Orienteering race 1:46:19 [4] 9.0 km (11:49 / km) +125m 11:03 / km
spiked:18/21c shoes: Jala Jukola Spider 6 #2
WCOC Red course at Stratton Brook SP in Simsbury. Decided to work on upping my control count/control-finding practice for the year, and get in a longer workout pre-Lowlander. ;-) Managed to finish a bit better than twice PG's and Becks's times (~62 and 64). Mangled a few route choices.
Straight line distance 6.4 km. Sunny, breezy, and mid 60s made for a gorgeous day. This course had a map exchange in order to get a long enough course on a small map (1:5000, 2.5 m contours)
Good routes and execution to most of the controls. Had a couple instances of being at the right feature and wondering where the bag was (sometimes it was on the other side of the small tree, and sometimes it was just thick woods or dim lighting).
To 3, I thought I had headed down the white woods off the trail and down but ended up too far W/SW, on another seeming terrace-like spur in white woods that doesn't show up on the map.
Tried to attack 8 from below, taking the trail N of it to the larger reentrant NE of the flag and trying to follow the reentrant through the med. green to the white woods. Didn't work as planned; I never went far enough up the hill, and was pushed around by the green. Bailed out to the trail that goes around to the south, intending to find the little trail SSE, but think I missed it and found the next one. Saw the other control on the boundary stone (white and/or yellow course?) but knew it wasn't my code. Arghhh! (Better yet would have been to continue on the trail up to the white-course boundary stone and then in.)
Picked up my new map at the exchange and saw the next leg, 600m or so back down across the stream and up the hill on the other side. Turned to Jim and Rich and noted it was "evil," which amused them no end, I think. :-) I think the best route (if I'd taken the time to look) would have been down the hill to the S and then across the bridge and along trails; a little bit off the line but good trails the whole way. Instead I headed off mostly along the beeline planning to hit the bigger trails at the midpoint and then head to the eastern bridge. Execution didn't follow the plan, though, and I turned the wrong way at the first junction. At that point, after correcting and getting down the hill, I decided to just ford the stream past the SE end of the pond. Found the rest without too much difficulty, though I stood in the circle at 13 and 20 wondering where the flag was.
Nice course and a great day for O. Thanks to Jim, Rich, and WCOC.