Orienteering (rogaine) 11:30:00 [3]
Scablands 24hr Rogaine: We planned a southern counter-clockwise loop to begin followed by a northern loop to finish. The start was delayed to 2:30pm so we lost 2.5hrs of daylight. I had some trouble adjusting to the scale of the map and reading the details at the beginning. Magnifier would have been very helpful in reading the map. Navigation went pretty well for 38, 75, 104, 87, 45, 83, 56W, and 48. We first planned a clockwise loop for this, but then realized the water re-fill scenario was better to loop the other way. The 48 to 94 leg was pretty long and I was a bit off on my compass so we missed the flag initially but we could see it from a good distance. 94 to 35 was also a bit off on the compass as well as 35 to 106 (all seemed to be missing right). At 106 we tried to find the old jeep track, but only really found cow trails and followed them in the general direction to 99. It was getting towards sun-down at this point and 99 looked to be very difficult without a very good known attackpoint so we made the decision to skip it and head for 67. At 67 we put on a layer of warmer clothes and our headlamps. We got 84, 88, and 105 pretty well in the dark. North of 84 we were able to distinguish the old jeep track and follow it for most of the route. The train line was obviously put in after this jeep track was established because there was a deep cut right where the old jeep track previously passed through. We had to scramble down and cross both fences and the RR tracks and pick up the jeep track on the other side. After 105 we attacked 86 and the tiredness was messing with my navigation. I got turned around and confused and could not relocate so we missed 86 and headed W for the lake and 36. It was slow going and we were at a low point here but eventually got 36 and 65 and headed back in to the HQ along the paved hwy. We got into the HQ a bit after 2AM.
