lessons from gray owl

Heat map (10 participants) of Loop 1, Birkhead "Gray Owl" Rogaine

On February 1st, BOK held a rogaine training event starting/finishing at Gray Owl in the NE corner of Birkhead Mountains Wilderness. This consisted of two 6-hour "loops" (one during the day and one during the night). Most of the controls on each course didn't have physical flags. Instead, participants had to use the UsynligO and Livelox apps on their phones for verification.

Those daring enough to join me for this training were warned about "inevitable kinks." Participants were told that they could use as many Usynligo hints as they'd like (temporary spatial, directional, or distance tips provided in the app), but that number would be published. Participants were also warned that only the contour lines and not other map objects were georeferenced on the Thornburg map (SW side).

Everyone took this in stride and escaped the wilderness unharmed. Perfect weather coupled with Joseph's and Ruth's hospitality (and delicious chili) helped tremendously. Course designer Dave speculated that no one would clear either loop, and he was right. It appears that I came closest on the daytime loop, but this was with the help of 17 hints. In contrast, runner-up Brian Thompson reportedly only used 3 hints!

Loop 2 started just after 6 pm and most everyone could visit one or two controls in the dwindling daylight before the real test of nighttime navigation began. As expected, the going was slower in the dark and there was less traffic into the far SW region of the course. It appears that I visited the most controls before midnight, catching occasional glimpses of a light in the woods from runner-up Charlie Roberts.

Full results are posted along with livelox replays for loop 1 and loop 2. Interesting "heat maps" for the loops along with some other photos and personal observations/notes from the event are provided in this blog post. The average distance traveled between each control for loop 2 (night) was 1.6 km/control vs. 1.2 km/control for loop 1 (day). Apparently a more distinct, but less direct path is preferred at night.

Heat map (9 participants) of Loop 2, Birkhead "Gray Owl" Rogaine

Backstory: two years ago, I ran Dave's 2021 Birkhead 4-hour score-o as a UsynligO course. Despite user error along with legitimate technical glitches, I found this to be a worthwhile exercise and wanted to circle back to this large chunk of real estate for more long-distance navigation practice. With Joseph's and Dave's steadfast logistical and technical support, the 2025 Birkhead "Gray Owl" Rogaine took flight.

With my sights on an upcoming 24-hour rogaine effort, I wanted to test if a headlamp + light belt combo (preferred running set-up) had merit with nighttime off-trail navigation. Pro: the light belt did a great job of backlighting the clear housing on my compass when following a bearing. Con: two lights were overkill for the speed I was traveling and drained battery life, resulting in me losing light power towards the end.

Speaking of light power, my aging eyes found it hard to read the 1:15,000 map in the dark, especially when trying to interpret smaller symbols clumped together. A small magnifying glass may be worthwhile for this purpose, especially for events going into the night.

Nutrition: I continue to lean heavily on drink mixes for (mostly) fuss-free fueling, but with longer events, this means mixing on the go. The poorly mixed powder clogs the bite valves, which is frustrating. I've devised a possible "clump buster" solution (below). 

Headed out on Loop 2

En route to 237

"Clump buster" repurposed XA filter cage (filter removed)