Hemlock Overlook - Oct 28, 2012

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I had a fairly good day of orienteering at Hemlock Overlook. I made one glaring error but aside from that I think I did a pretty good job. I've had problems at this park in the past, which for the most part I think are due to the fact that the map isn't complete. There are missing contours in places which can lead one to believe that they have found the right terrain feature when actually there are more of them in reality than there are depicted on the map.

I made my glaring error of when I left control 3/114. I should have headed southwest but instead I headed southeast. I had gone a couple hundred meters or more before I figured out why the terrain I was looking at looked nothing like what I was expecting to see. I think I got distracted when I left 3/114 by another orienteer.

Some of the trails should have been marked as broken up. In particular the trail leading northeast from 7/132 was overgrown with all sorts of vegetation. In places the trail seemed to disappear altogether but then reappear 10 meters later.

I found most of the controls on the first attempt.

Control 15/124 was in a hole in the ground but the hole was flagged with a pink streamer which kind of gave it away.

I drifted off course when searching for control 17/119 and instead wound up at 14/142. From there it was easy enough to make my way to 17/119 which was due north of 14/142.

I got thrown off a little when searching for 19/110 because some of the trails were less distinct in reality than they were on the map. I eventually ran across 3/114 and was easily able to navigate to 19/110 from there. Based on these experiences it seems that one advantage to doing the blue course in a smaller park like Hemlock Overlook is that there are more opportunities that usual to use other controls on the course to help navigate to the one you are looking for.

All in all the weather was perfect. The rain held off until well after 3 PM. I didn't see any until after 5 PM but by that time I was several miles from the Hemlock Overlook.

After orienteering I had an early dinner at Loving Hut, a vegan Vietnamese restaurant in Falls Church with Dan and Jon. The food was excellent.


Course: Blue [Controls 20; 9.1 km; 350 m]
Time: 2:50:29 - Winsplits - RouteGadget - AttackPoint
Actual Distance: 10.75 km

Hemlock Overlook - Oct 16, 2011

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Hemlock Overlook is far from my favorite place to go orienteering, primarily because the map is uneven and inaccurate in more than one place. I’ve been to 4 or 5 orienteering meets at Hemlock over the past 6 years. I decided this time to try something different. Instead of doing the red or blue course I attempted the three easiest courses.

The white course was very easy, navigationally speaking. All the controls were along trails. There was only one control that wasn’t right on the trail; it was visible from the trail and easy to reach. I made decent time. Due to a dearth of serious competition I managed to finish 2nd on the white course.

The yellow course was longer than the white course. It was also a little more navigationally challenging but for someone like me who is used to advanced courses it wasn’t difficult at all. Two of the six controls on the yellow course were off the trail, but both were easy to find once I left the trail. There was definitely more climb in the yellow course than there was in the white. The competition was a little stiffer on the yellow than on the white. I finished 7th on the yellow course.

The orange course was longer than the two easy courses, involved more climbing and a little more navigationally challenging. There was only one control (8/116) that I had a hard time finding, and that was because I trusted the map too much. I was following a trail which just kind of petered out. I was waiting for it to turn to the right, at which point I was going to turn to the left. I wound up walking too far before I turned to the left. For a while I wandered around the wrong area looking for the control. Eventually I came to my senses and realized the mistake I had made. When I did find the control I was headed in the right direction but I also got some help from a couple other people who found it just before me. I was in 6th place on the orange course before I took over 30 minutes to find control 8/118. I wound up in 21st place.

All in all it was a great day for orienteering, notwithstanding the blisters and insect bites I brought home with me. The weather was perfect. I probably covered as much ground as I would have on the red course alone. Doing 3 courses instead of 1 worked out nicely for me, despite my one stumble. If I was to do it over again I think I would have had a bar to eat around the beginning of the orange course. I think that would have helped to keep me sharper and maybe I would have realized sooner that I had made a mistake and finished the orange course more quickly.

I hung around for a while after the meet was over, helped a little bit with cleanup and chatted with first the Onksts and then Dan and Jon. Once everything was cleaned up I went to dinner with Dan and Jon at Myanmar Restaurant in Falls Church, where the food was very good but the service was slow.

Course 1: White [6 controls; 1.8 km; 65 m]
Time: 20:26 - winsplits




Course 2: Yellow [6 controls; 2.9 km; 115 m]
Time: 37:09 - winsplits



Course 3: Orange [10 controls; 3.3 km; 185 m]
Time: 1:36:43 - winsplits - routegadget