F*@#^%n' Sand Dunes

Posted Sat, April 18, 2009 - 6:22 PM
orienteering, navigation

Another MNOC meet today, on a sunny, above average day - but it was at Sand Dunes. The terrain is terrific, but the large amount of undergrowth (i.e., prickly ash, assorted raspberry vines, and more prickly ash) and active "forest management" (i.e., logging) tend to cause a pretty slow and painful pace. Throw in an alarming amount of poison ivy and some active wood ticks, and you've got a fun day in the woods.

Map of April 18, 2009 Sand Dunes course - Click to enlarge

The course started with a first leg over to the south side of 233rd St - not an area we've used very often in recent meets. I ran through the parking lot, across the road, and entered the woods going SW. I intended to aim off west and get into the map over the hills and depressions until I hit the trail - which I did running down the vegetation boundary to the green X. I ran onto the trail, followed it around to the open area, and went due south until I saw the steep ridge - actually steeper than I thought it would be, and walked up to the top and worked my way over to the hilltop. Leif had started three minutes after me, and he's only gotten faster as he's gotten older - USA team training notwithstanding.

I was slow to #2, not able to read the map very well, and ended up in the depression just NE. I quickly corrected and hit the slight pocket and ran out towards the trail bend on the way to 3. I crossed the trail and had to correct to the east, trying to run along the ridgetop from the open area. There was a pretty good deer trail as I ran NE and jogged a little west as I approached the depression, then crossed the road and nailed #3 right as a couple of the JROTC kids were leaving. 3-4 was a trail run, and I cut north from the junction around the east edge of the marsh, over the hill and directly into the control. The frogs were really going at it in the marsh - so despite the fact it was daytime, my sense of hearing played a part in running this leg. But on my way to #5, I made my first mistake.

I got into the open area, headed to the NE corner and got around the north edge of the marsh - but on my way through the medium green, ended up curving to the right, as I found today's tendency to be. I also ran into Carl and very possibly pulled him to the SE and around the wrong side of the marsh below #5. I realized my mistake near the S tip of the marsh, and decided to go forward, down to the edge of the marsh and run along it back to the control (Carl decided to backtrack.) But when I first set foot outside the ever thicker vegetation along the south side of the marsh, I immediately went calf-deep in swamp water. Oh well, shoes are wet now. That probably made it quicker to circle the east edge of the marsh and hook back to the control - but it still was a lot slower than it should have been. I didn't see Carl after that.

Now even though I've "blown" a control - and admittedly, this looked like a 2 minute mistake, not terrible - I've practiced not getting ruffled by it. I breezed the next leg, running along the edge of the big marsh, past the AR control #3, and following the edges to catch the trail toward #6. The woods in this area were beautifully open, with none of the usual slash and undergrowth - more reminiscent of Lake Maria. I hit #6 just fine, but see Leif coming in as I came out east to the road. He had gained time on me.

I took a quick bearing and busted ass out to the road. There were enough bends and features there for me to easily relocate, and I only had to go about 20 meters north to get to the wide open area in the depression. Then I followed the depression east and went up over the left-hand lip into #7. Then out to the trail, south to the saddle, and then SE into #8. The whole area to the north of the line on the map was cut over by the logging operation, and I followed a fairly open trail along its south edge, but still at the top of the ridge. After that, it was a nearly due south run into the open area and thrash to the trail (my map contact was a little sketchy here.) I caught the main trail about 100 meters north of the four-way intersection and simply trail ran to the sharp corner, then up and over the ridge into #9 in a depression. #10 was slower than it should have been - I handled the first 3/4 just fine, in contact, and then decided to run through the dark green blob. It pulled me south and I stopped to check the clue on my card. DAMN - I was thinking reentrant, but it really was a spur. No wonder. A right-angle turn to the right and hit this one right on. Then a run in the depression to the NW (filled with pine trees) out to the open area. This was my second mistake.

For some retarded reason, I thought it would be a good idea to cut through to the other open area. So I did, and got caught in the nastiest patch of prickly ash that Sand Dunes has to offer. It felt like a looong time before I got to the (not-quite-so-open) clearing and ran west. Now I was in a position of not knowing exactly where along the N-S trail I was. I should have just followed the easy trail in the original clearing.

So I ended up too far south of #11, and having to head north to catch it. Leif ran in and punched right at the same time as I did. So he was 3 minutes ahead at that point, and looking strong.

I ran out through the depression to the road-trail junction, and as I crossed, saw that Leif had gained another 40 meters on me. Well, them's the rocks - run my own race. We both ran down the trail to the junction and cut SW to #12 without a problem. Then I took a quick bearing and headed SW, fortunately catching a logging trail and passing about 40 meters east of the isolated marsh. But here was my final mistake - a real brain fart this time.

I hit the E-W trail, ran W, found the indistinct trail and ran right to 308, punching it as my mind just "leaped" the distance to the GO control #13. And then, I ran WEST (WTF?) to the junction, got confused, checked the compass, and eventually made my way to the parking area from the WEST. At this point I was second guessing my own code checking - something was nagging at me - and so I decided to run through the finish area and up the hill to double check that last control. Sure enough, I got there and the pin punch was different - so I overpunched on 13 and ran back into the finish in an embarrassed state.

Even though it was right at the end, it still wasn't a terrible boom, time-wise. But I'd shudder to think what might have happened had the course been longer!