Did anyone run the road to the first control?
I think that Red's first control was in the general area of Blue's first control. I thought about taking the road, then cutting into the woods, but ended up just taking the trail to the road, then going through the woods just above the rough open clearing, then cutting back into the control, but the option of using the road did come into my mind.
yeah I cut on to the road before the trail started going back uphill. I also went left off the next trail (above the clearing where some other control was) to avoid the dark green, which according to boris, was quite thick. only a weak attack point from this angle, but I came into the circle/reentrant at the high end, and had no problems finding the control.