Orienteering race (Long ) 1:08:00 [4]
COC at Wentworth Downhill Ski Area in NS. Warm and very humid, again. Cloudy though, so that was better. #1 was pretty good, although everything seemed further than I expected, especially the control location after finding my attack point of the small pond. Leaving the control, I finally realized that we were on a 1:10,000 map, not a 1:7500. Lost about 1 min from uncertainty and a little wandering.
Took the trail to #2 and then took a chance on a bearing where the small pond crossed the trail. Went on a bearing straight to the marsh, skirted around it, but read the terrain wrong and went up the very shallow reentrant due N of the marsh. Had to double back and then search westerly. Lost about 4 min. inside the circle. Darn.
Three was straightforward. Took the trails to the ski run and cut in just before the last junction NW of the control.
Good plan for #4, just a little too rough compass. Intended to hit either trail, but when I arrived, I got confused. The trail I hit looked like the smaller trail, but it went NW, so I turned left, even though it didn't feel right. Went about 75 meters and nothing matched up, so I headed back downhill. I had just missed the junction. Stupid. Should have aimed off more deliberately to one trail or the other Lost about 1.5 min. Kitty Jones caught me here.
Straight to #5. Cut in early to go around thick area.
Contoured to the ski trail, picked up the small trail to the next ski run, followed it down to the stream of #6. Thought I had a great route. Left the ski run just before the elbow, got into the circle, read the boulders, looked across to the other side but could not see the control which I thought would be visible, so I kept going downhill. Found another (unmapped) ditch. Walked back uphill to within 20 m of actual control, but did not see it. Went out to the big ski run, saw that the control was opposite the connector ski run, which was where I thought I was, so I headed downhill, thinking it must be closer to the open area. Nope. Got to the junction and had to climb back up until I found it. Lost about 5 min, easily. Bummer. Especially when I heard that others saw it when they looked across.
So, overall, a not-so-good time, but I thought my navigation was reasonable, except inside the circle. Oh well. Had a pretty good week overall. Left for home after the race. Glad to not have to run in the H&H anymore. Enjoyed running with the amazing women in my category from western CA.
On the way home, we stopped for the night at a friend's in Lubec, Maine. We had a great visit. Even Carl and Ethan enjoyed it and expressed a desire to go back. Sweet little town, nice time with old friends.