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Topic created by skolins on Tue Aug 11, 2015 at 10:30 pmIntroduction:
With Nolde’s dense trail network and summertime vegetation, the courses for this event were always going to focus on route choice. So for something different this event will double-down on route choice. At many points in the intermediate and advanced courses there will be a fork and you will have two choices of which control to visit (so there may be two different control 1’s on your map but you only need to go to one of the two). Since there will be so many different route choice options and people going different directions there will also be a mass-start option added to the mix. There will be standard white and yellow courses, an intermediate level forked course, and two advanced level forked courses, with the blue course following the brown course route and then adding an extra loop.
White: 2.20km 95.0m 10 controls
Yellow 3.10km 120.0m 11 controls
Orange (Forked) 4.80km 175.0m 9 controls
Brown (Forked) 4.80km 140.0m 9 controls
Blue (Forked) 9.30km 260.0m 18 controls
Logistics:
Registration will be at the C.H. McConnell Environmental Education Hall near the mansion. Start and finish will be just south of the parking area for the Education Hall. The mass start will be at 11AM, though you can also start at any time in the standard 10-1 window. Please register by 10:30 if you want to take part in the mass start. Control pick-up will begin at 3PM.
Runners on the blue course will receive two maps bagged back-to-back. The first map has the start through control 9 (#39, which is go control). Upon reaching control 9 you should flip over to the other map which has controls 9 through the finish. You do NOT need to return to the start/finish area when completing your first loop - you can go directly from control 9 to 10a or 10b. There will be water available at control #39, and if you want to leave some form of nourishment at control #39 before you start you are welcome to do so (the control is clearly visible less than 100m directly down a trail from the start/finish). Also note that you will visit control #39 a second time as the 18th and final control of the course before coming into the finish.
Forkings:
At many points in the intermediate and advanced courses there will be a fork and you will have two choices of which control to visit. If the two controls are relatively close to each other they will be labeled on the map with a single number (1, 2, etc.) located between the two controls. If the two controls in the fork are spread out significantly they will be separately labeled (e.g. 4a and 4b).
Especially when there are consecutive forked controls, drawing a line for every possible route would lead to a lot of map clutter. Therefore, in most cases a single line has been drawn to the area of the forked controls and the line then forks to the two different controls. After the fork, there will be lines from the two controls that will rejoin and a then single line will be drawn in the direction of the next control(s). If the two forked options are very far apart, then completely separate lines may be drawn to each control. An example demonstrating what the map will look like will be available at the registration area.
On the advanced courses control 4 is a long leg and the lines from 3 to both 4a and 4b have been bent around the outside of the map to avoid excessive visual clutter in the central area of the map. The lines are not meant to indicate anything about suggested or required route choice. On the intermediate course the central area of the map is a bit busy so please be careful with your map reading and make sure you are headed to the correct control.
On the clue sheets both controls for each fork are listed. The control labeled with an ‘a’ on the map is listed first on the clue sheet. In the case where both of the forked controls are close enough to be labeled with one number, the control further north-west is listed first.
Map Notes:
The map was produced in 2004. Since that time the trail network has been very stable but the vegetation in many areas has changed significantly. Some of the pine forests have matured a bit and become easier to move through, but most of the changes involve white woods having gotten a bit greener. Rootstocks on the map are visible but have made significant progress towards becoming dot knolls and there are plentiful large, unmapped rootstocks. At the registration area a map showing some of the relevant vegetation changes will be provided. In addition, a few changes have been made on the printed maps:
- The approximate locations of a couple of small fenced revegetation areas south of the mansion have been added with black vertical slashing. This was done mostly as a heads up because the wire fences can be hard to see in the forest.
- One approximate area of dark green has been added to discourage an attack point to a control that has become grown over with thorns.
- A couple of unused trails have been downgraded to indistinct paths.
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Reply by ErikEddy on Wed Aug 12, 2015 at 8:07 amSounds fun! Sam put a lot of thought into this event... Who is in for the mass start?!?! I sure am.
