Orienteering (Green) 2:06:24*** 6.27 km (20:09 / km) +202m17:22 / km ahr:117 max:147 spiked:6/9c shoes: Inov8 ORoc280-B 2013-10
HVO/WCOC Winter Series #1 -- Green course at Harriman (just north of Rt 6), while Glen ran the Red. Parking at the semicircular road off Rt.6 NW of the Long Mountain Circle - aka Turkey Hill Pond Trail Head. Beautiful day for a Harriman course, upper 50s to 60 and bright sunny skies.
4.8 km, 185m climb (but mostly gradual/spread out)
Great to be back in this terrain though the blueberry bushes are getting higher, and "indistinct" trails I crossed are pretty much invisible (except for the one between 3 and 4). Slow going on the downhills and rocky areas because I was favoring my ankles (wore Active Ankle on left; taped the right), and I walked rather than jogged. Messed up a bit on #3 (hit a rocky/rocky ground near edge of circle short of the control and relocated) and a lot more on #8 (bad route; should have crossed the stream and hit the trail then contoured in). A bit confusing looking for #7 because there seemed to be more cliffs than mapped, but I found it. Flag at #5 was visible from a distance on my approach. About 13-14 minutes of error.
Orienteering1:34:29**** 5.74 km (16:27 / km) +117m14:56 / km ahr:116 max:162 shoes: Inov8 ORoc280-B 2013-10
French Creek West Brown Course; 4.0 km, 95m climb; about 48 F and cloudy turning to steady showers.
Not a great course, map didn't reflect vegetation level (or trails in some cases), crappy woods, and awful navigation on my part. I found the first 6 of a potential 11 controls, and only 5 of those 6 cleanly. Three of the first six (1, 2, 6) were white/yellow level. Did the first three okay, but did not do well on bearing going to #4 and circled around through the buildings and trails. Did okay to #5 but took my time getting into and out of the reentrant in the midst of rocky ground, where the rocks were covered with slippery moss, because by this time it had started to rain lightly (rain continued until well after I finished and changed). Okay, though slow, to #6.
Then I had a choice of climbing a trail to attack from 20m higher than the control and 200m away--from a potentially bland attackpoint--or try to contour 450m, to a charcoal platform in a somewhat distinct reentrant, through saplings and/or rocky ground. I chose to contour, but think I didn't go far enough or low on the hill enough, and got pushed around by the vegetation, so I never found anything looking like what I sought, and I was getting wetter and colder. At that point, I stopped looking and attempted to navigate due east to the N-S trail between 8 and 9 (never saw #8 either) but again got pushed around by vegetation and hit the trail well north of where I expected to. I attempted to find #10, a circle ditch 125m off the trail in supposedly white woods, but almost immediately came upon a large downed tree I had to skirt, found other orienteers still looking for the control (I think we were all too far east), and looped back to the trail to finish coming back to parking, all of which took a couple minutes longer than finding the first 6 controls. A cold, wet, demoralizing day.
Walking50:41 4.54 km (11:10 / km) +52m10:34 / km ahr:97 max:121 shoes: Altra Torin Plush4-silv
Hunting different street nodes in Friedensville. Drove there, then walked. About 46-47 and a bit breezy but not uncomfortable.
These two walks were actually one, but at some point I stopped my watch (to cross Saucon Creek Rd) and forgot to restart it until it was giving me a "switching screens" alert. I stopped the track, uploaded it to GC (had my phone with me), and saw I still had most of where I had been to that point, so started a new track from there. I missed the nuance of the start of Saucon Dr, but not much distance.
4 PM
Walking15:40 1.24 km (12:40 / km) +2m12:33 / km ahr:97 max:111 shoes: Altra Torin Plush4-silv