Race 11-20 Desert Map Trek 4hr. - Red Rocks Canyon State Park

February 27th, 2011
4 Hour Rogaine - 3:58:06 (680/760 pts.) - 4th/10
Garmin Tracking here.

It’s tomorrow. After another drive in to Red Rocks from Bakersfield I was ready to go. I only had 20 minutes before the start this time, but was much more prepared when I got there having already registered (yesterday) and having my watch ready and sun block on. Rex had already begun to give instructions so I listed in as I planned out my route. There were 15 controls and the overall terrain was more mountainous – it didn’t look like there were open basins like in yesterday’s event. 4 of them were worth 80 points, the rest were worth 40, and there was a 25 point penalty (per minute, or fraction thereof) for taking over 4 hours.

Everyone started one time and people left in 2 groups. Some went straight north and I led a group going northeast between 2 small rock hills. There were 5 easy controls in the flat land not far from the start and I got 3 of them before heading up into the hilly terrain. I made it to the first 2 and maybe all 3 before anyone else, but there I took a slower route to the 4th and some people beat me to it. From there I got separated and didn’t see anyone as I got my fifth. I temporarily lost my bearings looking for #6 before eventually finding them and running into Bud (from yesterday) as we got what was for me #6. He told me he missed getting what I called #5 but proceeded to go to the same one as me for #7. After that we split up with him going to the northeastern most control that I decided to skip. I figured since I didn’t have time to get them all skipping the farthest one out, which was worth 40 points, would be worth it.

So I was on my own again and got a couple easy ones. One was a water stop on the side of a trail and one was on a fairly open hillside with a half dozen people crowded around. From there I went north to get a double point in a hard section. It was hard because the terrain was flatter so not an many landmarks. Also the contours on that part of the maps increased from 20 feet to 40 feet so the map was less descript, and the land all looked the same. A bunch of people looked lost in this area so I wasn’t the only one. I ended up going east to a part of trail I was on before getting those 2 easy ones. This still didn’t work so I tried again from the northwest near an obvious hilltop. Just as I was about to give up on it I saw it just ahead. This was big since it was worth double points and I didn’t’ want to waste so much time and not get anything.

The next one was fairly easy but then I came to one that people had a really difficult time finding. Bud was already there and he and some other people give only a little more effort before moving on. The control was supposed to be in gully (called a re-entrant) and there were like a dozen of them. I crossed a bunch of re-entrants perpendicularly between the top of them and the dried waterway at the bottom. I turned around and went up the dried waterway looking up the re-entrants and still could find it. Then I climbed most of the hill (a couple hundred feet) and crossed the re-entrants perpendicularly again at a higher level. I decided I’d look but I had to get going back so I was prepared not to get it. As I thought I was on the boundary of where it could possibly be I looked right and saw it in the shae directly under a plant that was handing out over sidewall of the re-entrant.

From there I didn’t follow the waterway which was a mistake. Instead I climbed over he shoulder of the hill and went down an almost dangerous side. It was very rocky and steep – like bouldering. Any more so and I wouldn’t have been able to do it. I tried to get the 2 controls in the flat area I didn’t get at the beginning but only managed to get one. There was one not far from the trial that led to the finish and I could see it from a was away. The other was in an inlet that I saw Bud coming out of. There were 2 I knew he didn’t get and there was this one and the one I purposely skipped that I didn’t get. I could have easily made it back first from there, but I wasn’t competing directly with him so I thought I’d be better off getting that last control. I looked as long as I felt I could (about 5 minutes) and rushed back. I made it back with only slightly more than a minute to spare.

Results…to come soon.

Today’s course had more trails and not so many volcanic rocks but I covered less ground, I think due to the difficulty of the climbing. I saw 3 wild hares on Saturday and none Sunday but I saw a bunch of interesting pink cacti Sunday (and none Saturday).