Nolde Forest – First Brown Course

Yeah! First Brown Course! Didn’t do too badly! (Except for those 2 controls…)  I figured that Nolde would be a good place to try Brown since there is a good trail system to catch you if you mess up.  The Ahlswedes and Speedy also convinced me to go for it, saying if I had successfully completed an Orange at Hickory Run I could manage this.  Plus I think I’ve just been itching to have that Hickory Run feeling back, where I was just going through the woods and landing where I wanted, with not many linear features to navigate by.  It’s a very different feeling than being on trails, and I’m new to it, I’m just starting to understand what advanced Orienteering can be (a lot of bashing through stuff!! and careful compass use! and pace counting! and just knowing.)

check out this crazy ride at Nolde!

It was a typical Sunday O-morning:  put on the fastest pants possible, pack up a cooler with sandwiches made the night before, eat my hardboiled egg and swiss sandwich, drink my tea while driving and navigating and playing music (and thus slightly annoying my co-pilot, whose multitasking skills are not quite as facile as mine,) get to the location, eat a banana, get more nervous, talk to the course setter about what to look out for, register, saying hi to those who are becoming my DVOA pals, change into the complete outfit, put on my implements – fingerstick, compass…oh, but this time, instead of holding my clue sheet in my right hand, I had some help setting up a slightly different system from Vadim.  He taped the clue sheet with clear tape on both sides, and I fastened it to my shirt with a safety pin so I could pull it up and read when needed.  Neat trick which I will use again, for sure. 🙂

New clue sheet system…uh oh, charcoal terraces!

Dad went out first, and I waited a while before leaving so as not to run into him.  Once again, at the start, I noticed people on my course and the direction they chose.  I had my compass aligned to North and when I flipped over the map, I was oriented right away, and off I went to Numero Uno.

Taking trails to the North of the control, I wanted to start to make my way into the woods at the vegetation boundary, but I wasn’t really sure what I was looking at, so I took a bearing towards the control at the path junction by the stream and found it – though the feature, a subtle re-entrant, was not easy to see.  I saw the control before I saw the feature.  Number 2 I was a little more unsure of myself, deciding at first to follow my compass bearing, and then changing my course and going lower towards the stream to use it as a feature to navigate by.  Pace counting the whole way, I came to the marshy area below the boulder and started up there, not seeing the boulder right away, but then finally spotting it.  2 to 3 was a trek up the hill, with the plan to use the trail system and go a little faster to go around.  I was really pointing in the exact right spot, because when I got to the trail running E to W, there was the smaller connector trail running N/S.  Went around on the trail system and pace counted from the junction to parallel of the control, and made my way in, seeing that it was quite dark green in there and praying that I found the control – which I did, I was only a tiny bit away from it.  Gave the location away to another orienteer here.

3 to 4 I just wanted to hurry and get away from the other orienteer!  So I didn’t take my time to set a bearing and feel solid with it…and I ended up way too east of the boulders, and felt that I was off – gave up quickly and kept going to the trail, went west to the trail junction and back North towards 4 and got it.  4 to 5 was clean, took a bearing, it got a little sticky in there, and then I came crashing out of the woods to try and get away from other orienteers.  This is apparently my downfall, and I need to not worry about them and just be thinking about what I’m doing, because I went crashing out, with the idea that I was going to take the trail system around and to the North of 6, but I took the first trail west instead of east, realized I screwed up, bailing and going in past number 4 through woods, and really running like a totally crazy wild woman. It kind of felt good, but I knew I was messing up bigtime and I guess I was thinking, just go faster to make up for the mistake.  Uh oh.  Okay, got to the North trail and was planning on navigating in to the feature/control by using the first ditch…but guess what, I totally missed seeing the first and second ditches and thought I was taking the first ditch but instead was following an overgrown path to a small clearing.  I knew the contours felt right, that I was at the bottom, and thought it should be to my left when in fact it was very far to my right, or to the west.  I flailed around in there for a while, really almost crying, just being lost and not knowing how to redirect.  People passing made me think I was reading the contours wrong and I went up the hill a bit.  Then I thought I figured it out – but was not confident, I mean up was down at this point for me – and asked a passing older gent to confirm my location – just saying, “Am I right here?” pointing to the map.  Lucky he was a nice guy and he said “yes, you are not far away.  Keep at it.”  Finally made it to the right spot.  I was so relieved to find this control I almost wanted to kiss it! I think taking a compass bearing through woods would have been a much better bet in retrospect – especially considering that the dark green is actually passable pine forest – the thing I was trying to avoid all along.  ARG.

6 to 7, I kicked in some running to make up time. Took trails to the road and pace counted from the vegetation boundary, started looking for the trail. Realized that this too, was an overgrown trail, and recognized the newer plants there – the stilt grass coming up.  Followed along the “trail” and came across the older gent who I’d seen at number 6, he was confused by the lack of trail and I pointed out where I thought it was.  What is going on – this is not a team sport, you’re thinking!  🙂  We got to the boulder around the same time.

7 to 8, the plan was to go east of the undergrowth but not too far down, but there were so many downed trees, I had to almost go to the road.  Plus I could see footsteps from other orienteers.  Gosh I felt like a tracker when I noticed that. 🙂  Got to the ditch, which was hard to physically get through, jumped down to the stream level, and then headed back up, using my compass.  I should have really thought this through a bit more, because seeing level ground (the charcoal terrace control) from below is way more difficult!  And a waste of effort to go down and then up again.  But luckily my bearing was good and I walked right to it.  Feeling confident with my compass now, I took a bearing to number 9 and went through the worst vegetation of the whole course.  It was like a bad dream where you can’t move in here, bash bash bash, stomp stomp stomp.  I am one of the creatures from Where the Wild Things Are, I’m thinking.  GAR!  Out of my way! I crossed the trail, then through the green pine forest, and then I was a little above the re-entrant and needed to head down -very steep and needed to go slowly and carefully here.  This was an obvious re-entrant and I was successful here.

9 to 10 was a relief, head N to trail, then choosing the smaller trail that stays to the south of the stream.  I was pace counting but also noticing where the trail crossed the stream – kind of tough to see on the map, but knowing to go S and upwards before the bend.  Older gent behind me, along with Donna T.  I led them to this one, so that was nice.  10 to 11 another compass bearing, going through the ride, and though ending up a little too West of the vegetation boundary, being able to identify the pine forest at this point and correcting rather quickly.  I had time to look ahead to 12 and semi memorized the map here, so after 11, I just ran back to N trail, going through the ride, turning right onto the trail with the pit right next to it.  I won this split!  Yeah, me.  Then the run into the finish I only vaguely looked at the map, knowing it was somewhere in the parking lot.  Really tried to finish strong and my fast pants worked on this one!

My dad beat me but did not crush me, and according to the splits, I beat him by 2 seconds running into the finish !  If I hadn’t done so badly on number 6 this would have been a much more impressive inaugural Brown course run…but I’m really happy with the results.  I finished in the top 10, I got out of there alive, and I ended with the feeling that this is a sport I can do, and there’s still much to learn.  I’m loving this learning process, and loving how everyone is so wonderful in sharing their knowledge – my dad, my brother, Ed Scott, Vadim, Sandy, the Ahlswedes, and…oh everyone!  I think what I take away from Nolde is that I need to concentrate on my focus, going slower instead of faster, and not pay attention to what other people in the woods are doing at all.  I need to do some contour training and more compass bearing practice too.  I am scared about NAOC coming up so fast, and how I will do there with all those people.   What can I do to get ready???  I wish I had a personal orienteering coach that could spend a few hours with me.   (It’s a good dream, anyway.  But if anyone qualified reads this and has some free time, I will bake them a pie and pay for their gas for orienteering lessons – I’m available tomorrow afternoon, all day Thursday, some of Saturday, and possibly Sunday if not going to Green Lane. In the following weeks I am packing up my life and moving to Swarthmore, so time will be limited, but there are a few days the week of NAOC too.)  HEY- I got one taker, Ed Scott has volunteered to help me this Saturday.  🙂

Choose the Right Path

I have left other thoughts behind, standing in the forest alone. I am simply there, like everything else in the woods; and though I should be moving, I stop for a minute in my place. This is where I am: between this trail and this other trail, near the stream, near the re-entrant. If there were a control there, I would have seen it long ago. Instead I look for the feature. Re-entrants can be tricky for me, because I’m still learning to read contours. If it’s very subtle, I might not see it. But the land makes sense: it goes down in elevation and there’s the stream, cutting the hills in half, a blue seam in the ripple of contours that fan out on both sides above it. I stand in the seam, look to my right, and see the re-entrant: a scoop of earth gracefully removed from the hill. How did the re-entrant form? I wonder. “Apart from a few geologists, only orienteers regularly use the English word “re-entrant” to describe a landform…a reentrant is a small valley, the center of which would collect water and funnel it downhill (if it were raining hard).”
I am lucky to be alone in the woods today.

Lessons at Hickory Run Orienteering Training Weekend

This weekend was incredible.  There were many challenges.  Some of these challenges were marital, others were physical and mental.  There was sleep deprivation, despite the air mattress we lugged up.  But the little rustic cabin without heat we stayed in was perfect.  No spiders crawled into my mouth while I was sleeping.

I definitely need to toughen up a bit.  I am very spoiled, living like a princess.  But at least I know this, and appreciate how good I have it.  Sometimes, like it was this weekend, it’s nice to let go of the things you think you need.  You walk on a path outside your cabin to visit the john.  You brush your teeth in a trough-like sink wearing your headlamp before bed.  You sleep curled up in your sleeping bag with just your nose poking out of the top.  You walk to the mess hall to have breakfast, you eat what they give you.  The light is beautiful and the people around you are generous and smiling and hardworking.  The people.  The DVOA-ers.  I have such a good feeling about them after this weekend.  I laid on the floor of someone else’s cabin, just for 20 minutes or so, doing some stretching and using their electricity for my heating pad, listening to their conversation, smelling woodsmoke from their fireplace.  They’ve known each other for a while; I’m new to the scene.  It was a nice feeling to be invited in, but to remain a little on the fringe of things.  They all seem so interesting.  And a little crazy, in a good way.

Program Director Fred Kruesi gets the troops ready for the weekend

Saturday, Training Day.  We split into groups – Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced.  There was some quibbling with Husband about which group he belonged in.  He was surprised that we would not be in the same group, but since I’ve been doing this since the spring and he has never done it at all, I felt he would get more out of the Beginner group than the Intermediate with me.   The Intermediate was split into 3 groups and I chose the middle group. We went out with Ed Scott, a guy I really like who was also the course setter for Sunday’s event.  We all walked a course together, looking at features along the way, discussing route choice, getting to know the terrain.  I sort of paired up with Adam Steiner, who was very friendly and we shared what little knowledge we had with each other.  He was super nice and a very positive, cheerful influence on my day.  We went from 3 to 4 together – choosing to go out to a trail (not seen here in this pic, too lazy to take another) and then scoot back over after a deer enclosure.  I was off by a little, but Adam was right on.  We were the first ones in our group there.

On the way from 1 to 2, Ed stopped and showed us just how subtle the Re-Entrant can be here.

It really improves your off-trail confidence to be following someone who knows exactly where he is and where he’s going.  Then you can relax and really focus on observing everything around you and what it looks like on the map, instead of worrying about navigating.  This was a priceless exercise for me, and I need to do more of it.  Our route from 5 to 6 was essentially a route I took during my Orange course race on Sunday, even though I wasn’t going to the exact same place.  Previous to this training, I never would have had the confidence to navigate across great patches of white and green with no linear features to follow, using instead mostly my compass and a better understanding of contours.  While I still have a long way to go with contour reading, I picked up a little fearlessness I did not know I had in me, thanks to getting to know my Compass a little better after lunch.

For the Pace and Compass exercise, as you can see we had no features other than the controls to navigate by.  We had to take a bearing, and pace count to find these controls; going in whatever order we chose.  I actually stupidly never even thought about looking at the clues, so I was really flying blind.  This valuable lesson taught me that I need to do a better job of keeping on a straight course, focusing on something on the horizon, walking to it, and then taking another bearing.  And just practice.  So much thinking going on, someday I hope I will not even think about it.  This compass work  was a huge, huge benefit and had a definite positive effect on my abilities on Sunday.

Ed Scott and I

After that exercise, most people were done with training for the day. Ed and I had a little chat about stuff, and I felt like I could still go out and learn some more.  So I asked Tom O, one of the other trainers for Intermediate, if he had anything else to do.  He gave me this map–which I looked at and thought to myself “Now what am I supposed to do with that??”

So, I grabbed Husband, who was feeling like he didn’t get out into the woods enough, and tried this Contour Reading exercise.  We also had a regular map of the area, and I had been out to some similar areas already on the Group course.  Tom needed to start picking up controls about an hour after we took off, so there was a time limit; I ended up cheating quite a bit – looking at the other map.  Husband and I didn’t function very well as a team on this, because of our different levels of experience.  I also didn’t feel experienced enough to be teaching him, since I barely know anything myself.  But I did learn a bit and felt like I got something out of this exercise.  I would like to do more Contour training, but next time I need an advanced level orienteer with me.

Sunday, Race Day.  After another crappy night’s sleep (it was in the 30s, okay?) we ate breakfast late and got ready.  Husband’s start time was earlier than mine.  This was my first experience with having a ‘start time.’  Mine was 10:26am, and after walking to the start, which was about 15 minutes away from the dining hall, I came upon a group of about 30 people waiting to go out.  Ed would call out the time, every minute, someone would grab their map and dip their fingerstick into the Start paddle, and go.  Because I was about 15 minutes early, I got to observe.  I observed those on the Orange going out in a certain direction.  This was helpful, but since I messed up the first control anyway it didn’t really do much.  Still, something to remember.

When it was my turn to start, I had already ascertained North and had the map oriented very quickly.  I pace counted 30 paces and then headed SE towards the Re-entrant.  But…I was too far east, and bounced around on the ridge for a little while, turned around, went too far West, and then when I came back E again I hit it.  This first one was a huge bad mistake and took me 8:21 to complete!  I was really walking around thinking “I suck.  Why did I think I could do this?”  But, after you find a control I guess there is a fresh start mentality that helps!  To number 2, I headed SE down into a rocky area, and farther E to the edge of the most northern marsh.  The clue was western edge of marsh, and thinking back, I really got confused here because I was thinking north was west, and thinking I should be seeing it.  Still, the actual marsh was only a small little piece of a marsh compared to the two big ones, and I was all over the marshy area (but not really in it) before I got my map right.  Seeing the West Point cadets crashing around with confidence was also intimidating.  I didn’t follow, though.  After 12 minutes, I found 2.  How pathetic!

Number 3 is where I started to actually use my brain.  Either that or there were more linear features for me to navigate by.  Went SE to the trail, followed the trail to the paved area, heading NE up the paved road while pace counting and looking off to the right.  Did not spot the control from the road, but went in early thankfully and was only in the rocky wooded area a short while.   3 to 4 – I had been in that area with Husband on Friday looking around, so I was already oriented a bit. Headed SE through the open field, through field with distinct trees and to path crossing the stream.  Ran up the stream, spotted the control and had to cross the stream on some rocks to get it.  4 to 5, turned around and went back the way I came – realizing with an “oh DUH” that I had forgotten to turn my Garmin on – ran down the stream and decided that the green looked too ugly and the paths looked too dicey for me to rely on – so I ran around the lake on the North side and crossed over at the dam, taking the path W for a few paces and then taking a bearing and looking for rocks.  I was a little too far W at first, corrected myself and gave the control away to a few other people accidentally. 5 to 6 I went NW to the power line break, followed it across the stream and to the path which eventually led to the part of the path I had already been on to get out of 2 area.  Essentially just ran to the top of the hill.

6 to 7, I should have gone around the marsh to the S, but because I already knew the way around the top to the N, I followed my old path, and ended up getting some soaked feet, oops.  I ended up running alongside the rocky area for a long time, and it was slow going.  Very slow.  I was somewhat comforted knowing that if I went too far N or S, I would run into the paved roads.  So, eventually got to it after just plugging away.  Really should have stayed to the S of the rocks, but was N of them. Control was not on the north side as indicated in the clue sheet, it was on the W side, so not visible until getting to the other side of it since I was coming from the E.  I was confused by this.  The cadets and I got to 7 at the same time and then they went running off like gazelles.  To 8, went NW, getting to top of stream bed and road intersection, and taking a compass bearing.  Hit the pit and 8 dead on.  Heading to 9, just took a bearing and headed N, careful to remain on even ground, and coming to the edge of the knoll and getting it no problem.  Hid behind a tree a few steps away to look at what to do next.  🙂

9 to 10.  Whew. This was the toughest leg of all.  I had been to the stone wall during Training, and remember Ed saying something about there being a control where you’d just have to aim and be within a margin to get it.  This was it.  I took a compass bearing, really trying to keep my eye on horizontal branches, get to them, take another bearing.  I noticed the stream beds here and there, but mostly, this was all about the compass.  I actually think I prayed here.  Prayed to find the stone wall.  And instead of doubting myself, I believed in myself on this leg.  I didn’t get there very quickly (11 min) but I got there!  I had aimed at what I thought was a little west of the junction of the stone walls, and guess what?  Exactly where I wanted to be.  Thank you, gods and goddesses of the woods 🙂

10 to 11, getting close now! During our training day, we had walked in some of the same area, so I was able to pick up the trail to the NW of the stone wall with no problem (the trail in real life is much smaller than it looks on the map!)  Picked up the trail, headed N, got to the ‘stream’ and then went NE into the light green, using a compass bearing to head up the hill through what I hoped would be mostly white woods.  Not so much.  I had my first mountain laurel experience in here, and I gotta say, I think being short is a good thing!  Got to the first knoll/spur thing, recognized it from training day (there is a deer blind in there,) and then headed towards the light of the clearing.  Bam.  Into the clearing, home stretch now.

Coming into the clearing, I saw Eddie setting up a camera.  Oh thank god he was too late to capture me running like a rag doll.  Identified the building I was running to (remembering in listed as a ‘craft store’ in a map Fred gave us at the beginning of the weekend,) and could have just run to it without looking at map, but made sure I didn’t mess up because wouldn’t that be a shame this late in the game?  Here, after punching 12, I think I heard my name said in a Lithuanian accent. 🙂  Running into the finish with Vadim and Hugh saying encouraging things, and people cheering, was just so totally awesome.  I’m only a beginner, and only doing the Orange, but it felt really good.

Live Results and Live Forest Cam!

I knew I messed up on 1, 2, and 7;  but I was hoping that the legs I did okay, and the fact that everyone else was making mistakes, would get me into the top 10.  And it did.  I finished 7th, and the first DVOA member.  I am just glad I finished!  I feel very good about this day, because it was ‘real orienteering’ for me.  Being so totally off trail, and having literally NO linear features to navigate by – that’s not an Orange course I don’t think.  So, I want to continue to train to get better at contour reading, compass bearing, and route choice, while also conditioning my body to be able to run for longer periods of time (and faster.)  Husband came in 2nd place in the Yellow Course!  (Did he even sweat, I wonder?)

French Creek East

In about a week, there’s a DVOA meet at French Creek East.  As you can imagine, I’m trying to get ready for it any way I can.  The map they use for this venue is a different scale than I’m used to – most orienteering maps I’ve used are 1:10,000; last week’s map at Springton was 1:5,000.  This map is 1:15,000.  What that boils down to is that the map covers a lot more ground, so there’s a lot to look at, it looks very small comparatively, and it takes a longer time to get from one point to another on the map.  Bring on the magnifier, baby.

A magnifier is going to help me with the 1:15,000 map scale

While some orienteers don’t use magnifiers, some do; and not just with this scale map.  Here’s what Sandy Fillebrown, one of my orienteering heroes, has to say about magnifiers: “I have one attached to my thumb compass that swings out of the way when I don’t need it. I always have it and use it when I can’t figure out what’s going on in the circle. I occasionally use it between controls when it seems important to understand a complex trail/stream/bridge/gorge crossing and I’ll use it in a sprint when the details of which side of what fence you need to be on is important or something like that. Many times I won’t use it at all in a race, and then there will be one when I need it several times – it just depends on the terrain.”

I traced an old FCE Orange course over my Dad’s old Green course

Well, this terrain calls for a magnifier, in my beginner’s opinion.  Everything seems so…tiny and subtle.  So the other day, I borrowed my Dad’s magnifier, and went out to French Creek East to try and wrap my head around the map, and see what the terrain was like.  I attempted a DVOA Orange course from 4/2006; and with not much luck, actually.  My goal was to just go slow and get as many controls (features in this case) as I could.  Instead, I found myself wondering where I was a lot of the time that I was off-trail.  The scale is a big adjustment to make, when usually you walk 20 paces for 80m; here you walk 30 paces for 80m, and so on.   And it seemed to me there wasn’t a lot to see, or rather, there wasn’t a lot to see that I’m used to navigating with. I got really nervous out there, actually, and that was discouraging.   So then I just decided to stay on trails and see as much as I could; maintain contact with the map; identify what I could.  I ended up going 5 miles in about 2 hours…session data here.  A little ankle twist added to my downcast mood.

I got number 1 after a bit. Number 2, I misidentified at first, being farther south than I needed to. Number 3, I got really uncomfortable off-trail and went all the way to a trail to get.

Feeling really down about myself, (though it had been a beautiful day, and I know I’m seriously lucky to be on this planet, doing the things I want to,) I got home and did the usual logging on Attackpoint.  Later in the afternoon I was delighted to find some really nice notes from Sandy, my brother, and Speedy about FCE…and how I’ve turned “hard-core.”  I’m hardly hard-core guys, but it was good to hear that that others find the scale difficult, or have had a bad time there despite being really really good at orienteering.

FCE woods and even trails were filled with downed branches

Speaking of hard-core, I had a funny encounter towards the end of my training session.   I spoke briefly with one of the workers clearing trails of downed branches after the forest fires.  As I went running away, she said, “thank you for your service.”  Couldn’t for the life of me figure out what she meant until I got back to my car and took off my hat – the Marines hat that I consider my ‘lucky hat’ that was too small for my Dad, the actual Marine.  So, she thought I was a Marine.  Boy was she way off! If only she knew my inner thoughts about how icky the bugs were.

FCE—-Lots of rocks and charcoal terraces.

Today, I stumbled on a great DVOA article by Eric Weyman on orienteering at French Creek:

• “On the ground, the terrain is characterized by the lack of obvious, recognizable features.  While there is a near absence of medium-sized features, there is an abundance of small and subtle features; some would say that there is an abundance of “non-existent” features as well.
• However, to orienteer well here, one must learn to recognize and even rely on many features that in other terrains are insignificant or unmapped.” 

I guess that’s why Speedy, another orienteering hero, says this about the terrain at FC: “I believe FC terrain is the best we have in close proximity to Philadelphia from a technical aspect of orienteering.”

Okay, I get it. This is a place to really improve my skills.  My brother wants to do some contour training with me, and is making me a little course to do with just contours, no other features.  At first I thought this idea was a mistake, too advanced for me, I’m not ready for that type of thing.  But I think differently after reading more from the Weyman article:

• “The ripples are not the work of a nervous draftsman, but in fact accurately reflect the many subtle spurs and reentrants in the terrain. In addition, the spacing of the contours is also worth noting since they accurately depict changes in slope that are often more apparent in the terrain than on the map and are a very useful feature that most orienteers are not accustomed to using.”

2009 results from Orange at FCE – look at all the DNFs!

I looked back in the annals of DVOA Orange course results: there are many many many DNFs in Orange over the years.  Why is it so hard to set an intermediate course here?  The answer, in Eric Weyman’s aforementioned article:

• “French Creek terrain provides typical beginner’s level orienteering, utilizing the trail network, a couple streams and the nearby point features. However, once the orienteer leaves the security of the linear features, the difficulty switches almost immediately to the advanced level.
• So what does the Orange (intermediate) level orienteer have to look at? Probably the most usable feature is the stony ground, which often occurs in large, distinct pieces and functions as an area feature comparable to fields and marshes in other terrains. Even when the stony ground is complex in its outline, it can still be generalized into a usable area feature. To a lesser extent, areas of green (thick vegetation) can be generalized in the same way.
• In addition, there are some intermediate-sized contour features that might not be obvious on the map but are recognizable in the terrain. One example is a multi-contour hillside that is noticeably steeper than the slopes above and below. Usually accompanying these steeper pitches is a “shoulder” at the top edge of the slope where it levels off and a “bench” on the lower side of the slope where it levels off before dropping off further below. For all of these features, it is important to pay attention to the spacing of the contours, which is a skill most orienteers rarely apply.
• There are more common intermediate-level contour features such as ridges, valleys and hilltops that are mostly large, broad and can be counted on two hands to cover the whole map. Nevertheless, they can’t be ignored because there really aren’t many other intermediate-sized features.”

“Many first timers to French Creek comment that there are many details on the map but nothing to see in the terrain. It usually takes a return trip or two to realize that not only are the details all there, but they are precisely mapped, and, once the orienteer makes some adjustments, navigation is in fact possible.”

Rock on!

Other points from article I want to think about:

• “The intermediate courses frequently require crossing through sections of terrain that only have advanced-level point features on the map. Therefore, accurate use of rough-compass technique is important to get to the linear or area collecting feature on the other side.
• “Aiming off” is the compass technique of intentionally going to one side of the direct line in order to hit a collecting feature on the intended side, then proceeding along that feature in order to find the control or an attack point before moving on. This is used in situations where the likelihood of finding the objective by direct bearing is low and not worth the risk of missing it. At French Creek this applies almost everywhere, since there are few obvious supporting features.
• Contour Reading: Though few intermediate-level contour features-such as valleys, ridges and hills-exist, the ones that are there are rather easy to recognize and must be utilized. While noting these shapes, you should also be aware of the direction of your travel relative to the contours, whether it is directly uphill or downhill, or at an angle to the slope of the hill, or directly along the slope, contouring along the hillside. Paying attention to the direction you want to travel relative to the slope, especially when used with rough compass, can be an effective combination.
• Attack Points:  Of course, attack points are important on all levels of courses, but for intermediate-level competitors the application is simpler. Almost every reasonable Yellow and Orange level attack point will be right along a linear feature, usually a trail, but sometimes a stream or clearing. My advice can be boiled down to one rule: don’t leave a linear feature without first finding a sure attack point. One warning: often very similar features lie along the linear feature, such as bends, junctions, rocks, terraces, rootstocks, etc., so it is usually worth taking some extra time to check multiple confirming features before staking your attack. When carefully designed, French Creek Yellow and Orange courses aren’t necessarily difficult. In fact, there are probably more than the usual number of easy legs if the course setter properly errs on the conservative side when there aren’t appropriately difficult features. Usually the “O” problem is very straightforward: rough compass through the featureless hillside to the next linear feature, find a known point and repeat. This pattern and the other intermediate-level concepts certainly underlie the advanced-level orienteering as well, with a few more complexities thrown in.
• Route Choice: French Creek can present route-choice problems. Legs here often involve the classic, “straight through the forest” vs. “around on the trail” decision. The contour [around] vs. climb situation appears less frequently because the gradual slopes present few climbs worth avoiding. The more frequent dilemma is the navigation-oriented route choice. Most respected orienteers advise that you base your route-choice decisions on ease of navigation, especially the risk involved in the final approach to the control. In no other terrain is this idea more important. Often at French Creek supporting features dictate only one or two reasonable approaches. It is a common practice to run wide off the straight line for the sole purpose of finding a handrail or a series of features that can be relied upon. Such a technical route choice accepts a known small time loss because of the longer route, over the possibility of a large time loss due to error with a straight-line route. It is one which many orienteers have never considered or applied but is critical to successful orienteering at French Creek.”

More on FCE later – I’m planning on returning there sometime early next week.  I’m hoping to successfully identify more than one or two charcoal terraces, as they seem to be an abundant feature, and could be very helpful out there in the subtle terrain.  I really wish I had read this article before I went!  (And I hope that the course setter for the upcoming meet reads it.)

Texas Longhorns at Why Not Farm on way home