Training Log Archive: Nadim

In Pocahontas State Park and Forest southwest of Richmond, VA. Warm-up with Dave Onkst on the roads with a couple of pickups.

QOC: Pocohantas State Park Score-O. Course setter Tim Gilbert gave us our maps in which all the controls fit within only 2/3's of an 8x11" page and explained that due to the downfall, he didn't think anyone would be able to get all 20 controls in the allotted 90 minutes. All the MD contingent did except Peggy who injured her ankle early in the course and made a good decision to go back early. Starting after Ted Good, Peggy, and Dave Onkst. With a road down the middle of the map it divided the controls up neatly. I decided to do the west half first since they seemed easiest--I wanted to get a feel for the map which had been photocopied, blown-up to 1:10,000 from the original 1975 1:20,000 version and none of the vegegation except clearings was shown. I whipped through the first half tentatively at first but picking-up speed and getting 11 of 20 in under half an hour. I went slow to my first control and missed #20 by a spur over because new changes to the road threw me off. I missed on #19 by climbing much too early being in a couple reentrants over. I missed on #18 (too far south), took a slow route to #15, and made a massive parallel error leaving #14 headed toward #13 (I got near #12 and zig-zagged back toward #14 before relocating). I also overshot #11, then left it wrong getting to the finish. I estimate about 9:00 of errors.

Control Time Error
9 2:08
8
7 4:59
6 2:58
3 2:16
5 1:42
2 2:16
4 1:46
1 1:48
20 3:07 1:00
19 6:12 1:00
18 3:46 1:00
17
16 5:39
15 3:47 0:40
14 1:45
13 8:54 5:00
12 3:46
10 3:05
11 4:37 0:40
F 2:41 0:20

In Pocahontas State Park and Forest, southwest of Richmond, VA. Dave Onkst organized another crew (Dave, Mike Ball, Keg Good, Ted Good, Peggy and myself) to examine parts of the park that we didn't run the Score-O through. The large park had been used for an A-meet in 1975. Contours were still very good and not very steep. I started just below the lower dam on the west end of the park cold and wet from the shin deep crossing. I explored the northern portion of the park above the lake back to the footbridge and parking area in the east. The initial loop I did was great with open woods, a few boulders and other point features. Old felled areas looked ominous but once in these closely spaced pines, one could still run at a slow pace and linear broken ground areas were inside; leftovers from felling that were probably bulldozed together. These sometimes formed dot knolls. The pine areas were often 100m wide and with several of them, it was easy to pass through and make errors when emerging back into the oaks. There were some large fallen oak trees but these could be run around. Going west, I found it got a little worse. The pine areas were older and fallen branches motivated me to change directions when running through. In a couple places there were series of rides and more linear broken ground features that didn't follow contours--these would be technical when matched against contour features. I passed some nice streams with some boulders, a slightly thorny marshy area with blowdown, several roads, a big open felled area, some smaller trails, and nice areas along the lake. It seems worth the effort to map this park however, the club would need to think of the ability to perform logistics for an A-meet so far from the majority of members. The two hour drive south from Bethesda took closer to 3:30 coming back in heavy holiday traffic and rain.