O race 1:42:17 [4] *** 7.6 km (13:28 / km)
spiked:7/15c shoes: Inov8 Mudroc
Westmoreland State Park - long. 30's; cloudy, intermittent wet snow. First time in this park - mostly b/c it is a 2 hour drive from home. Nice interesting terrain - the potomac river (very wide at this point) borders the eastern side. the woods are mostly open and runnable. Also the forest was diverse and healthy looking. the light green areas on the map were mainly mountain laurel, which was slow but passable. the only really tough aspect was that the stream valleys were very steep, and the bottoms are really boggy. Often it was a choice between running on the steep slippery banks, or through black mud and water on the bottom. saw several deer.
On the drive into the park I looked along the roadside to get a sense of the terrain, and saw a dense dark tangle of close-growing (impassible) trees. made a mental note then to "respect the green" on the map. I only noticed later - (after doing the course) - that that particular spot was an atypical patch of dark green woods.
comments:
1. Ok - E along the road, S along trail E over some reentrants.
2. Slow - straight S across swamp, going around "nose" of land on W. went up wrong reentrant at first.
3. Ok - SW along trail to hilltop, then SE through white then green woods. NE on trail, S down slope to spur.
4. slow - straight S across swamp, up, over and down.
5. medium error - W through the white woods, passed pit, stopped to soon in parallel reentrant, then W to correct one.
6. Ok - S down spur, cross swamp, S along left bank of stream valley handrail
7. small error - E through white woods following compass, checking off big N-S reentrant on left. Entered correct ditch, but unsure and went to another before coming back to correct one.
8. Ok - NW through white woods, keep big reentrant on left
9. Slow, small error - W over 2 big reentrants, turn N around big "nose" of land. W through swamp. after 3rd reentrant on right, saw Francis H. turning 180 degrees back E b/c of a deep (unmapped) beaver pond. Climbed right-hand bank and continued W through white woods along bank. Hesitated in wrong ditch for some time, then hit it.
10. Ok - SW across swamp. Run along steep left hand bank S to control.
11. small error - E to corner of field. NE to first southerly ditch, then N to correct ditch.
12. small error - NW, passed #9, NW through white woods around steep reentrant, down steep green bank (actually slid down through leaves and sand). up N side to wrong ditch, worked NE to correct one. slipped in clay
13. Ok - N to overgrown road, N along park road, passed camp loop on right, cont. NE along park road, E at trail juction, SE down trail, N along reentrant, over second reentrant and up other side then NW along top of bank to earth wall and down (didn't notice the "bottom of" clue on sheet)
14. Slow - slogged over down tree, through mud, swamp, and up steep hill to control. Bad route choice? aftter descending to 13, I just didn't feel like going back up S to the trail.
15. Ok - road.
started to snow on drive home, but otherwise a nice drive. shoes were so caked w/ mud I just hosed them down at home.