Event Details
Club: | Scottish MBO |
Event Name: | Glentress MBO Score |
Date: | 02/05/10 |
Format: | MBO Score |
Mapping: | Ordnance Survey |
Time Limit: | 3 Hours |
National League: | MBO Score 2010 (Round 4 of 11. Best 6 count) |
League: | SMBO Summer Series 2010 (Round 2 of 3) |
Electronic Punch: | SportIdent |
Event Report
A 1:15,000 Orienteering map was used and it proved very challenging as a regular O/S map reader not accustomed to the scale. Looking at the map, there was no natural route jumping out at me. So I thought I’d wing it and set of for my first checkpoint somewhere down the hill. I flew past one entrance, then two and turned neatly into the third. 500 metres later I was starting to think the route didn’t tie up with the map. Another 300 metres and it was definitely not the track I wanted to be on. I’d missed the entrance and had gone on the track further down. Looking at the map again, I spotted another route choice and nashed down to a checkpoint at the bottom of the hill trying desperately to calibrate my 1:40,000 and 1:50,000 brain to 1:15,000.
Checkpoint found without too much hassle, now off up to in to them dar hills. As I exited the forest, a gorgeous sunny valley welcomed me and a layer came off. Still wary of my calibration I had overcompensated and spent valuable minutes looking for a checkpoint that was 500m further north. Damn this map! 2nd checkpoint down and off up the hill again. A choice for Checkpoint 3 - either straight up a steep hill or down towards the cottage and wee burn. The downhill won and a nice bit of track took me down the hill to the checkpoint.
I clocked up a few more checkpoints, however with the unfamiliar scale and all the wind blown debris I eventually made a complete wrong turn and got thoroughly lost! 30 minutes of trying to find myself on the map after a couple of wrong turns wasn’t going to do my points much good. Compasses are a wonderful thing when you remember to pack them.
A look at my watch and 30 minutes to go, I clocked 2 easy checkpoints that I reckoned I could get in the time. The first one was up a bit of single track on the black and I got to the checkpoint fairly quickly. I cycled on and popped out onto firetrack as planned and took a right down the hill. The road veered to the right but the map went to the left , I was very nervous about getting lost again but carried on until it all tied up again. I managed to navigate to the second checkpoint but time was ticking away. I raced to the finish and was just a couple of minutes over.
Excellent day out with some fantastic prizes. Looking forward to the next one in the Pentlands!
Feedback from others:
“Cool pleasant weather and low key atmosphere for the Trailquest moutainbike event at Glentress. Three hours to choose a route, and dib as many checkpoints as possible. Forever rechecking the map, wished I had a handlebar mounted map-board like most of the others. Occasionally crossed paths with other competitors, but had little idea how I was doing. Easy to bungle the navigation if pedalling too hard. No punctures thankfully. Great fun.”
“Great fun for our first event like this. Well organised too.”
“I loved my first taste of Trailquest”
“Thanks, a really great event”
“Thanks for organising the event, it was very challenging this year with trees down and I found the checkpoints very hard to find, including cycling past one twice I couldn't find”