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Swaledale Outdoor Club |
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Swaledale Outdoor Club |
| > Home > Newsletter > Orienteering > Hutton Lowcross |
Hutton Lowcross(SOC's first official orienteering result?)Well, you can't blame it on drink, because I was driving, but my decision made at the annual dinner to take part in the Orienteering event Liz organised for us after the dinner led to me deciding to try some "real" orienteering. So low and behold, Sunday 24th found me out of bed earlier than most Sundays and driving over to Hutton Lowcross to take part in CLOK's Colour Coded Event. I will admit to being a little unsure as to what to expect, but on the way in I bumped into Mike Hardy who soon put me right as to what to expect. As the saying goes, you pays yer money and takes yer choice. In my case the Light Green course. Time for a natter with some joint SOC and CLOK members, before making my way to the start which was about 10 mins walk away from the cars. Time for more nattering (the story of my life?) and it was time for me to "step into the box". 11:10 and the long bleep and I'm off. A quick dash through the woods looking for the right turn down to control 1 and............. Where am I? A quick cast around and I fix my position. I've run 3 times too far up the track. Dive down through the trees. Turn right and back track and it's there. Check the letters, punch my card and it's off uphill for No 2. Stop, check map and realise I've run too far again. These maps really take some getting use to. Backtrack, straight up the bank and there it is, check the letters and *@#& no it isn't. Run around in ever decreasing circles and eventually I find it. Having finally got the measure of the map scale, it was run, punch, run, and punch, without (too) many other problems for the rest of the required checkpoints. The biggest surprise I encountered on the rest of the route was a mapping error when I ran straight into a calf deep puddle not shown on the map, Empty trainer of water, then it was through the finish to catch my breath. Weekend time pressures meant that I had to dash off home without waiting for the results, but when I finally checked them on the CLOK website there it was: Light Green Course 4th - G Kensett - SOC - M(censored) - 50:18. Is this the first official SOC orienteering result? Geoff |