Hawk Mountain
-
Topic created by WindWalker on Mon Dec 12, 2011 at 10:46 pmSo I was poking around in the nooks and crannies of this website, more specifically in the Decade Rankings and came across an event at Hawk Mountain. So I'm wondering if that was at the Hawk Mountain Boy Scout Camp, or the Hawk Mountain where people go and watch the birds?
Why did the event at this venue quit happening?
Oh and some of you have been doing this a very long time.
Thanks, Mike -
Reply by furlong47 on Tue Dec 13, 2011 at 0:21 amIt's the Boy Scout Camp, although I can't tell you why there haven't been any events there lately.
-
Reply by WindWalker on Tue Dec 13, 2011 at 7:45 amWow, that's about 4 miles from my house.
I'll wait to hear more about this but it would be cool if we could get this back up and running.
It's close enough to me that I could easily spend some time there, learn the map and try my hand at course setting.
Mike -
Reply by markwalsh on Tue Dec 13, 2011 at 2:22 pmIs that the same Hawk Mountain near where the annual Krista G. is held by G.O.A.L.S ?
-
Reply by kathyu on Tue Dec 13, 2011 at 7:04 pm
We had an event I think 2 years ago at Hawk Mountain Scout Camp and did a sprint type event there and the kindest thing you can say is that it was lightly attended. I think the problem was distance and a competing event on the same day. Luckily there were some scouts in the camp who ran. The Campbells were the event directors. You pass Cabella's on the way, right?
-
Reply by Guy-O on Tue Dec 13, 2011 at 7:24 pmMore importantly, you pass it on the way back.
...which is what I did back in 2004 after my only time running at Hawk Mtn.
Fascinating store (for a suburban Guy). Nothing I wanted to buy, though. -
Reply by j-man on Tue Dec 13, 2011 at 7:30 pmI've never been to Cabella's but I like Hawk Mountain a lot. A small area, but nice.
-
Reply by WindWalker on Tue Dec 13, 2011 at 9:50 pmMark - no, the adventure race is over at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, where they watch the birds.
Distance? Heck my closest event is an hour away, most are closer to two hours.
So it doesn't sound like it's a venue worth bringing back from the dead?
Cabela's is in Hamburg, about 15 miles away. You may pass it depending where you live.
Mike
-
Reply by furlong47 on Wed Dec 14, 2011 at 1:27 amThe two events I went to there were in 2004 and 2005. It looks like the 2004 one had moderate attendance (92 orienteers) and the 2005 one had decent to good attendance (155 orienteers). I don't know if distance is really that much of a deterrent when there are regular courses (of course I usually drive 1.5 - 3 hours one way for local meets) but people might not have wanted to drive that far just for sprints.
Often when a map seems to go away, the issues are either permissions, there are no more copies of the map, or the map is in bad need of being updated. (Boy Scouts do seem to enjoy changing, knocking down, and building things in their camps. Or at least in the mapped ones....) I don't know what the reason was in this case, but I'm sure someone does. If the problem was just no one wanting to organize there, you might be able to revive it. -
Reply by edscott on Wed Dec 14, 2011 at 9:13 amMost Hawk Mountain Scout Reservation events have been directed by DVOA members that were also involved in Scouting. For many years Dave Prine, Linda Eck, and Glenn Piper did an Oreinteering Training weekend for Boy and Girl Scouts. There were classes and activities from Friday night through Saturday night and the Scouts did a lot of the work for a club event on Sunday. All the requirements for the BSA Oreinteering Merit Badge and the GSUSA Orienteering award were covered and most of the scouts completed those requirements. The Cornish (not Campbell) Family did the last event up there a couple years ago. Mark was also involved in Troop 529's orienteering program with Dave and Glenn. This is the same troop that has won 13 of the 23 MASOC events hosted by DVOA.The map is still accurate enough to be used if we have anyone interested in setting courses.
-
Reply by EricW on Wed Dec 14, 2011 at 4:27 pmIf there is interest, this HMtn Scout map is expandable, up the hill to the ridge top. I believe we have additional base map in hand. The original photo coverage certainly covered additional area, although we might resort to a lidar/orthophoto base at this time.
-
Reply by rgbortz on Wed Dec 14, 2011 at 10:04 pmHawk Mountain map is of particular interest to me as I was a scout master and took kids there for 9 summers. In addition my company has built most of the pavlions there and worked on the Daycamp dining hall.
The camp is 45 minutes from my house. So Mike, if you would like to try your hand at course setting there, or Event Director, I would be happy to work with you there. The distance for the majoirty of club members is likely an issue, but probably no different than maps in Jersey or Delaware or Maryland are for others of us up north and west.
Mapping more of this area would make this map even more like Warwick than it already is as the entire map would lie on the north slope of ( an even larger) hill ( mountain ). The slope is not so steep to prevent some good back and forth course setting; slowly up then a quick down or quick up then winding down.
For those not familiar with this map the camp sits at the foot of the mountain and offers good gently sloping to almost flat terrain for beginner to intermediate courses as well as advanced.
How many other club members would like to see this map expanded ? -
Reply by WindWalker on Wed Dec 14, 2011 at 10:24 pm
I'm not at all involved with the scouting stuff. It sounds like any event there would have to be scouting related, which seems reasonable, since it is scout land. But this may complicate things?
I was thinking I'd like to try to set a course next year, with some guidance of course, and this is very close to home for me so I could do lots of fieldwork and learn the map without alot of driving. So it seemed like a viable option. Although they my not be open to me trampsing around the woods all the time.
Not sure how all the logistics work with doing something like this? But if there is interest in the club to bring this venue back and the scouting higher ups don't have a problem with it, I'd be willing to set courses, once someone teaches me how, lol.
Mike -
Reply by edscott on Wed Dec 14, 2011 at 11:30 pmAs long as we open the event up to interested Scout units and avoid busy weekends and the Summer camp season we have been able to get permission to use the camp. Having a scout volunteer make the arrangements probably makes it easier, but the course setter and event director don't need to be BSA volunteers....and yes we have the basemap that extends up and over the top of the mountain. I've always thought that if we finished that mapping we could have a day of A competition with almost no climb.
-
Reply by kathyu on Thu Dec 15, 2011 at 4:19 pm
Is that big enough for a rogaine? How much acreage do you need?
-
Reply by Steve on Thu Dec 15, 2011 at 9:05 pmKathy;
No it is not. the 24 hour rogaines I have been on used USGS topo of at least 12 square miles -
Reply by WindWalker on Thu Dec 15, 2011 at 10:20 pmWell it looks like Ron is willing to help, that sounds good to me.
I'd be willing to do most of the leg work, but would need some guidance.
So if there is interest in bringing this event back let me know and I'll start looking into it. I guess the first thing would be to contact the scouts and see what they think about the idea. If anyone has any old contact info that would be helpful.
So what say ye fellow orienteerer's?
Mike -
Reply by edscott on Thu Dec 15, 2011 at 10:34 pmLooks like May 13 or 20 would be the best fit into our 2012 schedule. I'll email Mary to check with them.
-
Reply by WindWalker on Fri Dec 16, 2011 at 7:39 amI can work with those dates.
Let me know what Mary finds out.
Mike -
Reply by rgbortz on Sun Dec 18, 2011 at 10:44 amI'm all in to help you out Mike, would love to spend some time up there. May should be good by the Scouting organization as not much else other than school groups are using the camp at this time of year and that is usually on week days. My plans put me far away the first two weeks of May but that's o.k. as most of the field work should be done before that.
Hope to see you at the winter meeting.
You can also converse with me at alliron69@cs.com.
-
Reply by WindWalker on Sun Dec 18, 2011 at 8:24 pmSounds good Ron.
I guess I'll wait and see if we get permission to do the event. If so I guess I'll need a map and permission to go on a walk-about.
Mike
-
Reply by hughmac4 on Sun Dec 25, 2011 at 11:55 amHey Mike:
I just wanted to say way to step up and get a cool area back on the schedule!
-Hughmac4
