Great Falls

For all courses there will be an approximately 350m walk to the start. Allow 5-10 minutes for the walk which goes up a rocky trail into the forest where the footing is better. Wet conditions may make footing slippery, so be careful both on- and off-trail.

Great Falls Park is busy with many other visitors. Please share the trails courteously. There are also sensitive areas marked with orange hash on the map. Please stay out of these at all times—whether you’re competing or not.

Additionally:

• During your course, do not run or walk on or along any paved roads.
• The park has asked that competitors and spectators avoid areas of deep pits/ditches left over from mining activity.
• Park managers report that wildlife monitoring traps had been set up in the spring and may still be present. Orienteers should stay clear of these traps and any associated metal stakes. While field checking and course setting, none were seen but it’s still possible that some may be present.
• Participants should avoid all standing water, including steeps, springs, wetlands and streams. Avoid stepping in streams and minimize damage to streambank vegetation and soils.

In agreement with park management, three non-standard courses will be used with approved control locations.

• There are three courses (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced). Advanced orienteers who feel they are unlikely to be able to complete the Advanced course have a ‘safety option’ that is shorter in length (Medium Advanced) but shares a majority of the same approved legs as the Advanced course.
• Beginner courses are primarily on trails however a few controls will be just off trail within eyesight.
• For Intermediate and Advanced courses, the park service adjusted a few planned control locations such that they are being placed a farther distance away from mapped features than is normal. These few controls may appear to not be on the feature listed in the clue description, nor on any other feature. Go to the center of the mapped circle on these.
• The Intermediate course will be challenging for those new to running Orange. It would be better to move up to Orange/Intermediate at a different event than at this one.
• The Advanced course has a butterfly loop. Competitors will visit control #117 twice. Other parts are “sprinty”, where an ability to plan ahead and accurately change directions quickly will produce the best results.

The terrain continues to change since the many years ago when club member David Linthicum created the excellent Great Falls, MD map for local and national competitions:

• Vegetation has changed the most. Generally, the beech tree saplings have been spreading and new copse have emerged. Map updates for these trees have been made near controls and on leg routes but it’s highly likely that competitors will find areas still needing revision.
• Invasive stilt grasses continue to spread through the park. They are more prevalent in the southeast parts of the park. They are dying off for the season but will pose a hazard since they are still tall enough to obscure deadfall and uneven footing. Stilt grass is not mapped.
• Rootstocks have been updated where found by eliminating old ones and adding new ones—they have an approximate minimum height of 1.5m.
• Small areas mapped as distinct open terrain inside the forest were mapped long ago and most of them have not been validated.
• Additional cairns have been found. Where approximately 1m tall, they have been mapped with the cairn symbol. Some smaller and broken cairns have been mapped as rocky ground with 3 black dots.
• North/South meridian lines are now 300m apart.