One Last Round in the Park

I did make it out to the range today, my last trip to the GGPark range before heading back to Boston. It was crowded in the park, but I did have a lane to shoot on. It was not measured, though, so I was approximating 70 meters based on the archer in the next lane over. Shot pretty well, though. Some pretty decent ends, putting all 3 arrows in 80 cm scoring rings from 70 meters multiple times. On the downside, I did destroy another couple of vanes, so I'll have to do some reconstruction when I get back to the range in Boston.

In the next lane over, another archer was shooting an Inno from 70 meters. It was a little nervewracking to see him aiming, since from that distance, at such a narrow angle, he could just as easily have been aiming at me. But watching the arrow fly was thing of beauty. You just never get to stand that close to a flying arrow.

There was one frustrating thing on the range today. On one of the paved, measured lanes, a guy was flying a model helicopter. Now I have nothing against model helicopters. I'm all for flying them around. It is just that there are plenty of open spaces all over Golden Gate Park. There is no need to stand in the middle of one of the two paved (and one of the three measured) lanes on the archery range to do it. Take it somewhere else, buddy.

Came home after shooting, and finally decided to replace the latches on my case. Got the old ones removed without incident, but the new latches proved to be a bit of a problem. I could not get the screws to go in straight (or completely). Taking the case back to the locksmith on Monday. Hopefully they can fix the problem and get the latches secured, since I have to fly with the case locked on Tuesday.

But that's a different problem for a different day. Today is about a good and satisfying trip to the range.

Depending on the Kindness of (Semi-)Strangers

After last weekends debacle, I took a trip to the GGPark archery range during the week. I figured that since it was foggy, cool, and Tuesday, I would not have a problem getting a lane. But when I got to the park, lo and behold, every lane was (again) filled. Apparently, City College has an archery class that meets Tuesdays and Thursdays. Just my luck.

Fortunately, an archer who I've seen and talked to a few times before saw my situation, and not only offered to share his lane and target with me, he even moved up from 90 to 70 meters so that I could shoot at my distance. Carlo said that he would hate for someone to come all the way out to the range and not be able to shoot, that's why he offered the spot to me.

As for the shooting itself, I started out really well, with a dead center X. After that, I missed that target numerous times, bounced a few arrows off the rubber bottom of the hay bale, and ripped two more vanes off my arrows. Not a great day of shooting, but I did have a good time, and was able to get some ends in.

Back to the range today. Maybe I'll even get my own lane this time. But with the sun out, I'm not holding out TOO much hope...

The Gloomy Side of a Beautiful Day

Saturday was a beautiful day in San Francisco. Warm, barely a cloud in the sky. A perfect day to go shooting outside in the park. Unfortunately, I was not the only person to think so. Took a nice drive along the Great Highway, turned right into the park, and realized for the first time I may have a problem. No parking in the park, but I just chalked it up to people going to the park, maybe to the beach or the soccer fields under the nearby windmills.

On my first pass, I drove past the range, and with a quick glance to the right, I noticed that the range looked really crowded. Hard to tell how crowded while trying to not plow into another parked car, oncoming traffic, or the sidewalk, so I wrote it off to the nature of a quick glance and drove on looking for parking.

Found a parking spot on my second pass. Keeping that glance in the back of my mind, however, I decided to not pull my archery case out of the car until I knew there was room for me on the range. So I walked out onto the range, and my heart sank. There were multiple archers on every single lane, with arrows sitting in every single target. I stood out on the range for a while, hoping someone would simply disappear. Of course, that didn't happen.

So I turned around, got back in my car, and drove back along the water. Found a place to stop at Fort Funston and looked out over the ocean for a while. Even without shooting, I could still enjoy the bright, clear, warm November Saturday in San Francisco.

But I really wanted to shoot.

Getting Out of the Rain

Light rain/heavy mist in San Francisco last Saturday. Not the kind of weather that would normally keep me indoors. But I did not want to stand out in the park in the rain without knowing that 1. it would not get heavier, and 2. I would definitely get one of the concrete lanes.

So instead, I collected a shooting partner/benefactor and went on down to Pacifica Archery. Spent most of an hour pumping arrows into the wall. My first indoor shooting since leaving Boston. Good timing, too, since I am just a few weeks from heading back to Boston and ArcheryUSA.

Not a bad day. Had some good ends. Had some frustrating ones, too. But overall a good reentry into indoor shooting. Takes some adjustments to go from 70 meters down to 18, but once I'm back in the swing of things it should be fine.

Weather looks like it should be pretty good tomorrow, so the plan is to be back in GGPark shooting at a distant target.

Slightly Overdue

Another day in Golden Gate Park last weekend, shooting from 70 meters at my target. Not an exciting day, but a good solid showing nonetheless. A few good ends, but I'm still not scoring-round ready. Need to work on my consistency. Something to look forward to in the spring, after a quarter of indoor shooting back in Dedham this winter.

Missed this past weekend because of rain. Don't really want to stand out in GGPark mud getting wet. Could have gone to Pacifica and the indoor range, and if it is still raining this weekend, that's the plan, but instead just took the weekend off. Not really happy about it, but what's done is done.

Looking forward to getting back to full days at the range, even if I only shoot an hour or so. If only there was an ArcheryUSA West...