Gunston Hall

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October 13
Sunday

Welcome to a Columbus Day weekend orienteering event at Gunston Hall. Daniel Heimgartner and Keg Good will be providing a full set of classic courses, as we enter the prime time of the year for orienteering.

The terrain at Gunston Hall includes forest of varying density, open fields, historic structures, and bluffs along the Potomac shore east of Lorton, VA, and we have a full set of seven courses (details below). Event timing is standard: register any time between 10:45 - 1:15, start any time between 11 - 1:30, and be back before 3pm.

The entrance to Gunston Hall (see directions below; overview map here) is about 600 meters beyond the Pohick Bay Regional Park entrance on Gunston Road. Please drive with particular caution as you enter Gunston Hall. The first 300 meters of the entrance road is curvy and hemmed in by vegetation reducing the visibility of oncoming vehicles. Parking will be in the lot adjacent to the visitors center. The parking lot and the registration site right across the entrance road from it will be easily discernible as you drive in. Rest rooms will be available inside the visitors center and also in a separate outbuilding adjacent to the mansion itself.

Note that the hedge/garden area immediately behind (south of) the mansion is under repair and reconstruction and is off limits to all orienteers. It is not a very big area and we don't send runners through it anyway, so the effect is small. There will also be a program going on in and right around the mansion, so please be aware of that activity.

Training Opportunity: Jon Torrance will host an intermediate level terrain walk, aimed at people who feel like they have mastered yellow courses and are ready to try orange courses, people who are currently doing orange courses but don't feel as though they've mastered them yet, and anyone in between. Participants will walk around a short course made up of the controls in the woods for the day's event and discuss the set of skills and techniques needed for intermediate level orienteering as they apply to that course. If you'd like to take part, please click here to email Jon to let him know. Plan on getting to the event early so you can be done with your usual course and assembled at registration by 12:55pm. The walk will hopefully begin promptly at 1:00pm and take up most if not all of the time until courses close at 3pm.

Guided Tour Included: At registration QOC will collect a $5 surcharge in addition to the regular meet fees. This surcharge covers Gunston Hall grounds fees for each participant, and it entitles participants to take one of the guided tours of the Hall offered during the day at no additional cost. [Gunston Hall staff would appreciate it if you would sign up before your orienteering run for a later tour so they know when to expect you.] Tours will be available on the hour and half hour starting at 10am, with the last tour at 4:30pm; just present your course map (before or after your run) at the front desk inside the visitors center to sign up (max tour group size ~20). To learn more about Gunston Hall, the home of the principal designer of the Bill of Rights, George Mason, visit the Gunston Hall website.

Any youth or large groups attending, please contact the Event Director so that we can coordinate pre-registration for your group; the group registration and waiver form is part of the information on our Group Leaders page.

Additional notes:

• Dogs are allowed, but must be on a leash at all times.
• Spikes are not allowed in the Visitor Center.
• Please respect the out-of-bounds areas shown on your course map.