Bull Mtn Mock Race

Today I spent the day running around in the woods with Julia and Bill Fletcher at the TrailBlazer's Bull Mountain Mock Race. We started off on foot with a 5 point orienteering course. Julia wanted to get more exposed to navigation so I gave her our map and we headed out on foot. The O-course was mostly bushwhacking, so it was a fairly tough exercise for someone just learning. We had a few bumps along the way, but nothing too severe. Julia learned about what land features look like on a map and that those really tight contours are generally a no-no. The highlight of this section was when we did some ridiculous traverse/scramble along a cliffline that I was just thinking wow..I'd probably break a leg if I fell from up here... We then had to find a way down so we used a crooked old rhodo tree as a rope to lower ourselves low enough to then stand on Bill's shoulder for a step as the damn cliff was undercut. Leave it to us to make a walk in the woods full of danger and adventure!

The next section was a bike-o along the Bull Mtn trail. All of these checkpoints were right along the trail so this section went pretty quickly for us. The biggest challenge was clearing the steep uphill sections. The combination of wet roots, rocks, and leaves made some sections a lot more challenging than usual. Julia took a huge pile of mud right in the face, which probably didn't do much to help her see where she was going.

Our final section was a combination bike/hike that was mostly along the Turner Creek trail system. Most of the points only required a short hike, but the attack points off the trail were key. The toughest point on this section physically was one way at the top some bigazz mountain. We started hiking up, and up, and up some more. It seemed like it took forever to get to the top. After that little jaunt in our bike shoes, I was glad to be back on my bike once we returned to the bottom.

We finished the event about 3:35 and promptly loaded up the car and headed home. I managed to leave my shoes there, as I had stashed them under the car. I heard the tires run something over when I backed up, but I still didn't make the connection. Perhaps I need to install an undercarriage camera to go with the back up camera. One on the roof would be good too, as I couldn't even tell you how many gloves and shirts I've lost from driving off with them still on the roof.

Tomorrow is our big O-meet. I hope it all goes smoothly and that no one steals any of our E-punch bags.