Training Log Archive: Mr Wonderful

Event: SMOC Silver Lake
 

FAIL

If I can't finish a Lew Kidder course in a reasonable time, should I rethink my plans to try the A meet in Kentucky in the spring?

1 - Cut mostly straight west to it, no problem
2 - Cut mostly the way I wanted to - briefly overshot and backtracked. Here I managed to accidentally cut through a swamp that was at first just ankle deep muck and then waist deep water. It was a shock! GPS track doesn't tell me where this happened - it wasn't marked as anything with water.
3 - I'm okay with my route to 3. I managed to avoid the green, and found the low area and made my way to the end of it
4 - This was the end of my race. I completely and utterly fouled this up . I don't know why I thought was where I was. I should've used my compass to get going around that lake - for some reason, I misread and went east, and then thought the reentrants I eventually found were the right ones - they were not. then I bore south...finally...but it was too late and I used a lot of trail to just go to the little stone cave, then up to the clearing . ARGH ARGH ARGH. Humongous waste of time, and energy, and destroyed confidence. Had I gotten this right, I probably would've finished.
5 - I should've tried a more direct track, but I followed the unmarked but popular trail from the clearing to the trail. I had trouble reading the features to 5, so I briefly started to go around the next pond, but realized it and went to the very faint feature. Had it not been between two ponds, I probably would've struggled.
6 - I actually did fine here. Not sure it was the speediest route, but I stayed off trail, picking up that faint trail west of the pond west of 5, then reading the features well and only coming out 15 meters south of the flag.
7 - This was no trouble, for reason it all made sense. I had visions of being able to finish the course in a reasonable amount of time.
8 - I've spent enough time here for control pickup that it was straightforward.
9 - Another botched control. I was stupid close the first pass - I actually went through a third of the circle!, but didn't look east to find the fallen tree. I ended up at the trail, then looped way too far east, back down to the two track, and then I took another crack with the compass and went to it. I began to doubt that I would finish.
10 - Seeing as how I nearly tripped over the damn thing headed to #4 (yes I was that wrong earlier), I should've found it quicker. I drifted too far west, then cut back south, found features similar to the nearby pond, and convinced myself I was right, when I was then too far west. I went up to the trail, and dropped back down near the impossible-to-see trail junction, and got it. I thought I might take a crack at 11, but I didn't see it and it was pretty late so I grabbed the trail and jogged it in, thankfully not last.

So I should really not do a Lew Kidder course on a day where I play guitar at church and try to grab a quick lunch with the family. You can pull that off at Huron Meadows, but not here, not if you're me!

If I were qualified to host a meet, I think I'd do it on a Saturday for the novelty and for people with Sunday scheduling issues.

My gps log is too pitiful to post anywhere. I shall now weep silently.