TRAINING LEAD-UP
Monday, Feb 26:
Finished reading Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning
Tuesday, Feb 27:
Trip to Blackstone...
HDT 23.1.1 (ARMS) in 38:14, with all prescribed rests. Then Glute and Pec PT v1 in 27:01.
Thursday, Feb 29:
Ruck club "bar hop" event to celebrate leap day... I picked some "leap"-themed exercises with rep counts of either 29 or 2, to do along the way. Rather than drink at every brewery we passed by, we did exercises. We only had a beer at the end, at "Lower Left Brewing".
I asked the bartender at Lower Left what the origin of the brewery's name was... I thought it was funny, since new pistol shooters tend to miss low and left... but the name actually comes from the fact that it's on the southwestern side of Charlotte.
Friday, Mar 1:
Trip to Coleman's.
- I re-zeroed my new LMT at 36yd, since it had seem to have gone to a 25yd zero.
- I zeroed my old LMT
- Did some moving and shooting with rifle, vertical and L->R
- Pistol draw and shoot at about 10yd on an 8" plate
- Shot some as the sun was setting with white light with pistol and rifle. My arms were tired, and I wasn't doing well, and it was raining, so I left even before it was fully dark, at 6:45.
KINGS MOUNTAIN O-MEET (RED COURSE)
This would be my second time trying a red course. The first time, a month prior, I finished with less than 2 minutes to spare. This time around, I wouldn't take any time for granted. This meant not stopping for as many pictures as usual.
I like doing O-meets at Kings Mt NMP. The grounds are historic (the main battle part is protected and off-limits). Also, they don't charge for entry the way the SC state park does. Government-run parks should be free! We pay for it with taxes, and we should encourage people to exercise and enjoy time outdoors.
Going to point 1, I followed the re-entrant once I got to the building, but as I followed it, I realized that the direction of the reentrant wasn't right. I didn't encounter the point by the distance I should've. I realized that there was a second reentrant and that I hadprobably had a prallel error. I went over the spur in the correct direction to the correct reentrant and found it.
I hit rails to go from 1 to 2, which was a bit of a longer route, but it was safer, and it gave me a non-wet way to cross the creek.
My original plan for going from 2 to 3 was to take the path that I'd find after going north. I noticed that I was going downhill from the ridge crest and hadn't seen the path that I had expected to hit and follow. I even went back and looked for the path but didn't see it. Maybe it had overgrown. I decided to switch to Plan B and continue onwards to the river and handrail it, instead of trying to find and follow a path that may not be there anymore. The handrailing plan worked well, with the intersecting creek and subsequent spur serving as good landmarks.
Going from 3 to 4, my original plan had been a safer but longer route, but I was already feeling a little tired, so I decided to take a direct route. I hadn't measured the bearing ahead of time, so I did that in the field. The road and first spur came when expected. The rhododendron was thick, so I couldn't follow bearings anymore. I thought I was handrailing the southeast gulley, but it was definitely the north/south one, I realized after a while. I wasn't where I thought I was anymore, but if this was the north/south stream, and I had gone extra distance north already, then I figured that I might be at the right spot if I crossed the stream then, so I did and kept along that bearing, hitting another thickly vegetated ravine and then finding the point after a little searching around a boulder field. Good correction and good making myself un-lost.
Going from 4 to 5, I followed the bearing but ended up too far north. The creek was strong, so I figured out that I was too far west and went east to a drier part of the reentrant and found the point.
Points 6 and 7 were in reentrant land, so finding the right one was the challenge. You can't see reentrants or things hidden in reentrants as easily from above... you almost have to be right above or in there.
Going from 7 to 8, the plan was to follow the river. I started following a reentrant by accident but was aware that there was still a river running parallel to this, on the other side. My reentrant was drying up and wasn't east/west like I wanted, so I hopped back over to the river and found the point.
To get to point 9, I sped along the road and cut in from the corner where the vegetation was clearer.
Point 10 had an interesting off-limits civilized area as an attack point to graze. I stayed too far north instead of sticking with the bearing and going straight to the point, though. I searched for longer than I should've along a very steep hill.
Point 11 was a fun little jaunt along the river to make up some ground after my error at point 10.
The journey to point 12 was fun... lots of a trail, before following a reentrant west, and then a second deep reentrant south to the point. It's fun when you can use terrain features well... that's what I need to get better at next, instead of doing as much dead reckoning and trail following.
The trip to point 13 involved heading north to hit the road and then veering off when the little hill came, not hard, if I remember correctly.
The trip to point 14 involved dead reckoning, and I might've been off a bit to the north but happened to see someone and corrected course.
For point 15, I got back to the path by following the reentrant that contained point 14. The intersection with another path was the attack point, although this one was not exactly where I expected it to be, either.. a little farther south, so it took some searching.
I went back to the path for a faster way to get to point 16 than following the river.
From there, the main trail for the NMP was the fastest way to get back home.
I made it back with 25 min to spare this time, with about 10K covered.
I was proud of myself for being able to figure out how to fix myself, when I did make mistakes. I think mistakes are inevitable in this sport, so it's an important skill for a person to develop, to quickly recognize errors, figure out where you are, and get back on track.
In the evening, dinner with my parents...
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