Winter Series / WIOL Championships

Course Notes:           

All courses conform to WIOL/Winter O’ Series winning time goals and are set in a Middle distance style, with an emphasis on technical orienteering, changes in tempo and direction, and, for Middle School and above, route choice.  You will experience a variety of terrain, from typical Pacific Northwest trails, to numerous small cabin clusters, to forested hillsides with up to waist-high undergrowth.  Rock features are generally larger than what we’ve seen during the rest of the season.  Cliffs and boulders 2m and higher are well-defined, but smaller rock features may have significant moss or vegetation growing on them, making them difficult to distinguish from stumps and knolls.  Contour features are generally quite reliable.  Having good attackpoints when you leave trails, measuring distance, using your compass to keep you on track as you navigate thick vegetation, and staying in touch with the map will be important to success.  The map is currently undergoing an update; check back for map notes in February.

Expect to go off trail, and dress accordingly.  Full leg cover is essential, as sword ferns, Devil’s Club and blackberry brambles are common in the area.  Expect to encounter some areas with deadfall, although we have done our best to route courses through the most passable areas.  Cleated shoes or orienteering spikes are recommended as most courses will visit the steeper hillside on the east of the map.  Bring a full change of clothes and shoes so you’re comfortable while waiting for the end-of-season awards ceremony.

Ecologically sensitive streams that are off-limits to wet foot crossings are marked as out of bounds using purple cross-hatch.  You must use a bridge to cross these streams or be disqualified. Bridge crossings will be obvious for Beginner/Elementary orienteers. For Middle School and higher courses that go off trail, bridges are marked as mandatory or optional crossing points on the maps.

1. Mandatory Crossing Point: shown by the line between controls bending to pass through a crossing point symbol (denoting a bridge). You must use this bridge.
2. Optional Crossing Point: shown with the crossing point symbol. If the line between controls crosses a cross-hatched stream, but is not bent to pass through a crossing point symbol, you may choose which crossing point to use. However, you MUST use a crossing point noted on your map; you may not cross a cross-hatched stream at any other location.  Crossing the stream at a location other than a bridge is not allowed, so don’t plan to run the straight line between controls if there’s a cross-hatched stream to cross.

Note that bridges are wooden and tend to be slippery, especially when a lot of muddy orienteers have passed that way before you.  Slow down and use caution when crossing bridges and boardwalks.

The competition area is bounded by powerlines to the west, the East Fork of the Nookachamps Creek to the north, and the road you drove in on to the south and east.  Vegetation to the east of the entry road is very thick – you won’t want to cross it.  If you get misoriented, the safety bearing is southwest.  This will bring you to a major trail or to the powerlines.  Follow the trail or powerlines to the south until you reach the event center, the parking lot, or a trail leading east from the powerlines that will bring you to the event center.