Race Details
Maps
Maps will
be 1:10,000, 5 meter contours for most courses.
White and brown courses at Carter Caves (Sat and Sun only) will be
printed at 1:7500. All Friday courses
are printed at 1:10,000.
Courses
All
standard USA courses and classes will be offered.
Control Descriptions
Control
descriptions are printed on your map.
Loose description sheets may be picked up when you enter the call-up
area 2-3 minutes before your start.
Descriptions for white and yellow courses are in English only. Descriptions for orange course and above are
in IOF symbols only (ISCD2004).
Control Markers
Control
markers will be IOF standard orange and white flag. Control markers will have a blue stripe,
either diagonal or vertical.
Course Length (km) and Climb (m)
Table (subject to
change)
|
Course |
Classes |
Friday –
Middle Camp
McKee |
Saturday
– Classic Carter
Caves |
Sunday - Classic Carter
Caves |
|
|
Course
Setter |
Mike
Minium |
Dave
Waller |
Ben Hart |
|
1 White |
F-10,
F-12, F white, M-10, M-12, M white, Group white |
1.9km, 60
m |
2.4km,
100m |
2.3km,
100m |
|
2 Yellow |
F-14, F yellow,
M-14, M yellow, Group yellow |
3.1, 120 |
3.1, 155 |
3.1, 150 |
|
3 Orange |
F-16, F
orange, M-16, M orange, Group orange |
3.9, 180 |
4.0, 220 |
3.8, 190 |
|
4 Brown A |
F65+,
F70+, F75+, F brown, M 75+, M brown, all 80+ classes |
2.8, 130 |
3.3, 200 |
3.3, 180 |
|
5 Brown B |
F-18, F55+,
F60+, M65+, M70+ |
3.1, 150 |
4.0, 230 |
3.9, 200 |
|
6 Green A |
F35+,
F40+, F45+, F50+, F green, M green |
3.9, 190 |
4.7, 355 |
4.7, 220 |
|
7 Green B |
F-20,
M-18, M50+, M55+, M60+ |
4.1, 240 |
5.7, 435 |
5.1, 220 |
|
8 Red |
F-21+,
M-20, M35+, M40+, M45+, M red |
4.4, 230 |
7.8, 600 |
7.7, 410 |
|
9 Blue |
M-21+ |
4.8, 250 |
9.4, 690 |
9.2, 440 |
Start Procedures
Clear and
check your SI card when you arrive in the start area.
You will be
called up 3 minutes before your scheduled start.
2 minutes before
your start, you will move forward and may pick up loose control descriptions.
1 minute
before your start, you will move forward to the map line. You may mark your name / number on the back
of the map. Do not look at your map. You may ask the starter to check that it is
the correct course.
When the
beeper sounds, you punch “start” and pick up your map.
There may
be a short streamered run to the start triangle shown on your map (to be
determined). You must run to the
triangle. There is a flag but no punch
at this point. At this point you may
begin navigating to your first control.
Drinking Water on
Courses
There will be at least one control
with drinking water on all courses of orange length and above. Please use the cups provided and dispose of
them in the bag or bin provided.
Time Limits
Time limit
will be 2 hours for Middle Distance (Friday) and 3 hours for Classic Distance
(Saturday and Sunday)
Friday – Camp McKee
Middle Distance, ALL maps will be
1:10,000
Parking
is adjacent to registration and the finish.
Restrooms
will be in the dining hall adjacent to parking, registration, finish.
Walk
to the start is less than 300 meters, slightly uphill.
Terrain is hilly Appalachian
foothills, with a dense network of paths and structures. There is very little visible surface rock,
just a few outcrops along a couple of the streams. There has been significant selective logging,
and 2 large clear cut areas, which you probably will not enter. Streams should remain crossable unless there
is really extreme precipitation, but expect to get wet and muddy feet in
places.
Course notes and special symbols:
Black X is a manmade
object, usually junk or a large sign
Black O is usually a
flagpole
Black O with pavement
infill is a gaga ball pit
Blue asterisk (ISOM
2018) is a water trough / hand washing station typical of scout camps.
Small black squares
represent wooden tent platforms. The
number of mapped platforms is representative of a cluster of platforms; but the
positions and exact number can change.
Do not expect the number or positions of mapped platforms to exactly
match the number or positions on the ground.
Enclosed buildings are
mapped dark grey with a thick border.
Buildings which are roofed but open sided are mapped with the lighter
grey “canopy” symbol and a thinner border.
Some buildings have small overhangs or porches which are not shown. Very small buildings are mapped with a solid
black square; generally these are outhouses (pit toilets), although smaller
cabins or sheds may be mapped this way as well.
Green O is a prominent
tree in open or rough open land.
There are NO rootstocks
mapped on this map or Carter Caves, although large ones are numerous.
Vegetation: The forest is mostly mapped as light green,
with patches of white and medium green.
The forest has many small saplings and fallen limbs, but both light and
medium green are generally passable at reasonable speed. Clear-cut areas are mapped as rough open, but
have scattered slash and uneven ground.
Logging extraction tracks are mapped as a narrow ride, and are generally
not as fast as minor paths. Very narrow
strips of white on the map may look a little like logging extraction tracks –
there may or may not be some ruts or tracks through some of these white strips,
making them appear similar to the mapped rides.
There are a few areas of
dark green, which you generally want to avoid.
You might see a couple small areas of rhododendron, which are mapped as
dark green. The woody plant (a lot like
mountain laurel) holds bright green leaves and is clearly visible from a great
distance. There is a scattering of
greenbrier, but generally not dense patches, and a scattering of other bramble
bushes. The greenbrier has green stems,
which give you a chance of seeing it before you run into it. If you are going fast, you’ll get some
scratches.
Small knolls. A few individual small knolls (brown dot) as
low as 1 meter high have been mapped.
However, there are also a couple areas of the disturbed ground symbol
(brown dots) which have a number of knolls of similar size. If they were by themselves, they would be
mapped individually, but within areas mapped as “disturbed ground”, individual
knolls are not mapped.
Archery
and shooting ranges are closed. You may
pass through them without fear. You may
see scattered old yellow caution tape along the wooded sides of the ranges,
which can be ignored. A couple of the
ranges have a waist-to chest high yellow rope across the road / path at the
entrance to the range; you don’t want to run into the rope.
There is a narrow
concrete footbridge on the run-in from the last control to the finish. Slower traffic, please keep right! It is wide enough to pass a slower runner or
walker who is reasonably courteous about keeping right, but two runners
sprinting side by side could get pretty dicey; please be careful and courteous.
Saturday and Sunday – Carter Caves
State Park
Classic Distance, Most maps will be
1:10,000. White and brown courses are
printed at 1:7500.
Parking
for both days is at the lodge, adjacent to registration and the Sunday
finish. Please leave the parking spaces
in front of the lodge for lodge guests.
Park either in the lots to the right before the lodge, or continue past
the lodge through the turnaround circle, and up the hill to the golf course
parking lot.
Restrooms
will be in the lodge, adjacent to parking and registration, and the Sunday
finish. There are also restrooms at the
visitor center by the Saturday finish.
Walk
to the start on both days starts from the east end of the lodge parking
lot. The walk to the Saturday start is 1
km from the lodge, over somewhat rocky and uneven trail. Allow plenty of time. Sunday, there is a trail walk of about 400
meters. There are no restrooms at either
start, and the woods are very open. We
will return warm-up clothing both days, but please, please try to go very light
on warm-ups on Saturday as it will be a long, rugged walk back for our
volunteers.
Saturday – Please park
at the lodge. There is a walk to the
start and a walk back from the finish.
If weather is lousy, we will try to have shuttle vans running from the
finish back to the lodge. If you must
park at the visitor center near the finish, please use the overflow parking lot
across the road from the Visitor Center.
The Visitor Center parking lot must be left open for non-orienteering
park guests.
Lodge to Saturday start: 1
km, path with rocks and uneven footing.
Cabins to Lodge: 850
to 1200 meter on paved road.
Finish (visitor center) to Lodge: 1500 meters path (uphill) and road.
Finish to Cabins: 1100 to 1400
meters path (uphill) and road.
(cabin 239 is only 400 meters from finish)
Sunday – Please park
at the lodge. There is a 400m walk to
the start. The finish will be at the
lodge.
Map
and Course Notes for both Saturday and Sunday
The Carter Caves map was made for the
2015 U.S. Middle and Long Championships.
The map has aged well, with just a few minor edits to vegetation and a
few manmade features. The golf course
was closed a little over a year ago, and is mapped as rough open – it is
generally quite runnable, and will be crossed by many courses on Saturday.
Terrain is very steep and
rocky. In places, there are rock cliffs
as high as 20 meters or more. Be
extremely careful approaching any mapped cliff from above. There are also several natural arches, and you
may cross either over or under some of them on your courses.
Carter Caves is named for its many
caves. Some of them are huge openings in
the sides of hills; others are just holes in the ground, with the bottom of
unknown depth in the darkness far below.
A black “v” symbol (rocky pit) may be a large, visible pit, or it may
simply be a hole in the ground. In
either case, exercise extreme caution, as the pit may be bottomless, and if you
fall in, we may never find your corpse.
Some small depressions (brown u) and pits (brown v) may also have
openings in the bottom.
White and light green vegetation is
generally quite runnable. Medium green
may be younger, denser trees or patches of brambles, but usually is also not
too difficult to cross. There are a few
areas of rhododendron or mountain laurel, mapped as medium or dark green. Advanced courses on Sunday may see some
larger areas of medium to dark green which are scrubbier and thornier.
On Sunday, red and blue courses only,
will likely cross a very long cable bridge in both directions. The bridge sways, and it is suggested that
you cross it at a “race-walk” keeping at least one foot in contact with the
bridge at all times. Please respect other
people crossing the bridge, and be especially courteous if non-orienteers are
encountered – for some people crossing the bridge may be a terrifying
experience. Since conditions are
expected to be dry, you may also choose to cross the small river / large stream
at points other than the bridge. Black
bank lines have been removed from one short section of the river; this is the
only place you should consider crossing, and you should still look carefully
for shallow spots. Within this area, in
most places it is only ankle to knee deep, but there are a couple deeper pools –
look ahead.
Embargo Note:
After finishing Saturday’s Courses, the embargo is
lifted for areas east of the visitor center and east of the lodge road. You may then use the rappelling / rock
climbing area (must obtain permit from lodge, rappelling and top rope only –
traditional climbing and sport routes are prohibited). You may also hike to and visit the beautiful
areas of Raven Bridge, Fern Bridge, Horn Hollow, Horn Cave and Laurel Cave
(entering the caves without permit is prohibited). Most of you will have seen one or more of
these spectacular areas while doing your Saturday courses, and you are free to
return for a more leisurely visit once you have completed your course.
updated 2019-03-19 1315