Swanson Road - Oct 1, 2011

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For the first time I didn't do any orienteering at an orienteering meet because I was the meet director. It wasn't anywhere near as labor intensive as I feared it might be, at least not on the day of the meet. During the week leading up to this meet I did spent most of my free time gathering volunteers and communicating with others who were going to be there. Still, it was a long day. I got there at 9:20 and didn't leave until 17:30 or 18:00.

Swanson Road 1001, a set on Flickr.

Lake Needwood - Sep 18, 2011

Course: Red [7.3 km; 228m; 28 controls]
Time: 2:53:55 - winsplits - routegadget


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Meadowood - Jul 4, 2011

Course: Short [3.7 km; 200m; 10 controls]


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Not a great day of orienteering for me. I found the first six (of ten) controls without too much trouble. I could not find the seventh control. I'm not sure exactly why. I'm pretty sure that I was in the right area and I circled around a few times before giving up on it. I was also unable to find the eighth control. I suspect that the course setter (Nadim) may have already picked up those controls. He did say he was going to give us a 20 minute head start before heading out to start picking up controls. Another possibility is that the map is deficient.

After looking for #8 I decided to pack it in. I set my compass for the general direction that I thought I needed to head in, west, and started walking. Roughly 10 minutes later I realized I was headed in the wrong direction. I should have been heading east. I backtracked and eventually made my way back to my car, without finishing the course.

Cabin John - Jun 18, 2011

Course: Short [4.3 km; 90m; 11 controls]


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This was a training exercise. To make it a little more challenging than usual the course setter, Nadim, removed the trails from the map. There was an unedited version of the map on the flip side but I didn't use it.

I chose to do the short version because I knew that there was a smaller window of time (1.5 hrs as opposed to 3-4 hrs) than for a regular o-meet. It took me close to 2 hrs to finish the course, long enough that one of the controls was being picked up as I approached the location where it had been placed.

Between the 3rd and 4th controls the contact lens on my left eye slid out of place. I finished the course only being able to see with one eye. Not the first time I've done that but it still increased the level of difficulty for me.

Only one of the controls was difficult to find, the 6th one. I was thrown off by the terrain which was filled with lots of thick vegetation. I was also found that distances seemed longer on the ground than I thought they would be when reading the map. The first mistake I made when navigating from 5 to 6 was that I followed the wrong stream for a couple minutes before realizing I was headed in the wrong direction. My second mistake was to double back when I hadn't gone far enough. Eventually, when I was about ready to give up looking, I found it.

The rest of the controls weren't difficult to find. One of them (#8) was picked up just before I reached it. Lucky for me the person who picked it up, Eddie, spotted me and let me know which control he had just picked up.

After orienteering and changing into some cleaner clothes we went to the Corner Bakery for dinner.

Balls Bluff - May 22, 2011

Course: Red [7.1 km; 390m; 17 controls]
Time: 2:47:23 - winsplits - routegadget


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McKeldin - Apr 17, 2011

Course: Blue [8.3 km; 430m; 20 controls]
Time:2:17:05 - winsplits - routegadget


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Westmoreland - Apr 10, 2011

Course: Line-O/Score-O [8 controls/15 controls]
Time: 2:52:00 (24/25 points) - results


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Once again the weather was damn near perfect. It was cool but not too cool but I heated up pretty quickly even though up top I was just wearing a t-shirt and a jacket.

The line-o portion of the course was hilly but not too difficult. A good deal of the line-o was along trails or well defined train features. I was completely unfamiliar with line-o prior to this event; I hadn’t even heard of it. I tried not to take that portion of the course too seriously. I focused on staying on course and didn’t worry too much about missing controls. I found them all even though I misplaced one of them (by 10 or 20 meters) on my map.

The score-o portion of the course was more challenging. The controls weren’t difficult to find, but the terrain was physically challenging; in other words, there were lots of steep hills. There was also a fair amount of mud and a swampy area that had to be crossed to get to most of the score-o controls. I was ankle deep in mud on a few occasions.

There was no e-punching. Very few people, just 11, attempted the advanced (line-o/score-o) course.