cane creek night & day

This weekend involved a fun Friday night family camping trip to Cane Creek Mountains Natural Area. Doug and Phil joined my family at camp. Four of us set out into the night at about 9:30 pm to explore the park, including the newly finished Monadnock Lookout Tower. 

Three of us went on to visit as many controls (for Saturday's event) as we could before midnight. I think it's fair to say that we all found this to be challenging at night with the steep terrain and dense vegetation, not to mention mapping irregularities. I should know as I am the one who did the mapping!

One control, 49/69, was problematic for Doug and myself. Neither of us could find it and it turns out that it was improperly placed further downstream. This issue was promptly resolved on Saturday when brought to the attention of the event directors. Eddie, who came just as the park opened and ran a 90-minute score course for training, deserves the credit for alerting them.

Strong winds woke us in camp before 6 am Saturday. Thankfully, the worst of the rainstorms missed us and we could cook some gourmet French toast for breakfast. My family hiked to the tower while I sought redemption on Vladimir's red course. Finishing in just under 100 minutes for a 7.6 km 17-control course hardly seems like redemption, but I'll take it!

Another problematic control, 54, required multiple attacks from many both at night and day. In this case, it had been properly placed in a debris-choked pit much to Vladimir's delight. Bottomline: CCMNA is a beast of a venue. Thank you to Vladimir, Tatyana and Brian for letting me get a taste of my own medicine! Livelox replays: night&day score and BOK red.