2019 Ultimate Orienteer #5 – Big Finn Hill (Individual Relay)
ULTIMATE ORIENTEER
Saturday, April 20 at Big Finn Hill – parking at Finn Hill in Kirkland, WA
Meet Director: Jud Kelley
Parking
Parking is limited, so please carpool if possible.
Warning: there is a lacrosse game scheduled to begin at 10:00 am on the field within the park. Although lacrosse participants are not meant to park in the lot we’ll be using, it could still happen, so you might want to arrive early.
Overflow parking
If you arrive and the lot is full, you have a few options.
- Baseball fields parking lot – enter at 84th Ave. NE and NE 138th St, then walk west for 5 minutes to the event site. Warning: there are baseball games going on all day beginning at 9:00am, so parking could be tight here as well
- Henry David Thoreau Elementary School – on the corner of 84th Ave. NE and NE 138th St. Walk west for 8 minutes to the event site. Warning: there could be overflow parking from the baseball games here
- Last resort – there are a few spots (5 or 6) on the north side of NE 138th Pl (just north of the park entrance and west of Juanita Drive). From there, it’s about 10 minutes walk. Head east, cross Juanita Drive, and down the park entrance road.
Last year’s Farsta was so much fun that we will repeat this type of individual relay where you’ll be teaming up with yourself for a 3-legged relay.
The Farsta relay uses forking courses, so while everyone will end up completing all the legs, they will do them in a different order. Don’t assume the person in front of you is going to the same control!
Please help us order the right number of maps by PRE-REGISTERING EARLY. It would really help us if you can pre-register by Wednesday evening, preferably by 9 pm. After pre-registration, there will be only a limited number of maps available for registration at the event. Thank you!!
COURSES
Course designer(s): Dave Tallent
There will be a Beginner course and one relay course with 3 legs.
Beginner 1.4k
Intermediate – 2 legs, 4.1k
Advanced (All Ultimate categories) – 3 legs, 6.2k
How are courses measured?
Courses are measured as the crow flies, in a direct line from control to control. Unless you have wings, you will travel farther than this distance! Courses are measured in kilometers, so a good rule of thumb is to simply round up to miles to estimate how far you will go. So in a 5 kilometer race, you’ll likely travel up to 5 miles.
COURSE NOTES
Apart from the elementary school campus in the NE corner and the majority of the roads, this is a complete remap of the park. Trails, fences, vegetation, point features, marshes, parking lot, ball fields and the school in the SE corner have all been remapped.
Specifically:
- Some stumps, due to their decay and appearance, have been mapped as knolls.
- Due to the abundance of trail sign posts, none were mapped.
- Due to so much rain this year, the water level is high; hence all marshes are basically lakes.
- The white areas are your friends and make excellent route choices.
- Recent storms have dropped lots of branches and toppled a few trees
The relay:
- This is a mass start race. Following is allowed, but with a twist
- There are 6 mini loops of 4 controls all passing through the same pivot control.
- You will receive a total of three maps during the race, each with two mini loops. The first mini loops are separators, longer legs and route choice. The second mini loop, very precise short legs
- You will be given a ticket at registration with your map sequence. Maps will be in boxes labeled 1 to 9.
- Each loop has a distinctive flavor: hills and forest (know where you are); flat and open (speed and route choice); gullies and water; compass and what trails is this?
- By race end, everyone will have run the same course, but in one of 36 possible permutations!
- At the mass start, the pack will break into 3 groups, each of which will further break into 3 more groups at the first passing of the pivot control, creating 9 packs of desperados, some totally lost because of following the wrong group!
- Course closes at 1:30pm. Lots of time. Take a break between loops. Have a cup of tea. But do have fun.
- Finally, no map is perfect. Please visit the registration tent, and indicate on the large map with a circle and a brief description if you experienced something amiss e.g. missing cliff; trail 90 degrees off; missing trail etc
SCHEDULE
9:00-10:00 am – Registration
9:00-10:00 am – Newcomer instruction
10:15 – Pre-race info and transition demo
10:27 am – Open Men and Women line up
10:30 am – Mass Start for Open Men and Women
10:32 am – Masters and Juniors line up
10:35 am – Mass Start for Masters and Juniors
10:37 am – Intermediates line up
10:40 am – Mass Start for Intermediates
10:45 am-noon – Start window for Beginner course
1:30 pm – Course closes
PRICES
PRE-REGISTERED
| Non club member | Club member | |
| Using COC epunch | $17 | $12 |
| Using your epunch | $12 | $7 |
DAY-OF REGISTRATION
| Non club member | Club member | |
| Using COC epunch | $20 | $15 |
| Using your epunch | $15 | $10 |
What’s an e-punch?
An e-punch records your race. At each control, you’ll dip the e-punch into an electronic box, which will beep and flash as confirmation. After you finish, you’ll download the e-punch at the download tent and get a receipt that show which controls you visited and how long you took between each; these are your “splits.”
Part of the fun of orienteering is comparing your splits with people who completed the same course, and discussing the routes you took!
SIGN UP
Online pre-registration closes Thursday, April 18 at 9:00 pm
Day-of-event registration is available by cash or check, made payable to Cascade Orienteering Club
LOCATION
Parking
Parking is limited, so please carpool if possible.
Warning: there is a lacrosse game scheduled to begin at 10:00 am on the field within the park. Although lacrosse participants are not meant to park in the lot we’ll be using, it could still happen, so you might want to arrive early.
Overflow parking
If you arrive and the lot is full, you have a few options.
- Baseball fields parking lot – enter at 84th Ave. NE and NE 138th St, then walk west for 5 minutes to the event site. Warning: there are baseball games going on all day beginning at 9:00am, so parking could be tight here as well
- Henry David Thoreau Elementary School – on the corner of 84th Ave. NE and NE 138th St. Walk west for 8 minutes to the event site. Warning: there could be overflow parking from the baseball games here
- Last resort – there are a few spots (5 or 6) on the north side of NE 138th Pl (just north of the park entrance and west of Juanita Drive). From there, it’s about 10 minutes walk. Head east, cross Juanita Drive, and down the park entrance road.
CARPOOL
Looking for a carpool? Join the Yahoo listserv and share your request to find a ride.
THE MAP
There are delights here for beginners and advanced orienteers alike. Buildings, ballfields, and trails provide a great beginner and intermediate area, while the forest is a giant knot of trails that can terrorize any advanced orienteer who becomes lazy about reading contours or using their compass to check the direction of the trail.
Read more on the map pageSAFETY & ETIQUETTE
Return to the Finish
All participants MUST return to the finish and download their e-punch or turn in their punch card.
Even if you have not finished your course, you must still return to the the finish and confirm with event staff that you have returned safely.
Out of Bounds
Some areas may be marked out of bounds. It is imperative to respect these boundaries to maintain our relationships with land managers. Participants MUST NOT go out of bounds. Any participant caught going out of bounds will be disqualified.
Course Closure
All participants MUST return to the finish by course closure time. If a participant does not return by course closure, event volunteers will begin coordinating a search party.
If you need a long time on the course, start as early in the start window as possible, wear a watch, and be prepared to cut your course short to make it back by the course closure time.
Whistle
All participants MUST carry a whistle on the course. Complimentary whistles are available at the start tent (please only take one).
If you are injured on the course and need assistance, blow three long blasts to call for help.
If you hear a call for help, abandon your course to find the person in distress.
Voices
Part of the fun and fairness of orienteering is navigating your own course, so please be polite when you find a checkpoint and don’t holler that you’ve found it.
