Route for the first and last part of our third quadrant --
We headed out for this somewhere around 4:30 or 5 am, had to be back no later than 11. Useful light was expected about 6:45, so we had a couple more hours of night to deal with. And at this point the night had seemed to pass rather easily, I think because we came in a couple of times for about 45 minutes each. I never had that sense of taking forever to count down the hours left of darkness.
We planned a roughly counter-clockwise route, since it seemed a little easier to go that way in the dark.
9. Off again, a little colder and windier, I guess temps in the low to mid 30s. We did quite a zigzag getting to 9 because no one want to get wet crossing the stream, and then the east side of the ridge looked unappealingly vertical. Went up the south end, still a nasty climb but short. Control was easy.
2. Along the top of the ridge. At some point it seemed like we had gone far enough. Had a short discussion re down/up vs around, went down/up, seemed good, hit the control right on.
1. Time to head west. Had a short discussion re down/up vs around, 3 quick votes for around. Followed the high ground around, rather dense stand of young pines but dropped right on the trail junction. Took the trail heading west, past a junction with an unmapped north/south trail, hopped off just after the bend, got to the reentrant, no sign of the control, someone (Barb?) said it's got to be below us, went down 100 meters and there it was.
3. Spotted a trail marker just a little lower, got on the unmapped trail heading about where we wanted to go for a while, then it headed south, we crossed the little stream and up the spur. No problem. And the sky was lightening up. And it seemed like folks were getting tired.
11. More climbing up to the trail, then followed it, still climbing, to about 100 meters from the control. And then it got really nasty, very steep (and steep-sided) reentrant, lots of laurel, slipping and sliding dropping into it, climbing on all fours trying to get out. Not a lot of fun. But definitely light now.
10. A steady climb up the trail to a hairpin just below the point and then a steep climb up to the control, another hillside, which in the daylight was visible from quite a distance. Lots of tired/sore bodies. A quick stop for blister repair for Barb. Oh, and it had been snowing on and off for a couple of hours and now there was a little bit sticking, little granules filling the oak leaves. Rather cool, actually.
4. Angled up to the ridge, where the wind was just howling. Don't know what the wind chill was but it was cold. But I think we were all doing ok. Northeast along the ridge to the control, very easy.
8. There were a couple of routes that would have been a lot faster than what we did, but both would have required some very steep downhill, and that was no longer in the cards for Kissy, nor was anyone else eager for a little freefall. So we went about a mile southwest along the ridge, still the howling wind. I was pretty cold, but idiot that I am, I didn't bother to put on the jacket and warmer gloves that I had in my pack, preferring instead the old "just suck it up" routine, figured it would get better as soon as we dropped off the ridge. Finally made the turn, started to drop, the wind diminished but I was still cold, so finally stopped to add clothes (now 2 long-sleeve shirts plus my clown-suit O'-top which is quite warm plus a jacket), and then ran a couple of minutes to catch up, and shortly after that I was feeling just fine. But still stupid. Anyway, a long trail walk, finally got to the area of the control, had it plotted in a reentrant right by the corner of the trail. Easy. Except when we got there, no control. Looked uphill maybe 100 meters, nothing. Looked downhill, 50-100 meters, nothing. Ronny had checked them all with the GPS, what gives. And then it occurred to me to look at the rest of the map and not just the trail, and the contours were such that the control had to be up higher. And the trail was just mismapped. So we kept climbing and found it in an area of laurel a couple hundred meters above the trail. A little annoying, but also fun to figure it out.
7. Down a rather gentle slope to a big flat area, control was visible from a good distance thanks to daylight.
5. Lots of huckleberry scrub around 7 and on the way to 5, so when we happened on an unmapped trail heading sort of towards 5, we hopped on. Ended up north of 5, figured it out, though our brains didn't seem to be working too swiftly.
S/F. And then a long walk back to the building, with some discussion about how much more folks felt like doing, with the options ranging from none, to a very little more, to a little more, to some, let's see how it goes.
At some point there was consensus to at least plot the points for the NE quadrant and then decide how much to do.
We got back to the building just after 10 am.
And then Ronny told us the the NE quadrant was screwed up, his friend putting them out had managed to get just one in the right place, #19, and so Ronny had hustled out with three more, A, B, and C, that he would plot for us.
And that seemed ok, a much shorter walk to get the rest though not trivial. Although, now inside and warm and content, the enthusiasm for heading back out was clearly disappearing. But only with some first-class rationalizations. Barb pushing the "we're here to have fun" line, and it's been fun, but going out again wouldn't be fun. Kissy and Peggy meanwhile had been perusing the results board, kept up to date, and determined that we couldn't win, because one guy was getting them all, and no one else could beat us, so it was pretty clear that it made no sense competitively to go back out. And it was unlikely to be fun. And I, well, I'm not sure what I said. I'm not sure whether the vote was another 3-1 (don't think so, because I could read the tea leaves), or maybe 4-0 (possible, because I was still feeling very mellow). My guess is 4-0.
And I was feeling mellow. It had been a fine rogaine. The shirts we got from Ronny had the slogan on them, "We hide them, You find them," and we had found every one we tried for. It seemed like just the right time to stop.
And so we packed up and headed off, and I got chauffeured (which is so much nicer than having to drive), first to Charlottesville to drop Barb off for her flight to Boston, then to Kissy's to drop her off, then to Peggy's (all this driving by Peggy, she had a caffeine drip going), and then picked up by Gail and to her friend's in Reston and a very good night's sleep.
Aren't rogaines great!