2023 Ultimate Orienteer #3 – North SeaTac Park (Individual Relay)

COURSE NOTES

All courses are a single-person (or single-group) race comprised of multiple loops. Beginner and Intermediate have two loops, A and B. Short and Long Advanced have three loops each, A, B, and C. When you check in, you will be given a loop order that you will run, for example, BCA or CAB. Remember your loop order so that you run your loops correctly! You might want to bring some clear tape to combine your course descriptions in the correct order.

Everyone on a particular course will begin at the same time in a mass start. Once you finish your first loop, punch the transition control in the start/finish/map area, drop your first loop map, take the CORRECT map for your next loop, and go!

Be sure to be on time to make the start.

North Seatac Park has two rather different parts, the north and the south, separated by 136^th St. Beginner and Short will only use the north, while Medium and Long will each have one loop that is primarily in the south. Crossing 136^th may only be done at the marked zebra-striped crosswalk, which is marked on your map and control descriptions as a mandatory crossing point. Please be careful and aware when crossing, as there is no traffic light or flashers.

The soccer and baseball fields are out of bounds (and probably locked), and are marked with purple cross-hatching.

The north half of the park is very flat, open and runnable, with intricate vegetation differences that I have attempted to map correctly. The yellow open is used for mowed grass only. The light yellow “rough open” is not very rough; it is generally un-mowed grass or dirt and can be run at full speed. Most of the white is extremely open and can be run at full speed also. The boundary between rough open and white is often extremely vague and shouldn’t be relied on for navigation. The lightest green is still runnable but has very low underbrush or vines; it’s distinguishable on the ground but you can still very easily run through it. The medium green will slow you down quite a bit, and the darkest green varies from a slow walk, to fight, to completely impenetrable blackberry. The northern part of the park has undergone a lot of clearing of vegetation in the last few years, so the area is much more open and runnable that it was just a few years ago. If you can stay oriented, running cross country will be as fast as paths in most cases, and the advanced courses reflect that.

The southern half of the park has dense forest with a lot of trails. You will probably want to stick to the trails and not try to go cross-country too much, although there are a few places that it might make sense. The vegetation mapping in the southern half is less accurate and hasn’t been updated as recently.

The northern half of the park has an extensive Frisbee golf course on it. The goals (tall metal poles with baskets and chains) are very visible and are mapped with a black triangle, and are very useful for navigation. The launching points are also mapped as small, paved rectangles. You will almost certainly see many people playing disc golf this morning. Please be friendly and courteous, be aware and watch for flying discs, and try not to block the action by stopping where people are trying to throw. The golfers also tend to create paths on the ground. Only the longer and more obvious ones are mapped, and you may have some difficulty seeing the difference between a mapped path and just trampled dirt.

Preliminary course data

Each course has its own set of loops. For example, the 3 loops on Medium are not the same as the 3 loops on Long.