Terrain is a bit more rocky than the usual alluvional soft-terrain found on western pennsylvania. The Chestnut Ridge, where the park is located, is indeed more rocky. The leaves on the ground covered many small rocks and one had to thread a bit more carefully while running. Also, marked on the map where striped areas to denote very difficult areas to pass through. These were slopes on a hillside with lots of Greenbriar.
On planning for the Score course, decided it was best to go first to the controls downhill and do the controls uphill last, so that if I ran out of time, I could always decide to do a fast run to the finish, all downhill, without risking running out of breath (which could have happened if my last stretch had been uphill).
My first mistake was on closing in on control 8 on the western edge of the park. Mistook a trail intersection for another, and ended up NE of the control, saw some large boulders on the northern side of the creek, and then realized where I was. Then, returning to my steps, went too much south of the control, and once I hit a reentrant with intermittent stream, saw it on the map as being on the West of the control. Now, that is two consecutive mistakes on the same control.
The control on 36, the edge of a small pond, on the Western side there were some really thick greenbriar bushes. Followed the creek bed, which didn't have any bushes ground on it, but above it.
My second mistake was on the approach to 40, on the Eastern side of the park. Must have not seen the trail covered in leaves, and stayed on the slope south of the control, and followed a creek side for a while, until I realized I must have gone too far. Returned downhill following the creek, and 200 meters later found the control (2 minute loss).
On the approach from 40 to 37, miraculously I found a path along the greenbriar, probably set by deers, and was able to puncture through without too many scratches.
On the approach from 38, to 39, went a bit too East, saw the farm clearing, and once there, saw where the trail was and followed it.
On the final leg from the last control to finish, I wondered if I could push myself through the greenbriar, hesitated for a few seconds, then said "why not", you only live once, and took the plunge. My shoe got tangled a couple of times, and another time had to crawl on the ground under a thick bush, but eventually made the lower wooded ground, and made the last run to the cabin at the finish.
Had the route followed here been a cross-country event, it would have been 7.65 km long with 400 m elevation.
leg 1: 500 m
leg 2: 320 m
leg 3: 370 m
leg 4: 240 m
leg 5: 370 m
leg 6: 320 m
leg 7: 420 m
leg 8: 390 m
leg 9: 360 m 33 minutes
leg 10: 370 m
leg 11: 310 m
leg 12: 280 m
leg 13: 360 m
leg 14: 430 m 60 minutes
leg 15: 580 m
leg 16: 510 m 77 minutes
leg 17: 350 m
leg 18: 630 m
leg 19: 290 m 86 minutes
finish: 250 m 88 minutes
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