A Great Day at Afton

Posted Sun, February 15, 2009 - 8:19 PM
orienteering, navigation

MNOC had their second winter meet of the year at Afton State Park today. As usual in winter, it's a score event with a mass start at a given time. Competitors can then fan out to find a variable number of controls, in any order, and must return to the finish before a given deadline, or lose points. Scoring is first by number of controls (including penalty points), then fastest time. Today we had 26 controls, expertly set by Todd, and 90 minutes to find them.

Map and race report are below the fold.

Map of February 15, 2009 Afton course - Click to enlarge

We all started in a big semicircle and picked up the preprinted maps when the whistle blew. Everybody had to take a few seconds to plan their basic route. I chose clockwise, using the main park road as a dividing line. Ian, Mike, and Will all chose likewise, and I ran on their heels down to #17, butting in front of Will to grab the punch. Ian and I then set off west across the prairie to #23. We reached it within seconds of each other, and then I outpaced him south to #25. I used the hill on the opposite side of the road as a sight and kept a little to the left of it, hitting the paved trail about 20 meters up from the junction. Then I crossed the road, climbed up the hill and dropped into #10. Ian was right with me, and I suspect the others were too, although I couldn't see.

Then I took off SE, intending to go across the open rough. However, it ended up being plowed and was hard with difficult footing. So I was slow to the south edge, thrashed through to the gravel road, and ran east down the side to avoid the ice. I heard Will's footfalls slowly getting louder, and he caught up and pulled slightly ahead as I slowed down. However, I had slowed down for a reason, and ducked right off trail in a direct line to #16, hitting it first since Will had to curve back around the side of the outhouse. We then both dived into the ravine and up the other side. I took a not-so-good line and got hung up in some brush, and Will went a little lower and got ahead. I made a mistake here and started to follow him, and had descended a bit when I realized we were too low, at the base of the lowest line of cliffs. Will continued south along the slope, but I trotted on to find a good place and went back up to the top of the line of cliffs. I continued running south and spotted the next pair above, looked back over my shoulder to see Will stopped consulting his map, and angled upslope to hit #15. Mike and Ian had both caught up by now, and we all climbed out into the group campsite together.

I attacked #3 from the outhouse on the south side of the loop, but stupidly angled too far to the west and got suckered by the gullies on the west end of the reentrant. By the time I realized and contoured back east to #3, Will, Mike, and Ian had all gotten ahead. I followed the north side of the south fork into the open area, which was another mistake since the snow there, unlike in the wooded areas, wouldn't support my weight. I postholed over to the trail and grabbed #20 a few seconds after Will and a few seconds before Mike and Ian.

Will and I continued north alon the trail to the hill crest until we had a view of the power pole at #11, then ran across another difficult plowed field directly to the control. Mike and Ian took an angled approach with less trail running, but I ended about 20 seconds ahead punching #11, and Will was about the same distance in front of me. I chased him west down onto the snowshoe trail, and as we went around the sharp left turn near #8 I saw him blow by it. So I slowed to a trot and made sure to hit #8 efficiently, then ran out assuming Will would be on his way back. However, I didn't see him until another 50 meters down the trail - he was going slow and looking at his map - so I trotted past making a disparaging comment about the quality of the trail (icy!) I didn't want to seem to be moving too fast. After seeing that I was pulling him down into the creek valley, I sped up, cut west down the edge of the tributary, and thrashed around losing a little time in the creek bottom before getting #5. Then I ran up the hill to the open area and through to #14 in a mess of (I think) sumac. Will had caught up here, and I asked if he had gotten #8. He admitted that he'd missed it, so that put me one control ahead. However, Ian was coming across the open area as I doglegged back to the NW, and I logically suspected he hadn't missed any.

#19 and #24 offered an interesting choice - go over the big hill, or contour around it? I chose to contour around, partially becuase 24-13 looked like a good trail run. I was lucky enough to catch a good deer trail shortly after entering the woods at the brow of the hill, and took it west and upslope practically right to #19. I was able to notice and check off the cliffs along the way. Then I turned south and went straight uphill to the flat area, then trotted along the forest edge, turned the corner and ran west down to the easily visible #24. I didn't see or hear anyone behind me at this point, so I started to switch back to "flow" mode. The woods north of #24 were a little choked with buckthorn, but I got to the trail and ran it hard down to #13, where I saw Dave coming counterclockwise around the course.

The route up the spur to #6 was pretty open, although I had to walk it at this point. Still with no one visible behind me, I nabbed #6 and ran back through the ravine and a particularly bad patch of prickly ash, crossed the road and following the north edge of the hill and down the spur to #21. Although I didn't see them, apparently Will and Ian were still close behind and arrived at #21 pretty much together. I went north towards #7, down and up the reentrant on a deer trail and spiked #7 in some thick vegetation that included downed junipers that posed a nontrivial impalement risk. It didn't help that the steep slope was a bit icy, and I did slip once and bang my elbow. I then decided to get off the slope ASAP, and half slid, half ran down to the creek and trail, using trees along the way to slow my progress. I ran across the creek bed and jogged north down the trail looked for a good attack point. I ended up thrashing through some buckthorn just before the creek crossing, looked into the first dry ditch realizing it was too soon, and climbed into the correct ditch and punched #12 just ahead of a group of U of M students.

I exited along the south side of the ravine, crossed it farther east and ran into the easy #4 along the trail, then turned northwest and ran through the field to the gully system containing #18. Unfortunately, my brain stopped working here and I ended up running about 10 meters to the left of it, getting confused by the multiple spurs and gullies, and descending way too low down towards the ski lift. I stopped myself and looked back up, seeing the marked unpassable cliff, and things clicked, but I had to fight back up an icy slope full of buckthorn and cross a deep gully to get back to the right spur - the one I'd crossed only a minute or two ago. But I still didn't see the control until I was practically on top of it. On the bright side though, I hadn't seen anyone catch up with me. So I hightailed it NW to the trail and contoured through the white (then green) to #1, although I was sloppy here too. Finally, I ran back out to the road and assessed the situation.

My watch said I was sitting a little over 1 hour out, so I was confident about getting them all. As I ran along the road, I turned my punch card around and checked that I actually did have three controls left. No mistakes there, luckily, so I put the map and control card down to my side and turned on the speed to the northernmost parking lot. I veered east to grab #26, and started down the stairs to the base of the hill. On the way down, I had to dodge lots of ice. In one section, I had to jump off an icy step but landed on - wait for it - more ice. I slid about three feet balanced on one foot, then as my foot outpaced my body, ended up horizontal, hit the ground precisely horizontal (thus distributing the impact sufficiently), and then slid another five feet on my back. I wasn't injured at all and didn't lose my breath, so I jumped up and continued trotting downhill to punch #26 and #2. On the way back, I jumped across the creek as a shortcut, since it was so low. I didn't see anyone else until Mike on his way down the stairs, so I didn't push too hard. However, Ian and Will were both only a couple minutes behind. I kept a reasonable pace into the finish for a total time around 76 minutes.