Have You Seen The Other Side Of The Mountain ?
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Topic created by rgbortz on Mon May 11, 2015 at 10:03 pmYes, the western third of the Pagoda map is steep and stoney. That's why normally only the Green,Red and Blue course runners ever get to see the mountain west of Skyline Drive.
However, this time around everyone gets to see what, in my estimation, is probably the most open, runnable forest DVOA has right now. This part of the map has a dense trail network so there will be lots of trail walking/running. The courses have been set to minimize climb, keeping all but one course to around 4%.
To those who aren't sure what that means it just means the climb is not any more than what you would expect on other maps with lots of elevation change. The difference on this map is the courses will be mostly down,down, down to begin, then climb back up with some flats mixed in.
There's a lot of interesting topography and manmade features on this side of the mountain. Most of the green on the map has faded away since 2000 when the map was originally made with a large percentage of the forest having 100 to 300 meter sight lines. As of May 11 most of the forest floor, on the west side of Skyline Drive, is devoid of any growth. There was a spring brush fire here, as pactically every year sees a fire or two, but there's not much to burn except leaf litter. None of the controls are in the recent 10+/- acre burn area, which is only charred and not significant in determining route choice.
The Start/Finsh area will be a 600+ meter downhill walk from registration, which is at the Fire Tower parking.
Blue and Red have a long uphill slog 1/3 to 1/2 way, respectively, through their courses then cross over Skyline Drive to be rewarded with a couple to several kilometers cool down run without any steep or long elevation gains, then finish their runs after crossing back over Skyline Drive. All the other courses stay on the west side of Skyline.
If you haven't seen this sde of the mountain up close this might possibly be the last chance you get at an orienteering event as there is some talk of maybe not having this section on the new map in the works.
I'm hopeful you will find this side of the mountain enjoyable,as I do, and am looking forward to many post-event comments.
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Reply by markwalsh on Thu May 28, 2015 at 12:59 pmThe other side of the mountain (west side)has always been my downfall the two or three times I've attempted Mt Penn in Nov. the past few years.
Coming up and over and then down the rocky sections through stickers etc always sapped my legs and lungs a bit.......also like features did me in since main trail on west other side requires one to climb to most of the placements on prior blue courses.....only so many hills in them legs these days.
Hope to make it out that way and best it this time. -
Reply by rgbortz on Thu May 28, 2015 at 2:30 pmHey Mark, and every runner who is thinking about doing Red or Blue I promise you this is not one of those
up and down and up and down and up and down events. As in the original post you will head downhill, enjoy the open woods with a couple smaller ups and downs, then one great big climb. Enjoy the scenery on the way up as the woods are fabulous. There is some very, very minimal sticky things to contend with, if that's the route you choose.
Overall the woods are really, really open with most of the rodeis dying off and as mentioned, a good bit of trail running.
If anyone is sitting on the fence contemplating a run this Sunday jump right off and come enjoy what should be some very fast times in these open woods. This post isn't just for the Red and Blue runners but ditto to everybody. All courses are in, beautiful interesting settings.
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Reply by markwalsh on Sat May 30, 2015 at 10:39 amDidn' t mean to imply terrain might be too tough...... just at the time I tackled wasn't used to terrain like that and lost a lot of time in like featured trail forks ...going back and forth up and down .....my skills and conditioning lacked ........and locating on map was tricky for me since I had limited symbol recognition (like the tower)
I guess that's why they are advanced courses. -
Reply by ErikEddy on Sun May 31, 2015 at 7:24 pmNow that the event is over I'll announce That the area will be on new map and was field checked. The intention was to have this area as less priority to be updated ( but not left off) for a couple reasons. I'm interested to hear thoughts about the terrain as a regular course setter of Mt Penn. Talk to you next week. I also think the area is pretty cool!
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Reply by ErikEddy on Sun May 31, 2015 at 7:29 pmAlso- I set an event from reading high school here in 2003(?) using a lot of this area. I was novice then, but could be interesting to try again. That way you can have downhill finish and remote start up the hill.
