Nottingham
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Topic created by kathyu on Thu Mar 11, 2021 at 6:35 pmDave and I took a (long) drive down to Nottingham. We had a nice hike and spotted old permanent course markers. It would be nice to see the map updated and perhaps do something there. The facilities are great and there is excellent parking and a 50-50 mix of areas of runnable park and thorny mess. Also an interesting trail network. They seem to have improved it a bit since I was there many years ago. A meet there would attract Quantico folks too since it is right on the Delaware border next to the Herr's factory.
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Reply by furlong47 on Thu Mar 11, 2021 at 10:57 pmAs you know (but many others don't) I also hiked there recently, covering most of the park. The vast majority of the woods are nothing I would want to enter, or even physically could enter, even at this time of year. Tons of yucky stuff. The only nice part of the park is the front which is largely open with picnic areas, ponds, and a fitness trail. I don't think there would be enough nice terrain to use for advanced courses, but maybe WY and an update of the permanent course. I also wonder if they would even want/allow us off trail in the Serpentine Barrens area which is a National Natural Landmark.
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Reply by EricW on Fri Mar 12, 2021 at 0:59 amKathy, you sure picked a good one to talk about. Plenty of mixed feelings here.Just a few months ago, this was a topic of discussion, and some visiting, among a few of us.See if we get a few of them to post.Some may not remember, but this area was mapped and used for many years.Barrens permission was never an issue that I am aware of. The stuff protects itself rather well :-)I don't have a strong opinion. I think Notttingham can provide interesting orienteering, and be reasonably enjoyable with very careful course setting, but that is the big variable.Average (effort, skill, experience) course setting will usually result in a miserable experience for most people on Orange and above.Yes, good facilities/parking, and trail network.I think "50-50" is generous. :-)I believe we have been very welcome by the park management, but others can speak better to that.I'm rather sure complete remapping would be required.There are a couple other nearby mapping opportunities that have recently come to light.
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Reply by kathyu on Fri Mar 12, 2021 at 8:50 amThis was an interesting discussion. I had a great hike and didn't really consider it from a mappers point of view. Nottingham could have a nice permanent course again some day -- the controls are still on the park's map. Now I think about it, a couple of years ago I thought you could have a trail run there but off trail it was awful. But thanks for taking my suggestion seriously.
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Reply by BobGross on Fri Mar 12, 2021 at 9:59 amIt's been a while since I've set courses at Nottingham. I remember the management being very good to work with and the trail network was interesting. There's also soo much interesting flora and fauna in that park.Eric is correct, course setting experience is a must. I had some interesting days setting courses at Nottingham, it's a good area for a score or easier trail run courses. It was tough to include many advanced route choices on the upper level courses.I remember when we last used the park they were doing some controlled burns to open up the woods and kill off the invasive brambles. So I'm not sure what the woods are like these days.Once we can be more social and hang out at the pavilions together this would be a good park to take a look at.
Hike there and enjoy but... be very careful going off trail in the wrong direction. You might never get out of the Nottingham wood. -
Reply by Tom-O on Sat Mar 13, 2021 at 8:17 pmI do have a very strong opinion. Nottingham is totally inappropriate for orienteering right now. It was always marginal at best and now the extensive logging and pine beetle damage have made it MUCH worse. I visited last fall and venturing off-trail almost anywhere was exasperating and painful because of the ubiquitous briars. There is only one small patch of decent woods on the very western edge of the map.We need to walk away from this place possibly forever but at least for 10-20 years until/if the vegetation improves.
