Race Evaluation
NEOC Powisett Peak: Red
pkturner
| 1. | +01:30 | I was off a little, virtually throughout this run. To the first control I went right, on the road. Coming up after the road crossed the marsh, I made the mistake of cutting the corner straight through the white. The unmanageable, 2-contour cliff was a surprise. | |||||
| 2. | +01:00 | Down to the power lines OK, and then spent an unfortunate amount of time figuring out the trails. Then followed the stone wall, which went fine except that my pace count was off and I hesitated at the second little hill, wondering whether I could have passed the control. The scale on my compass was still set up for the 1:10,000 map at Mashomoquet, and the brush was reducing the size of my paces. Even my eyeballs didn't seem ready for the 1:15,000 map, expecting everything that I saw on the map to be close by on the terrain. | |||||
| 3. | +01:40 | Left the path way too early; it would have been better to run all the way around the hill. In addition, my eyeballs again expected a smaller reentrant than the one just east of the control, so I hesitated. | |||||
| 4. | Approached the control along the low trail from the north, which worked out well. | ||||||
| 5. | +01:00 | Having gone between the marshes on similar legs several times in the past, I took this opportunity to try the route south via the road. Approaching the control I forgot to multiply my scale's pace count by 3/2 and bumbled a bit before finding it. | |||||
| 6. | +01:30 | Pace count was OK but eyeballs off this time. Ran north and east along the esker expecting a little knoll a little way off to the left. Stopped by the trail and found the control farther from the esker. Deja vu of a similar missed control a year or two ago, running along the same esker and caught by the same trail. | |||||
| 7. | +01:00 | Crossed trail then northeast to the next trail, following it to the vicinity of the control. Stayed too high and passed the control at first. | |||||
| 8. | +06:00 | Planned to go east on trails to lead me around the hill to the left. And that was the way I went but lost track of my progress and had difficulty determining my location. Compass seemed to be off, showing actual stone walls built in directions that did not match any stone walls on the map. At last determined my position when still little more than 1/2 way to the control. Then followed stone walls to excellent attack point, but eyeballs again expected control to be close by and went to the wrong boulder. | |||||
| 9. | South of the pond then along paved road most of the way, to approach the control across stony ground.
I nominate this control for the shallowest reentrant ever. I had my doubts when copying the course onto my map, but on the terrain I just had to smile. | ||||||
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| 12. | +02:00 | Thrashed through green stuff, and came out farther right than expected. Slope had distinct ledge, unmapped, and stone wall seemed to be pointing in the wrong direction. After a couple of minutes the map and terrain began to fit better, and I knew which way to find the control. | |||||
| F. | +00:10 | Ran too far along the dirt road. This day's orienteering was some of the most thought-provoking that I've had in years, not because of the pace count problems -- those are routine. Perhaps more because of the frequency with which I expected smaller features than were on the terrain. But most of the interest is because it was set as a long-O. At first I thought this would mean less orienteering and more trail running. But I've never encountered such significant route choices along trails. Also, navigating in the presence of lots of trails is a skill worth practicing. The map and trails are rather familiar to me, which led me to underestimate the care and concentration required. |
Total Time Lost - 00:15:50