Brown X course at Bear Brook. It helps to at least point somewhat in the right direction. Failing to do that caused a lot of lost time, but otherwise very nice woods, and a fine place to orienteer. Once I was in the wrong place, very hard to relocate. After #4 I settled down, drifting way L on 6 but in contact, and otherwise fine. My leg was better than I expected, so I could jog, but not with any pace to it yet.
Map
Not my best work. Fine to #1, along the trail a bit then cutting up the hill, finding the hill a lot greener than I expected, so slow finding my way to the control in the small pine trees.
1-2 down to the trail, trail to the bend, cut through the green spur and down across the stream. The stream was a lot more diffuse than I expected, got wet feet crossing. More or less along the stream and the marsh checking hills. Apparently went over the hill nearer the marsh, didn't see a bag, so kept going. When I got to the next hill, it was clear I had gone too far, so fish-hooked back and found it. Lost about 2-3 min.
2-3. Trying to reconstruct what had gone wrong, I thought maybe I had left in the wrong direction, but QR shows that I left in the right direction, just didn't go far enough. Thought I had come to the right place, but no bag, and started to wander, mostly aimlessly. A pretty shameful performance. Found #6, but didn't look to see that it was my control from later. That alone would have saved at least 7 or 8 minutes. Saw PG running through the woods. Later figured that he was going from 6-7. Finally relocated at the big depression NW of 7, and headed mostly in the right direction. Still not quite getting it, but saw the bag from a distance and just ran to it. Lost about 14-15 min.
3-4. Still not settled down. Heading more or less the right way, but started seeing knolls and checking them out, to the R and the L, becoming generally more erratic, finally heading for the right one, saw Dennis leaving. Dennis had started 15 min behind. Lost another 3 or 4 here.
4-5. OK. Now starting to act a little better. More or less on compass, found the long shallow reentrant heading my way and kept on it.
5-6. Plan was to bear a little left and pick up the edge of the marsh, but somehow ended up way more L than that, heading NW instead of NE. Hit the marsh W of the small marsh in the middle, then a long slog down the edge. No problem with finding it, just a much longer route than necessary. Maybe another 2 min.
6-7. Easy enough. Aimed for the R edge of the depression, then up on compass and spiked it. In control all the way.
7-8. Also easy. Checked off the boulder on the knoll along the way, looked for the large boulder to my L after that, check, and right in, seeing the shape of the land just fine. Spike.
8-9. Trying to go W, kept drifting N. Seemed to take forever. Passed a cup depression, thinking it would be right before the trail, but no trail, then realized it was the one on the spur, so kept going, hit the trail junction. Right across, because taking the trail didn't seem to be an advantage. Slow on compass across the marsh and hit it right on.
9-10. A little slow crossing the stream, but then saw it from a distance. A little surprising because it didn't seem like it was on the edge of any particular green.
10-11. Up the hill, more or less reading the green and on compass, saw the reentrant before the control and followed it up. Spike.
11-12-F. Seemed to take a long time to get out to the road, then realized right away I had to go very slow on the road to protect my leg. Stately pace into the finish.
Looks like about 22 min of errors. A pretty sad performance, but a powerful learning experience. Now if only one of those experiences would last more than a day or so.