On the return trip from a weekend in Cleveland, stopped in a Ohio state park about 20 miles east of Akron, where the North East Ohio Orienteering Club had their final meet of the year, and where it was the inaugural event for a new map. As we drove south from Cleveland towards the rendez-vous, it started raining, and we were wondering if the cleveland orienteerers were going to show up in great numbers for this map inaugual event. As we rounded the final turn, and saw the parking lot completely full, and had to park in the overflow lot, we then knew that, yes, the clevelanders are not sissy people that shy away because of a few raindrops. With only 10 minutes late from the 1 PM mass-start, changed clothes into my cheap-o clothing that I've accumulated from my flea-market foraging outings, and ran to the cabin where registration was going on. Luckily, the map had the controls pre-printed, and so marking the controls by hand with pen was not necessary. Showed up at the gazebo, recognized a few familiar faces, apparently this was going to be the second mass-start of the day, as there was another one half-hour earlier, and two minutes later, a small number of us were off. I intended to go North and from there, sort of go anti-clockwise. From the first seconds into the run, noticed that two others were going on the same direction, so I figured we were thinking alike. Control 2 was easy right on trail. The next control, 32, was a different story. With two other veteran orienteers, we combed the woods looking for the white and orange retina-flash, but it just didn't seem to pop up. I then extended the radius and sort of went South towards the trail, and saw it. Didn't really stop to verify the accuracy of the control position, and went on back on the nearby trail. Route to 31 was mostly on trail in coniferous woods. For 30, got to the trail junction, and used that as attack point. Returned to my steps back to the trail junction, and continued North and used another trail junction as attackpoint and found 29. Then towards nearby trail to get to 28, slowed down a bit because I was fearful of overshooting it, and went bushwacking in the woods. Found it without problems. Next was 27. Routed towards the trail South of 28, then to trail junction, crossed stream and used the faint streambed as attackpoint to go to 27. Got somewhat confused by lack of features, and wasn't always sure I was on the right streambed, but somehow found the control. Then, decided to go to 18. Went South to find the faint trail, and followed it. After turning South near the open field, apparently I must have followed a trail that is not mapped, and took me on a slightly downhill route that bottomed at a faint stream. I assumed that was the stream I was looking for that was near 18. I found one marsh, then a second marsh. All seemed confirmed by the map and compass. But no control. There was another orienteerer looking for it. He said he has been looking for it for 20 minutes, and was ready to give up. I must have spent 12 minutes on it, criss-crossing the land, getting as far as the open fields. After a third and futile pass, decided to abbandon. Was bummed. Decided to route on a small trail to get to 26 and 13. Saw a house in the nearby woods. Seemed really big. Could figure out where that house was, since it just didn't match my mental model. Kept on going, and literally stumpled on a control. It was control 18, about 300 meters away from where I thought it was. The location of the nearby trail and small wooden bridge confirmed its position. So where did I end up ? how did I end up there ? good questions, will later analyze, I am saying to myself. And in the meantime, I am saying L-U-C-K-Y. I am back in a good mood. After trail intersection, found 26 easily, then 13, ran straight trail to intersection near 23, got to 23, but got the exit strategy wrong, and went East when I should have gone North or West (lost a minute here). Got to 11, then decided to sacrifice 14, and go straight to 22. Then, running on the paved road, got to the trail intersection to go to 15, then backtracked, crossed the paved road, and went to 17, an easy find for 40 points. On route to 24, followed a trail thinking it was the bigger trail. When I saw it turned South, I just bushwacked North for 20 meters and found the major trail I initally intended in following. Then got to the powerline, and at the second pole, saw the control. Continued on the powerline, then followed a trail to a nearby hill, atop which found control 25. Then went for 16, following small trails. From 16, wanted to go to 10, but got afraid of choosing among a maze of small trails, so I just went for the easy route and went along the big clearing. Saw Randy running from the woods towards me, so I guessed he was coming from a control. Atop the hill saw the cemetery and the control. Followed the route Randy was going, East, and crossed the clearing of late-fall tall grasses and two-meter tall thorny dry plants. Need kevlar pants for this vegetagion. Found a trail, and took it downhill going South, with intention of going to 19 and finding it from the clearing south of it. Saw a mountain biker through the woods, and thought that is the trail I wanted to get to in approach towards the control, and bushwacked 20 meters and short-cutted to it. Turned out it was a different trail than the one I inteded to follow. Afraid of not recognizing an attack point for 19, went North to follow the parallel trail, and at its 90-degree turn, returned to the small trail I was running on earlier, so I could at least have a clearer idea of the nearby attackpoints. Saw the bolders mapped as features, and saw the rootstock. Then went South towards the clearing, and found that small protuberance of the clearing into the woods. Didn't see the control, so I checked the clue sheet. That is when I noticed it was crossed out. It was the control that was not placed. I made the mistake of not crossing it out on the map when I was at the registration table, and totally forgot about it. Geez, I say, some lost time here, definitely. But still in high spirits, I set my intention on 20. On the first pass, didn't find it. Returned South back to the trail, and carefully checked every turn after the rootstock. Then, at a point I just call "felt right", set the compass to North, and went. Saw the hill top I was on earlier in my first pass, still no control, saw on the map there was a second hill, and kept on going, and then, magic, saw the control. Got back on the trail, somehow forgot to leave that trail for 12 after the creek crossing, so lost some time, and after finding 12, wanted to get to 5, but went up North too much and after bushwacking and crossing creek, ended up on a trail that instead of taking me to 5 as I mentally thought I was doing, I instead ended up finding 1. Now I was totally confused. Still had 6 minutes left, went for 21, and from the paved road turn, initially thought of following the short trail but stopped when I saw the barrage of thick thorny vegetation, and said "this is bad", and backtracked back to the paved road, and from the nearby parking lot, got to 21, then back to the parking lot, followed trail to 7 and then to 5. As I got closer to 5, saw Randy running across the clearing of tall grasses for 5. I got there 20 seconds later, and followed Randy to the gazebo, probably with a minute late penalty. By the time the meet ended, it was raining lightly, temperature seemed to have dropped a bit, hands felt cold. Talking to the others, it seemed many could not find control 32. Olga said it probably was a bit south from where it was mapped. Could be. Talking to an other participant who came with a young woman and a dog, he said he had the advantage of living in a house with the back into the park. He showed me on the map which house, and I immediately recognized the house as the one I saw through the woods near the control I couldn't find for 12 minutes. I told him of my mis-route, and he said that indeed there is a brand new trail where I was pointing. The group congratulated Bob "Lighting" Boltz for his mapping, and everyone seemed content and in this last meet of the Year 2007, exchanged words of "see you in the Spring".
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