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Topic created by skolins on Sun Jul 10, 2016 at 9:03 pm
Introduction:
Like the event at Nolde last summer, these courses will focus 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 3’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 four advanced forked courses. The blue course follows the brown course route and then adds an extra loop, while the green and red courses mostly follow the first part of the first blue loop and the second part of the second blue loop.
White: 2.7km 85m 10 controls
Yellow 3.5km 85m 10 controls
Orange (Forked) 4.6km 130m 11 controls
Brown (Forked) 3.9km 95m 9 controls
Green (Forked) 5.2km 145m 11 controls
Red (Forked) 6.3km 175m 13 controls
Blue (Forked) 10.0km 275m 20 controls
Logistics:
Parking and registration will be at Scott’s Run Lake. We will be using the northern parking lot (so keep driving past the first two lots in the Scott’s Run loop to reach us). Start is a flat 400 meter road walk from registration and finish is within 150 meters of registration. 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 green, red and blue courses will receive two maps bagged back-to-back.
For green, the first map has the start through control 5 (#35). Upon reaching control 5 you should flip over to the other map which has controls 5 through the finish.
For red, the first map has the start through control 7 (#43, which is a water stop). Upon reaching control 7 you should flip over to the other map which has controls 7 through the finish.
For blue the first map has the start through control 10 (#40). Upon reaching control 10 you should flip over to the other map which has controls 10 through the finish. There will be water available at control #40, and if you want to leave some form of nourishment at control #40 before you start you are welcome to do so (the control is clearly visible less than 50m directly down a trail from the from the registration area).
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. The two controls will be separately labeled (e.g. 4a and 4b), with the “a” control being the further north or east of the pair. 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.
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.
Near the end of the green, red, and blue courses there is a set of four consecutive forked controls (controls 7-10 on green, 9-12 on red, and 16-19 on blue). For a couple of legs in this section the lines between controls have been bent to improve the clarity of the order of controls. The lines are not meant to indicate anything about suggested or required route choice. Especially in this area, be careful with your map reading and make sure you are headed to one of the correct controls.
Map Notes:
There are four areas of out-of-bounds on the map: The main campground, two smaller group camping sites, and an area of private property. For the campgrounds, the woods adjacent to the campgrounds are in bounds, we just don’t want any orienteers running through somebody’s tent site. A few of the lines between controls are bent to avoid the OB. Please respect the other park users and stay out of these areas.
French creek is known for its relatively uniform hillsides with subtle contour features and many charcoal terraces. The map was updated in 2013 for use in a national meet and thus is still very accurate, including most vegetation. However, it is mid-summer so we are at full vegetation. The green areas on the map are definitely green and some of the white areas have underbrush and ferns (though most of the white woods still allow for fast travel). One exception is the area southeast of Scott’s run lake, which is mapped as white but is now light-to-medium green.
Work is being done this summer on the spillways of Scott’s Run Lake, so the water level may be lower than mapped. There is some evidence of recent tree removals near the main park road, but these are small areas that should not affect route choice or navigation, so are not mapped.
A few maps changes have been made - near the lake one small trail has been removed and a new trail added in its rough location. Small vegetation changes were made in the south part of the Brown and Blue maps to try and help you avoid some thorns.
On the forked courses, many times one of the controls in the fork will be navigationally easier than the other (but both will still be within the difficulty level appropriate for the course). Depending on your strategy, experience at the relevant course level, and mood, the navigational difficulty may be an important factor when choosing which control to visit.
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Reply by yurets on Sat Jul 16, 2016 at 10:28 amHave you decided already on this event? I do not see a check mark on it.
