Jake and I met at the Kent-Des Moines Park and Ride and carpooled down to Olympia for an orienteering meet at Priest Point Park. The weather was looking all right—cold but dry—until we were just outside of Olympia. At that point, the clouds opened up and the rain poured down. Luckily, by the time we made our way to the park and registered, the rain had turned from a downpour to a sprinkle.

As far as my race went, things started out well. I was blasting through the controls, helped by the fact that most of them were very close to the trail. I suffer when things get too far off-trail, as was evidenced by my leg from Control 7 to Control 8. I was only trying to go maybe 50 meters through vegetation to find a trail. For some reason, I ended up paralleling the trail for about a quarter-mile. I managed to bust out of the ferns and salal, but only after I encountered a fence blocking off some private property that allowed me to figure out just exactly where I was.

I had lost a lot of time, and I knew it. I moved quickly from Control 8, once I'd gotten there, to Control 9, but I was rushing myself, and I made a few mistakes getting to number 10. I exited Control 9 to the north when I should have headed south. But that wasn't as costly as running to Control 11 instead of Control 10. Oops.

Once I'd gone back to 10, I got my head together and finished pretty well. Number 11 was easy to find, given I'd already been there. I didn't miss the trail to number 12, even though I couldn't see it until I was right on top of it. I realized that I would have to go out to the beach to find control 13, rather than clambering around on the cliffs above it, like some others that I saw. I took the beach from 13 to 14, rather than struggling through a maze of trails on the slopes above it—it seemed like the obvious choice to me, but not everyone made it.

I had a little trouble getting from Control 14 to the finish. I thought I was on a trail that aimed straight for it, but I ended up climbing over a downed tree only to find myself in a clearing of ankle-deep ivy, no trail in sight. I just bullied my way ahead until I could see the tent at the finish line and sprinted in. If I hadn't screwed up number 8 so badly, I think I would have done quite well. Maybe next time.

After finishing, I wandered around looking for Jake, who happened to be wandering around looking for me. I finally spotted him and was able to change out of my soaking wet clothes and head home.  ¶ 10:10 PM