Race Evaluation
WCOC Five Ponds meet: Red
Charlie
| 1. | Left fork up the hill at the trail jct near "Beaver Pond", then cut off when it gets steep, past the ruined bridge abutments or whatever they are, along the side of the marsh. | ||||||
| 2. | NW just right of line, finally picking up the EW trail near the sharp bend. From the junction N of Teal Pond on compass, coming down reentrant and right in. | ||||||
| 3. | Around rocky hill to the left, then in. | ||||||
| 4. | WNW across to second trail, and in from stone wall to reentrant and to control. | ||||||
| 5. | Trail, coming in right of knoll. | ||||||
| 6. | Straight, skirting marsh to the right and climbing a contour. | ||||||
| 7. | Straightish, getting bogged down a bit in the rocks. | ||||||
| 8. | +02:00 | Meant to go straight W to the trail, but somehow went N, through the marsh and over the hill. Waste of time and effort, but easy navigation once I finally got on trail. | |||||
| 9. | +00:40 | Got sucked uphill a line or so by another boulder (unmapped). | |||||
| 10. | +01:15 | On line, right by boulder near trail, but then got sucked up to the knowll to the NE by looking for the obvious high ground. Once there wasn't anything there, looked right and saw it. | |||||
| 11. | +02:00 | To Fawn Pond and out to the E to the trail. Trail junction was a little tricky - good I was paying attention, as I could easily have blown by the most direct route. Looked easy, and got overconfident heading in from the bend. Ended up drifting right around marshy areas and finally hitting the larger stone wall to the W. Relocated off wall on top of the long hill just SE of control. | |||||
| 12. | I've tried going N of the Beaver Pond before, and it's yucky, so going S was a good option for me. Picked up the trail at the bend near the pond S of the line for the short segment to the E, then cross country to the trail junction near "Beaver Pond", past the spectator viewing station, E on main trail and then on small NW-SE trail for about 100 m or so, then aimed for narrow reentrant at top of stream that heads NNE to Pitch Rd. Very wet in there. Over the spur, saw a rocky knoll SSW of control and then ran right into it. | ||||||
| 13. | +01:30 | Left of line, crossed stream before first W feeder stream, across stonewall below boulders on hill, then pulled up short when I thought I had the dot knoll and didn't know what to do. Drifted uphill to the left for a better view and headed toward the mountain laurel to the N, then spied it down two contours. I agree with Peter that this is mapped a bit too far north, as it was certainly beyond where I thought it fit with other things in the area, and I was off 20 meters to the left on the way to 14 on the short compass leg. | |||||
| 14. | Off a bit to the left, but not much lost time, as I was looking around and spotted it while still on the run. | ||||||
| 15. | Nice area, nice leg. Across knoll to broad saddle, up second knoll and right on line all the way. | ||||||
| 16. | Got a little too far right and ended up coming up right side of stonewall that leads to the control, but no navigational problems from there. | ||||||
| 17. | Had originally intended to go up the long marshy reentrant, but it was so wet that the trail looked better to me. A little thick getting out to it. Found a new, unmapped trail off the small NW-SE trail that led most of the way there, although it would have been fine without it. Basically just stayed on the high ground E of the marsh running S. | ||||||
| F. | Backtrack. |
Total Time Lost - 00:07:25