Mapper's and Course Setter's Notes and Information
U. S. Team Trials
The Review Panel for the Team Trials is Don Davis, Peggy Dickison, Joe Scarborough, Vladimir Gusiatnikov and Peter Gagarin.
Friedlander Map History
Camp Friedlander and Camp Craig is a Boy Scout complex
owned by Dan Beard Council, BSA, on the east bank of the Little Miami River,
near Loveland, Ohio. The camps went through a period of major renovation
and construction in 2000-2001, including the construction of 10 hectare
(about 25 acre) Marge Schott Lake, (named for donor and former Cincinnati
Reds owner, Marge Schott).
Typical of Boy Scout Camps, the area contains a
large number of buildings, tent platforms and trails. The camp's
highest areas include some relatively flat uplands, but spurs and reentrants
drop about 75 meters to the Little Miami River, on the western edge of
the map.
Probably about 1/4 of the map is open land, another
1/4 is fairly open forest with good running, and another 1/4 is medium
green with generous amounts of honeysuckle and bramble. The remainder consists
of lakes, light green areas, buildings and a few small areas of rough open
and dark green. Fieldwork was done by Vladimir Zherdev in fall 2001
and drafting by Vladimir Zherdev in winter/spring 2002
previous uses:
December 14, 2002 - local meet
East Fork Map History
A small area (less than 1 square kilometer) was originally
mapped by Mike Minium in 1992, as a pre-OCAD color copy. The map
was updated and expanded in 1995 and again in 1998, mostly by Mike Minium,
with some slight assistance from Derek Hertel and Vladimir Gusiatnikov.
This area is being updated by Mike Minium at present.
previous uses: 1 to 3 local events per year from
1992 through 2003; the three most recent were: July 19, 2003; July 27,
2002; July 21, 2001.
An additional area of approximately 14 square kilometers
was mapped by Vladimir Zherdev in fall, 2003. This area has not previously
been used for orienteering.
Friday, April 1, 2005
Sprint Courses at Camp Friedlander. All standard classes will be offered, but you'll be sharing courses. Winning times will be geared toward the fastest runners who should be on that course level.
Course Setter Vladimir Gusiatnikov, Course Consultant Eric Weyman
Walk to the start
parking to registration
300 meters
registration to start
400 meters
Course Notes by Vladimir Gusiatnikov
Welcome!
Welcome to the Sprint, the first ever event in this format in the nine-year history of the Flying Pig, and the second ever A meet Sprint in the United States. This event relies on an existing map of Camp Friedlander made by Vladimir Zherdev with assistance from Mike Minium in the Fall of 2001. In March, 2005, I (Vladimir Gusiatnikov) made revisions to the area of the map covered by the courses. This event is put on by Orienteering Cincinnati and the US Orienteering Team, marking the fourth A meet day in 2005 co-sponsored by the Team, with three yet to come.
Courses
There will be White, Yellow, and Sprint courses. The start interval on the Sprint course is one minute.
Map, Symbols, and Allowed Passage
The map is 1:5,000 with 5 m contours.
Those of you who attended the inaugural A meet Sprint in Alabama probably noticed that the map there was surveyed to IOF Sprint standards in all but the symbols. The enlarged scale allowed the final-pass fieldchecker, Toni Louhisola, to show considerably more detail than the original map had contained. For this Friday event, the amount of extra mapping has been decidedly less. The original map was surveyed for a release at the 1:10,000 scale. Although the drafting certainly survives the transition to 1:5,000, a picky Sprint connoisseur will notice items that most likely should be depicted to a better precision. The map contains no known inaccuracies. Deviations from the International Standard for Orienteering Maps are few and are described below.
No attempt has been made to change map symbols to ISSOM, the standard for Sprint maps, so the symbols are, with few exceptions, twice as large or wide as those on a 1:10,000 map. Buildings are shown with the solid black Symbol 526, spanning the extent of the building's roof. These include open-sided shelters! Also, some buildings have passageways around them that are covered by the building's roof; these passages are not shown. Going through all open-sided buildings is allowed; the Sprint course has been planned in a way that with no exceptions, doing so will not result in a competitive advantage. In other words, when planning your route, treat all buildings as uncrossable. If at some point you discover that there's a structure in your way, it has no walls, and you would like to go through it, you are welcome to do so. Yours then is most certainly not the best route choice.
Free-standing walls shown with the passable rock face Symbol 203.1 are indeed passable and the competitors are allowed to climb over. The same applies to crossable fences (Symbol 522). There is one special structure symbol and it depicts balconies, porches, and platforms. These structures have no roof but do have a floor that is not necessarily level with the surrounding terrain. The extent of the floor is shown in gray (black 30%) color. It is allowed and necessary to pass on top of this floor. Where there is a level change from the surrounding terrain, the gray symbol has a solid black 0.21-mm border, which is approximately the same thickness as the symbol used for the boundary around parking areas and paved roads, and is noticeably narrower than the passable-rock-face symbol. This level change is passable and it is allowed to climb or go down it. Sometimes there is a railing around a platform (porch). The railings are not shown separately and it is allowed to pass over the railings. It is not allowed or necessary, although is possible, to pass under the platforms/porches.
There is a special symbol for stairs, fairly consistent with the ISSOM Symbol 529.1 and exactly the same one as was used in the Alabama Sprint. It is allowed to climb and go down stairs. For most route choices it will not be necessary to climb, or jump from, any structures, with the exception of climbing and going down stairs.
There is gratuitous PWT-style (Park World Tour) water usage. Water features shown with the solid black boundary (ISOM 301.1) may not be entered or crossed.
Man-made objects in the camp area are plentiful and exquisitely varied. Not all man-made objects are shown on the map. Most of the ones in the forest are, whereas objects smaller than about 2 m in the open fields are sometimes not. Black O's (ISOM Symbol 539) are generally large: taller than 2 m and/or wider than 5 m, whereas black X's (ISOM 540) are smaller. One noticeable omission from the map is roof-covered notice boards. With one exception, those are not shown at all.
Blue O's (ISOM 312) are water sources/fountains. Green O's (ISOM 419) are distinct trees, and there are no green X's in the area used. Brown X's (ISOM 118) are rootstocks, generally 1.5 m or larger.
Non-permanent or non-fixed man-made items are not shown. In the former category are knolls of wood mulch. In the latter are very noticeable tent platforms. They have wooden floors and aluminum carcasses, are less than 2.5 x 2.5 m in size, and tend to agglomerate around campsites.
Hazards and Obstacles
There is a problem with out-of-control erosion on the bank facing Little Miami River. I found some of that terrain to be "Fear Factor" (TM) extreme and life threatening. Although I toyed with the idea of employing at least a part of said terrain to make this event PWT-worthy, I chickened at the instant I found myself in an uncontrollable slide, with an about 20-metric ton boulder seemingly eager to join. No map corrections have been made to the unstable area. If lost, watch out for runaway boulders.
The map was made from an engineering base, which most likely pre-dated some of the erosion. As a result, the absolute depth of most erosion features in the competition area is somewhat larger than indicated by the 5-m contours. In addition, gullies shown with Symbol 109 (solid brown line) are indeed at least 1 m deep, and in most cases considerably deeper. They have slippery sides. The ISOM-109 gullies are crossable, but not without a significant time expenditure. Keep this in mind when planning your route.
The course has been set in such a way that for choices across or around an erosion feature, you will not be forced to make the decision, sight unseen. I.e. you will see exactly what you are about to go "across" no later than the decision point for going across or around.
Controls
In accordance with the Rules for the Sprint (IOF 19.2), the minimum spacing between controls is 30 meters. SportIdent is used for punching.
Control Descriptions
NOTE DEVIATION!! In the pictorial control descriptions, a platform/ porch is shown with the paved area symbol: the hatched upright black square 5.12.
The 2004 Symbol 5.20 (monument) is used for a 5-m-tall totem pole; on the map it is a black O, ISOM 539. The 2004 Symbol 5.24 (stairs) is used as intended. The special features 6.1 and 6.2 are not used.
Control descriptions for the individual courses will
be given 2 minutes before your start, in accordance with IOF Rule 18.5.
However, a sheet with pictorial descriptions for all controls will be available
at competitor check-in.
| Sprint Course | Normal USOF Courses | Length | Climb | Controls | Estimated Winning Time |
| Course 3
Sprint |
blue, red, green
brown, orange |
2.61 | 95 | 13 | 15 minute winning time for top M-21+ runners |
| Course 2
Yellow |
yellow | 2.52 | 65 | 17 | 20 minute winning time for top M-14 runners |
| Course 1
White |
white | 1.54 | 30 | 11 | 15 minute winning time for top M-12 runners |
| Fri. 1 April 2005 | Eastern STANDARD Time |
| Begin civil twilight | 5:54 a.m. |
| Sunrise | 6:21 a.m. |
| Sun transit | 12:40 p.m. |
| Sunset | 7:01 p.m. |
| End civil twilight | 7:28 p.m. |
Saturday, April 2, 2005
U. S. Short Course Championship (IOF Middle Distance) at East Fork State Park
Course Setter Stevan Vaughan. Consulting by Mike Minium and Eric Weyman.
Walk to the start is approximately 3 km (orange, green, red, blue) and about 1.6 km (white, yellow, brown) on relatively flat trails and roads. The orange/green/red/blue walk passes immediately by the white/yellow/brown start point. To get to the start, walk along the finish chute, past the "GO" (final) control, then follow streamers and signs.
Restrooms are located by the parking lots. There will NOT be additional restrooms at the starts.
Warm up across the main park road west and north of the parking lots. DO NOT enter the woods surrounding the parking lots or anywhere along the walk to the start. The starts are immediately off public county roads. You may warm up on the road, but be alert for vehicles.
Vetter's Notes
First, there are a couple
general notes which apply to all three days. We've had a cool, wet
spring. The leaves are just barely beginning to emerge on honeysuckle
and multiflora rose, but in general, there is still excellent visibility
in the woods. The ground is saturated, so you WILL get wet and muddy.
Also, normally we start to see our first ticks in early April. I
haven't seen any yet, but if it is a warm weekend, they could start to
emerge.
Map symbols are generally ISOM, with a few exceptions. Brown X has been used for rootstocks. In general, these are at least 1.5 meter tall, although a few older, smaller ones are still on the map. There is at least one case where a fairly substantial looking unmapped 1 meter rootstock is very close to a control in a dry ditch, but there are several mapped 2 meter rootstocks within 100 meters, so I decided it was below the mapping standard. I hope it doesn't confuse anyone.
Green O and Green X are shown in the legend as single tree, deciduous and single tree, coniferous. In reality, the green O has been used across the map for almost all distinctive trees, including cedars and pines. If you find a green x, it is almost certainly a coniferous tree, but green O can be either deciduous or coniferous.
Black X and O have also been used. Along roadsides, the black O is generally a utility junction box, perhaps 2 meters in height and width. Along trails, black O is often a very small, thin 1 meter tall mileage post. There are a number of other similar posts along trails that aren't mapped; only the ones with mileage numbers are shown. Black X has been used for a wide variety of manmade objects, including sign posts and larger junk piles. There has been a lot of dumping in East Fork, and only the larger junk piles are shown. In general, these are large (2 or 3 meters across or more) middens of trash or decaying automobiles. Smaller junk piles, including old appliances, even as large as refrigerators, may not be shown.
The predominant vegetation you will encounter is multiflora rose. Armed with sharp, downward pointing thorns, it attaches easily and releases only with tearing of flesh and clothing. Do not wear shorts. You will regret it. Areas mapped as dark green are often thick with multiflora rose, but you can find it in some quantity just about anywhere, even in white forest.
The flatter upland areas are often mapped light or medium green, and generally, this is young, closely spaced trees, but not excessively thorny. The ground is saturated and you can expect standing water or muddy conditions in most of the flatter areas.
There are several trails on the map.
The Buckeye Trail winds throughout the area, and is marked with light blue blazes. Following it out of the park will take you on a 1400 mile loop through more than half of Ohio's 88 counties. This portion of the Buckeye Trail is also shared with the North Country National Scenic Trail and the trans-continental American Discovery Trail. It is generally well-blazed, and where it does not share its route with horse trails, it is in the best condition (less muddy, better cleared) than any other trail in the park. On the map, it is marked with small blue "BT" next to the trail (This is not explained in the Saturday legend, although I did add it to the Sunday map legend).
The Backpack Trail loops out and back through this area, sharing about half of it's route with the Buckeye Trail. It is marked with orange or red blazes. Where it does not share route with the Buckeye Trail, it is less distinct and less maintained. Although mapped as a major trail, there are places where an incautious runner could lose it. Blazing is inconsistent. In some places, almost every tree is blazed, in others, there are gaps where you can't see a blaze, and one short segment is well blazed in one direction but not at all in the other (and yes, you'll be going in the unblazed direction if you happen to use it at all).
The Horse Trails are in a word, horrible. Many segments could easily have been mapped as a linear marsh, instead of as a trail. Brace for shoe-sucking mud if you dare to follow a horse trail (you probably won't be tempted to choose them for any great distance anyway). They are sporadically marked with dark green blazes. On the Saturday map, the horse trail is the farthest one from the lake. On western parts of the Sunday map (blue, red, green only) it shares the route of the Buckeye Trail.
There are no mountain bike trails in the SATURDAY area. Near the finish, someone has marked several routes with orange streamers. They appear to have no consistent pattern and don't follow any principles of good trail design, and as far as can be determined were not anything officially sanctioned. I've tried to remove most of them from areas near controls and route choices, but you might still see a few.
There are many old wire fences in various states
of decay throughout the area. Where setters or vetters tripped over
them, you may find orange or pink streamers on them, but don't expect every
fence to be marked.
| Course | Length | Climb | Controls |
| white | 2.0 | 45 | 10 |
| yellow | 2.6 | 110 | 10 |
| orange | 3.2 | 140 | 12 |
| brown | 2.8 | 120 | 9 |
| green | 3.7 | 170 | 12 |
| red | 4.4 | 220 | 13 |
| blue | 5.4 | 320 | 16 |
| Sat. 2 April 2005 | Eastern STANDARD Time |
| Begin civil twilight | 5:53 a.m. |
| Sunrise | 6:20 a.m. |
| Sun transit | 12:40 p.m. |
| Sunset | 7:02 p.m. |
| End civil twilight | 7:29 p.m. |
Sunday, April 3, 2005
Classic Distance courses at East Fork State Park
Course Setter Matthew Robbins. Consulting by Mike Minium and Eric Weyman.
Walk to the start is 1.3 to 1.5 km on park roads. From the parking lots, look for flagging tape along the park road to the south. You will pass the start area on your drive into the park.
Restrooms are located by the parking lots. There WILL be an additional Pit Toilet (one) at the start.
Warm up only along the park roads leading to the start. DO NOT enter the woods surrounding the parking lots or anywhere along the walk to the start. You may warm up on the road, but be alert for vehicles.
Vetter's Notes
Most courses (except white) will pass through an
area criss-crossed by a network of mountain bike trails. The bikers
are building new trails, with a work party averaging 30 or more people
on the first weekend of every month. The good news is that they have
graciously agreed to delay their April work party until April 9.
So, you won't have to worry about trails changing under your feet or running
through a gauntlet of swinging picks and pulaskis. It also means
that we should have all of the new trail sections from the March work weekend
on the map. Just keep in mind that the trail routes and conditions
are changing rapidly. Where a trail segment is replaced, the workers
are throwing some branches across them at the connecting points, but the
old tread is compacted and will remain visible for some time, probably
several seasons at least. So, we've left the abandoned segments on
the map, but they may be shown with "minor trail" or "indistinct trail"
symbols. There is still some orange survey flagging on some of the
new trails.
Red and blue courses cross at least one major stream.
If there are storms Saturday or Sunday morning, there may be a need for
designated crossing points. Check for any last-minute instructions
at the start.
- Mike Minium
Course Notes for Sunday, April 3, 2005
1. There are Steep Slopes, ranging from erosion gullies to 40m banks along the lake. Please be careful. Before starting a large descent, look for mapped cliffs below you. When you get your map, I recommend you scan the slopes along the lake for the closest spaced contours, and think to yourself, “That is a steep slope.” Aggressive cleats are probably a good idea.
2. There are Fences, mostly well-mapped, in the forest. Please keep an eye out for them, both as you read the map and as you travel through the terrain. We have taped some of the fences with short ties of surveying tape, but not in any systematic way.
3. All courses, including White, cross at least two park roads.
4. Wooden footbridges and rocks in streams tend to be covered with a faint green or brown algae that is equivalent to sheet ice, especially when wet.
5. Orienteers from Orange to Blue may pass near out-of-bounds areas clearly marked on the map with vertical purple lines. These areas must not be crossed. The areas will be monitored, and anyone passing through these areas will be disqualified. After consulting the IOF 2004 Rules and the ISOM 2000 Specification, we have drawn the connection lines directly across these areas, where applicable, rather than bending around them, to avoid favoring one route selection over another, and to give the competitor the straight line as an aid to route selection.
6. The 1:15000 maps used by Red and Blue have very fine details. Sight-challenged persons may wish to carry a magnifier.
7. The Sunday map is composed of the work of different mappers. The mapping between the two map sections is different. Probably the biggest difference is the mapping of vegetation. The new map (Zherdev) has extremely detailed vegetation mapping, while the old map (Minium) has more generalized and simplified vegetation mapping.
8. There are briars on the course. They seem to be less aggressive this time of year; in fact they are the best I’ve seen them; but they are still thorny and they will slow you down.
9. From the IOF 2004 Competition Rules, under “Fair Play” 26.3: “Except in the case of an accident, obtaining assistance from other runners or providing assistance to other competitors during a competition is forbidden. It is the duty of all competitors to help injured runners.” (italics added) If you’re wondering why I have included this rule in my course notes: “I have no comment.”
10. This is my first A-Meet as a course setter, and I would like to thank both Eric Weyman and Mike Minium for their complete and detailed critiques of my courses and for their recommendations. I took more of their advice than I overruled. If these courses are good, it is because of their help. If there are problems, it is my fault alone.
11. I sincerely hope you enjoy the courses. For all competitors, and especially the Team Trials competitors, I wish you good luck. Thanks for attending the 2005 Flying Pig. We hope to see you again next year.
Matthew Robbins
Cincinnati, Ohio
March 27, 2005
| Course | Length | Climb | Controls |
| white | 2.9 | 105 | 14 |
| yellow | 3.3 | 135 | 14 |
| orange | 4.8 | 210 | 16 |
| brown | 4.2 | 120 | 12 |
| green | 5.5 | 240 | 12 |
| red | 8.1 | 280 | 17 |
| blue | 12.1 | 460 | 23 |
| Sun. 3 April 2005 | Eastern DAYLIGHT Time |
| Begin civil twilight | 6:51 a.m. |
| Sunrise | 7:18 a.m. |
| Sun transit | 1:40 p.m. |
| Sunset | 8:03 p.m. |
| End civil twilight | 8:30 p.m. |
Pig Weather
In early April, we typically
get rain about one day in three. Snow is possible, but usually melts
quickly.
| Date | Normal High | Normal Low | Record High | Record Low | Forecast |
| Thurs.
Mar 31 |
59 (15 C) | 39 (4 C) | 84 (29 C) | 14 (-10 C) | |
| Fri.
Apr 1 |
61 (16 C) | 40 (4 C) | 86 (30 C) | 17 (-8 C) | |
| Sat.
Apr 2 |
60 (16 C) | 40 (4 C) | 84 (29 C) | 23 (-5 C) | |
| Sun.
Apr 3 |
61 (16 C) | 40 (4 C) | 85 (29 C) | 23 (-5 C) |
Site Locator Map for all events
Flying Pig IX Entry Information Page
archived 7 April 2006