to A and then climb back up again. There appears to be an option to skirt the hills next to the water, but Heidi had warned us that the river was high and that wasn't actually possible. I saw no other people in this section except a kid on a beginner course and a few people at the last control. (And non orienteering hikers/dog walkers.)
On the way down to A, I thought I saw that it was next to a large white and brown rock which was definitely not on the map and was wondering what the heck I did this time (as I had been quite sure of my location). But turns out it was just my blurry distance vision, and the thing was actually the rootstock with snow all over it. Duh.
Down the trail with a quick dip into the woods to D, then continued down the trail to the field near the camp, through the platform tent area, and down into the final control, 27.
Went south to the trail, and here made another stupid choice when almost done! Should have just gone through the camp to the parking lot/finish, but it was uphill, and the loop of trail along the powerline looked flatter. So I went this extra distance just to have the same climb at the end. Dumb. But I finished all three windows and somehow got my carcass back to the finish, so it was all good.
Went to my car to change after downloading and ate some food I had there. Did intend to go back up to the lodge but by the time I was done a lot of people were leaving already so I just headed home.