Ardkinglas, Controllers report (apology)
Ardkinglas – did the ‘Ardkinglas gremlin’ hit again? Or was it a case of ‘Give the control placer a white stick’?
First of all my apologies for putting control #108 in the wrong place (I think it was about 40 m to the west of where it should have been). I know this did spoil to run for some, especially Ian and Mark from looking at the splits. Also, control #112 on the orange, green and blue courses was a little too far up the spur. So how did this happen and what have I learnt from it?
A phone call to Carol on the Wednesday revealed a problem – she had ’flu. OK, so I would step in and put out the controls from the courses she had planned. I went up to Ardkinglas that morning, collected the controls from Carol in exchange for grapes and apples. The main reason for my visit that day was to check out the path network at the eastern edge of the map for Julie and Kate to use for TD2/3 training on the Sunday morning. There were many map corrections needed, especially downgrading the paths and changing some vegetation. The whole area is becoming quite overgrown but is still very usable in the winter/spring/autumn. The bracken makes it a no-go area in the summer.
On Saturday afternoon I thought that I should go up to Ardkinglas and put out the controls in the wooded area. The ones in the open would have to wait until Sunday as there were high winds forecast overnight. I sorted out the stakes into bundles and then left home – about an hour later than would have been ideal. By the time I parked it was raining and quite windy. The rain never let up. I put out the wood controls and was really concerned about the stream near to #107 on the Yellow course. It was a little high! It was also very gloomy and map reading was quite hard for someone as old as me with degenerating eyesight; the map was also disintegrating with the rain and being rubbed when I held it in the ‘stake hand’. I was wishing I had printed the map at 1:7500 for clarity.
By the time I got round to #114 and #113 it was getting darker and I was totally unable to read the map under the trees. The knoll at #114 was rather a token knoll. I went back on the Sunday morning to check it (as had Carol on her walk from her home to the Registration). On the Saturday night I made more map corrections before Paul printed out the courses.
Sunday morning weather was no better than the Saturday weather. Paul dropped me off near to #115 and I made my way downhill putting things out. It really was liquid mud in places and the map again started to disintegrate.
So, how did the misplacing of controls happen? The basic problem is that I did not leave myself enough time on either the Saturday or Sunday to check each site out. I had forgotten that it takes me so much more time to carry the stakes/controls/units around, sort out and check that I put the correct one at each site. The weather made life harder and the gloom on the Saturday did make it difficult for me to read the map. Maybe another visit to the opticians is due? The map does need to be updated as well.
On the other hand, Paul has suggested senility while I prefer the explanation that there is a gremlin at Ardkinglas who moves controls (think back about 3 or 4 years to the one Andy Beveridge misplaced). Thank you to all who took my mistake in good spirit – it is a low key event and we are all human!
Oh, by the way, just what did Alan Partridge do between control #3 (121) and #4 (101) on the blue course? There were even tapes out for the yellow course to follow on part of the route as the start of the path was not very obvious.
Thanks to Carol for planning good and interesting courses.
Lynne Walker
Posted on 26th Oct 09
by Lynne Walker - Secretary
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