Werewolf’s footprint (Libahundi jälg): Knee deep in mud a.k.a canoeing without water

Out team's track (green) in "Werewolf's footprint" adventure-rogaine in Tuksi

Spring had finally gathered enough guts to show up in Estonia. It was a warm and sunny day on 7th May in Noarootsi Parish. Perfect for a 6h adventure in mud, bogs, marshes, sandy pine forests along the coastline and lots of fresh air. Our three member team was same as in autumn’s Werewolf’s footprint in Padise. This time preparation was faster, we had more experience on which points would be worth of a visit and which not. Did I mention the sun was shining :D

“Libahundi jälg” is an adventure-rogaine competition twice a year – spring and autumn. This spring’s location was Tuksi, Noarootsi, Läänemaa, Estonia.

Starting task

As usual in an event like this, starting task is meant to scatter teams. This time the organizers had devised a cunning plan involving something with basketballs so we preacticed a little before start. Just in case we’d actually have to make a shot. Anyway after the start we took our task from the ground and all we had was CP numbers and textual instruction of the locations. For example: 300m west, 75m south, under a pine tree. With a compass this was simple enough. We took the six CP-s in 13 minutes. Seventh task was to make one basketball free throw. My heart was pumping fast after sprinting to the basketball court, but I made second shot just when Milena and Timo catched up with me.

Lineup before start in Tuksi "Werewolf's footprint"

Moving onwards to 83 special task

Nothing spectacular happened on the way to our first special task CP. Took the two CP-s (38, 48) with ease on the way. Then we made it to the 83. Now this was interesting. One team member (me) had his eyes closed with a piece of cloth. Then I had to walk over a ditch twice. There were two wooden planks side-by-side stretching over the ditch. One for each foot. Or so I felt it, because I did not see anything. Other team members were only allowed to direct me by talking, no touching at all. Not having an option to rely on seeing, I had to sharpen my other senses. We did it quite well, Milena and Timo were moving in front and back of me to give me instructions. I didn’t fall in the ditch or fall at all actually :)

Werewolf's footprint - blindfolded in a thicket

We get wet

Since winter has only just left us, there’s lots of water everywhere. Getting to CP 63 was kind of trying to jump from one dry spot to another. This was all for nothing, because things would only get more wet afterwards; but we did not know that just yet :D By the time we were close to CP 51 there was no point to even try to look for dry spots. Since we didn’t find the 51 straight away, we had much fun splattering around in that watery forest.

Spotting land again

From CP 51 I wanted to go straight southwest to catch the narrow path. We didn’t find that. Instead we unexpectedly arrived in the north-south narrow path. The forest had somehow spun us around to there. But who cares, there was dry land in there! See the image below.

Narrow path to north

Staying on solid ground

Alright, after this moist adventure we were sick and tired of water. Took the CP61 and then we didn’t have even a speck of temptation to go straight through the marshes. Ok, I had a little, but it’s a team play. So we used roads to grab 57, 46, 32. I actually planned to swing by 50 before 32 but I missed the turn, so we skipped it for the time being.

Canoeing without water

At the start we were told that 82 special task was supposed to be with canoes, but wasn’t really. Ok, whatever, we thought. We arrived at the 82, had a drink, bit of lunch, me and Timo went on the “canoe ride”. The task itself was simple – find four CP-s on two small islands. It was supposed to be memory orienteering, but I drew myself a tiny sketch of the area. But there were no canoes, since there was no water. Makes sense, yes? :) Wind had been strong from east and blown all water to the sea. That meant sloshing through knee deep mud in order to get from one island to another. This was quite fun for me, these kind of situations are what adventure-rogaine is all about. Images will explain this better. See for yourself. Fun times :D

The mud was under the water

Sloshing through the fun mud

Coastline

Moving on. The wind was cold at the peninsula and we picked up speed to get warm while going back north. Again, we did not really want to go through marshes to CP 50, so a little round trip. On the clearing south of the CP Milena almost stepped on a viper. We didn’t stop for a group picture with the snake, sorry :) Running in sand was quite nice for a change. The coastline was beautiful, but we did not forget to grab CP 40, 56 and 30 while enjoying these views.

Last special for us

At the 84 one team member was supposed to climb up to the top of a pine tree. This time we made Timo do it. Here you go – a picture for proof that he did climb it.

Climbing a pine tree

Almost 5h in the race now

We decided to take two more CP-s and then head home (the finish line). I mean we could have taken more than two, but it’s not worth to push that hard, if the whole team doesn’t have the strength to run back later. Instead we took the end calmly and finished in 5h 25m 31s.

Summary

We three agreed that autumn’s special tasks were more fun than this time. I guess organizers took what they could from the landscape and locations. Great memories still. Especially the canoe task without canoes :) Total distance covered was about 30km. Oh, yeah, we were 32nd this time, that’s better. In mixed teams we were 11th. Since there were less teams now (32/104), than in autumn (64/150), I calculated relative improvement to see if we actually were better. About 11% improvement since last time. And it’s the start of the season. We are going to be even better this autumn.