In the same afternoon I decided to go for a long hike to the nearest mountains. I had only a poor hand-drawn map and no compass when I bravely set off. I had seen several signs to various hiking and cycling routes while driving so I assumed they would be clearly marked and all I needed to do was to follow a certain colour. I started from the Birks of Aberfeldy route, one of the popular tourist routes named by a famous national poet Robert Burns.
The route was indeed very easy and nice to follow. At the end of it I could see something that reminded a small footpath continuing to the direction I was heading. I followed it happily until after some kilometres I was more or less sure that there was no path whatsoever anymore. I used sun and inner feeling to navigate to a small country road that went to a lonely cottage in the middle of no man's land. Then I saw a small footpath sign pointing into undefined direction. There were no tracks in the snow but I was still feeling great and continued trough the white blanket (huge mistake!). Sun was shining from the blue sky and the views were fantastic. Tundra everywhere and snow-topped hills in the horizon.
After some kilometres the path had disappeared, there were no signs anywhere, no tracks, nothing, and the sun started to go down. Only then I started to panic a bit because I had no idea where I was, where to go or how far it would be to nearest road or village. A thought How I would survive a night here? came into my mind and I started to get worried about the dusk. If I didn't find back before sunset I wouldn't know what to do. I continued half an hour more towards a road which never came. I knew I should have turned back miles ago but I wasn't sure if I would find my way back anymore (wind had wiped out my footsteps). My last chance was to use the sun to navigate north towards the main road by the river. When I finally reached the edge of the hillside where it started to bend down towards the river, I knew it couldn't be far. The happiest moment was when I saw a glimpse of the river (there it is in the middle of the picture below) some miles below me. I did find my way down and back to Aberfeldy but this little adventure took me nearly 3 hours.
Next morning the snow was gone from the roads and I was eager to get to orienteer (despite somewhat tired legs). Two tough technical trainings in snowy and hilly terrains made my day. When back to the cottage in the evening I was pretty exhausted but happy. Thursday was an easier day that we spent in Edinburgh. We did nice sprint training in Livingston followed by some jogging in Calder Wood and sightseeing in Edinburgh. Edinburgh castle was definitively worth seeing and so was the whole inner city.
Friday was the first day of JK and started with a tricky sprint in Almondvale of Livingston. I enjoyed it a lot but had big problems with route choices. I was fast on easy legs but had no capacity to maintain the pace on trickier legs between the buildings. Just lack of routine I guess. I missed the obvious route choice to 3rd and went around the fence to 22nd as I wasn't sure if it was crossable. I missed nearly a minute on those two legs and felt that my routines were overall far too slow. But it was still fun and a terrific training! If I wanted to perform better in sprint, I should definitively train it more than a few times a year. map
Saturday's middle distance was in semi-open and marshy Dunalastair. First control was a bit of a "bingo" as there wasn't much to read or see on the way there. Of course I could have used a compass and take it right but I chose to use the tracks that went to another control. It hadn't been such a big mistake if I had been able to relocate that little marsh or plateau I was standing on but there was no such thing on the map. I was unsure what to do but saw then something green in front of me and imagined seeing a bolder in the corner of it which might have been my control (in reality it was some 30m behind my back but took me two minutes to find it). Not a very good start. I overshoot even the second control but from there onwards I had quite a good run and enjoyed it. map
Sunday's long distance in Craig a Barns was the one I had been looking most forward to. I had just finished a jigsaw of the map the night before and felt that it was going to be my type of terrain and orienteering. And it was. I really liked it a lot. It was challenging both technically and physically and I was determined to do it right this time. And so I did all the way to 5th and from 6th onwards. I thought I got the 6th fine too but to my surprise there was no flag there, only a small tape indicating the place. I believed I had come right, so I started to search for the control on the ground but couldn't find it. I checked the crags on both sides of the control point and everything made sense except the control itself. It was still missing. After a long desperate search I finally found it somewhere further down and continued my race. I tried to find the same rhythm and spirit I had had before but it was difficult. I ran rest of the course technically quite all right but I wasn't that focused and determined anymore. Craig a Barnes was absolutely my favourite terrain of this year's JK and the course was great but it was a shame to have a control misplaced. Otherwise it was such a great event. tracking
It all ended with a relay in Newtyle. It was relatively easy orienteering on an open hillside but steep hills made it tougher than it looked like. I had technically clean run but my legs were already quite tired and I ran a bit defensively. It was nevertheless very nice and enjoyable orienteering. map
