The event was billed as a 30k optimal run. We were to find that straight line, aka optimal, runs were not easy to do. Lakes, bogs, steep hills, and cliffs spread out over the course. If you add 10-15% for routing around the obstacles, you still have a sweepable event!! or ?? The map, a 1:24k USGS standard, didn't have the trail updates of your standard orienteering map. It also didn't have the color delineation of an orienteering map showing what areas are easy to travel through, and which will involve a little blood letting. We knew all this going in, so no surprises there, but all this plays in your mind as you are selecting your routes.
Maps were distributed at 9:15, instructions at 9:45, and at 10:00, we were off for 6 hours of fun running.
Chris and I took off to the West and control #3 with 4-5 other groups. We were the 2nd group to the control and took off north west to the trail. The trail wasn't the direct route to the control, but I find they are the safe route if you haven't explored the woods yet. We would have plenty of time for that. We skirted the north side of the hill and found 23. Three or four groups chose #23 as their second control, but we were the only group to choose 19 as the third control. The woods was open in this section, but the trails created a nice direct route to 19 and 21, which we found with ease. Relative ease... The climb to the top of Wildcat Mound really got the heart going. The decent involved some route choice and we found a nice unmapped trail that took us down the north side of the spur and out towards Shale Road. 22, another easy find and we jumped out to Kling Road. A quick check of the watch, 45 minutes for the first 5 controls. 30 controls with time to spare at this pace. We went east towards control #24 and found a nice trail headed in the correct direction. As we approached, we saw fellow MNOC members Darryn and Todd gazelling it out of the area. A quick shout out and back to hunting. A lucky flash of the control, noticed by Pete and Chris drew short straw for the slog through the bog to get the punch. The path we were on was clear and fast, so we chose to follow it further north, keeping an eye out for the small east/west path on the map. Hmmm no path. We bailed and headed east for the road. Oops, we must have gone a little too far north. Not wanting to get knee deep this early, we jaunted to the south and pushed for the road. The road was as flat as flat gets, except for the nice knoll off to the North, which we could spot from a mile away. We crested the knoll and could spot the trail from a good distance away.
The area around 30 was our first interaction with the remnants of logging activity. Slow go. From our vantage point we couldn't tell that the levee on Tanner flowage was the new road. The railroad grade was overgrown and covered in downed trees. We spied the control and noticed the path at the top of the levee. The distance to gain one punch at 30 must have been daunting for a lot of teams. The path from 30 to 25 made it worth the gamble. It was true to the map and we were able to check off landmarks as we traveled southwest. 25-29-28 came fast as we ran through open woods with a few obstacles, following terrain features as we went.
Chris chose the route to 27 and we crossed the stream before heading east. A wise choice as the stream at the road was larger than any of the other waterways we had seen. Exiting 27, Chris caught me making an error. 24k maps don't have north arrows. You have to keep North straight in your mind. I set my compass and headed west, recognizing the small knoll to my right (north) as one that should have been to my right (west). Good catch and we are on our way. We ran in to a group at 26, the first we had seen since 24. We punched and ran, they punched and walked.
I knew 20 was going to be tricky, so we took a measured approach. We headed south from the large hill, across the reentrant, and aimed for the saddle to the east of the three mounds. Looking at the GPS track, we barely missed the control, skirting it to the west, but I was also looking west for our knolls. We bailed, found the road, reoriented and approached cautiously again, spiking it this time. I believe this is where our 23-19-21-22 route paid dividends. We climbed Wildcat when we were fresh, the other groups visiting that control were hours in to the event. Additionally, we bailed from 20 to the road and had a nice run, while others had either trails or bushwhacking.
We dumped from 20 to the road and headed for the southern map. We decided to leave the road and head due south when we found a logged and well cleaned patch to route through. We aimed for the spur and followed it to 13. The woods really got thick in this area. Chris and I debated whether to head back to the road, for the attack on 14. I convinced him to try for 14, aiming off to the east, to use the road as a bailout if we felt uneasy or the going got too thick. We were able to contour well and hit our mark dead center, but couldn't locate the control. A quick jump to the road confirmed our location and we reattacked and found the control right away. We continued our slog through the thick stuff and located 12 with no issues. Another quick jump to the road and we were off to the races. We broke 9 minutes per mile in our sprint (relative) to control #4, which was found in a nice open woods.
We jumped at #1 too soon. We went for the trail entrance vs. confirming we were past the swampy area. So, we ended up in the swampy area, but we found the old trail (abandoned) and followed in on the north side of the flowage. We followed the spit out to its end and located control #2. The wind was howling...
Leaving #1, we headed off towards #2 with a decision to make; attack across the swamp, or take the trail. As you can see, we took the trail, what you don't see, is there is no trail depicted where our route is on the map. The trail was "roughly located" by hand. I believe we would have made a different choice if the trail was depicted as our path shows. Monday morning quarterbacking this, but we would have probably headed to control #5, leaving #2 for more ambitious teams. At this point in the race, we knew a sweep of all controls was not in the cards, but we still pushed hard. We found 2 with no real issues, gaining confidence once we visually located the hill to the west of the trail.
2-6-7-8 went by painfully, but quick. It took us 1 hour to get the first 6 controls and an hour and 10 minutes to get from control 1 to 7 (3 controls). The speed was a little slower, but the distance between the points was much greater, partly due to route choice. We headed west from point 8 with a good plan to use the trails to try for three more controls, until the trail disappeared in the middle of a jumble of cut wood. Not confident with our position on the trail we headed west to the road, slowly, to attack 10 from the east, another distance adder. We left 10, now with only the realistic option of one more control, number 16. The trails diverged from the mapped route, but we were able to keep track of our location by reading the contours and ran right up to 16. We continued on the trails, headed north until they took a westerly turn. We jumped north to the saddle between the two hills and ran a nice open woods to the road and back home.
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