Lake Accotink

MTBO course notes: If you're wondering what MTBO is about, you might want to follow some of the links under the heading Background on Mountain Bike Orienteering on the web page for our last MTBO event. As at that event, participants will be required to stay on the trails (no short cuts through the woods) and the trails will be open to other users so the usual rules of yielding to pedestrians and keeping an eye out for all other trail users apply.

The MTBO courses use that portion of the park southwest of the lake containing one major trail running from the dam at the south end of Lake Accotink, where the start/finish will be located, to the northwest end of the park and a complex network of easy to moderate difficulty single track. There are a few descents on which less experienced mountain bikers will probably want to be cautious but in general it's possible to ride fast just about everywhere. The challenge will be to quickly decide what the fastest route between controls is and ride it fast without getting lost. Both MTBO courses will use maps printed at a scale of 1:7,500 with a 5 meter contour interval and the trails converted to international MTBO symbols.

Helmets will be required equipment for MTBO participants. Also, participants are encouraged to bring the map carrying system of their preference although there will be safety pins and polyethylene map cases available to support the low-tech option of safety pinning your map to your torso. Note that the map will be 8.5"x11" and that you will be given the map at the start, a minute before starting, so you might want to practice inserting a piece of paper that size into whatever system you will use to be sure you can do it that fast.

Note: if the MTBO courses seem short compared to the traditional orienteering courses, keep in mind that course distances are assessed as the crow flies between controls. Since running off trail is permitted in traditional orienteering but won't be permitted in the MTBO, the multiplier for the stated distances to get the actual distances participants will cover will be significantly higher for the MTBO courses. It's hard to be certain absent international elite MTBO athletes to test ride the courses but probably the advanced MTBO course would qualify as a middle distance MTBO race by international standards, with expected winning time somewhere in the neighbourhood of 50-60 minutes.

Classic orienteering course notes: the map has, within the last month, been updated to reflect changes to the trail network over the course of the last few years and also with the addition of a number of new rootstocks, some of which are used as control features. It might nevertheless be a good idea to keep in mind that whether all rootstocks in the terrain are on the map and vice versa is always a known unknown.

The map shows most of the forest as open, runnable white woods. However, at this time of year almost all of the forest would be more accurately mapped as light green, just slightly less open that would merit showing as white on the map - runnable but not quite at top speed and with visibility quite noticeably less that in our most open Mid-Atlantic woods. Some of the light green areas that were on the map have been removed since they're no longer visibly distinct from the surrounding woods mapped as white. Some remain since they still are noticeably thicker and slower. A few areas of darker green have been added to the map and are, along with older mapped darker green areas, thick enough to be worth some effort to avoid. It should be noted that the first controls on the orange and all of the advanced courses are in a block of woods mapped as mixed white and light green woods that it would probably be more accurate to map as a mixture of medium green, light green and maybe a smidgen of white. Regrettably, there wasn't time to update the vegetation mapping there so please be cautious and know that things will get better after that.

All maps will be printed at 1:7,500. The contour interval is 5 meters. The green, red and blue courses involve two loops, each one printed on a separate map. The two maps will be packaged in one map case, with the printed side of the first loop map showing. Both loops start and end just south of the dam. If you aren't taking part in the mass start, you'll obtain your maps, punch the start box when you start, punch a control at the end of the first loop and discard the first loop map, then punch the finish when you finish the second loop. If you are taking part in the mass start, we'll distribute the maps shortly before the start, face down, as we do at the Chase. Please resist the temptation to look at the map before the mass start. There will be no start punch for people doing the mass start. The race procedure will be otherwise as described above.