Map And Course Notes
Moses Lake Sand Dunes map
2.5 meter contours, 1:10,000; magnetic grid lines (black) at 250m spacing; elevation: 1,100'/335m
Field work and cartography by Michael Schuh, October-December, 2009; second pass May, 2010
The venue for the Middle Distance Championship is unlike any I have ever mapped or orienteered in. I have run through forested sand dunes (most memorably in Manitoba) and across wide open areas (Laramie Range and Bend, Oregon), but never through sand dunes with only grass and scattered sage brush. This is very fast terrain and it is subtle and repetitive. There is absolutely no "white" forest on the map. None. All trees are parts of thickets of variable density. The main obstacles to navigation are cat tail marshes (shown as uncrossable marsh with medium green) and the occasional aforementioned thickets. Footing is quite good nearly everywhere, the notable exceptions being open sand areas (which includes many of the wider trails).
As a consequence of no forest, there is no usable shade near the Finish and Start areas. Bring a hat and sun screen. And sun screen.
The map has two distinct areas, the Red Zone, which is north of the east-west power lines, and the Yellow Zone to the south. The names come from regulations governing ORV access to the Yellow Zone, which is closed from October 1st to July 1st, and the Red Zone, which is always closed. This means that the Yellow Zone is crisscrossed with trails, while the Red Zone has only a few foot trails. One challenge in mapping was the realization that the trails would become less distinct as sand blew across them during the winter. Indeed, by the time we were working on courses in May, some of the minor trails had become unmappable (and have been deleted from the map).
Mapping was done in winter, when the level of Pot Holes Reservoir (the lake to the southwest of the map area) was at its lowest. A wetter than usual spring coupled with the standard practice of filling the reservoir as much as possible before summer has raised the water level by about 2 meters as of mid-May. Given the flat topography, even this small increase meant that many of the lower areas along the southwest edge of the area were inundated. We anticipated that the water level would rise, but not as much as it did. It is possible that the water level will lower by the end of June - at the end of June last year the water level was similar to what it was when I mapped it this past winter.
Patrick's course notes (below) address this in more detail.
One sand dune looks very much like the next, but there are subtle (or occasionally blatant) differences between them. I tried to be consistent with mapping knolls but found it tougher here than on any other map I have worked on.
The only manmade features in the competition area are the power lines, a few fences, the roads and trails, and a couple of field graves. There are no rock features anywhere on the map. However, there are scattered sections of ruined fence. Usually these are tangles of barbed wire on the ground, sometimes with fence posts. I don't pretend to have found all such instances. They are hard to see as they have rusted to a nice dark sandy brown. Fortunately they are rare and small.
Large, obvious beaver lodges are mapped as knolls. Some of the lodges that were mapped in winter were under water in May (heck, a third of the Yellow Zone was under water).
Speaking of water, water + springtime = mosquitoes.
Fun trivia: From higher dunes in the map area (and during good conditions), Mt. Rainier (elevation 14,410'/4390m) is visible to the west-southwest (compass heading of 250º, 115 miles/185km away). Also visible are the wind turbines between Ellensburg and Vantage (~40 miles/65km), the Stuart Range (~75 miles/120km), and the four transmitter towers of the LORAN station at George (19 miles/31km; flashing white strobe lights). All of these are west of the venue. Just north of the town of Moses Lake is Grant County International Airport, a former military base. Today it is used for flight training and flight testing. During mapping, Boeing's new "Dreamliner" and a diverse collection of military and commercial aircraft were seen flying approaches (no, not all at once, although that would have been really cool).
Enjoy.
- Mike Schuh, COC
Middle Distance courses
Safety: Finding your way back to the Event Center is easier here than just about anywhere else we know. As mentioned above, the area is divided in two by the east-west power lines these are readily visible from throughout the mapped area. If you are north of the power lines, head to the lines and follow them east. If you are south of the power lines, head to the lines and follow them west. The event center is in the middle of the competition area.
Additionally, the road that brought you to the event (Sand Dunes Road) is on the map and bounds the competition area along the northeast. If you are north of the powerlines, head northeast to the road, which you can follow south to the Event Center, or flag down vehicles in case of emergency.
Warmup: For warmup runs, you may run anywhere along Sand Dunes Road (the road you come in on) and the short segment (300m) of Power Line Road that connects the Event Center to Sand Dunes Road.
Water Levels: As Mike mentioned above, the water levels here vary widely during the year, and by early June, they were higher than normal. Many "pothole" ponds and marshes are in the terrain, and anything that looks wet on the map, certainly is. Treat all green marshes (marsh overlayed on green) as obstacles; they are much easier to run around than through. If the water levels remain the same on event day, you may find some low, open areas, under a several centimeters of water. All routes that appear easily passable are such, but in a few instances you may get your feet a little wet. The courses have been designed to avoid the really wet areas.
Vegetation: The vegetation here can be best described as binary. It’s either easy to run through (open spaces of sage and grasses), or it’s very difficult to get through (cat tail marshes or thickets). Courses were designed to keep the running speeds high, so you won’t find the need to bushwhack much, if at all.
Sand/Soil: The seasonal off-road-vehicle trails are very sandy, so it’s best to avoid running on them. There are also several large sandy areas on the south half of the map (due to seasonal ORV use), and those will reduce running speeds. However, most of the terrain is well-vegetated with grass and sage, so you’ll find the footing surprisingly pleasant. Though, the steep slopes of the dunes, no matter how vegetated, are quite sandy. You’ll likely notice a 5cm layer of compacted white ash throughout the competition area. That’s from the 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helen’s!
Hazards: There are small segments of barbed wire, usually on the ground. We’ve flagged what we’ve come across, but there may be other segments out there that we missed. You may also encounter some broken glass, but it’s minimal in the competition area. There are some animal burrows, and with the sandy soil, they may collapse if you accidentally step in or on one. Rattlesnakes supposedly live in the area, but in all of my time out there, I have yet to see one. No ticks, but there are mosquitoes.
Course Philosophy: This event will be very spectator-friendly. Due to the higher-than-average water levels, my original "three act play" concept has been reduced to two. All courses start in the Yellow Zone, criss-crossed with trails. All courses, except White, go through a spectator leg along a dune ridge, viewable from the Event Center, followed shortly by a common control with drinking water. From here, the advanced courses head out to the Red Zone for a bit of a different feel. All courses come through a spectator-friendly hilltop GO control and a short, sandy chute into the finish! Cheer on your fellow competitors!
Recommendations: Because of the sand and grass seed, ankle gaiters are advised to keep debris out of your shoes. Don’t forget the sunscreen and bug spray. If you’re participating more recreationally, there will be plenty of wildlife to see. In my time scouting, I’ve seen beavers, coyotes, deer, large waterfowl, birds of prey, and countless other varieties of birds.
- Patrick Nuss, COC/OK
Fishtrap Lake (map)
5m contours, 1:15,000 or 1:10,000; magnetic grid lines (black) at 250m spacing; elevation: 2100'/640m
Fishtrap is about as different from Potholes as you could get, with perhaps the exception of the overall low relief. Almost everywhere at Fishtrap one has rock of some sort underfoot. This often makes for rather difficult running.
Our new map was made from air photos taken in June 2009, after a very snowy winter. This past winter saw almost no snow at all on the ground. This was really nice for field checking, but very different water levels. At last check (June 16th) some of the ponds are without water and probably all of the "indistinct marshes" are dry and very runnable. Other marshes may vary in wetness. Wet feet may be refreshing if the weather is hot....
Cartography was done by Bryan Chubb. The field checking was done by Bryan Chubb and myself from November 2009 through April 2010. The former checked most of the difficult areas, the latter the more open areas. The former often differentiated between "open" and "rough open." The latter did not, under the assumption that the height of the grasses was mainly dependent on when and for how long cattle had been on an area. (This also determines the condition of the trails). Hopefully our other standards don't vary too much.... Other vegetation: green dots were used for small trees and for shrubs. Patches of green were used for "undergrowth" when the normal green lines wouldn't have shown up. Distinct coniferous trees, i.e., ponderosa pine, are shown as green circles and distinct deciduous trees as a green x. The "stony ground" symbol was used both in areas of quite difficult runnability and also to delineate rock faces lower than a meter, as well as for normal talus slopes.
As stated once or thrice before, runnability is often tough. Beware of rocks, ground squirrel and badger holes. Sometimes the edges of marshes have cow paths that can be very nice to run on, but sometimes these may be punctured deeply by cow (or horse) tracks. Other dangers include, but may not be limited to, rattlesnakes (very few have been seen by orienteers); poison ivy (often quite abundant mixed with other vegetation in talus slopes: it will be at numerous control sites); ticks (horrible this past winter and spring, but absent on my last couple visits); rocks; sun (if it's really hot); hypothermia (if it rains and is very windy). Beware of getting into deep weeds. White and yellow course participants could find themselves in weeds a meter deep! The main weed to beware of is hairy vetch: with deep purple pea-type flowers and tendrils it can form thick deep mats that can be tough to run through. Cows are present on most of the area, but depart very quickly. One's only danger from them might be if they're fleeing heedlessly from someone else in your direction. And there is always the danger of getting excessively distracted by the abundant mule deer, red tail hawks, and other wildlife. NOTE: the out of bounds area must be avoided. It contains an eagle nest (with chicks).
And the knolls: swarms of knolls--technically "Mima Mounds" (see
wikipedia)--infest the area, often making the map appear to have a bad
case of acne. These are mostly round lumps 5-20 meters in diameter and
.5 to 1.5 meters in height, though tall grasses may make them look even
larger. We had originally intended to map only those over a meter in
height, but ended up mapping most of them that looked pretty prominent
on the ground. Some are mapped as dot knolls, some as form line hills,
some as contour line hills. There is probably no distinction between
the latter two, and they make take more non-circular shapes. As for the
former, the dot knolls are perhaps more often just circular, sometimes
smaller. Maybe it was just the time of day or how far below freezing it
was....
Another important topic: fences. Rule number one: NEVER, NEVER, NEVER stand on the fence wire to cross. You'll pull the staples, the fence will be rendered useless, someone's cattle will get where they shouldn't be, and we will probably be denied future use of the area. Much of the area is public land (BLM), but the southern and eastern (previously un-orienteering-mapped area) is private ranchland. Best techniques include finding a spot with wide fencepost spacing and some rock or wood material on the ground to elevate yourself so you can go over with only mild pressure on fence wires. Or go under. Or between, if the wires aren't too tight.
So enjoy!
- John Harbuck, EWOC
Long Distance courses
Those on the Yellow course should note that part of an indistinct trail between controls 10 and 11 will be flagged.
Those on Blue, Red, and Green x will have a common water stop (not an actual control location, but pretty much on route) on a knoll immediately east of the creek crossing. For Red and Green x, this should work going either east or west.
Almost anywhere at Fishtrap one can simply run straight, so it was a bit of work to come up with some long legs that offered some route choice possibilities. That meant mainly utilizing cliffs, ponds, and marshes...sorry about that. There are some long legs that offer a couple options; but once the choice is made, there can be a lot of kinda mindless running. But, hey! It's better than fighting greenbriar, no? Enjoy the wildflowers, the expansive view, the sound of distant gunfire.
- John Harbuck
Camp Sekani (map)
2.5 meter contours, 1:5,000; magnetic grid lines (blue) at 100m spacing; elevation 2000-2400'/610-730m
The Camp Sekani map has been drafted to the International Specification for Orienteering Maps (ISOM) not the International Specification for Sprint Orienteering Maps (ISSOM).
Field work and cartography by Michael Schuh, October, 2009 December, 2010, May, 2010
I have wanted to map Camp Sekani since I first saw it many years ago, and I thank EWOC for giving me the opportunity to do so. Most of the area is a former Boy Scout camp and a few buildings (now mostly abandoned) remain from that use. It is the rock features, however, that make the place special.
The hillsides of Camp Sekani were stripped clean by the ice age Missoula Floods. Unlike the other venues, here the floods exposed very old metamorphic rocks. These resistant metamorphics form the very durable rock features of the park. The most detailed portion of the map is a “rock garden”, but there are numerous outcrops throughout the park.
In the intervening 12,000 years since the floods, some soil has developed, but not much. Some of the bare rock has eroded to fill in some of the gullies and to cover a few of the slopes, and this supports pine trees, some smaller shrubs, and grass. There are very few thickets, and no water features (well, except for the abandoned water faucets from the former Boy Scout camp... these are mapped with blue Xs). Neither are there fences (except at the perimeter), paved roads, nor flesh-ripping thorns. There is, however, a totem pole (mapped with as a black O).
Camp Sekani is crisscrossed with trails, most of them created and maintained by mountain biking groups. Today the park is a popular mountain biking area and the mountain bike community has built obstacle courses to help bikers develop their skills; in several places there are jumps, many of them providing for some serious hang time. In other places, trails head directly toward the edges of cliffs ...
The biggest technical challenge I had while mapping was classifying "boullfaces" - rock features that could reasonably be classified as either boulders, knolls, or rock faces. To be considered as a knoll, a rock feature needed to be at least 1 meter high on all sides. If, in addition, it looked like a boulder (for example, I could imagine that a strong enough person could make it roll), then I mapped it as a boulder. If it met neither of these criteria, then I considered it as a potential rock face. Rock faces needed to be at least a meter high, be nearly vertical (steeper than ~75 degrees) for the entire height, and usually at least 2 meters long. In some cases, I mapped features as knolls with a rock face on one side.
Accordingly, there are many features that other mappers might classify differently (and, I confess, on a different day, I might do so as well). Nonetheless, if the map shows a rock feature or a knoll, there is something in the terrain to match.
I used the "boulder cluster" (ISOM #209) if there were three or more mappable boulders too close together to show individually; if there were a whole bunch, I used “boulder field” (ISOM #208). I also used this latter symbol for areas covered with large chunks of rocks.
The smaller bike trails seemed to come and go during the course of mapping. Some minor trails that were distinct and fresh in October had faded by April, and a few new ones appeared. The major trails did not change. In addition, there was active trail construction in the eastern part of the park.
Speaking of construction, near the southern edge of the map there is a line of knolls – piles of dirt – that don't quite make a berm/earth wall, but are distinct knolls. Unfortunately, they are very close together, and the symbols, when drawn to scale, overlap.
All symbols on the map are drawn 50% larger than they would be for a 1:15,000 scale map except for contours which are drawn at the smaller/thinner size. In several congested places, portions of index contours have been drawn using the “normal” contour symbol.
Footing is good to excellent throughout the park. In places, the construction of trails and jumps has created holes, but none that I found are very deep or hidden. There is some deadfall in places; this is mapped with the vertical green line “undergrowth: slow running” symbol (ISOM #407 or #409).
The park underlies the traffic pattern for Felts Field and is bordered by a busy arterial. During the day, freight trains can be heard traversing the very busy BNSF and UP mainline through town. When everything quiets down, however, it's a very beautiful place.
During mapping I saw deer, marmots, porcupine, and numerous birds. No snakes (or bobcats). The flowers this spring were especially beautiful.
I hope you have as much fun running through the area as I do.
- Mike Schuh, COC
Sprint courses
The USOF Rules state "A Sprint course should combine high speed map reading and quick decision making with technically easy controls. The challenge should be in navigating through complex environments at high speed, to control sites which are technically easy for advanced level orienteers." Camp Sekani is an ideal choice for this event, given the combination of fast forest with locally very detailed terrain.
I have designed five courses, combining White and Yellow, Orange and Brown. There is just one Green course. In an attempt to deal with the steepness of the area, I placed the Start up high, making for courses with humane amounts of climb.
Most of the courses traverse very open Ponderosa Pine forest with scattered rock features. The Green, Red, and Blue courses go through a very detailed "rock garden" area. Here, both navigation and, to a lesser extent, footing are tricky.
Adrian Zissos (who generously volunteered his services as Course Consultant) urged me to include this warning: "there is a need for abrupt change of technique as runners go into and come out of the rock gardens."
Due to the compact nature of the area, there are many markers very close together. The closest on different features are 21 meters apart; on similar features, 35 meters.
There are no water controls on the course.
The Red and Blue courses have a spectator control just north of the finish. Spectators are welcome (and encouraged) to cheer participants – just stay south and west of the flagging.
Safety: If you feel completely lost, head south down hill to Upriver Drive. If you encounter a large, flat grassy field, head east to the Finish area. If you reach Upriver Drive while still in a forest, head west to the Finish. If you encounter houses, you are at (or beyond) the edge of the map (most likely on the east side). If you encounter several very large power lines, you probably are off the map to the northwest. In either case, turn around, get back on the map, and then go south.
I enjoyed the course design process, and I hope you enjoy the competition and an opportunity to run through Camp Sekani.
- Mike Schuh, COC
Trail O Course Setter Notes
The contour interval is 5 meters; 1:5000.
We tried to set a European-style course, both in number of controls and mix of problems. There are 19 regular controls, plus two timed controls at the start, for a total of 21 controls. The course is a bit long at 3.38 km, but flat.
Championship Course
There are two model controls on the way from the parking lot to registration. The distance from parking/registration is to the "pre-start" is 500 m. The first timed control is another 225 m from the "pre-start." Allow time for the model controls before your start. You will be assigned a pre-start time for the championship event. Pre-starts begin at 10 am. The start interval is 2 minutes. After the timed controls, you will receive a start time to begin the regular course. The allowed time is 2:40.
The map scale is 1:5000. The contour interval is 5 m. For clarity, given the steepness of surrounding hills, the standard contour interval of 2.5 is not used. In the flat sections, form lines are provided as needed.
Maps and control cards will be collected at the finish. You will have a duplicate control card. Solution sheets will be provided after the last competitive start. You have until 1:00 p.m. or 20 minutes after your finish (whichever is later) to file a complaint. If the meet director disallows the compliant, you have 20 minutes to file a protest that will be evaluated by a panel of judges.
Recreational Course
Recreational starts are from 1 pm to 1:30. Participants will not be timed on the course. To avoid crowding at controls, you may want to avoid a mass start at 1:00 p.m. As a courtesy to other participants, please refrain from talking on the course. (Championship competitors are not allowed to speak on the course). Recreational participants can do the Championship timed controls as regular controls at the start. Course closure is at 4 pm. Recreational courses will not be scored. Solution sheets will be provided by 2:15.
Special Notes
You are allowed to travel on the trails and roads (closed to vehicle traffic) normally allowed for trail-o. In addition, two minor trails (black map symbols) normally not allowed for trail-o are included as legal trails. These are marked on the map with purple dashed lines. You will need to travel on one of these trails to reach the first control. Remember that you are allowed to go past a control to find a solution as long as you stay on allowed trails. Drinking water is provided on the course at one location, accessible at 0.8 and 2.3 km.
We hope you enjoy the course.
- Scott Drumm, CROC
- Mike Poulsen, CROC