Training Log Archive: CleverSky

Cape Lookout National Seashore, Red, 6.6km. This trip had appeal on several fronts, one of which was the opportunity to orienteer in coastal sand dunes. It wasn't as excellent as I dreamed it might be, but it was fine, no complaints from me. The map was advertised as a mostly unimproved lidar product, and I went into it knowing what to expect. There was quite a bit of thick vegetation (planted pines with scruffy undergrowth, or in other places wet areas with thigh-high reeds hiding the ground), and the sand topography was a bit limited. The most intricate area was a mixture of yellow and dark green, and it turned out to be a dump with quite a bit of broken glass on the ground. I kept my head about me and I was pretty clean. Not perfect through the maze of fight, but very close. The next control (#10) was just hanging on... nothing... in an area of motley vegetation that the map did not reflect well. #13 was supposedly on a hill, but it just looked like a clump of scrubby trees, and there was another control nearby that was visible and that drew some people off. A couple of other small hesitations, or route choices that weren't quite perfect, but they didn't amount to too much. Nancy and I took off after we finished to check out the lighthouse (which was inside one of the control circles!) and to go for a walk on the beach, so I didn't nose around the finish computer to see what place I got, I'll have to wait for results to be published. I think I did pretty well, and it's fun to be the out-of-towner who turns up and shows the locals how it's done.

First time orienteering on February 1.

results
splits

Down to the bridge and back through the Lane property, In The (morning) Dim. Wore a headlamp, but didn't need it to see where I was going, just had it on when I was on Northfield and Gilchrist to make myself a little more conspicuous. I was smart enough to wear spikes, and the trail was in fact much more treacherous ice than I had encountered last night. Not much of a run, but I had to get something done in the morning and get to work early so I can bug out in the afternoon and catch a plane.

WBW, In The Dark. Pearl Hill campground loop, once CCW and once CW. I envisioned this as a pavement run, but although things are pretty well melted out down south in Lunenburg, up north in the wilds of Townsend there's still an inch or so of white stuff left, which was compressed down to ice in a lot of places. I would have been much better off with spikes; I had a few slips but no falls. Temperature in the mid 20s F, I dressed pretty warmly, but took off my gloves about 2/3 of the way around.

I think I may have noticed this before, but it's pretty clear that Google Maps has a pretty glaring error in terms of the location of this road down at the SE part.

A quick jaunt, In The Dark. Down to the bridge, plus a brief excursion onto the trail toward the Peabody, which was rather icy.

In The (early) Dim. Managed to get out and put this one in the books because I don't see a good chance to do it later.

In The Dark. I have a feeling that it's going to be a thin week...

Borderland State Park, with Nancy. About 30 years ago, I was looking at possible places for NEOC to map, and this looked like a possibility. I brought it up, and Barry Callahan said he'd been there it was way too thick. We went for a hike today, in mid-winter, and it seemed not too bad. Topography pretty interesting, overall very little relief but lots of features one or two contours high. Quite a lot of mappable boulders, some very large, and stony underfoot in places. Seemed like a fairly dense trail network. The woods were not incredibly open, but the offending vegetation looked to be about knee-high and not thorny, so visibility was pretty good. We certainly have areas with worse green, some of which are considered to be good maps. Pretty good size parking lot, but even on a day in late January, it was full (popular with mountain bikers and disc golfers, as well as casual hikers). But it looks like there re some fields within the park property that could maybe be used for parking. I'd say it has potential, though not a real priority -- it's not like our other maps in that part of the state get a lot of use.