The Gov Dick Event has been postponed.

Courses Information:

Go to the event page for more details.

Event has been cancelled due to the predicted weather. Look for it to be rescheduled next spring.

Courses Information:

Courses Information:

The courses that will be used for the October 10th event were originally going to be run in March but flooding caused that event to be cancelled.  Tyler State Park orienteering is very fast and navigation is relatively easy.  If you have ever wanted to move up in category this is the park to do it in.

Registration, start, and finish are all located on the Bucks County Community College campus. Use Student Parking Lot A, which is located off Swamp Road on the North end of campus. As usual, follow our orange and white direction signs.

All of the courses will cross park roads so caution should be exercised at all time.  All courses will also cross the campus of Bucks County Community College.  Please be courteous to the property.

Below are specific notes for the individual courses:

White: at the start follow the streamers to the first control.  The mapped path has been obscured recently.

Brown: most of the course is on the BCCC campus.  Your maps are printed on 1:5000 scale to make it more readable.  It will not have a legend printed on it.

Green and Red: there will be a box of 4 controls that can be taken in any order (a very mini Score-O).  All of them must be punched for your course to be complete.

Sprint-is on the short side and very easy navigation in an "urban" environment.  I encourage anyone that is curious to give it a try.  The map is printed on 1:5000 scale with descriptive text on the clue sheets.

See you in the woods.
Karl

Courses Information:

Preregistration is required for Scout units and large groups.  DVOA and other orienteering club members do not need to preregister. For this event, there is an extra $1.00 per person fee that is required by the camp.

Control pick-up will start at 3 PM so please plan accordingly.

Below are some specific notes for some of the courses:

Yellow-X:  Shorter version of a "normal" Yellow course for younger Scouts.

Yellow-Y:  Normal Yellow course

Green:  The B-B and archery ranges will have intermittent use during the day.  The ranges plus some distance behind the ranges are marked as out-of-bounds.

Red:  Runners on this course will first do the Brown course followed by a map exchange to do the Green course. You'll be off the clock for up to 2 minutes to get a drink of water and move from the finish area to the start area.

Courses Information:

Can't get enough of Fair Hill? Come out for another event on the Big Elk Chapel map Sunday November 14th!  The leaves will be down, the woods will be open, and climb will be moderate.  Due to the fast conditions, the advanced courses are a little longer than normal.

Registration, Start, and Finish will all be in close proximity to the parking area at the intersection of Gallaher Rd. and Big Elk Chapel Rd.   There will be a three hour time limit for all courses and control pick-up will begin at 3:00 pm due to the limited daylight.

Helpers are still needed for the event.  Sign up using the volunteer link on the schedule page (or click here) if you can spare some time.

For those traveling down I-95 from the north, you may want to stop by Rockwood Park on your way home.  DVOA will be holding an introductory event there Sunday afternoon on a new map.  You can run the short beginners course as a sprint (with old school pin punching).  The park is located in north Wilmington just minutes off I-95.  See the schedule page for registration times and directions.

Courses Information:

Head on up to Lewis Morris park in New Jersey on Sunday November 21 for the annual challenge with Hudson Valley Orienteering (HVO).

Map: 1:10,000 scale / 5 meter contours.

Partial legend - special (non-IOF) symbols only. Full legend sheets available on request.

Course Setter's Notes:
The woods at Lewis Morris Park are quite open now, and I had a great time planning the courses and checking out the control sites. There are patches of green, but I’ve kept the logical route choices away from those. The more advanced courses will stray just a bit into Jockey Hollow, where the barberry is more plentiful. Unfortunately, the mapping of the green needs a serious updating, so you’ll have to be watchful for the patches of stickers. None of the obvious route choices will take you through bad areas; there will always be a way through or slightly around it.

Another aspect of Lewis Morris is the ever-changing state of the mountain biking trails. I have updated some of the more obvious changes, both in location and appearance. If there is a trail on the map, then there is something noticeable on the ground. Some trails might be more intermittent, however, than how they are mapped. And, because of the aforementioned mountain bikers, if you opt to run on a trail, please be aware of the bikers and share the trail.

Event Director's Notes
Registration, finish, download and refreshments will all be at the Sunrise Lake picnic area, situated in the northwest part of Lewis Morris Park. It is a 150 meter walk from the south end of the parking lot. The start will be a flat, 180 meter walk from registration. Warm, stocked, modern bathrooms are located in the beach pavilion building, which is 280 meters from registration, and 100 meters from the start.

Registration cards are color-coded by course. To minimize queuing, please fill out your cards before approaching the registration table. Please complete the shaded areas of the top and middle sections of the card. In order to be included in Dual Event scoring, be sure to enter "HVO" or "DVOA" as your club in both sections.

Hoping, again, to avoid long lines, we have worked out a process which eliminates the need to visit the e-punch computer before starting. For this to work, please write your e-card number -- or "rental" if you need to rent one -- in the punch grid of the middle section of your registration card. Then, add your year-of-birth if you are participating as an individual, or the number of people in your group. If you are renting an e-card, please also print your name on the bottom section; rental e-cards will be provided at registration.

Check the HVO information page for more information.

Courses Information:

How better to end the 2010 orienteering season than to be at Ridley State Park in Broomall.  The vegetation (and hopefully the briars) is down.  We have a full set of courses that include a Blue course and a long Orange.  The start will be at shelter #17.  The restrooms there are even open!  Now if the weather cooperates we'll have one of the best local events ever.

DVOA will offer a long Orange course for the Adventure Racers at Ridley Creek on Sunday December 5th.  The course will be approximately 8km in length, and provide super-fit people without elite orienteering skills an opportunity to exhaust themselves.  In order to know approximately how many maps to print, the course setter, Hugh MacMullan would appreciate an e-mail heads-up if you plan to compete on the long Orange course.

Course Setter Notes:

The Ridley Creek courses have been designed to avoid the worst of Ridley's briars, and to prevent outdated areas of the map from impacting competition results.  Rootstocks are particularly unreliable, as old, mapped rootstocks have degraded, and there are many new unmapped rootstocks.  A few overgrown trails have been marked with pink streamers, where they are of navigational importance.

The most important note relates to the Creek itself: all advanced courses, BROWN through BLUE will take competitors THROUGH the Creek, twice, at fordable crossings – even though the map itself characterizes the Creek as "uncrossable."  In other words, elite runners will get wet feet – ankle to mid-calf.  The decision to do this stems from the desire to effectively utilize the East side of Ridley Creek, enabling DVOA to orienteer in Ridley’s best areas.

Courses Information:

Events & Schedule

E-punch Workshop, 1:30pm - 3:30pm

The e-punch program will be led by Sandy Fillebrown

• How to program control boxes
• How to synchronize control boxes with the Time-Master unit
• How to set up an event
• How to do registration
• How to use the archive
• How to make changes to existing entries
• How to download

Please contact Sandy Fillebrown if you plan to attend this workshop.

Search & Rescue, 3:30pm - 4:15pm

Tim Walsh will present Search & Rescue Techniques/Guidelines. Tim has been certified by FEMA in 2010.

O Travels, 4:15pm - 5:30pm

Stories of O travels presented by a few of our members

Potluck Dinner, 5:30pm - 6:30pm

Bring a potluck dish to share. Bring your own plate & utensils.

Annual Business Meeting, 6:30pm - 8:00pm

• Events
• Awards
• New Board Member Election
• Cleanup to follow

Club Library

The Club Library will be available along with Caroline Ringo's scrapbooks of DVOA through the years.

Silent Auction

There will be a silent auction for the benefit of the Juniors. Please bring an item or two for the auction. You may want to bring some cash so you can purchase an item.

Directions

See event information page

• From King of Prussia take Route 23 west through Phoenixville, PA
• Continue straight ahead on Rt 724 at the intersection with Rt 23
• Continue on Rt 724 for 1.7miles
• Zion Lutheran Church will be on the right at the top of the hill

Courses Information:

Early Spring conditions are in the forecast for the March 6th event at Fair Hill on the Little Egypt map!  The snow should be virtually if not completely gone, but expect wet areas near creeks and here-and-there along paths. This is a great opportunity to get out of the house and into Fair Hill's rolling fields and woods before leaf-out obscures the terrain. Courses range from easy hiking for kids and adults out to enjoy a walk, to interesting navigational puzzles just right for intermediate orienteers, and advanced courses that challenge the elite (and not quite elite) to pick the best combination of field and woods running, while anticipating and avoiding bogs and tangles. Join the fun, and maybe even bring a friend!

Course-Setter's Notes. Fair Hill: Little Egypt March 6, 2011.

The snow was almost completely gone at Little Egypt on Feb. 26, but there was wet ground here and there, especially near the creeks. Who knows what we'll have on Mar. 6th but we're hoping that the snow will all be gone, and the ground even drier.

All courses cross the river at least twice.  On the southern half of the map, there are few, if any, spots where one can cross without getting wet feet. Fortunately, there is a bridge, but not the one shown on the map. We have used red x's to cross out the old (broken and closed) bridge, and drawn in the new bridge, which is about 100 m to its north.  Beginner through orange courses are designed to force crossing at the new bridge. Advanced courses are designed to encourage or at least not disadvantage those crossing at the new bridge.

As most of you know, many areas of Little Egypt that are mapped as clear forest have significant brambly undergrowth. We tried to avoid the worst areas, but runners on orange through advanced courses will inevitably experience some tangles.

ADVANCED RUNNERS NOTE -- Because there is little advanced terrain on this map to challenge advanced runners, in a few places we have flagged similar features within 100 meters of each other.  The controls are sufficiently distinctive on the map (location, relationships) that there should be no confusion.

Courses Information:

We've already submitted our bid for Spring-type weather on the 13th.  So break out of your cabin fever – on the first day of Daylight Savings no less! Don't forget to move your clocks AHEAD one hour on Sunday, March 13th @ 2:00AM.

Note that we welcome Scout, JROTC, and other groups. We'll provide whatever coaching you wish before going out on courses.  Please contact Bob Burg with your group #'s so that we can be sure to print extra maps. 

Event Notes

We invite everyone to Colliers Mills– one of the most unique maps in DVOA captivity – this March 13th. You will be pleased with what we have planned for you.  There's something for everyone, from elite runners eager to stretch out their legs to first-time recreational hiking families and everyone in between – using all the creative course design that e-punching inspires.

The core area of Colliers Mills, which all courses will use extensively, is a picturesque quiltwork of open fields and the whitest woods you can find in the tri-state area, interspersed with clumps of blueberry-filled woods, all displaying the subtle topography that South Jersey is so famous for (providing none of that pesky climb or stony ground).  It all makes for fast courses (running or walking) where it's easy to outrun your map-reading. 

The terrain provides super beginner and intermediate courses, as well as advanced courses that reward intricate precision navigation.  We expect that the top finishing times will be tightly contested on all courses, with final legs routing you along the lake through white woods into a spectator-friendly Finish chute that will rival A events.

Note: We invite attendees to stick around after your courses to root in your friends and socialize afterwards.
We've chosen a beautiful spot along the lake for Registration and Finish, with Start only a short walk away.

White – 2.58k – 15m – 12 controls
Lots of short legs in open terrain with very visible control flags using a wide variety of features which offer beginners uncommon route choices.

Yellow – 3.84k – 18m – 11 controls
We're offering Yellow participants lots of route options in very safe open areas that invite the more adventurous to practice their cross terrain skills, including a few long legs that challenge you to “stay on the map” through simple, though detailed, areas.

Orange – 4.70k – 18m – 10 controls
A combination of advanced legs with clear attack points and/or catching features with lots of invitation to run through more open terrain.  Test your route choice and navigation skills in complex open areas.

Brown – 4.03k – 32m – 9 controls
Green – 5.93k – 50m – 11 controls
Red – 8.57k – 85m – 17 controls
Blue – 11.52k – 92m – 20 controls

A great mix of short and long legs, careful open-woods navigation with short legs in the more classic O-areas.  Courses are designed to have you visiting some of the prettiest terrain while striving for a minimum of field and trail choices except for the long legs that will let you stretch out your stride to your heart's content. 
A combination that invites great times.

Only the second full event on our schedule after a cold and snowy winter.  So take the car ride March 13th to the wilds of New Jersey. 

Courses Information:

Mt. Penn Anitetam, March 20, 2011

Event Director's Notes

  (Wyatt & Angelica Riley)

Parking

is somewhat limited in the main lot – please park nose in on each side of the parking lot so we can fit as many cars in as possible with this lot that is less than 100m from Registration. There are two overflow parking areas, with a 400-800m walk to Registration. See this map: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&t=h&msa=0&ll=40.355456,-75.870831&spn=0.011528,0.01929&z=16&msid=212060236907453377015.00049e63fdae073915437

  for details on parking areas.

New Trails

  There are several new Mt. Bike trails in the area that aren't on the made-in-2002 map. Intermediate & Advanced orienteers should simply focus on other terrain features if confused by the trails – these are generally quite good still – and White/Yellow orienteers should keep an eye out of streamers marking some of the mapped trails (as well as a marked route in the middle of the course) if confused.

Course Setter's Notes

   (Ron Bortz)

Before setting out today, I encourage everyone, advanced orienteers in particular, to read all the notes here, then decide which course is for you.

   The courses being offered today are a repeat of October 12, 2003. The exception is the Blue course which is totally new, which uses a combination of the control sites from the other advanced courses. Seven and a half years later, these courses should not seem familiar as this time around, as the green isn't out yet, and won't hinder your sight distance. Another difference is the proliferation of mountain bike trails. You will need to adjust your map reading for the advanced courses to consider trails as secondary to other land form and rock features.

Some further notes by course:

White – 2.34km.

   Most of the route is along heavily used significant trails. There is a marked route from #5-#6-#7 where the mapped trails have faded and new trails have appeared. In other areas, new trails have crisscrossed mapped trails, sometimes looking larger than the mapped trails. The mapped trails are streamered at some of these intersections to help you on your way. Pay attention to the streamers in these locations, to assist your map reading.

Yellow – 3.11km.

  This course offers several opportunities to short cut to the next control for those who want to venture off the trail (or streamer-marked route.) From #3 to #4 to #5, there are streamers for the white legs mentioned above that can be helpful. You will also find an indistinct trail mapped between #5 & #6 that is marked with red X's – it is now overgrown to the point where you'll be much faster finding another way around.

Orange – 4.42km.

  This course offers plenty of off trail short cuts for those who want to improve their navigational skills without relying on trails, and the park offers many trails as catching and relocation features. Keep in mind the aforementioned new bike trails, and pay attention to contour and rock features to confirm your location.

Brown 3.75km, Green 5.92 km, Red 7.32km

   At this early Spring date, the park is much more open than it was in October 2003. While a few of the control sites are slightly overgrown, the leaves aren't out yet, so even controls near bushes are generally visible from at least 20m away, often much further.

Blue 10.94km

  This, in my opinion, is the most interesting of the advanced courses, as it offers multiple route choices on several of the legs. There are also three controls which you visit twice, creating a bit of crisscrossing. Approaching and leaving these controls from different perspectives each visit gives a different feel. If you want to spend as much time in these beautiful woods as you can on this hopefully fine first day of Sprint then I recommend you give this course serious consideration. This map doesn't leave much opportunity to get hopelessly lost; relocation features abound.

Road Crossings

  Although roads on this map are not heavily traveled, mental alertness is still required when crossing as we cannot control the attentiveness of the person behind the wheel. Be careful.

  Number of crossings: Orange & Brown: 2; Green: 5; Red: 6; Blue: 13.

Final Notes from the Course Setter

   Other plans are keeping me from attending this event but I will be visualizing a fine Spring day (crossing my fingers) for everyone to enjoy a day in the woods.

Feedback is so important to any course setter no matter what you have to say, so long as it is just as you see it. This encourages all setters to do their best to continue striving to create the most interesting courses possible in the future. I hope to see comments posted by many of you on my return home.

Have a great day outdoors.

Map: This is NOT the Norristown State Hospital Sprint map that has been used a couple times already. This is the first time that a full complement of courses will be offered on the Norristown Farm Park map, so for most orienteers this is a new map.

Scale: 1:10,000 with THREE meter contour interval.

Course Length: Courses (Orange and up) are longer than average. This terrain is less technical than most, not particularly steep and runner-friendly.

Railroad tracks:

• ORANGE, GREEN, RED & BLUE courses will need to deal with the railroad which is still active.
• Two bridges across the RR are no longer useable and crossed out with red X’s on the map.
• The map will show where the tracks are more easily crossable.
• Orienteers may travel along the tracks, although there is really no good reason for them to do so.

Stream crossings:

• GREEN, RED & BLUE courses will require stream crossings.
• The streams should be safely crossable is several areas. These areas will be are marked on your map using the mandatory crossing symbol (outward facing parentheses). This symbol is NOT used to mark a mandatory crossing! It is only used to show the orienteer the area where (s)he should be able to cross safely, without getting into more than about a foot of water. Areas NOT marked with this symbol should be considered uncrossable.
• There will be a couple of maps showing these crossing areas available for preview at registration.
• There are also a couple of bridges that can be used.

General Notes:

• Check your control codes carefully. Some areas are fairly dense with controls.
• The longer courses feature legs which criss-cross, so please read your course carefully.
• Three small areas are marked on the map as out-of-bounds. Please respect them. These will also be shown on the preview maps.
• Due to the open nature of the park, you will likely see many runners running in various directions. It's probably best to try to ignore them 

General notes:

I look forward to your feedback on the courses. Hope you have a fun run!

Courses Information:

Here's the annual Warwick County Park event.  All courses are being offered.  The stream is rather high and running strong so no courses will be crossing the stream this year for safety purposes.  Therefore, there are a lot of controls in a very small area...  Be careful when you punch.  There will be extra clue sheets/control descriptions at the event.  If you'd like to volunteer, we'd love it.  No experience necessary.  Enjoy...

Courses Information:

Course Setters Notes

We welcome you to another event at the new Governor Dick map in Lebanon County PA. Although it is probably a longer than average drive for many of you, we think you will find it a worthwhile investment. The combination of some of the finest white woods in DVOA land with the challenges of a newly-mapped area should make for a great orienteering experience.

The area of the recently expanded map being used for this event is a tale of two entirely different terrains. To the North and West of Governor Dick Hill and infamous fire tower is a substantial area of open white woods with subtle geographic features, charcoal platforms and crossing trails. For those of you who were at last years inaugural event, this is the area you spent most of your time in. To the South and East of the ridge, however, there is an entirely different area of steep slopes, light to medium undergrowth, and boulders—lots of boulders.

The beginner and intermediate courses generally stay in the more accommodating Northwest area and the advanced courses make more use of the technically challenging area. Climb on all courses is minimized through an interesting 800m (70m climb) walk to start.

The White and Yellow courses are fairly typical except for the nice views possible with the hillside start.

The Orange course stays mostly in the woods to the Northwest and with several longer legs will give runners the opportunity to stretch it out.

The Brown course includes more legs in the boundary zone between the two regions, affording some technical orienteering among the boulders without expending too much distance and climb.

The Green and Red courses make full use of both sides of the ridge, with the Green course taking a more direct route while the Red course explores more of the interesting areas available. The frequent and substantial boulder fields in the Southeast region provide both an opportunity for technical control sites as well as a whole layer of additional concerns in route choices—probably even more so than the vegetation levels. While the densest vegetation has been avoided, the parts that will have to be attended to are not so bad, generally consisting of bare (at this time of year) bushes and small trees and very little of anything thorny. Unlike many of our older maps, the vegetation marked on this map is sufficiently accurate to navigate by.

Parking, registration and the finish are all near the education center off Pinch Road.  An overflow parking area is available on the west side of Pinch Road in a State Gamelands lot.

Courses Information:

Wyatt Riley has designed new courses for the Willows/Skunk Hollow.  Besides new white and yellow courses there are new score-O locations that go into different parts of the park.  Both the white and yellow courses go into the wooded part of the park.

The Willows has always been a great place for relatively new orienteerers to improve their map reading skills and relating the map to the terrain.

Come and join us.

Courses Information:

Come everyone to see the new orienteering map at Springton Manor!

Check out the park's web site for information about Springton Manor.

It's a lovely Chester County Park that wants to see orienteering! 

Courses Information: