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

Patuxent - Mar 3, 2012

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Course: Brown [9 controls; 3.6 km; 95 m]
Time: 1:14:33 - WinSplits - RouteGadget

Pohick Bay - Feb 26, 2012

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Course: Blue [18 controls; 8.5 km; 405 m]
Time: 3:00:16 - WinSplits - RouteGadget

Greenbelt - Feb 12, 2012

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It was cold, cold, cold today at Greenbelt. Winter finally arrived with a vengeance. I spent my first 90 minutes helping out with registration. Due to park regulations we are unable to accept payments in the park. Most people pre-registered. Those that didn’t were directed across the street from the park to the parking lot of Capitol Cadillac. That’s where I and a few other volunteers were stationed. People drove up in their cars and we registered them. It is unclear to me why we couldn’t run this operation from a vehicle. We had to stand out in the cold, and it was bitterly cold.

When I was finally relieved I headed back over to the park. I first used the bathroom where I discovered just how cold my hands were. I didn’t have any gloves. I had been keeping them in my pockets but they were still a bit numb. After using the facilities I got the zipper on my pants up and fastened the buckle but I couldn’t get my pants to snap back up.

Jon offered to loan me a pair of gloves but I turned down his offer. I felt that I could manage without and for the most part I was right. For a while my hands didn’t feel cold at all, but looking back now I have to wonder if they were just numb at the time.

The course itself wasn’t terribly difficult. None of the controls gave me any trouble. I got lucky in a couple cases but for the most part my familiarty with the park, the lack of foliage and the placement of some of the controls meant that I didn’t experience much in the way of frustration.

I think I broke my compass today. Just after finding the 13th control I noticed that there was an air bubble in my compass. I hadn’t noticed it before. I think the casing must have cracked and let that it. I fell a couple times today but didn’t think I landed hard enough to break it. I’ve had that compass for about 6 years, so I feel like I got my money’s worth out of it.

I used a garmin today. I remembered to start it at the right time but I forgot to stop it after I finished. I was about to drive off when I realized that I was still wearing it and that it was still running. It had been about 30 minutes since I finished the course at that point.

On the way home I stopped at REI. I bought a pair of gloves. Maybe I should have bought a second pair: one pair for orienteering and another pair for day-to-day use. I wanted to buy a thumb compass but they didn’t have any. I guess I will need to shop online for one of those. I wore the gloves home even though it was warm enough in my car that I really didn’t need them.

Course: Blue [15 controls; 8.1 km; 230 m]
Time: 2:34:08 - WinSplits - RouteGadget

Pine Grove (PWF) - Jan 29, 2012

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Course: Blue [22 controls; 9.7 km; 315m]
Time: 2:46:09 - WinSplits - RouteGadget

McKeldin - Jan 8, 2012

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Course: Blue [18 controls; 7.2 km; 290m]
Time: 2:12:36 - WinSplits - RouteGadget

Wheaton - Dec 17, 2011

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Course: Red [19 controls; 7.4 km; 135 m]
Time: 2:21:04 - WinSplits - RouteGadget