We, the Navigators - Part I
Posted Sun, January 10, 2010 - 8:01 PM
hawaii, orienteering, books
The day before I left Hawaii, Annie and I were browsing the shelves at Barnes & Noble before she headed to work next door. I was perusing the
local interest shelves and I bought this book for the plane ride home:
Its author, David Lewis,
has had years of experience sailing the world's oceans. In the late 1960s and early 1970s he undertook a study of
the fast vanishing art of indigenous navigation across the open expanses of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia. He sought out native navigators across the
Pacific and learned many of their techniques in the most effective way possible - by actually voyaging with them for many days at a time and essentially
becoming apprenticed to them. In 1976, as part of the bicentennial celebrations in Hawaii, he was one of the crew members who sailed the
65-foot voyaging canoe Hōkūle‘a (which is the Hawai‘ian name for Arcturus)
from Hawaii to Tahiti using only traditional techniques, no instruments, and no Western knowledge.
In the book, he details the essential techniques he learned from these very competent navigators, and tries to convey the completely different worldview
that informed their practice. In particular, none of the navigators he worked with were ever really able to understand nautical charts, something we would
consider absolutely basic to the task. Nevertheless, it was pretty amazing to find so many correspondences between the navigational techniques of the islanders
and the techniques many of us use every time we run an O-course, or do an adventure race.
More detail (much more!) below the fold.
Read More...
Just Another Winter Day
Posted Sun, January 10, 2010 - 6:54 PM
orienteering
The first orienteering event of 2010 this afternoon. It was our usual winter format - a mass start, 90-minute score-O - which meant that
everybody would get back at about the same time, and there wouldn't be any late finishers holding up control retrieval on these short winter
days. The morning started out a bit raw, in the teens with a southwest breeze.
Map of January 10, 2010 Lake Elmo course - Click to enlarge.
As usual, much much more behind the link.
Read More...
Possum Trot Video
Posted Sat, January 9, 2010 - 9:10 PM
orienteering, video
For your viewing pleasure. It's a little bit bumpy, but that's the nature of running on uneven terrain.
Click on the still frame to play.
Possum Trot XIII - Part I
Posted Sat, January 2, 2010 - 6:03 PM
orienteering, possumtrot
Knob Noster State Park, in the beautiful state of Missouri, was the site of my first Possum Trot, way back in 2002. I think it was
just me, Ian, and Brian May at the time, and the other two had decent runs there. Which means Brian won, by a lot. In contrast,
I was overwhelmed by the map and the course, and ended up DNFing. But it was only my second year in the sport, and I was wasn't quite
in peak shape yet :) This year, I could rightly say I had a little more experience, particularly with Missouri style ridge-and-reentrant
terrain, and felt good about going back.
Sunday course - Possum Trot XIII at Knob Noster. Click to enlarge
And I ran well. Well, for the first 27 controls. I wasn't worried about the navigation this time, I was worried about the competition!
Read More...
What's That Running-in-the-woods Thing You Do Again?
Posted Sat, December 19, 2009 - 6:34 PM
orienteering, video, possumtrot
For all the times I've been asked that question. This is some raw video from last weekend's Possum Trot.
Click on the still frame to play.
Some notes:
- I used an open back on the camera case, so the wind noise is pretty bad (who knew there was so much turbulence in front of my head?) I'll have to
try running with the closed back and see if that improves the audio.
- The Hero HD has a 1080p mode with 135 degree FOV, which I used in this video. There's also a 720p with 170 degree setting, which I want to try
for the next event. Then maybe I can get people to vote on which FOV they prefer.
- The weight is about the same as a typical headlamp, although concentrated in the front since there's no battery pack in the back. I could feel the difference
after dropping it off, but I think that was more because of the tight straps then the actual weight.
- It's almost funny how similar this looks to a video game. Bouncy video, darting looks, plus regular map consultation. (Maybe I could complete the
comparison by recording a paintball game?)
- Wait for a more-produced version too, with soundtrack and maybe some map overlays. Woo!
By the way, watching this is a LOT of fun, and I'm really tempted to wear this camera for a lot of the stuff I do... yes, I'm a geek. With pride.
Wow!
Posted Wed, November 4, 2009 - 9:04 PM
orienteering
Some of the most beautiful woods you will ever see.
Do You Feel Safe at Home?
Posted Sun, November 1, 2009 - 8:37 PM
orienteering, biking
This Saturday Chris and Verónica were kind enough to set up a 3-4 hour AR practice event in Minnetonka. A big group of us headed out to
Lone Lake Park for the 9 AM start. It was cold, windy, and raw out, but we warmed up quickly with a 300 meter run to the top of a hill to pick up our
maps. Stephen Regenold and I ran solo, while everyone else teamed up in twos or threes. Midwest Mountaineering even showed up in their Halloween cowboy
costumes!
Take a look at Attackpoint for a quick description of the course and links
to gmap-pedometer. I had a pretty good run in just about 3 hours.
Except for the part where I skidded my bike out on wet leaves over asphalt, doing about 17 mph.
That's about 15-20 feet of plowed-up leaves. From my body.
So today I'm really sore all along the left side of my body - a sore calf, a big bruise on my upper outer thigh, a sore shoulder, a scrape on my arm,
and a sore right side of the neck from the whiplash where my head hit the ground (that's why you wear a HELMET, people!) and snapped my teeth together. I
can't turn my head all the way to the right, and have given in and taken a couple doses of Vitamin I since then.
Outdoor athletes have a hard life sometimes. It reminds me of Stephen's story about going to get a physical a couple days after a particularly prickly orienteering event. The doctor took one look
at the scratches on his face and arms and asked, "Do you feel safe at home?" The standard domestic abuse question. You can understand why the doctor was professionally obligated
to ask it, but in the actual context, it was pretty amusing. And it made for plenty of merriment, off-color comments, and a fair amount of teasing when he
later retold the story - especially with Kari there.
US Orienteering Champs - Day 2
Posted Wed, October 28, 2009 - 11:20 PM
orienteering, wisconsin
Sunday's courses started from the same location at the group camp, but went south and west on the Cat's Agenda map instead. This was a simple one-day A-meet,
and without a "championship" course at stake, I ran up to the Blue course to get more time in the terrain. Charlie had set the courses, and when I turned over
the map at the start, I saw there was a little less penalty for navigation mistakes - not a lot less, but there were certainly more good
catching features.
Day 2 Blue course. Click to enlarge.
You all know what happens if you click the link.
Read More...
US Orienteering Champs - Day 1
Posted Tue, October 27, 2009 - 12:03 AM
orienteering, wisconsin
Last weekend was the 2009 US Orienteering Champs, hosted only a few hours away by our friends in the Badger Club. All the events were held on a relatively
new set of maps (one just finished this summer) in the Northern Kettle Moraine area with evocative names like Cat's Meow, Cat's Agenda, and Hep Cat. The map
below speaks for itself!
Day 1 Red course - 2009 US Champs. Click to enlarge.
Mostly open, white woods and a tremendous amount of contour detail made it some of the most challenging terrain I've ever run on. Read on to find out how
I did...
Read More...
What More Can I Say?
Posted Thu, October 1, 2009 - 2:35 AM
orienteering, humor
I have orienteering friends who talk a lot of trash. (Thankfully, it's usually not to me.)
While under the influence of several Summit IPAs, a
recent round of jousting
about this year's Possum Trot race
gave me a moment of inspiration that was well satisfied by a few Google image searches and a hour or so in Photoshop. The resulting hilarity
forces me to repost it here for all to enjoy.
If you don't get it... you won't get it.
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