Another step for Mag and a crazy idea of mine

I have this crazy idea for 2018. I want to try to arrange a short CMO course, because I think I know enough people now. I mean, even if only 4 people come, it could be fun. Needless to say it would not be sanctioned, but I will be following the rule book in all other ways.

I was just thinking about how there are actually enough places out there to hide objectives where people wouldn't get in trouble for being off trail. Not many, so probably only a short course. And since it's so difficult, and everyone would be new to it, I'd make people ride in teams (bring a friend, or else!).

So I went out with a bag of supplies today, and Mag on the lead line, and tried to hide one. Ha! Silly me, I had no idea what I was doing.

I've never hidden plates, only found them. How do you do it backwards?

I tied Mag up to that good tying tree and started circling him, tromping around off trail. It's a perfect spot because there's a 5 way intersection. It took me an entire hour to find a hiding spot. (And another 30 minutes to find clues.)

How on earth do you hide something that must be in plain sight? It's not like geocaching where you can dig around and dump leaves on top. Plain view. Hrm.

Mag was very concerned, it is a big deal to tie a horse up in the woods and walk away from them, but he just kept circling so he could keep his eye on me at all times. I never went so far that he was out of sight, but I did get far enough that he was worried.

There was absolutely no place to hide a plate, because of the lack of underbrush, that would not be completely obvious. Then I realized I'd have to build my own spot, so I started carrying logs around and a stump, and branches, and I made a huge pile, and put the "plate" right in the middle, directly on the ground! It is in plain view if you are standing in exactly the right spot, which is as it should be. Whew that was hard.

Then I fumbled the compass headings a bit because I honestly had no idea to determine a bearing, rather than just taking a bearing. I had to laugh as I figured it out, OK, line up north and then start turning the dial until you're pointing at the hide. (When you're searching, you set the dial and THEN line up north.)

I used the bench where Mag was tied as clue 1, a bit of surveyor ribbon as 2, and "ivy on two stumps" as 3. The only one in danger of sabotage  is the ribbon, obviously. But this should be doable with only 2 clues.

I was surprisingly stressed about the whole thing, because I had no idea if I'd be able to manage it. I told myself, "If I don't try, I'll never know!" Yah, it's not easy.

At one point I was pretty far off and these two dogs started running and barking toward me. The lady had a heck of a time getting them to come back to her. I just stood there. She  was so far off she was closer to Mag than me. Then her dogs saw Mag and started barking anew. She had them both on leashes by this point, but I'm sure she was not used to seeing horses standing alone tied up in the woods!

I'm excited for Ani to try to find it. I just texted her and she cancelled our ride tomorrow: ( I'm busy til Friday *sigh*

I'll take J there tonight and give him a compass and let him try. Oh, I need to draw the map! Mag kept trying to take the paper and pen as I sat there sketching, so I'll have to draw a better one.

It's been a dream of mine to do a CMO in Germany. I sure hope it will work out. If the few people I know aren't interested, it won't happen. How do I convince people to buy compasses for something they might not care to do? Oh well, we'll see what happens.