Orienteering (Rogaine) 8:30:00 [2] *** 25.0 km (20:24 / km) +870m 17:23 / km
spiked:12/12c shoes: NB 573 Trail Shoes
Dakota Rogaine Champs in Custer State Park with Janet as team Ramble On. Weather was perfect, sunny and dry and in the 70's (dropping of course as the sun set, but never cold).
The terrain was a bit tougher than I expected, mostly because there was quite a bit of deadfall/logging slash in some of the areas we traversed. The grasses (and poison ivy and thistles) were high enough to obscure lots of the junk, so there was some slow going at times. And it is called Black Hills for a reason.
Our planned route started off to the south with an option to lengthen to get some higher point controls to the west. Our initial plan was a loop of about 7 hours, a stop at the Hash House, and then a loop in the dark to pick up a few more controls not too far away. With the slower going, we dropped the western excursion (to 74, 63, and 75), which turned out to be the right decision. As we neared the end of our planned daylight loop, I noticed we were close to a 70 pointer with an hour of daylight left, so we decided to get that in light rather than in the dark. Another correct decision, since it would have been quite challenging at night. We punched our last control just as dusk faded and we strolled in the last km to the Hash House. Some food, some rest and decided that going out in the dark for a couple more points wouldn't be fun, so that was it. Total time about 8:30.
Control order: 43-38-54-49-57-55-45-44-69-41-79-36 for a total of 540 points. 3rd overall of the 12-hour participants, 1st Coed Superveterans. Hit all the controls fairly well, but had to adapt a few times where the map was flaky. Roads shown on the map occasionally disappeared (time to use the contours!) and there were also some unmapped roads. Some of our route choices would have been different had we known where it was junky underfoot.
One bison encounter where we had to alter our route a bit. No rattlesnake sightings, but another team reported seeing three in areas we had been just about an hour before them. And something growled at us just around dusk. Poison ivy was abundant due to a fairly wet summer, but effects were minor (Appropriately, Zanfel was a sponsor and we put our goodie bag samples to the test).
After showers and a good night's sleep we returned Sunday morning for the noontime feed and awards ceremony. Both Janet and I won raffle prizes (Mountain Hardware stuff).
A well organized event by the guys who were just awarded the World Rogaine Champs for 2014. That event will be held in the Black Hills, but probably not in Custer State Park. The terrain should be great and I suspect the mapping will be improved, so it should be an event not to miss.