Three intrepid pax took off on Friday afternoon, March 31, 2017, for a little adventure in the woods. Linus, Audit and YHC struck out toward Asheville looking for something more challenging than the normal suck that we all embrace on a daily basis. GoRuck Navigator Core was calling, and we were picking up the phone.
GoRuck has a series of what they call "Gentlemen's Courses", which means no logs, burpees or Welcome Parties are involved. The Navigator series includes Core, Z, Legacy and Jedburgh. Core is all about orienteering, as explained below and in Part II. The Z is wilderness survival. Legacy puts both together and Jedburgh simulates a real WW2 mission behind German lines.
Our destination was Camp Bud Schiele, a Boy Scout camp, near Forest City, NC. Audit scored us a free room at the Holiday Inn for Friday night, so we all headed up together. It is always better to clown car to events, whenever possible. We all got to know each other better, which is a big part of why we do these CSAUP's.
After picking up a little last minute gear in Spartanburg, SC we hunted up some grub. YHC prefers local restaurants to chains, so we settled on City Range Steakhouse Grill. Winner, winner, steak dinner. That was some good eats. Being real men, Linus and YHC took down a nice lager. Being Audit, he ordered a cucumbertini, but not just any cucumbertini. It had to have a sugared rim and muddled cucumber. Laura, our waitress, innocently asked if a lady was joining us, due to Audit's drink order. A bunch of food and several drinks later, we headed out to the general vicinity of the hotel in Forest City, NC. Linus, being a beer snob, wanted to check out The Twisted Pear brew pub. Since it was already 10pm, it was closed. Sissies. We circled around and found a cool looking place around the corner. Linus was getting agitated at YHC and Audit, because we kept giving him conflicting directions. We had 3 cell phones barking out directions as well. Good times. This was an eerie premonition of what was to follow the next day.
Being faster and a natural leader, YHC strode into the bar first to survey the establishment. YHC knew immediately we were headed for trouble when he spied a barfly out of the corner of his eye. We sat at the opposite corner away from the bar-shark, but she sidled over and took a spot close to us. This was going to be an interesting evening. There was not enough beer in that whole town to make this woman look like something any man might want to pursue. She didn't get hit with the ugly stick. She climbed up in the tree and fell on every branch on the way down. I must say, however, that she has good taste in men. The fact that we were the only ones left in the bar that she had never hit on had nothing to do with it. We are just that good looking. After an appropriate span of about 15 seconds, bar-hag set her sights in on Linus, all the while drooling over her next blood-meal. YHC was already cultivating a brilliant plan to subvert her efforts at sinking her gnarly hooks into one of my fellow pax. I told her Linus was from Sweden and didn't understand much English. Audit and YHC would speak to him in "Swedish" and he would reply in Afrikaans, which he apparently learned while on Safari in South Africa. Linus is Strider's nephew after all. Well that primed her pump. Evidently Vicky, the bar-demonette, had never encountered anybody from outside the state, much less the country. She did slow down her speech and talked louder in the hopes that Linus would understand her oh so subtle overtures. Audit sulked and sipped his beer, reminiscing about his cucumbertini from earlier in the night.
Quote of the Day from Vickie: YOU ARE SOOOO PRETTY! I LOVE YOUR HAIR.
We had to drag Linus away from Vickie's siren song. He was truly smitten, but we knew we had work to do tomorrow. Maybe next time Linus...
We got back to the hotel and poured ourselves into bed. Linus, still feeling amorous after his close encounter of the Ugly Kind, offered to sleep with Audit, which makes sense, due to Audit's drink choice. Evidently Audit snores like a freight train. YHC, being married, is oblivious to such noises. Linus, being single, is still affected by it.
We met a few of the other Nav pax at the hotel breakfast, then went to Waffle House to get some good greasy food. It must be said that YHC was having some serious gastro-intestinal issues, starting at about Columbia and not finishing until we were leaving the hotel. I hate it for anybody that had to be around me. YHC could barely handle his own officious aromas, so you know it was bad. It stunk like Baby Beasley after eating Markette pink hotdogs and Dinty Moore chili. YHC was a little nervous the weekend orienteering trip was going to turn into a Groundblind trip of the runs. Evidently things settled down after the last explosion just prior to leaving the hotel lobby. No doubt the cleaning ladies quit their job under protest due to unsafe work conditions.
We arrived at the Boy Scout camp on two wheels, as we were a little behind schedule. (See paragraph above). Upon arriving we saw a tent city wrapping around a little cabin. None of us had a clue what to expect, so we all brought the kitchen sink in rucks. I borrowed a 70 liter ruck and had that sucker filled to the brim, fully expecting to carry it through the woods and over mountains the rest of the weekend. As it turns out, we could leave our stuff in the car and just grab what we needed as we needed it. Good thing I brought along my trusty GR1. YHC quickly unpacked a few essentials for the Nav and got in the group around Cadres Mickey and Chris Way, ready for some Good Livin'.
Part 2 is coming soon.
