The Winners Report ...
Julie and I teamed up for the NSW rogaine champs last
weekend. It was our first rogaine together since the worlds in
Arizona nearly 2 years ago when we won the mixed title. After a
lot of to-ing and fro-ing trying to organize a bus in the week
before the rogaine, it finally all collapsed in a heap and we
ended up driving up with Jean and Ron - lucky they had a roof
basket for all our combined gear! We got away about 4:30pm and
after a pretty smooth run through Cowra and Parkes arrived at
the event camp in Goobang National Park around 9pm, set up
tents, had a hot choccie and went to bed. It was a warm fine
evening, with conditions forecast to improve further, so we
would be able to travel light overnight in the event.
Saturday dawned fine and clear. People kept telling me it was
cold as I wandered around in my running shorts. Julie tried to
talk me into taping my ankles, but after putting lots of tape
over my hairy legs the pain was unbearable even to walk around,
so I pulled it all off again. Maps were to be handed out at 9,
so we got everything else organized. After XPD, this was hardly
a big deal - making sure we didn't take too much food or
clothing was the main thing (still took too much as it turned
out). Caught up with a few people around the camp including Mike
Hotchkis who was part of the team that would be our main
competition - he was teamed with Rob Vincent, a combination that
has walked away with the trophy at least 4 times. He joked he
was worried that there was no men's trophy separate from the
overall winner's trophy if Julie and I won, but I reassured him
that at least there would be the veteran's trophy as a
consolation, not that I thought we'd have much of a chance of
taking them down.
At 9am we got our maps and started planning our course. First
the obligatory colouring in - orange for the 70s and 80s, yellow
for the 50s and 60s, pink for 30s and 40s and green for 10s and
20s. The orange circles were mostly at the far south end of the
map with most of the yellow mixed in, but still 8 yellow and an
orange in the north which shouldn't be ignored. The HH
(start/finish) was on the NE edge, so an All-Night Cafe (ANC)
was positioned in the south to compensate. There were only 2
other water drops on the course and no water in the creeks. The
main feature was a large plateau running north-south dropping
around 250m over a steep escarpment on each side and dissected
by creeks in the north. We decided on a route which took us up
to the central water drop on the plateau after only 5 controls
where we would drop Julie's pack with spare food to pick up
later. Julie would carry a camelbak only in the south part of
the course. A loop of 15 controls down the east side and back up
onto the plateau to the ANC for some food and a water refill,
then another 12 controls off the western escarpment and back up
to the central water drop and pick up Julie's pack again would
leave us mopping up in the north to finish. We calculated
distances and some time cut-offs at each water drop to make sure
we stayed on track for the important controls of each section. I
didn't want to repeat the mistake of last year's Australian
champs where we spent too much time early on bagging low scoring
controls before realizing we didn't have time to visit all the
higher-scoring ones. At that event Mike's team had executed a
brilliant plan that eliminated low scoring controls until later
in the course when it would be clear whether there was time to
visit them or not - they finished clear winners. Our planning
complete, we made final preparations for the start at noon. Mike
wandered by and glanced at our planned route - he said theirs
was similar but with a few differences.
After a short briefing at which the main message seemed to be
that goats may have eaten the flags, we were on our way. Down
track to the first 10-pointer, a mixed team rushed past to be
first to the flag but then fumbled around with their card. We
were first to the next couple of controls with some rough cross
country travelling giving us a taste of what was to come, before
Mike and Rob came steaming past. At the next control #26 we
noted their number (87) and that they were heading to a
different control - south direct into the eastern loop, while we
were grabbing a few others and dropping Julie's pack before
heading that way. Out to a track and a slow jog up the hill with
a diversion to #53 and then a quick stop at the water drop to
top up our supplies and cache Julie's pack for later. As we
started down the hill again I went over on my ankle - not too
bad, but the pain lingered for a while. Maybe I should have
persisted with the taping? Back down the hill past #55 and
around to #43 before we picked up Mike and Rob's scent again at
#69. They were taking a different route through 5 controls
before our paths would converge again.
We started to see a few teams here and there as we cruised
through the flat terrain. It was mostly smooth underfoot, and
the scrub wasn't too much of a problem to get through. The whole
area had been burnt about 4 years ago - it was regenerating
strongly but there were numerous places where old dead saplings
were looped over or lying on the ground to slow progress. As we
headed into the SE corner, team 87 were nearly 2 hours ahead of
us. We lost a bit of time at #62 which was at the junction of a
side creek with the main creek. We'd aimed off, but picked an
unmarked side creek about 100m short of the control and headed
downstream for about 5 mins before realizing our error. A short
hop to #82 then a steep climb up the escarpment in the fading
light to #74, then north along the ridge line. It was dark now,
so we started pace-counting to be sure we stayed on top of the
navigation. By the time we got to #67 we were pretty sure of our
distances. We hit it dead-on, but the shallow gully was pretty
vague and could have caused problems. With 20m contours and 1:50
000 scale, the setters had taken the liberty of mapping control
features not in the original photogrammetry, but elsewhere there
was no room for subtle interpretations! At last we hit the ANC
just before 8pm.
Our schedule had a "worst-case" of 8:30pm to still clean the
course, so we stuck to our guns and headed for #25 and #29 after
a 15 min stop for soup and cheese toasties. After punching #29
we headed south along the ridge to #59 - a distance of nearly
2km, but with such horrendous scrub it took us nearly an hour!
#42 was further in, and with a descent of the escarpment, so we
headed east to the main track and took the long way around,
adding nearly 3km more. Even so, it only took us 56 min since we
could cruise along on the track. The escarpment track was very
steep and eroded. At #42 we'd closed the gap to team 87 to a bit
over 1 hour, and we made up a bit more ground as we headed up
the west side to #80. The country was quick rough and slow going
with lots of steep slopes, loose rock and patches of spinifex.
My ankle was starting to get a bit sore, so I popped a couple of
Nurofens which calmed it down.
After #80 we had a long 2.5km leg to #33 on a bearing across
a featureless hillside to a knoll. We pace counted carefully
until reaching a creek just before the control, but with the
setting moon and a sparse tree cover we couldn't pick the knoll.
After heading east for a while the slope started to climb, and
after a while we realized we were at the foot of the main
escarpment again, and well on our way to #44. It was now after
1:30am which was our "worst-case" time to be back at the water
drop and still have a chance to clean the course. No point in
going back for 30 points now - we headed on to #44 with some
very steep and loose slopes to traverse before reaching the
control on a saddle on a sharp ridge. The moon was set now, and
the stars were blazing and lights of Peak Hill and a few other
towns in sight on the plain.
Mike's team had headed north across the steep hillside to a
30 pointer, but we headed straight up the steep hill, scrambling
up rocky outcrops until we reached the plateau again.
Fortunately the scrub was pretty open here, and after 500m we
came to a tower, trig station and track which led us straight to
the water drop. A brief stop to refill here and eat some food.
Unfortunately the water didn't taste too good, coming out of a
fire hose on a fire truck. We headed on down the road for a bit,
briefly meeting Jean and Ron who weren't having a good time,
then dived off down the hillside on a bearing towards #61. We
hit our attack point just as we saw torches wandering around.
Who should it be but Mike and Rob! We followed our bearing to
the flag, they'd just got away before we got there, and were
heading up to the water. That would place them where they could
get 3 controls we'd already got, but after that it would be lean
pickings for them for a while - 20s, 30s and 40s. In contrast, 8
of the next 10 controls on our route were 50s, 60s and a 70! I
was quietly confident we had them on wood, but we still had
nearly 8 hours of work to do.
Down the creek to #60 then we headed north again and daylight
found us at #63. The country was still pretty rough going, and
each control was taking us around 40 mins. We were keeping a
close eye on the time to make sure we didn't over commit
ourselves and get penalized for being late. Another 4 controls
and 210 points, we decided we'd drop #50 and head for the water
drop then back east towards the HH. We refilled with fresh water
and took off our tights which had been keeping us warm but more
importantly protecting us from the savage scrub. There was a
fire trail to follow with #65 and #70 to pick up dropping off
the hill and back up. There was even a small waterfall to
negotiate on the way down to #65. Neither presented any
difficulty, in fact we were picking up time. Now I was starting
to wonder how many more controls we could fit in and whether
we'd break 2000 points. We cut across some beautiful open forest
past #21 then hit a fire trail again. This led to the HH, but we
had time to drop down into the creek and pick up #20 and #10. A
short run to the HH and we still had 20 mins, so dropped our
packs and trotted out to #12 before finishing with 12 mins to
spare - perfect!
We added up our score and were very pleased to get a total of
2100. A nice round figure. We cleaned our soot-blackened hands
and faces then tucked into some food. Mike and Rob finished with
a few minutes to spare, but hadn't got as far as #65 or #70.
After a while the results were posted, and we were very pleased
to see we'd come out on top! Mike and Rob scored 1960, Leanne
Wilkinson and her sister Carolyn were 3rd overall, and Christine
Butzer and Mark Leonard were 4th, so a great weekend for the ACT
teams! I've got the usual spreadsheet of splits, distances, etc
if anyone is interested.
David Baldwin |
