S - 1: All trail and also an area I was familiar with. I ran by one as I was planning on having another helper pick it up.
1-2: The plan was to simply continue south at the trail bend and follow to the flag. A better route would have been to follow the trail past the dashed green and avoid the palmettos that left me with some pretty mice "fan" cuts as i was travelling fairly fast.
2-3: Maintaining a south bearing I simply headed to the visible border of the dark green and hopped onto the trail. The white wooded area in the middle of the green was obivous and I simply looked for a "hole" out of the southern boundary of the green and came right to the thicket and the control.
3-4: I planned to attack 4 from the dirt mounds along the trail ENE of the control, these were easy to find and the control was about 15 m E of the mapped distinct tree, but clearly visible from it.
4-5: A southerly bearing took me to the "wet" area 100 meters north of 5, it was dry, but it was also the deepest point in that depression in the (orange) open area. Due south from that led me straight into the control. I took a pretty good fall and twisted my ankle on this leg - but as my tendons are pretty much rubber bands from so many twists, it did not slow me much. CP 5 was on the north side of the control circle.
5-6: Due east with a plan to grab the trail and simply turn into it. The area north of the trail was painted green so did not match the map, so useless for attack - but the line of thickets and the vegetation boundary was visible from the trail, so this was relatively easy. Also the subtle contours were readable and had the control near the top of the low ridge.
6-7: The plan was to hit the trail and get some fast running. I hopped off the E_W trail near the ridhe top and planned to contour into the depression NE of the control, however the running was more open on the west side of the ridge. I attacked from the small depression and easily found the open (orange) and simply handrailed it to the thicket.
7-8: I used a bearing and got lucky enough to find the small hole in the green vegetation to the south. I emerged within sight of the control and even though it did not appear to be on a thicket (as described) I did not hang around long enough to look closely.
8-9: I had planned to simply pick up the first (subtle) hilltop and take the saddle across to the other one. The fennel was very thick in this section and was doing a real number to the open cuts on my legs (from section 1-2). I was not paying close attention to the hilltop attack and blew right past the hill backstopping at the trail. I located the ditches on each side, ran S along the trail to the mapped earth berms and re-attacked the control following the contours that had it in a shallow depression. Once I saw the depression the lone thicket was obvious.
9-10: I abandoned a quicker direct route as the fennel was now causing me some serious pain along my legs. My gaiters only protected my lowere legs and my thighs were pretty much a mass of blood and dirt - not a problem until you run sharp tall fennel weed along it at high speed. I bailed to the trail and wanted a fennel free route to 10. Luckily the earlier runners had trampled a path that took me relatively close to the control and I avoided the majority of pain. The control was realtively simple as there were few thickets and the shallow re-rentrant on the mpa was readable from a distance.
10-11: Ths should have been really easy. Once I hit the first trail I somehow got confused and though I was on the back trail and also that I was heading for 12. Realize I did not look at my map at all after leaving 10 (I was contouring and looking for an obvious depression). For some reason my brain skipped ahead to 12, but after 30 seconds on the trail heading north (uphill) - I slapped my head and went "duh!". I ran back - picked up 11 and then went to the more western and correct trail to go to 12.
11-12: My original plan was to use trail the entire route, but once I hit the first intersection - the woods were wide open so I bounced to the first thicket and then to the cloverleafed shaped oneand punced out to the trail. One i saw teh earth mound I attacked off the trail reasoning with a faiirly large depression behind the control - this would be pretty easy (and it was).
12-13: Plan here was to use trail as much as possible and my legs felt pretty good so I turned on some speed. After crossing the hilltop I attacked heading downhill, passed the small depression and then moved right into the control.
13-14: North to the trail and then follow trails.
14-15: Had mylegs not been shredded by palmettos and fennel I proably would have punched through the light green, but my leg muscles were realtively fresh and I simpyl went around the trails. Locating the flag was pretty easy on the deeper of the two depressions and dues south of the (visible) ranger station.
15-F: I hopped out to the road and sprinted in.
Overall - trying to tie the controls and stuff them in my backpack probably cost me some time though I kept moving at the same time. I was unable to keep track of my own time as my solar watch (which I really like) decided it was time to "recycle", which is a bad habit it has - it goes into some mode where it responds to nothing for 1-2 hours. Also it was important to get a good heading as I left a control as I was going to be concentrating on the tying the flags and not navigating for that period of time. I really enjoyed the course - it was long and relatively challenging.
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