Orienteering In Breakheart Reservation

On Sunday, I participated in my first orienteering meet of the season at Breakheart Resevation. Although I'm very familiar with the trails in Breakheart, I don't know every boulder, hillside, cliff, noll, and ditch. And that where most of the controls where placed on the yellow course I chose to navigate. I was definitely a little rusty and it took a few minutes to get into the map and compass mindset but once I was off to the first control I started to feel more comfortable.

There were 13 controls on the 2.5 km course, with the distance being measured in a straight line from one control to the next. Since the most direct path is not always the easier terrain to traverse, it may not be the quickest. Decisions about what route to take from one control to the next can have a big impact on the distance you have to cover. I did not wear my GPS but I probably covered at least a 5K in reaching all the controls. I didn't always take the most efficient route and took too much time looking for a few controls, so overall I'd give myself a C+ for the day. 

A control at the base of a cliff. The lack of vegetation in early spring made it easier to locate some of the controls.

If you look closely there is a control to the left of the pole.

Following a brook downhill to a trail that will take me to the general area of the next control.

Low bridge!

I stopped to admire this cool reflection of the tree in the pool of water.