Orienteering at Assunpink National Wildlife Management Area

November 23^rd, 2003

Sunday dawned a beautiful day. The weather was perfect for running around in the woods. Lisa and I headed out from Folcroft at 9:00 am. We got some gator aide and water and such and hit the highway for New Jersey. We found the place no problem and arrived a little after 10:00 am.

We signed up and decided to do the Blue course, which is the longest and most challenging. We started about 10:43 am. The beginning was pretty easy, with some running along some trails to find the first controls. Lisa was running great and finding all of the controls first. Our butt buster came with control 6. We miss judged the trail we saw on the map and ended up too far north. After realizing our mistake we regrouped to a little knoll top and Lisa figured out where we were and we quickly hit the control and headed towards 7.

All continued to go well as we used trails, roads, fields and just plain straight lines through the woods to find the controls. Along about control 15 or so, fatigue started to take its toll. We continued on, just following bearings through the open woods and finding the controls. We over shot control 16 because it was an old foundation that was a pit and the flag was hidden pretty well. Also, there were more trails in the woods than on the map along with new tree stands and the old ones being rotted away. On our way to control 18, I was galloping down a gully and I almost tripped and took a header. I was concentrating on not face planting and didn’t notice my fanny bag, which had a broken buckle, fall off.

Only after we had hit 18 and were heading to the last control, did I notice I had lost the bag. In the bag was a camera, our Ids, car keys and money. Strangely I didn’t panic. I just figured we would finish the course and then back track to where I knew I had the bag, which was on our way to 16 when I gave Lisa her power bar. We went to the check-in and then turned around and headed back. I started to get a feeling that I may have lost it in that gully, so I sent Lisa to check control 18 and I went to the gully. I stood there awhile at the creek and looked around, then I crossed the creek and started up the hill. Right there in front of me was the bag. Awesome!

We headed back out of the woods and made for home. We had a very cool fun day.

We had the longest time for the blue course, but our goal was to get through it and learn some more navigation skills.  Mission accomplished.