Occoquan

Map notes:

Final print scales will be 1:7500 for White, Yellow and Orange, and 1:10,000 for Brown, Green and Red. The contour interval for all maps will be 2.5m (note: not 5m!). This is not because the terrain couldn't be mapped well with a 5 meter contour interval; it probably could but it would be a lot of work deciding where formlines were needed, work that would, if attempted in preparation for this event, have reduced the time available for mapping the vegetation. The contours are LiDAR-derived and capture even the relatively small and subtle contour detail, where such occurs, quite well.

Much of the vegetation in the immediate vicinity of the pavilion we'll be using is quite unpleasant but once you get 200 meters or so east of the pavilion you'll be hard pressed to find anything but runnable white woods speckled with patches, large and small, of light green. The green is more complex than any vegetation I've mapped before and I wouldn't claim to have mapped it perfectly - undoubtedly, if I were to remap the vegetation from scratch, close examination of the result would reveal small differences from the current map - but I'm confident it is mapped well enough to be useful both for establishing one's position ("I must be about here since I see that thicket the map says I should be passing on this route.") and for route choice ("It would be faster to go around that thicket, then swerve to go around that next thicket, then attack the control from there than to go straight.").

Course notes:

All courses: the park isn't all that big and there will be a lot of controls out there, some of them quite close together, some of those on similar features. Remember to check the control code when you punch.

All courses: white and yellow courses will cross a paved road inside the park on which the speed limit is very low. All other courses cross a larger road, though not a busy one, governed by the municipal speed limit. We'll have signs posted warning drivers to expect runners crossing. Nevertheless, please exercise due caution when you have to cross a road.

White, Yellow and Orange - these courses fall squarely within the usual parameters for courses at QOC local events, although the orange course is a bit longer than average. [Note: The yellow course has a substantial off-trail component. The orange course has several advanced controls and legs. Please be prepared for a course at the limit of the skill level associated with each course, and if you are in doubt as to your abilities, choose an easier course at this event.]

Brown, Green and Red - the advanced courses have a different character in that they're designed as middle distance courses, with more controls than we're used to for the course lengths and therefore shorter legs, on average, which are intended to emphasize difficulty of precise execution somewhat more and route choice somewhat less than our usual classic distance courses. No doubt some large and medium sized mistakes will be made but these courses are intended primarily to challenge your ability to execute technical orienteering legs at the high speed that the terrain permits as aggressively as you can without making a lot of small mistakes. In order to make best use of the most interesting terrain without cluttering the map too much with criss-crossing legs, the advanced courses will be printed double-sided with the first part of each course on one side and the remainder of the course through to the finish on the other. For maximum enjoyment I recommend you refrain from looking at at least the side of the map showing the beginning of your course until you've punched the start.

Orange, Brown, Green and Red - I spent a lot of time mapping the vegetation in the nice parts of the map. The vegetation mapping right around the start/finish dates to last spring and it conveys an accurate but not especially detailed picture of nastiness. I strongly advise participants on these four courses to stick to trails and open areas for most of their first leg out of the start and their last leg to the finish.

Orange, Brown and Red - one control feature used in all of your courses probably isn't really a charcoal platform but it resembles one just enough that I decided to map it as such anyway. Why should SVO and DVOA have all the fun? If it bothers you or you're not a fan even of charcoal platforms with impeccable credentials, just pretend the control description says terrace.

For the hardy few for whom Red isn't long enough, I recommend you run the advanced course of your choice and then do the Orange course to get the amount of exercise you want. You'll get more variety of controls that way than doing any two of the advanced courses, although that is also an option - the advanced courses have many common controls but few common legs.

Jon Torrance, Course Setter