jjcote's comments - by leg
| 1. | Started out great. | |
| 2. | Trails as much as I could manage. | |
| 3. | Ride to trail, then after crossing I got suckered into the wrong reentrant and managed to make things match up for a while, then when they stopped matching, I realized I was pretty close to #4, and went N of the green blob to get to #3. | |
| 4. | S of the green blob, then came off the hilltop in the wrong direction and had to fight through a depression full of green to get where I was going. | |
| 5. | Bad route. N to trail, then W to junction, and N on trails to almost where the control was. The short attck through green turned into a disaster, dumping me into a land of blowdowns where I found a couple of controls that I hope weren't actually being used. Failed to relocate, so I bailed to the trail on the N side, then followed trails around and attacked from the E. Saw Mike Lyons, who had started two minutes before me, for the first time. | |
| 6. | Behind Mike, then I think he went too far right when leaving the trail. Slight bobble when I got to the hill the control was on, recovered quickly. | |
| 7. | ||
| 8. | Bad route. Failed to look wide enough to see the trail option, and I went more or less straight. Took a long time to get to the trail that headed into the blowdown area, and I was thinking that it would skirt the blowdowns, but it didn't, the map was right. The adjacent woods weren't too bad, then I had the blind compass stretch through the green/swamp. Popped out at the tip of the yellow (yes!), and navigated pretty well from there, but lost contact a couple of hundred meters short. Was in the process of bailing when I found the semi-open spur S of the control, and followed it up. | |
| 9. | Saw Ed White on his way to #8. Got almost all the way there, found what looked like a depression, but no control. Went back to #8 and attacked again, and realized that I just needed to go a little farther, into the green. | |
| 10. | Met Ed at the control, he was coming from the other direction, kicking himself because he had seen this one on the way to #8. | |
| 11. | This leg was totally sweet. Nice terrain, nicely navigated on my part. | |
| 12. | Trail around, though I tried cutting the corner by running along the edge of the marsh early on, and that sucked. Ed passed me in the middle, when we were cutting between trails. Almost screwed up at the very end, but figured out what I was doing. | |
| 13. | Ed was coming back toward me, then I missed left, and when I corrected, he and Mike were at the control. | |
| 14. | Those two were a few steps ahead, but they hesitated near the control, and I knew exactly where it was going to be. | |
| 15. | Bulletproof wall of deadfall partway around this leg. I went right because I wanted to use #1 as an attack point (which I did), but I still missed a smidge to the left. Recognized it from yesterday. | |
| 16. | Ed just ahead, Mike and me together. | |
| 17. | Mike pulled ahead, closing on Ed. | |
| 18. | I stopped for an extra drink that I had left in the spectator area, and Mike and Ed disappeared up ahead. I didn't pursue, and I know I was thinking that I would be better off letting them go out ahead and get lost than to try and stay with them. | |
| 19. | On the edge of my mental abilities, but I managed to spike it. | |
| 20. | Stepped in a badger hole and almost whacked my knee. Ow! Got close, but I was looking about 150 m E of the control, when Mike and another guy showed up. We worked our way W and Mike found it first. | |
| 21. | Following Mike on this short leg. | |
| 22. | Did pretty well for most of the leg, then lost contact, and I was looking at the wrong depression when it occurred to me that I shouldn't be looking in depressions, because I was looking for #22, not #25!. Got my head straightened out and found it without too much trouble, but I lost track of Mike in the process and never saw him again. | |
| 23. | Slow and careful, occasionally sitting down in the shade to be sure of what I was doing. | |
| 24. | Carefully... and quite thick around the control. | |
| 25. | Having been in this vicinity on my way to #22 helped when I got close, and I knew exactly what was what. | |
| 26. | Too far left, got into another depression and had to scratch my head. | |
| 27. | Got to the trail, didn't know if I was left or right, but I saw another guy heading toward pennants. | |
| 28. | Very glad to be done. I had had enough. |
Total Time Lost - 00:00:00
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