Fountainhead - Mar 31, 2012

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I had a fun orienteering at Fountainhead today.

The weather was great, damn near perfect. It was supposed to rain but thankfully it didn't. If it had rained it would have been a very muddy day.

Partly because I showed up late and partly because it was my first time orienteering since I had my gall bladder removed I decided to walk the green course. It wasn't too difficult but it was physically challenging. There were lots of hills and lots of trails. The trails seemed to wind all over the place. I didn't use them very much. I navigated using contour lines and streams, for the most part.

I made a couple big mistakes. The first occurred when I was heading toward the 7th control. I mistook one re-entrant for another and wound up further west than I should have been. It took me a few minutes to figure out what I did wrong and where I was exactly. Once I did I was able to correct myself and found the control without too much trouble.

My other big mistake was on the next control. In this case I think I got a bit distracted by some of the other orienteers. I went down the wrong side of a hill and wound up no where near the 8th control. Once again it took me a few minutes to figure out where I was and how to get back on course. Those two errors combined probably cost me 10-15 minutes.

After the 8th control I didn't have any problems with the remaining controls.

Course: Green [11 controls; 4.9 km; 270m]
Time: 1:39:46 - WinSplits - RouteGadget

Little Bennett North - Mar 27, 2011

Course: Green [6.1 km; 200m; 16 controls]
Time: 1:52:56 - winsplits - routegadget


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The weather was perfect: cool, a little breezy, no rain or snow.

I arrived at 12:30. I helped out at the registration table from 1-1:45, after which I walked the green course. I would have preferred to attempt the red course but I was fairly certain that I didn't have enough time to finish it before 4:00.

Overall the course wasn't too difficult. I have orienteered in Little Bennett before but there was very little overlap between the section we used this time and the section used on my previous visits to the park. I probably could have done a better job with route selection, especially towards the end of the course. On the whole I am happy with my performance.