Patapsco McKeldin

Course stats are posted above. The map is in generally good shape, with lots of rock features, isolated and clustered together, to bring joy to the heart of an orienteer. However, two classes of features you should be wary of relying on are rootstocks and small open or semi-open areas in the woods. Rootstocks could use a map-wide update - some have decayed while new ones have popped up. Two decayed rootstocks inside control circles were removed from the map but there wasn't time during the course design effort to update rootstocks beyond that. As to small clear and semi-open areas surrounded by woods, they're there but perhaps not as apparent and distinct-edged in the terrain as they appear on the map.

The woods are mostly very similar to those we ran in at Granite in December - fast and open, with high visibility, except in the westernmost quarter, approximately, of the park, where there is a fair bit of undermapped low vegetation and deadfall, with occasional thorns, that will slow you down and is worth scanning ahead for and going somewhat out of your way to avoid. This should, of course, only be a factor for the orange and advanced courses when they leave the trails - white and yellow course participants should be safe. That aside, the only things slowing you down should be the steepness of much of the terrain and confusion over which way to go.

Given the very good visibility, controls are generally hung pretty low to the ground. The sole exception is control 134 on the Green, Red and Blue courses, which is hung beside a rootstock which appears to me to be a little higher - probably ~ 1 contour - in real life than it is shown on the map. With course setting on relatively short notice and being out of town for the holidays, time was lacking to fix the map to show the rootstock in precisely the right location, hence the chest-high hang for this control - it should be unmissable if you get anywhere nearby and keep your eyes open.

One other map note for all of Brown, Green, Red and Blue - there is what strikes me as being another fairly low but mappable cliff inside the circle for control 125, a few meters southest of the control feature. I hope this won't throw anyone off - the control feature is accurately positioned on the map in relation to the other larger rock features within the circle.