[roc-info] ROC Event: Trail Challenge, Wednesday June 24, 6:30 pm, Webster Park

[Richard Detwiler]

The next ROC event is a Trail Challenge at Orchard Hill Shelter, Webster 
Park. The Orchard Hill Shelter is on the loop that goes around the 
pickleball/tennis court area. It is accessed from Holt Road, 
approximately 0.2 miles south of the Holt Road / Lake Road intersection. 
(See note on parking below.)

A Trail Challenge is a mass start cross-country race over trails and 
across fields with a difference. The course is not marked out by 
marshals and streamers but is instead defined by checkpoints that are 
marked on a specially made map. The Trail Challenge arises from choosing 
the fastest route between one checkpoint to the next.

This event requires navigation to visit a series of checkpoints along 
the way. The checkpoints (controls) are easy to find – the large 
majority are on trail junctions, with the others located in open fields. 
For those familiar with orienteering, control placement is at the “White 
course” ability level (easiest level). That’s not to say it’s impossible 
to get lost! Participants must be able to read the map well enough to 
choose the correct trail(s) to take to get to the next checkpoint. In 
some cases, there are multiple possible ways to choose which would get 
you to the checkpoint – the goal in those cases is to choose the optimum 
route.

There will be two distances to choose from - 8 km and 5 km. Note that 
unlike most orienteering courses where the distances refer to the 
straight-line distances from control to control, these distances are the 
estimated (and approximate) best-route distances that people will cover. 
There are a few places where distance can be reduced by cutting through 
woods, and of course nearly an infinite number of ways that a person's 
distance could be more than the stated distances!

Feel free to follow other runners or enter with a friend and work 
together. Basic navigation instruction is available during registration 
and check in.

Walkers are encouraged to participate if they are willing and able to 
walk the approximate 3 mile distance of the 5K course within the 90 
minute time limit. Also, if you want to do a portion of the 5K course 
but cover less distance, there is an easy way to cut off about a mile of 
distance by eliminating two controls (#9 and #10). There is no official 
course for this distance, so if you choose to do this, you would not 
have an official result.

The event will start at 6:30 p.m. (everyone starts at the same time). 
Registration/check-in opens at 5:30 p.m.

Unlike regular orienteering meets, as soon as you check in, you receive 
your map! So to have the maximum time to get familiar with the map and 
plan your route, arrive early!

The time limit is 90 minutes for both distances. Please be back by 8 pm 
even if you can't complete all of the controls. If you plan on walking 
the entire distance, please plan on doing the 5K. If you can run at all, 
even slowly (say 12-13 minutes/mile), you should be able to finish the 
8K course within the time limit, even with a few "non-optimum" routes. 
(And there is a cut-off to "bail out" to the 5K course if you start out 
on the 8K course -- see below.)

All entrants, 5K and 8K, will have the exact same first 9 controls. 
Also, the last two controls are the same for each course.

If you start out on the 8K course and realize, once out on the course a 
ways, that it’s taking longer than you had anticipated, there is an easy 
way to change to the 5K while on the course, provided you decide prior 
to reaching control #9. If you have an 8K map and decide you’re rather 
do the 5K, once you reach control #9, skip controls 10-14 and navigate 
to control 15, then do control 16 and navigate to the finish. There is a 
note to this effect on the 8K maps. A suggestion is that if you start 
out on the 8K course and don’t get to control #9 by 7:15 pm, you should 
change to the 5K by skipping controls 10-14.

You are strongly encouraged to pre-register, to save you money and to 
allow things to go much more smoothly at registration / check-in. Entry 
fees for pre-registration are $5 for ROC members and $9 for non-members. 
To make it even better, you don't even need to pre-pay when you 
pre-register. You pay on the day of the meet. Day of meet entry fees are 
$6 for members and $10 for non-members. Link for pre-registration: 
http://roc.us.orienteering.org/onlineregistration.shtml

Parking: There are several small parking areas on the loop around the 
courts. Each of these can hold 5-6 cars as long as people park 
efficiently (park at right angles to the road, not parallel; and try to 
leave minimal distance, say 2-3 feet, between cars). There is a larger 
parking lot which is south of the pickleball/tennis courts where the 
majority of people will most likely wind up parking; this lot is 
approximately 175 meters from the start location.
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