Orienteering

So Sunday was another orienteering event. This time it was out at the Santa Fe dam. Jane, Kary and I decided we would bike from Jane's house over to the event, which was a nice warm-up. Dave B. met us at the park with the car and we also ran into some of our boot camp buddies . . . here are Bob and Murray before the start: As this was Kary's first time, we decided to do a short course first. The funny part was about 1/2 way through we ended up behind this one team. The woman was a bit competitive for a short course and kept looking around and trying to lose us. We were on a well-marked trail, so it was not that hard to stay on it and find the right check points. Although at some point in time we both took a wrong turn. Kary and I quickly realized our mistake, where we needed to be, and decided the quickest way between the two points (and without tipping of the other team) was a straightline - a straightline through a cactus field.

We carefully made our way through (trying to avoid being stuck), found the check point, and then had to go back through the cactus field again. We found the last two check points easily and then headed for the finish. The other team must not have figured out their mistake too quickly because they did not cross the line for about another 15 minutes.

Then Kary, Jane and I decided to do a long orange course.

The first half was pretty straight forward and not too far off any trail. Then we started off across the rocks, the rock walls, and the brush.

From there we had to find our way up and around a cliff. For us that meant going through a ton more brush and yes, we even climbed over a tree.

Then we got stuck. For the life of us we could not figure it out. We were in the correct place on the map, but no check point. So although frustrated, we skipped two check points, found the remainding check points and headed to the finish (a few minutes late). Turns out that our map, which had certain check points hand-marked by the organizers, actually had the two checkpoints we skipped marked in the wrong place. So while we were in the right place according to our map, there was no checkpoint to be found!

The only other mistake of the day was for me - not wearing long pants (I thought I would be too hot). So, my parting gift was lots of very attractive scratches on my legs from the brush.

Other than that it was a lot of fun and a beautiful day!