Training Log Archive: Career Move

Wicklow Rogaine:

Peter and I were thrown in at the deep end on this one. Neither of us has experience navigating and that combined with the poor vision due to weather conditions, racing during the night and the difficult terrain of the Wicklow mountains, meant this was always going to be about survival and getting a good training session in.

Last year we started in Laragh in the lower right quarter of the map. This year we started in the Glenflugh flat (It's only at 345m!), in the top left hand quarter. Grid ref: O069119. We should have taken more time marking our map as we made a couple of errors. We weren't rushing but it's hard to concentrate when you've 40 controls to plot and we should have done a double check before we left.

We got ourselves orientated and set off for our first control which was at the end of a track. No problems there. A couple of teams passed us here and we sort of followed them without meaning to. This meant that we ended up going the wrong direction. Nav boo boo #1. It worked out well though as we reached a control but it was not the control we thought we were headed towards. Lucky break #1. We got ourselves orientated again and picked up three more controls, using the line of the forest to guide us and then we dropped down onto the road. Unfortunately Peter left his compass at one of the controls so we only had one compass and one map between us. Nav boo boo #2

We ran up the road for a couple of k towards the next control. I had it marked in off the road between the line of two houses We searched high and low but we couldn't find it. We bumped into another team who helped us out. Lucky break #2. I had it marked in the wrong place on the map 0100135 instead of O110135. Nav boo boo #3. The other team were very helpful and noticed another control we were planning to visit that should have been marked a little higher on the map. We had to go back at least 1k through thick vegetation to get to the correct position but we found the control easily at the end of a track.

Next control was a ruin on the edge of a forest and we followed the line of the river to get to it. We must have been in almost the right spot but the forest was dense and we couldn't spot the ruin. We decided to continue on to our next two controls and come back to the ruin by a different approach up a forest track.

The Wicklow mountains is a blanket bog and is covered in vast amounts of heather. It's difficult to negotiate as the heather trips you up and there are masses of bog holes and narrow deep channels that are impossible to see with the vegetation. Similar to last year, I must have fallen into at least 50 holes. Peter was the same and it got to the stage where it was happening so frequently that it became too tiresome to ask 'Are you alright?'. I also slipped crossing a river and went head first into the freezing water. Luckily my back stayed dry and it was dry so I didn't get cold. Lucky break #3 We got out the trekking poles on the climb up the next peak and they made life a lot easier.

The next control was a 'reentrant' at the top of a 675m peak. A reentrant seems to be just a deep wide channel in the ground and there are thousands of them on the Wicklow mountains. It requires precise navigation to reach the particular reentrant that contains the control and precise navigation was not our strongpoint! We spent ages looking for and we were going to abandon it. We agreed to head back towards the line of the forest but Peter had become completely disorientated and I was sure he was heading in the wrong direction. Luckily by now the fog had cleared and we could see the mast on Kippure so we could navigate off that. Lucky break #4. As we were making our way back through a reentrant Peter suddenly spotted the control we were looking for. Lucky break #5

We stopped for a break after this and got ourselves something to eat and drink and took a reference point to the next control. This was the one that the other team had told us should have been slightly higher on the map. We had remarked it but unfortunately when we were taking the reference point we used the wrong one. Nav boo boo #4 This was another reentrant so we needed precision. We had trekked for a few minutes when I realised we had left the poles at the last control. D'uh. We tried to retrace our steps but it was like fo don a needle in a hay stack and we had to abandon it. The next control we thought was at the edge of the forest but it was only after searching fruitlessly for it that we realised our mistake and we had to leave it. We picked up the track we were looking for in the forest to take us back to the ruin but we still couldn't locate it and as the forest was so dense and it was getting dusky we had to leave that as well.

We dropped back down on to the road as night fell and our plan was to follow the road for about 10k up to a control at Lough Bray. This was a good plan as it meant we were constantly moving and keeping warm during the cold foggy night and we knew exactly where we were. It was a long drag up from the Sally gap but we were moving well and we reached the lakes around 1am. The track we were looking for was opposite a car park and there were 2 cars parked there. I don't know what mischief they were up to but our head torches scouring the sides of the road for a hidden trail seemed to disturb them and they took off. We found our trail and headed down, crossing a river. We were looking for another reentrant which was supposed to be up in the hill about half way along. We left the path and trudged up through more bog and heather. Cue more tripping and tumbling! I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open and I suggested we take a nap on the heather behind a large boulder. Peter was concerned about nasty insects and ticks but we had two space blankets so we sat on one and used one as a cover and we had a nice rest for about 40min. Peter changed his socks as well as his feet were starting to give trouble. The nap rejuvenated Peter and shortly after we started off again he found the trail we were supposed to be on and was able to use the distance on the map to bring us straight to the control. Sweet!!!! It took us a while to get back to the road but when we did we headed back towards the Sally gap with the intention of picking up another control at Crockan Pond.

Looking at the map this should have been easy as the control should have been due east from the parking lot. We may have taken out reference point wrong because amongst the hundreds of ponds, we couldn't find the correct one. It was like being in the Dead Marshes in Mordor in TLOTR. A thick fog meant it was cold and clammy and difficult to see even though it was almost dawn. I kept seeing lights in the corner of my eye that disappeared when I turned to look at them. We didn't spend a whole heap of time when we realised we couldn't find the pond control, however we were now lost and we had nothing to reference off to get back to the road. We tried to just head west but this didn't with too well and it took about 3 times longer than it should to get back to the road.

Motivation was falling now. Peters feet were at him and I had twisted me knee falling into a hole and it was starting to become painful in spite of the anti inflammatory tablets I took. We decided to get one more control as it was on a track and should be easy to find and then head back to base. The control was a couple of k down the road but easy to find. We had a good look at the map to plan our next move. It was about 7:15am now and we had to be back by 2pm to avoid penalties. Every control this year was worth 100 points and for every minute you were late it was 100 point penalty!! To get back to the finish cross country taking in more controls we were going to have to climb up and down several peaks for at least 6k assuming we went in the right direction. It was still misty and visibility was poor so we would be entirely reliant on our dubious compass skills. It didn't take much to persuade either of us that the longer 15k trek on the road was the better option and after a bit of a slog we arrived at the finish 4 hrs early.

Good points:
We didn't get badly lost and we came home almost unscathed.
Peter and I worked well together as a team and we made good decisions when things went wrong.
We made the right call to stay on the road at night.
We covered 74k in about 18 hrs and got a good training session done which will stand to us for ITERA.
I tried out a new pair of Darn Tough socks and they were very comfortable. No blisters!

Bad points:
Stupid mistakes.
Leaving my trekking poles at the first reentrant control. I could have really benefiited from using them later on.
Twisting my knee in a big hole. It was quite uncomfortable for the last 30k.
Peter was in a bit of bother with blisters especially on the 15k trek to the finish

C • Good Job 1

C • Nice work! 3

Calves very sore from the karate

Got my new Orbea sorted and took it for a little spin. It's a beauty and its 5kg lighter than my old bike.

Got my orange belt

C • Well done! 2