Not only are we on a hill 1K from the correct hill because of the misplaced start triangle, the hill in relation to the trail looks the same. Cliffs look the same, or close enough. A pack of 7 of us huddle together to try and figure out what happened. I don't know how they ever figured out what happened. The idea of the start triangle being off by 1K would have never crossed my mind. I'd still be out there. In retrospect, looking at the map, it is obvious we didn't run the length of the trail run as mapped to the start triangle, but when you turn over your map and start navigating, that just does not cross your mind. The mind discards (supposedly) irrelevant information.

So, 26 minutes on the first leg. Everyone else, though, is in the same soup except for the stragglers on the trail run (I think the organizers figured it out) and a couple of runners who perhaps figured it out for themselves -- perhaps people who are familiar with the map. After that, I was happy that my orienteering was rock solid except for some shaky contact on the second leg. Even in the boxes, where they told you the feature (e.g. boulder), but didn't draw a circle and you had to visit each of the features and look for a flag, I was pretty close to where I want to be orienteering wise based on who was at the finish of the orienteering segment when I got there.

Now the USGS portion. I think I've grown to hate this. I don't really know how to plot coordinates, and the only instruction the organizers gave in the meet packet was some web sites. I don't own a laptop with wireless internet, so I was out of luck. That's ok, they gave some on the clock instruction, and don't let you go out in the woods unless you've done it correctly.

Today they gave you 15 coordinates to plot, and you have to find any 8 in a score-O format. So I decide to plot only 9, and pick ones with a nice clustering pattern between start and finish. Sounds wise. So some of these are pretty iffy, like a rootstock on a bland hillside on a USGS map on Harriman/West Point terrain with full leaves on the trees. Whatever. Like I said. I've grown to hate this.

So I plot my points, and have to queue up, while the clock is running, to have them checked. Only one minor mistake which they correct for me (or so they tell me). Off I go.

I purposely chose a trivial one as my first one, to build my confidence on this. I tanked this the last time. The first one is on a knoll just off a road, just past a junction. Find the knoll no problem, no bag. I look beyond the knoll, terrain is miserable -- head high swamp like weeds. One of the things I really hate about this is that you don't know where the green or rock is like on an O map. I bushwhack thru the swamp and stumble onto a bag by blind luck. Not on the knoll. Not the code I'm looking for. Not one of the 9 I mapped. Great. Description says hilltop, and this one is clearly in a swamp or reentrant.

I'm totally lost, despite still being able to see what I thought was the knoll. Someone else comes along and I ask where I am. They say I'm where I think I am. They have them all mapped and tell me there isn't one on the knoll after all. Their map is cluttered, and I am not confident I am where I think I am. I punch anyway, rules are any 8.

I decide to assume I'm at the knoll and navigate to another one (#11). This one is on a hilltop. I find a bag, but it has the wrong code again. This is one of the ones I have plotted, though, so I can pinpoint myself with confidence. #8, on a hilltop way to the south of where I thought I was. Something seems wrong. Someone else comes along and I ask if the code is right. They say it is and that this is the one they were looking for. So I assume I'm at #8. This explains why I missed the first one, I was way to the south (or so it would appear).

To the north are some roads. I head north to use them as collecting features. I never hit them. I hit trails. I remember something about the course setters notes that the roads may have faded. I try to make the trails fit, but they will not. I am lost. I cannot understand why I never hit the roads. This is frustrating, and worst of all, not fun. I decide I'll never relocate on a USGS map. I decide I'm horrible at this, given that the only two bags I've found are ones I've blindly stumbled into. I decide to DNF for the first time in my life, and take the safety bearing to the south. I have absolutely no clue where I am. I don't hear voices or running. I decide I will not do a USGS course again (except in a pre-plotted rogaine).

Eventually I hit a road. I see an orienteer and ask where I am so I can get home. He is shocked that I could ask this, as the start is only about 400 meters up the road, he tells me. Good, I know where I am and can get out of the woods without incident.

I head for the finish. The road passes thru a distinct saddle. On both hills I have plotted a control. I decide to go look for the closest one. The code again is wrong. I decide perhaps its not my navigation, but my plotting and/or the organizers' errors. Since I've already decided to DNF, I take alot of time to think it thru. Turns out they let me go out with one misplotted point, and two misnumbered points, or they misnumbered the points themselves. They also perhaps misdescribed one point. I don't know which, but I guess the responsibility to get my plotting right is on me -- In which case I'd prefer they don't give the false sense of security that the plotting is correct. Because there were so many errors, I could not make sense of it. Split time on this control is 59 minutes.

Since I plotted an extra point, it turns out I can still get 8 of these after all. I've been walking for the past hour, so I decide to walk the rest of the points. My clustering strategy makes it not that much extra work. I find them all, despite one being mishung (or again misplotted), another possibly mishung or mismapped, which I stumble onto by blind luck after again deciding to give up, and the infamous rootstock control -- not only on an unmapped feature on a USGS map, but hidden behind it!

The rest of the course is uneventful. Memory O and an obstacle course. I do well on the memory O, since it was on a normal O map. I finish and am surprised to see all the DNFs. I don't know if its injuries or others encountering similar difficulties. Some say they had trouble on the USGS portion, which does not surprise me. I'm about 85 minutes behind the winning time, but one place from a medal. I am happy with my orienteering, and realise why I dislike Xtreme O's, especially USGS plotting to sometimes small, bland, or indistinct features. I realise I'm not great at recognizing and dealing with organizer error.