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.  🙂

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?)

Hickory Run Training Weekend

Course analysis to follow shortly…

Hickory Run Training Weekend, a set on Flickr.

Myrick – Orienteering Adventure

MYRICK 9-09-12, a set on Flickr.

My first time event directing for DVOA – what a blast!  Myrick Conservation Center, at Brandywine Valley Association, is a lovely place.  Fields of sunflowers, scores of wonderful volunteers and participants, and great weather made this day awesome!

Tyler State Park – Green Course (first Advanced Course!)

Hey now! I did an advanced course! My first ever.  Though the terrain at Tyler (lots of trails, white woods, etc.) made things pretty easy, and this was more of an intermediate level Green course (but 20 controls!)  I was urged to try Green by a few DVOA-ers, and I must say – I’m glad I did.  Thanks for the push, guys.  It wasn’t like a push off the edge of a cliff, it was a nice friendly warm push into a green bush, like when I was a kid and my siblings would say “Ever been to Greenland?” and I, gullible to the bone, would say “No…?” and get pushed into the bushes.  Ah, memories.

I got off to a rocky rocky start, standing and staring at the map for well over a minute, just not being able to put things together.  I should always always have my compass to north before turning the map over and then move my body until things line up.  What the hell happened there I have no idea…it was like a big giant brain fart.  Ew.  But once I aligned things, I saw where I was and started running through a very very wet field which soaked my legs and shoes *squish squish* right at the beginning.

#1, no prob! A squishy knoll.

#2-#12 were all on the Bucks County Community College Campus, so an urban sprint of sorts.  The campus section was enlarged to 1:5,000 printed on the back of our 1:10,000 maps – extremely helpful!

I have never done this sort of orienteering, and I found myself thinking, “is this really orienteering?” but enjoyed it, though I did mess up in there a little.  #2 and #3, fine.  #4, mistook one building for the one I was looking for.  #5 went too wide.  #6 just not fast.  #7-10 all fine, if I could only go faster.   I had strolled through the campus once before, paying attention to buildings and looking at an old map, and that was key to me doing okay on the day of the event.  Navigating around buildings really takes some getting used to, I think, when you’re accustomed to looking at clearings and thickets and trails.  It’s hard to tell what goes through to where. From #10 to #11, I chose to go around the edge of the building to the North, and that ended up being a very steep rocky path next to a staircase (going up.)  In my mind, I was thinking I was taking a shortcut, because who would choose to go down the rocks like I was, and looking at the Splits, I did end up doing very well on this control (for me,) so maybe everyone else went around to the South.  I’m glad I nailed the Reentrant, because I haven’t done well on that feature in the past.   #13 was out of Urban mode, and I did lose a little time here.  I ended up going around the green to the South, cutting across the meadow and ducking into the green a little too North, popping back out and judging #13’s location in relation to #1’s location and popped back in to the green, walking SW and finding it.  (You can see all this better in the first map pic.)

From #13 to #14 was just trail running, at the junction of the clearing and trail. Bam.  #15, cross the bridge, path S to the first trail W, count paces and head S to look for the gulley.  This was not something you could see from the trail, but I did spot another orienteer coming out of there, so that was really helpful.  #15 to #16 I chose trails NW until the junction with the straight trail leading towards Neshaminy Creek, and then did a rough bearing NW through the woods, a little through the stony ground area, and then looked left to see a big big cliff with the control on it – a little bit of a climb with unsteady footing to get to it – whee!  That one was really fun.  #17 I kind of screwed up – went W on the S side of water, which was leading up and very steep, then gave up and crossed the water, went along trail until bridge, which looked like it went somewhere good, so I took that.  Trails S and W and N to get to the earth bank of #17.  So a lot of up and down and crossing water – certainly not boring!  #18, fine, woods to trails and then bearing to boulder.  To #19 was a fun downhill trail run, cross the bridge, and then stick close to water’s edge until trail.

#19 to #20 trails to parking lot across meadow to parking lot to trails, Finish I really ran out of gas.  I basically ran as much of this course as I could, and boy was I tired when I was done.  Makes me really want to train to run better.  So…how did I stack up against the other, more experienced orienteers on my first advanced course? (Although technically this was not really advanced orienteering, it was intermediate.) I came in 12th out of 31.  Not too bad.

FCE – DVOA Baptism Creek Event

actually it was 4.8km

Last Sunday’s Orienteering DVOA event at French Creek East went better than expected. (My second Orange course.) I guess I sort of over-prepared for it, but in retrospect I’m really glad I did. Going out and walking with the 1:15 map, and then being handed the new, 1:10 map on the day of the event was like suddenly being able to breathe underwater! Warning: this blog is post agonizingly boring but it’s an important way to document my growth and goals. If anyone actually reads it, you should get a medal.

For the #1 control, I just walked/jogged down the road, pace counting and looking for the trails on either side of the road; and then headed NE into the woods, seeing the clearing with the ruin in it right away. There was lots of waist high stilt grass around the ruin, making footing difficult especially combined with that first control eagerness. For #2 I went along the smaller trail, crossing the creek, and then headed across the white woods to the larger trail. Number 3 – I headed straight into the woods off of the T junction of the trail (where 2/8 is,) identifying the ditch and platform. Did a rough compass bearing to hit the power line south of the control, and walked along the edge of the power line break until I came to it. Saw a lone whitetail deer here.

Going from 3 to 4 was probably the trickiest control of the whole day. I started walking along the power line break and then thought about pace-counting and determining a point where I would then head towards the control area…remembered what my Dad said about the poles being accurately mapped, and so counted roughly 3 poles before taking a bearing and heading towards 4 while pace counting. The terrain from 3 to 4 was tough, lots of stilt grass again and couldn’t see my feet and also going up in elevation. But as I went over to 4 it got better and much to my surprise and delight I had aimed at it perfectly, there was the Pit and there was the control. Magic.

The way from 4 to 5 was just long, all on trails. I tried to interval walk/jog as best I could. Once it got downhill, I jogged. Apparently there was water at 5 but all I could see was the orange and white 🙂 From 5 to 6 I ran down the paved road at a good pace I think, and tucked into the woods after passing the fenced-in building. There was someone else right near the control so that helped.

From 6 to 7 I thought I had made a pretty good plan. I followed along the creek going in a SE direction, staying on the W side to avoid boulders, coming to the buildings and then trail to head over E to 7 area. Once on the trail, I pace counted and looked for the bend, that was my point to travel off of. But when I got to the bend, I just kept going straight and went between the control to my left and the boulders on my right, thinking I should be able to see it, since I had had such luck with visibility throughout the course. I was just a smidge too S and the control was obscured by vegetation – though it doesn’t look like it would on the map. Went to the road and ran up and down a little until I spotted it, and went crashing in. (Once again, stilt grass!) If there had been no control, I would have had to go back to the bend in the trail and think things through a little better. 7 to 8 was pretty straightforward, take the road and then follow the edge of the meadow. I turned N into the woods before the creek and and got it. For the last control it was just run down the trail. A little girl and her mom were at the control, taking a long time to insert the E-punch. I told the little girl she had ‘beat me to it,’ and what a great job she was doing. I did my best running to the finish but I am really not that fast!

It was a surprise to come in first place in Orange, when my plan had been to simply finish the Orange. Here are the splits. I got a lot of ribbing on the way home from Dad about ‘moving on up,’ meaning he thinks I should do an advanced course. I felt really good driving home and throughout the rest of the day, like actually deliriously HAPPY (even though I didn’t know I had won.) So happy that I made some life decisions based on wanting to be in DVOA-land for the next little while. Because if something makes me this happy, shouldn’t I keep doing it? What this day did was improve my confidence immensely, and just by a total fluke of scoring and who has done what events, put me in first place in my age category. I took a screen shot, because this is something that will never happen again (not with Angelica Riley and Sandy Ahlswede around!)

A one-time thing!

For the rest of this season, I think I’ll do mostly Orange, but try some Browns or Greens if they are at a venue where it seems appropriate. Maybe the next event, Tyler, is just such a place, because things are fairly open and the controls will supposedly be easy to see. But I don’t know yet. I’ll decide on the day of the event. By visiting the venue in advance, and walking some old courses, I really ease my anxiety about the unknown. It’s like scouting a location before the shoot day, in television. You want to know as much as you can about what to expect for the big day. I won’t always be able to do this, but for now I think it’s a helpful tool for me to ease my way into this sport. At some point, I’m going to have to get lost in the woods, but I will do everything I can to avoid it!

PS My dad did really well at FCE on this day too. His terrain was much more difficult going than what I had. GO Dad!

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

My first Orange Course

Springton Manor, Wallace PA…Sunday 7/22/12

Mid 70s, high humidity. With my new birthday 3/4 running tights, and my new running waist pack to hold my iPhone uploaded with a new GPS app, I felt mostly ready for the day, while at the same time somewhat nervous to be moving up from Yellow to Orange…the start of “real orienteering.” To prepare, I had been doing a lot of “training” up in New England area, but with no controls to confirm my abilities. I had also spent a lot of time looking at the Springton map and remembering it from last year, making sure I could recognize features like – T – the hunter’s stand, and the brown triangle for a charcoal terrace (still haven’t seen one of those for real.) And looking at the Route Gadget from the orange course last year, imagining how I would do the course. What I didn’t do, and probably should have, was a lot more actual running to prepare for this day. Because the terrain was relatively easy, with basically one big hill, lots of roads/trails and open meadows, speed was important. And I don’t have a whole lot of that in the tank. However, I think I did okay, because I was always moving, jogging when I could, and walking fast the rest of the time. And I didn’t make too many mistakes.

Anyway, here’s the day in a nutshell. Hit the road with Pops, listening to inspirational music like “Witch of the Westmoreland,” by Stan Rogers. Go on, click on that song, it’s good. Registered, was warned of yellow jackets, did not freak out about that 🙂 Conferred briefly with Sandy about the clue sheet to make sure I understood everything, my only question was for #12, why would there be the ‘between’ symbol, and only have one boulder? Was among the first to get out there, a little after 10am. I listened to my Dad’s advice about going slow to the first control. Then got some jogging in after that. I really didn’t have any problems with any controls, it was SO awesome to actually have controls, and in a lot of cases I saw the controls before I saw the feature. The Routegadget is here, but my GPS app kind of failed me when I uploaded it and matched it against the map – it had me meandering back and forth across Indian Run, which I didn’t do. Still it’s fun to look at the altitudes and paces and stuff – so here’s the session data too.

My goal was to try to do the 4.2km in under an hour, and I achieved that and strangely, also came in first place. I say strangely because it looks like I would have been second place until the very end, when I somehow got to the last two controls much faster than other people. I don’t understand that, because 11 to 12 was the one long uphill, and I was basically walking the whole time. There was a choice to go “off trail” and I didn’t, maybe others did. And the last control, I think I got really lucky finding the path that on the map looked fairly large, but in actuality was no more than a deer path and quite hard to spot. I had been pace counting, and ‘felt’ that the trail should be there (exciting when that happens!). I tried my best to run it in on the last control and to the finish, and I know I’m not fast, but it was fast for me to have a cumulative pace of 13:25/km. According to my GPS, in reality I went 5.7km, so that’s even faster- 9:53/km plus the climb. I’m not sure what numbers I’m supposed to be focusing on here, but it sure is fun to have lots of numbers to play with. What’s even more fun is looking at the Splits.

All in all, it was a great feeling to have been so nervous about moving up to Orange, and then end up doing so well. I felt really good out there, always knew where I was on the map, and from an administrative standpoint did well looking ahead to the next control and refolding my map etc while in motion and in advance. I also had the extra clue sheet tucked into my waist band, so I didn’t have to keep unfolding the map to read it there : HUGE difference. I adjusted well to the 1:5000 scale. And I’ll say it again: having actual controls to spot in the woods was pure joy.

Finally, I have been very dedicated to improving myself and I think that’s paid off. However my dedication pales in comparison with that of a young Lithuanian fellow my Dad and I ran into on our way home, about 2 miles out from Springton, walking along the road with a backpack. We identified him immediately as a orienteer, and possibly lost. Turns out, he had taken a bus from A.C., a train from Philly to Downington, and had walked from Downington…just to get to the meet. And guess what course he’d be running?” The “longest one.” We turned around and gave him a lift the rest of the way.

O-Goals

I seem to have been bitten hard by the Orienteering bug over the past few months.  Actually, it was a DVOA event at Ridley Creek State Park in Dec 2010, with courses set by my dad, that started me on a wave of fitness resulting in a weight loss of about 30lbs.

I’ve lost 30 lbs since I started orienteering in Dec ’10

Since that race, I’ve logged many hours walking and hiking, hoping I could be better at Orienteering –  hoping I could stop worrying about getting lost in the woods, or what would happen to me if I had a heart attack in the woods – all the lovely thoughts that one has with Panic Disorder (from which I am making a very good recovery thanks to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and lots of exercise.  See my Page on Panic.)

I’ve “competed” in 9 Yellow courses (beginner level,) and one Relay Event in the past 19 months in both the Philly and Boston area.  And now, I’m hooked.  It feels so good, because now I can actually jog a little! And…I want more.

But because there are no actual Orienteering events for a few weeks, and because I want to move up from Yellow to Orange, (people are saying “it’s time,”) I’ve been trying to “train” in my own fashion.  My dad was nice enough to shadow me on a previously competed Brown Course at Ridley Creek State Park on 6/27, which was very confidence-building in terms of getting off the trails and into the woods.  Apparently “trail running is not orienteering; real orienteering takes place only in the woods,” according to a NEOC article.  And to prepare for Orange, I must take those scary baby steps off the trails!  Because you never know what you might find in the woods!

Pink Lady Slipper Orchid – May ’12 at Breakheart Res in MA

So: what’s an Orange level course all about?  It’s considered Intermediate level and is 3.5 to 5.5kmlong.

From a NEOC article: Orange is the beginning of real orienteering, because controls are not visible from the trail and you must enter the woods. Controls are located on obvious terrain features, and the marker itself, at waist height, is clearly visible when approaching through the woods from a logical direction. Primary skills include understanding of the importance of an attack point: an obvious terrain feature within 100-200 meters of the control. The experienced orienteer always looks for an attack point first and not the control itself. Another orange-level skill is the ability to use the contour lines to distinguish between spurs (land that juts out from a hillside) and re-entrants (the little valleys between spurs). And it will be useful to take a compass bearing, often from the attack point to the control.

I’ve been taking old courses and trying to “run” them as if in a competition (I jog a little and mostly walk,) and because there are no controls, I’m learning to try and navigate to a feature, which is what you should be looking for in the first place (on the beginning courses you get instant gratification by being able to see controls right from the trails, etc.)  So, this is good.  But because I am still basically a beginner, and I screw up, sometimes it would be nice to have a control to know I got it right!  I think it’s probably not good to practice making mistakes…

On 6/28 I trained on a previous Ridley Yellow course that I knew well, in order to work on speed…FYI Ridley in the summer is a bitch!

And then coming back to the MA area, on 7/3 I trained on an old Orange course at Horn Pond from last year, and did okay.

I was reading an inspiring article off of the DVOA page, talking about training, that made me want to re-think what I’ve been doing:  “Training should isolate and improving specific skills, rather than repeat the competitive activity.” And since “Running, Navigating and Route selection are the three main skills that determine orienteering success,” I decided that for my next training activity I would take Running out of the picture entirely.  Take the clock away.

So today, I went out to Prospect Hill Park, in Waltham, MA, for a jaunt that lasted almost 2 hours, trying to complete a training course that Ross Smith of CSU (who now lives in Sweden, the birthplace of Orienteering) created for me in Jan ’11 that was too hard for me then.  The idea today would be to keep contact as much as possible. “Contact” is the O-term for the relationship in your mind between what you see on the map and what you experience in the natural world around you.   I felt very solid with this today, and being forced to slow down, I really did notice a lot more.  I didn’t really run except for maybe once or twice when I got bored with a long trail.  I found every feature, but got frustrated with my nemesis, the Re-Entrant.  All in all, it was a successful training mission.

Each time I orienteer (successfully) I have a feeling of great satisfaction.  In the beginning, I was fighting Panic more than anything.  Just going into the woods alone was enough of a challenge.  But now, I’m not even thinking about the “what ifs” of Panic, I’m just focused on the task at hand: getting from one point to another using a map and compass.  I’m even starting to have moments of real joy at the feeling of being in a forest, off a trail, alone, finding things.   It’s very empowering.

I want to continue to have fun and train until the next event, which is a DVOA Springton Manor on 7/22.